How has your experience been with the included airfare?

[Paulchili]

SO that reduces it to $2725 pp ( $1365 each way) At that price I would not waste valuable miles because the you can use then more productively... How many American miles does it take to go first class... way better than Business. For that I would use miles but for Business I would use cash

 

Dan,

It depends. You say that $2725 pp RT in business is good. It can be, but if you wait for the right time, you can buy AA miles with 50% bonus. Thus 60K miles would actually give you 90Kmiles for about $ 1600. 90K miles is almost enough for a J RT - definitely for under $2000.

Also, J is perfectly fine for an overnight flight where you sleep on a flat bed anyway; F "may be" worth it on a west bound flight when you are awake and can enjoy the F service.

[Hawaiidan]

Dan,

It depends. You say that $2725 pp RT in business is good. It can be, but if you wait for the right time, you can buy AA miles with 50% bonus. Thus 60K miles would actually give you 90Kmiles for about $ 1600. 90K miles is almost enough for a J RT - definitely for under $2000.

Also, J is perfectly fine for an overnight flight where you sleep on a flat bed anyway; F "may be" worth it on a west bound flight when you are awake and can enjoy the F service.

 

 

Paul et al, Yes you can engineer all sorts of mileage deals, for example you can get a 300% mileage bonus on any united flight ( award accelerator ) for a paltry 2 cents a mile. You can even do this on award Tickets which is crazy good.

 

Then too are the fare specials, last week a Nonstop in a lie flat business seat NY to HNL was selling for $1630. At the same time for the same flight they were selling coach seats for $1632. At that discount I would skip using miles altogether and same em' for International first..

 

The point being it pays to do your homework and stay on top of things:rolleyes:.

[Dbears]

Thanks for the thoughts. I have found business class totally acceptable on long hauls to Sydney and I would imagine the same across the Atlantic. My flights aren't available yet for October, 2014 and won't be until November but I can't see any business class flight to BCN and return VCE for less than $3k each way per person. Maybe it will be different in November. If you've seen cheaper flights on some days, I'd like to see them so I know where to look. I have explored Kayak in October, 2013 and May 2014 along with AA site. Those fares for business class compare with the price of the cruise. It seems crazy.

 

Mike

 

 

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[Hawaiidan]

Thanks for the thoughts. I have found business class totally acceptable on long hauls to Sydney and I would imagine the same across the Atlantic. My flights aren't available yet for October, 2014 and won't be until November but I can't see any business class flight to BCN and return VCE for less than $3k each way per person. Maybe it will be different in November. If you've seen cheaper flights on some days, I'd like to see them so I know where to look. I have explored Kayak in October, 2013 and May 2014 along with AA site. Those fares for business class compare with the price of the cruise. It seems crazy.

 

Mike

 

 

Mike, amigo, The best days to fly are Tues and Thursday.. some times Saturday on trans Atlantic because the arrival is Sunday Steer clear of Monday and Friday and Sunday.

I pulled an American fare off the AA site for a sept 13 and got $3800 rt Business,MIA-BCN-VCE-MIA going through LHR Steer clear of Iberia, BA not bad

If you factor the 1000 pp credit and also the 150 devation you bring down the total to like $1800 EACH WAY

Try some of the discount first/business sites and get a quote from them

As Paul reminded you ther is still enough time to get several credit cards for you and your wife ( you can get them as short as 3 mos apart giving you each 60 to 80,000 miles)

 

Good luck

[Paulchili]

Mike,

The search engine I use for flights and prices is Matrix ITA -I think it's the best for searching though you cannot buy tickets there. Just find what you like and then go directly to the airline site.

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/search.htm

Try playing with that.

Paul

[treasure4two]

First, I am an admitted control freak. That being said, we wanted to go in the day before to Hong Kong and leave the day we arrive in Bejiing. A frequent Oceania cruiser said she had good flights booked through Oceania and multi-stops on the bad ones. Between the credit we each would get($1050 each) and the deviation fee that would have been added and not know how many stops and how much time Oceania flights would take(we are both still working fulltime with limited vacations), it was more than our flights so we booked-one stop each way from Charlotte, NC, so we took the credit and are very happy with it! Everyone has their own opinions, but for us, the credit and booking our own flights worked best for us. Good luck on whatever you decide.