If giving up 15K miles = $170, then that's 1.13 <b>cents</b> per mile, which is considered an extremely good deal.

A domestic US first class ticket, say NY-LA costs around $1200 round trip, or 45K miles as an award. Value per mile in that scenario = 2.67 cents per mile, or double value what you &quot;paid.&quot; It gets way, way better when you look at premium-cabin foreign travel or upgrades; the savings are huge.

You will only get 25% miles/pts on British Airways in discount coach, so check your math on the route and challenges.

I know. But I hardly fly domestically these days. And I can never book awards flights in advance for international travel.

Didn't someone here say that additional awards inventory open up only for Plat Exec?

I guess to me this is like a carrot on a stick I can never get.

Yes, I believe EXP gets extra award seats inventory.

I guess the bottom line for you is: which airline do you think you'll more likely be flying for your Asia/Australia trip?

And honestly, I don't know what perks one gets from DL for reaching 25k. Is that more beneficial than AA?

Since I fly a good amt of domestic on AA, banking AA miles for me is great, and AA historically is one of the easiest airline program to get 25k milesAAver seats than other airlines.

Well, I don't know about Asia/Australia yet. There're just too many things to plan.

Sorry. Another question. I priced a hypothetical JFK -&gt; LHR, LHR -&gt; SYD, SYD -&gt; SIN, SIN -&gt; JFK.

There're four flights. They all show up as British Airways on Orbitz. However I'm only given three fare codes: K, H, N.

Any ideas which flights correspond to which codes? The SYD to SIN flight connects through Melbourne.

Thanks!

I guess I've to read the fine print. But still, what applies to what? Thanks!

KLRCNA
SEMI-FLEXIBLE LEISURE FARES FROM THE U.S.A. TO AREA 2/3

HJSSOW
RETURN/ONE WAY SUPER SAVER EXCURSION FARES FROM AUSTRALIA TO EUROPE

NLXNNNAS
APEX FARES FROM THE U.S.A. TO AREA 2 APPLICATION AREA THESE FARES APPLY FROM THE UNITED STATES TO AREA 2.

Thanks for that link -- but I mean, how do the codes apply?

I'm thinking H for SYD to SIN.

But what about K and N? What's the area 2/3?

Orbitz just gives me these codes, but it doesn't tell me which flights get what fare bases. (Unless I've missed something.)

Thanks again!

Area 2 = Europe and Africa.

Area 3 = SW Pacific and Asia.

Thanks. I cancelled my Orbitz ticket for Paris-Istanbul on Delta this morning. I'm leaning towards flying Delta to Istanbul on Thanksgiving Day. The ticket is $680. So I'll save $180 from that. Also I don't have to spend one night's hotel for Istanbul.

I'm also figuring out that tagging Europe onto Asia/Australia probably isn't going to save me money. In fact it will probably cost me a little airfare.

So with the difference in airfares, if I want to do the Platinum challenge, I can book a weekend flight to London/Paris for $500 on AA. I'll decide whether this makes sense after deciding which airlines to use for my two-week trip.

I just wanted to provide an update on this. I'm flying to Istanbul, but I've used Delta FF miles (50000 miles) + about about $40 in taxes and fees.

I'll be leaving on Thanksgiving Day.

Re Europe with AA, I posted another thread.

I've not booked any other tickets yet. I haven't returned to thinking about Australia.

Thanks.