best way to fly 1st class
 

my wife and I have lot of amex membership miles accumulated (300k) and she also has a free RT ticket coming from USAIR for getting one of their credit cards (but I don't know if that will help us with this trip).

My question is this: Assuming we fly out of Philly or Baltimore and want to go to Kauai for a week and I'd like to purchase tickets on an airline and then use some of my membership miles to upgrade to 1st class or use membership miles to buy 1st class tickets. However the latter seems crazy because of the high prices of 1st class tickets. We'd rather get coach tickets and use my membership miles to upgrade to 1st class.

Which airline has the best deal going for upgrading to 1st class RT between Philly and Honolulu?

any ideas would be appreciated.

thanks in advance

Jeff

Jeff, I hope someone else can give you more hope than I can --- but my experience has been that when I've tried to buy a coach ticket and upgrade to first with miles, it's nearly impossible to do so unless you are a top level premier member of the airlines frequent traveler club. And even then, I've rarely had any luck.

I've never tried using amex miles, I'm only speaking of buying a ticket on USAirways and using their FF miles to attempt to upgrade. I've never been able to do it due to "unavailability of seats for upgrading" --- not that there weren't seats available for purchase, just that they weren't going to release them to me for a mileage upgrade. Good luck, I hope you can make it work for you.

You really should post this on flyertalk.com over there, they are all into maximizing their miles and very willing to explain the ropes to people and help out.

That's a long way to go for a week. Try to squeeze a few more days in if you can so you can REALLY enjoy the charms of that hell-hole.

I'm sure someone else will be able to help you with this better than I, but wanted to say I did this some time ago from NYC and was able to get free first class tickets. I hear it's easier now to buy an upgrade, but you do have to pay a high price for a coach ticket from which to upgrade as swaymock says.

Your first step is to figure out which airlines are affiliated with Amex that fly to Hawaii (and how many transfers you're willing to make). Us Air and United seem to be the best options from Phil, but neither are Amex partners. Delta, Continental and ATA seem to be your options. Try starting here
https://www134.americanexpress.com/c...p;us_nu=subtab
log in and look for flights.
You could also call the Rewards desk at Amex for help.

Flyertalk.com is another forum to check for info.

It is really complicated.

Firstly, you have to be flexible on your travel dates.

Then you must purchase coach fares that are eligible for upgrades. These fares are usually expensive.

In all honesty, it is easier just to purchase the FC tickets.

Agree with heading off to www.Flyertalk.com as those guys are pros.

I use our Amex points to fly our college student to Europe etc. to play. I don't use them for upgrades - pain in the neck. Just buy first class tix.

I've had good success using FF miles to upgrade on United (15000 points each way). I have not noticed any restrictions on the price of the airfare - usually I just find the ticket I want ask if I can upgrade and they say yes or no. When it is no, they are often able to suggest another flight that same day. If it is a busy travel period and the trip is soon I don't push it as the answer will likely be no for all or most flights. I have not used my Amex points other than to buy tickets (and gift certificates etc).

In order to upgrade to fist class on delta, you need to buy a special class ticket that is very high. I think it might be easier to just use your points to get the first class ticket.

Continental's first class seems to sometimes be more reasonable than others.

I've had luck upgrading using points with AA, but they are not part of amex.

Your amex rep should be able to help you sort this out. Have a great trip!

This may not help you, but I was rather shocked when recently I started looking at going to Hawaii for September. AA's site had wide open availability for free first class flights (they call it a business class award, but all flights we were looking at were in first class). For 75,000 each of their miles, we could fly from Florida and add a stop over of any length in San Francisco going and Los Angeles coming back (or many other options). For the entire month of September there were only a couple of specific flights on a couple of days not available for those FF freebies. I was very surprised.

It will also depend as someone has said on your membership level. My own in Dividend Miles (USAirways) means I get automatic upgrades when they are available and those probably take up the spaces you might otherwise get.

< However the latter seems crazy because of the high prices of 1st class tickets.>

If you use FF points for a FC seat, it doesn't matter how much $$ it costs. And if you can get the seats, the higher the cost, the more your FF points were worth.

Also, I suspect that your wife's free RT ticket is for coach only. Is that so? Is that ticket upgradeable?

Also, I assume you know that your Amex points are transferable to some airlines, but not USAir. You could consider transferring them to another airline which has connections with USAir, if you indeed want USAir. ((*))

We just used our AmEx points to purchase first class tickets to Vegas on Delta. You don't buy coach tickets then upgrade. You call the airline (they have to be an AmEx partner - however) and you choose your flights and your seats. You put them on hold and ask how many AmEx points needed for the flights. You then call AmEx and they put your points into your points bank. Then you call the airline back and they extract the points and you have your tickets. We flew Delta which is an AmEx partner. You can also do pay by points, which will work for anything but the point/dollar ratio is higher. In any event call AmEx membership rewards and they will talk you thru it.

annabel- question for you- do you get any first class seat at any time or do they have to be FF seats when available? does my ? make any sense?

emcash,
With pay with points (1 point = $0.01 value), my understanding is you can apply the points toward any flight bookable on the Amex site. I haven't used this method as I find it a poor value.

For regular transfers to FF programs, whatever the rules of the program would apply.

The only way I was able to fly first class (without paying for it), was when i was bumped of a flight, because they over booked the flight.

No... any first class seat. I think you are thinking about "reward" seats. AmEx points are not considered reward points, since AmEx actually pays the airline for your tickets, but it has to be an AmEx airline partner. If you go to the AmEx rewards website, you will see a list of carriers.

I do not think the pay with points option is a good value either. We use our points for airfare only as we find it's the best value for our points.

Annabel,
Did you spend 25,000 or 50,000 miles per ticket (I assume you originated from the US)? The former is DL's Skysaver level and the latter is Skychoice. If you opted for Skychoice, these are still award seats but since you're spending double the miles, the capacity restrictions are reduced.

Amex doesn't pay the airline for the tickets except in the case of pay with points.

Sorry, I was thinking economy. Since your tickets are in first, did you spend 45,000 or 90,000 per ticket?

I've always had to "buy" the FC tickets with my miles as well. United does an interesting thing on many flights where you can upgrade for not that much money to first class upon checkin.
Dukey- how do you get to be a premium class like Dividend? Do you have to have actual miles flown?

I live in NY and fly from JFK. The seats were 90,000 points each. I didn't use sky choice or anything like that. I looked at the flights on line, chhose my flights and seats, I called Delta and put them on hold, then called AMEx membership rewards and they transferred my points into my Delta account and Voila - first class seats. I think the entire process took 30 minutes.

It's pretty funny because we flew to Vegas on points, stayed at the Bellagio for 4 nights in a lakeview room - no charge. They gave us free play money AND my husband and I came home with a lot of money - even after we paid for spa treatments and dinners we were up close to 15K - talk about LUCKY!!

I just booked FC seats from Sacramento to Miami using Delta and AMEX miles. Delta's www site is pretty good at letting you see what is available either using Choice or Saver pionts.

However, when the www site didn't show any saver seats availalbe on one leg of the flight, I called Delta direct and they had it and booked it for me.

They held the seats long enough for me to transfer the miles from my AMEX to my Delta FF account and I printed out the tickets. It only took about ten minutes for the AMEX points to transfer to my Delta.

Annabel,
90,000 miles <b>is</b> Delta's Skychoice first class domestic award.