So looking to book flights using points in March/April for a month in Vietnam. However, when booking a premium seat for my gf and I, we are unable to choose seats. It states, "As your chosen flights are operated by our partner airlines, you will need to contact them directly to choose your seat."

Does anyone have experience in the ease of choosing seats when contacting Vietnam Airlines? We are looking to get either the first row or last row of premium seats so we are sandwiched by people.

Thanks for any help !

I had booked J seats and during my two week trip to Japan I was checking every day but nothing showed up and I was resigned to J. No big deal. It’s still lay flat. But today I showed up to the airport and lo and behold, two F seats were available for my spouse and I. The check in person said the cost would be 45k points each. Some people will say it’s a waste of points but I have a stupid amount of C1 points. I transferred the points which showed up instantly. So the outbound was ANA F from ORD to HND for 80k Amex points each and the inbound from HND to JFK which ran me about 150k points each. I’m excited!

So I currently have 60,000 Chase Sapphire points. I was going to transfer to Hyatt points for a stay in April of 2027. The hotel I am trying to book at is supposed to be having some big conference in town during some of the dates I will be there so I wanted to get this hotel booked now before rooms potentially sell out. The only problem is I was unaware until today that Hyatt recently changed their transfer rate ratio from 1:1 to 4:3.

I would have had plenty of points to book 3 nights at 15k Hyatt points each at the 1:1 ratio. Now I am short. Does anyone know if I were to book 2 nights with points and pay for the third just to lock it in, can I change that later? I am due to get a free anniversary night in December so I could apply that or I would honestly probably have enough points by then to swap that third night. Maybe cancel the whole thing over the phone and then rebook at that time with all points/free night?

Just trying to figure out how to make this work. The hotel is over $1,000 per night if just paying via card so I am definitely trying to utilize points/free nights for the whole stay. If anyone has any suggestions I'd appreciate it.

Posted a while ago about being hospitalized and, in the fury of that, forgetting to cancel an Aeroplan booking to Europe which cost 75K points and CAD80. Based on recommendations here, I sent a request to Aeroplan via their webpage - which then directed me to send an email anyway. It took about 6 weeks, but they refunded all 75K points and the CAD80. Email text below.

Thought I'd share some good news about customer service. Seems we get hosed a lot these days on redemptions, and AC certainly gets its fair share of critiques, but sometimes airlines make right by the customer.

Your case number is: CAS-11296580-XXXXXXX

Dear HeverlyBillhilly,

Thank you for contacting Air Canada.

We were sorry to learn of your hospitalization and hope that you are feeling better.

After reviewing your request, we have made a one-time exception and reinstated the Aeroplan points and taxes associated with your booking. A confirmation email has been sent to the email address on file with the details of this adjustment.

We wish you a speedy recovery and thank you for choosing Air Canada.

Kind regards,

Michel Auger
Executive Lead - Customer Relations
Air Canada - Loyalty Operations

Hello,

We have had an emergency come up and a family member must be in Beirut ASAP (leaving Boston Thursday or Friday). One way or round trip, if it’s round trip it’d have to be return in atleast two weeks, but flexible.

The problem is the family member is quite sensitive to travel and can’t take economy / a fixed seat at this time, so we’re trying to find something business class with a connection anywhere in Europe.

I am looking to pay $4,000-$7,500, but if it is a good flight, that is not a cap. I also have Capital One miles if you know of any good transfer partners for this trip.

I have been checking Google flights, and point transfers Air France and Virgin Atlantic, but haven’t found anything amazing yet.

Any leads would be greatly appreciated.

Seriously wtf

I see wide open availability but can’t manage to book anything over a month period?

How is a system this bad?

This is more of a rant then anything but wanted to share with the community:

Nearly a year ago I booked two J JAL seats BOS - NRT at calendar open using CX miles for myself and my husband. A month or so ago there was a schedule change and JAL allowed me to modify the date of my ticket. Changed the date, new JAL booking says ticketed, so I thought I was good to go. It completely slipped my mind that the ticket had to be reissued again by CX.

Fast forward a few days ago, I call JAL to add my lap infant and the agent informs me that the ticket had to be reissued by CX. I call CX and lo and behold they had suspended the redemption of CX miles on JAL flights so they can’t reissue my ticket, all they could do is offer a full refund.

Kicking myself for not adding my lap infant sooner and getting the ticket reissued but it is what it is. Flight is in a couple weeks so I went ahead and bought an upgradable Y fare on JAL and used miles to upgrade to J on a day that had availability so we luckily still get to fly in J and only lose two days in TYO.

Seeing conflicting reports ranging from midnight JST to 9am for 360 days out. Any insights friends?

I have been collecting points and using them for over 15 years, but typically just for hotel stays. I am lifetime platinum with Marriott, certainly not getting the same value that I used to.

Just for context, I am flying out of a small airport(myrtle beach) and never was able to find much availability for first class award travel. I’m about a 3.5 hour drive from Charlotte
Planning to go to Athens in September, and I found one-way tickets for Myrtle Beach to Athens connecting in Chicago in Polaris for 200,000 points each. Other dates were almost 400,000 each. Cash price was about $5000. I set alerts to keep watching this, but I’m pretty much committed to United at this point since I transferred the points.
Can I expect better redemption values out of Myrtle Beach or Charlotte?

Hi all, I’m planning a March 2028 trip to the Maldives with my wife. It seems like our best bet for J is Qatar. From doing some basic research, I understand that QR tends to release 2 J seats at T-361 days. However, given that the DOH > MLE leg leaves after midnight, it seems like the full SFO > DOH > MLE ticket would become available 2 days after the SFO > DOH leg becomes available (i.e. if we left SFO on 3/1, we would arrive in DOH on 3/2 evening and then the flight to MLE would take off just after midnight the morning of 3/3, so SFO > DOH is released 361 days before 3/1 and DOH > MLE is released 361 days before 3/3).

Booking everything on one ticket is 85k miles one way, whereas booking the two legs separately is 105k miles (70 + 35). Would people recommend booking them separately to increase my chances rather than risking losing out on the flight by waiting 2 days, or is there some workaround that would allow me to book both together? Or perhaps I’m misunderstanding something.

Separately, I see pretty wide open availability for LAX > DOH next October, but literally nothing available for SFO > DOH. Is there a reason for this?

A friend and I are trying to travel to NYC last minute for a concert. We’ve determined we only need 11k more AA miles to do it for free... otherwise the flight costs aren’t great.

Between the two of us we have AmEx, Hilton, and Bonvoy points. I’ve also seen that you can buy points on third party websites. I don’t know what the most cost affective or safest way is to do this. Anyone have some advice?

Hi all,

Fiancee and I have to travel to Jakarta for work in three weeks, and we had a lovely itinerary set up on Qatar (booked via BA). Business saver fare all the way DFW-->DOH-->CGK. We had been pretty comfortable with flying through the region until the recent airport bombing in Riyadh, but now we're pretty unnerved. BA says they can only rebook us by canceling the flight and then booking another itinerary; they won't change it to another airline.

What would y'all do? Every other itinerary at this point is quite nasty but also, we want to be able to enjoy the flights and not be on-edge. My understanding of the geopolitical situation is that Qatar is on decent enough terms with Iran and Saudi Arabia, but not so solid to where there's a 0% chance of anything happening.

We've spent the last couple hours looking for alternative ways to get there but there's just nothing good left at this point. Maybe things open at T-14, but looking two weeks out from now, there still aren't many great options.

Any advice appreciated! We have to take this trip, so if it's not business, it's economy; rescheduling isn't an option.

Departing on LH SEA - MUC later today in J, originally booked in the 2-2-2 config. Just notified of equipment swap to Allegris and learned the spouse and I were assigned a “Front Row Suite” (Row 8 on A350-9). Score!

Coming back on LH A380 J, should be interesting to compare.

Fairly new to this world — apologies in advance for newbie vibes and appreciate any help!

My husband and I got married two weeks ago but didn’t yet go on a honeymoon. We both have the two weeks of Christmas and new years off (Dec 19 - Jan 3) so we thought it would be the perfect time to go to east Asia (live on the east coast). We have 350K Amex points and 100K AA points via a Citi card.

I have been seeing tons of biz class flights from the US on skyview [by company starts with R] for only 60K AA points. Amazing! (I learned that we can buy the 20k points if we’re short.) But then every time I click to book, those flights aren’t real (?).

Then I looked at cash tickets, and even economy is $3500 each. Crazy!

Any advice? Are we out of luck? Should we try to get PTO in March instead??

Thank you in advance 🙏

I just moved Avios from BA to AY to get to Sweden via HEL. I haven't seen a lot of realistic options using points to Europe but then checked out FinnAir and saw this. It might be worth looking at to see if you can connect to somewhere else in Europe. Hope it helps.

Hi all,
Looking for some guidance here since Flying Blue can't help and I am trying to understand what my options are.
I currently have a one way flight booked with KLM ( Flying Blue Platinum) and found a more convenient date at the same cost.
I called flIng blue to change the flight to the new date but they can't seem to do it without cancellation of my old ticket.
I don't keep miles in my flying blue account to cover 2 flights but would love to maintain my current rate at all cost so cancelling to rebook feels risky? Any advice on how to proceed here? Thanks!

p2 and I have been award traveling for the last 4 years. we have have LOTS of points and due to job flexibility, we have taken between 4-6 international trips every year and honestly we’re burnt out fam. each trip has had optimal redemptions, saver fares. etc. lots of research put in… and honestly i’m burnt out on that too.

after all this time this is where we’re at point wise.

amex: 814k
bilt: 90k
chase: 90k
united: 220k
atmos:28k
hilton 220k
delfa: 100k
american: 120k
JAL: 300k
hyatt: 150k

We have 2 trips left this year, and then we only plan on taking 2 international trips next year. We could easily continue to open more cards, and can easily continue to accumulate points… but to what avail when we’re kinda burnt out on travel atm?

anyone else fallen into a similar boat/ rut? what did you do/ what have you done?

Southwest Airlines has announced several changes to the Rapid Rewards program, effective January 1, 2027:

• Announcement summary
• Companion pass changes

Major changes include:

• Shifting from two tiers (A-List, A-List Preferred) to three tiers (Silver, Gold, Platinum)
• SWA credit card signup bonuses will no longer count towards companion pass qualification
• Rapid Rewards points can be redeemed for some limited international partners now: Icelandair, China Airlines, and Etihad Airways

EDIT: If you were hoping to go for Companion Pass for 2027-28, there is still a chance. Per the FAQ:

Cardmembers who are approved for the Rapid Rewards Credit Card on or before Dec. 2, 2026 and meet the requirements for the new Cardmember welcome bonus will have the opportunity to have those points count as Companion Pass qualifying points, even if the spend threshold is met in early 2027.

I don't know how it will feel but it's a short 3-hour business class flight on SQ

I’m flying from NYC-Frankfurt in about a month. Should I go with:
SIA - Prem Econ - 777-300 - nonstop - 39.9k
UA - biz - 767 - stop in LHR - 80k

As much as I want a lie flat for sleeping, SIA’s reputation, cost, and nonstop are pretty appealing here.

Any thoughts or opinions?

ETA:

SQ25 on Nov 23rd
vs
UA14 (+Lufthansa LHR-FRA)

In mid-Sept Wyndham changed points tiers. For anyone staying after that date whose rate decreased, how long did it take to get your credit?

I’m trying to decide where to credit an upcoming Alaska Airlines flight booked in D fare: British Airways Club (no status) or Qatar Airways Privilege Club (oneworld Ruby status).
WhereToCredit.com shows an earning rate of 125% for both programmes. For BA, it also mentions earning 625 Avios, despite not knowing my specific itinerary.
Does this mean I’ll earn the same amount whichever programme I credit the flight to, or could the actual earnings differ?

I have an AA award ticket booked CDG>LHR>ORD>BZN in J. Two weeks ago, there was a schedule change that made my ORD connection 8 minutes short of MCT, which caused the ORD>BZN segment to drop off entirely. I saw that there was availability on a BA flight that departed earlier and would enable me to make my connection in ORD. I called in and attempted to make the change, but the agent, even after escalation, told me that I would have to pay the BA YQ, even though it was an involuntary change. I refused that option and hung up. I then tried the X support team. They were able to get my ticket changed to the BA flight, and put me in the ticketing queue. Today, I got a confirmation email, and my LHR>ORD flight reverted back to the original flight with the invalid connection time in ORD, but all 3 segments are now back in the booking. I have no idea how I got kicked back to the original itinerary. Should I just roll with it? I'm not really that scared to be 8 minutes short of MCT, I have Global Entry. Will I have any issues checking in? There are no other good rerouting options available.

As an aside, why has it become so impossible to get AA to change an award ticket these days? The phone agent I had was knowledgeable, but still wasn't allowed to do the right thing in this situation. It's ridiculous.