Best way to book international flights and hotels for upcoming trip

[khooniatma]

Hi Friends,

I am planning a trip for two people to Australia. I need to book flights and hotels for the same. I am very new in airmiles/reward points optimisation game and have only ever used Smartbuy for my needs.
My expenses have been below the max monthly limit on accelerated reward points so I have never had to really think about how to best optimize.

These are the current cards I have -

1. Infinia
2. Sapphiro

Apart from this, I also have a Burgundy account with Axis, but no CC with them.

This is how I am currently thinking to optimise my spend -

1. Flights: Book flight tickets via Smartbuy on Sunday, 30th June to get the max cap of 15K points for June on Infinia.
2. Hotels: Book hotels in July (I know atleast 1-2 places that I want to book that require upfront payment). Since hotels is 10X RP, I am hoping I can max out 15K points for July as well.
3. Experiences and Day tours: Planning to book these closer to the trip - in August, September time frame, so that I can optimise this spend as well. I am not sure how much I will be able to optimise this, but will look to learn the basic RPs on these.

In total, I think would be able to accrue about 30K RPs through this process.
In addition to this, I am also thinking that if I split the hotel bookings between July and August, I can accrue an additional 15K points.
At 33% rate, we can get 15K points for a 46K spend, my total hotel cost for the trip would be somewhere >1L.

Therefore, in the best way scenario I can accrue 45K points.

Is there a better way to optimise the spend? The trip is planned in December, so if there is a much better to do this spend, I can get the corresponding card made (Atlas, Amex Plat?)

Thank you! Looking forward to your suggestions!

 

[wiizzard]

Generally Smartbuy is overpriced for Hotels, so what you get in Reward points is less than what you can get outside of Smartbuy. Will suggest exploring options and booking where you get the cheapest deal.
For flights, Smartbuy is good. I always recommend redeem max i.e. the full 70% whenever you have the opportunity.

 

[CivSim]

Hi Friends,

I am planning a trip for two people to Australia. I need to book flights and hotels for the same. I am very new in airmiles/reward points optimisation game and have only ever used Smartbuy for my needs.
My expenses have been below the max monthly limit on accelerated reward points so I have never had to really think about how to best optimize.

These are the current cards I have -

1. Infinia
2. Sapphiro

Apart from this, I also have a Burgundy account with Axis, but no CC with them.

This is how I am currently thinking to optimise my spend -

1. Flights: Book flight tickets via Smartbuy on Sunday, 30th June to get the max cap of 15K points for June on Infinia.
2. Hotels: Book hotels in July (I know atleast 1-2 places that I want to book that require upfront payment). Since hotels is 10X RP, I am hoping I can max out 15K points for July as well.
3. Experiences and Day tours: Planning to book these closer to the trip - in August, September time frame, so that I can optimise this spend as well. I am not sure how much I will be able to optimise this, but will look to learn the basic RPs on these.

In total, I think would be able to accrue about 30K RPs through this process.
In addition to this, I am also thinking that if I split the hotel bookings between July and August, I can accrue an additional 15K points.
At 33% rate, we can get 15K points for a 46K spend, my total hotel cost for the trip would be somewhere >1L.

Therefore, in the best way scenario I can accrue 45K points.

Is there a better way to optimise the spend? The trip is planned in December, so if there is a much better to do this spend, I can get the corresponding card made (Atlas, Amex Plat?)

Thank you! Looking forward to your suggestions!

I’m in the same boat with the same set of cards. How did you end up spending? From what I’ve seen hotels are better via smartbuy when considering the 33% points which I then use to against the 70% redemption when booking flights. Otherwise, booking domestic flights directly seems to be cheaper via indigo unless there are card offers on the aggregator apps.

I’m currently sitting with 80k points and have no upcoming travel plans. Trying to figure out how to redeem these points for best value. From what I’ve read, it looks like miles transfer for international whenever a bonus comes up is the best option.

Anyone have an idea whether the Tanishq vouchers are worth it with respect to their product pricing when compared to Kalyan etc.? I see that Tanishq gold coins aren’t an option with the voucher.