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Best way to transfer miles to travel to Europe?
- Thread starter moriarty
- Start date
Do check this detailed thread: https://www.technofino.in/community/threads/finding-booking-award-flights-beginners-guide.527/
There is no single best way.
- The option that may have lowest mileage requirement, may have high taxes or no award seat availability.
- The option that may have award availability may have a high miles requirement
- Or Infinia Smartbuy Booking might work out better than both the above options
I really wished there was something as straightforward and transparent as Vistara. Spent a couple of hours doing the research and still couldn't find a worthy way of booking award flights to and from Europe. I shall give it a pass and will stick to revenue booking.
Even for revenue booking, I am facing issues with booking multicity flights using Smartbuy/Traveledge:
Any workaround to book multicity flights on Smartbuy / TravelEdge?
I was looking to book multicity flights to and from Europe. So, my entry point in Europe would be City A (say, Rome), and my exit point would be City B (say, Geneva). So the itinerary would be 1. Outward - Mumbai-Rome and 2. Inward - Geneva-Mumbai. Some carriers consider multi-city booking as...
www.technofino.in
So, all in, even after having points on both Smartbuy and Magnus, I am unable to make efficient use of them. Sigh!
I think that's when Axis will start to win, keeping the customers to spend 1L showing 24%-44% return on spending.I really wished there was something as straightforward and transparent as Vistara. Spent a couple of hours doing the research and still couldn't find a worthy way of booking award flights to and from Europe. I shall give it a pass and will stick to revenue booking.
Even for revenue booking, I am facing issues with booking multicity flights using Smartbuy/Traveledge:
Any workaround to book multicity flights on Smartbuy / TravelEdge?
I was looking to book multicity flights to and from Europe. So, my entry point in Europe would be City A (say, Rome), and my exit point would be City B (say, Geneva). So the itinerary would be 1. Outward - Mumbai-Rome and 2. Inward - Geneva-Mumbai. Some carriers consider multi-city booking as...
So, all in, even after having points on both Smartbuy and Magnus, I am unable to make efficient use of them. Sigh!
Atleast, infinia/dcb points can be straight away used for booking flights/hotels but for Magnus, unless person knows how to redeem miles (forget efficiently), the person keeps exploring and then devaluation. I am not sure what % of people out of total going to understand how they will redeem the miles so that they will be in profit in net. I checked many examples where (miles + taxes) is almost same as (price without any miles + any offer discount)
According to statistics, there are more than 10 trillion unused miles all over the world and 20% of all FFP miles never get redeemed.
True, most people who will factor in things like discounts, additional taxes and real value of flight (price which one would be willing to pay via cash) will not see much value in it.
I checked several routes with few airline partners. Pretty much all are giving like 0.5-0.7 rs value per miles for economy class and even for that award flights are difficult to find.
Only vistara was providing value in 0.7-1rs range with good availability. But the routes are so much limited.
Most people rate them high considering business class fare, but don't consider the fact that they may not be ready to pay even double price for business class in normal circumstances.
I will personally rate miles at 0.5rs and still see 12% return on 1L spends, which is great.
True. A layman should simply value the miles at 0.5 rs.
Yeah... Totally agreed... I have seen many videos and articles which suggest opting for business class against miles for best value for miles but forgetting the fact that it mostly may not be the best value for the expense which earned those miles. Same as you mentioned, I would prefer to take 2 economy flights rather than 1 business class so that I can take more flights for X miles rather than chasing the value for X miles.
I really wished there was something as straightforward and transparent as Vistara. Spent a couple of hours doing the research and still couldn't find a worthy way of booking award flights to and from Europe. I shall give it a pass and will stick to revenue booking.
Even for revenue booking, I am facing issues with booking multicity flights using Smartbuy/Traveledge:
Any workaround to book multicity flights on Smartbuy / TravelEdge?
I was looking to book multicity flights to and from Europe. So, my entry point in Europe would be City A (say, Rome), and my exit point would be City B (say, Geneva). So the itinerary would be 1. Outward - Mumbai-Rome and 2. Inward - Geneva-Mumbai. Some carriers consider multi-city booking as...
So, all in, even after having points on both Smartbuy and Magnus, I am unable to make efficient use of them. Sigh!
Only if two hours of Research on Airmiles was enough find the best redemption option, we would have our versions TPG, OMAAT & Upgraded Points websites in bulk. 😉
Haha. In my case, Saudi Airlines is offering good fares for my dates. Even if I get 1 mile = 1 rs, it will still not be able to match the fares, so I dropped the idea of doing more research. As suggested by you on another thread, I will go forward and book a revenue ticket through Smartbuy concierge.
My personal choices: only if you are okay with one-stop:
1) Qatar airways have better options and product!
55k Avios for round trip in Economy per person
110k Avios for round trip in Business class per person
If not on Qatar can use it on British airways award ticket as well!
2) Turkish airlines have decent product and award ticket is at:
30K Turkish miles for Economy Round trip per person
60k Turkish miles for Business round trip per person.
P.S: Turkish website is a mess to book award tickets!
1) Qatar airways have better options and product!
55k Avios for round trip in Economy per person
110k Avios for round trip in Business class per person
If not on Qatar can use it on British airways award ticket as well!
2) Turkish airlines have decent product and award ticket is at:
30K Turkish miles for Economy Round trip per person
60k Turkish miles for Business round trip per person.
P.S: Turkish website is a mess to book award tickets!
How about the taxes in both?
Turkish Miles and Smiles shows 60,000 miles for a roundtrip Mumbai-Madrid. What am I missing?
How do you see miles requirement on Avios? I always get the error: You are not eligible to perform a redemption activity. Please contact our Member Service Centre for more information.
I'd avoid Turkish for this redemption (and almost any other one too!), very high surcharges for this specific one and virtually the same amount of miles required as other airlines.
BOM-MAD Economy Roundtrip
Turkish 60k + 22k INR
United 60k-66k + 8k INR
Singapore 61k + 19k INR
Do note surcharges aren't usually this high in SQ, but it also showing very limited availability online.
United shows very decent availability and fees are reasonable.
Also the poster above might be talking about miles required in off peak periods (not sure if that cheap tho) but still it will cost you prob 15k+ INR in fees per passenger in Economy in Turkish Airlines.
As per this tool, cheapest is 48k but limited capacity.
Frequent Flyer Award Rates from () to () -- Milez.biz
How many frequent flyer miles (air miles) does it cost to fly from to ? Compare programs and calculate how many air miles are needed for free flights.
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Any suggestions for Bangalore - Singapore route?I'd avoid Turkish for this redemption (and almost any other one too!), very high surcharges for this specific one and virtually the same amount of miles required as other airlines.
BOM-MAD Economy Roundtrip
Turkish 60k + 22k INR
United 60k-66k + 8k INR
Singapore 61k + 19k INR
Do note surcharges aren't usually this high in SQ, but it also showing very limited availability online.
United shows very decent availability and fees are reasonable.
Also the poster above might be talking about miles required in off peak periods (not sure if that cheap tho) but still it will cost you prob 15k+ INR in fees per passenger in Economy in Turkish Airlines.
As per this tool, cheapest is 48k but limited capacity.
Frequent Flyer Award Rates from () to () -- Milez.biz
How many frequent flyer miles (air miles) does it cost to fly from to ? Compare programs and calculate how many air miles are needed for free flights.milez.biz
Both vistara and Singapore airlines showing minimum 20K. New year dates are double and that's also not available. Any suggestions?
You're very late to book these dates.. after mid December until mid January expect almost no availability. For these dates you need to book at least 3-4 months in advance. It applies to all airlines, even paid tickets are limited and expensive.
Only cash + points options might work better but usually the value of your points go off a cliff.
Even otherwise, it is showing 20K on any date. That's what I should expect? Some days few flights are available at 10K in rupees. So, miles value is like 0.5 per mile, if I compare least rupees vs least miles for any date across this route.
How much Qatar avios did you have while doing the search?
Well the account needs to have some miles even a min of 100 or even 1000 would be enough to view award availability with qatar airways!
If you don’t have account, I guess there were promotions where we get 2000 or 3000 Avios for free if we sign up with a Particular code
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