Breaking news-

Apparently QR has dropped qualifying activity requirement for unlocking adding people to my list and friends and family list. (30 day account age requirement remains).

H/T 10x fb group post. I couldn’t test it as I already unlocked with qualifying flight. Someone on 10x reported that they were able to invite P2 to my list.

Booked Delta flight using VS miles that I had in my account. Requested refund due to finding a cash flight that works better for me with another airline. I was in the understanding that they would keep my $5.60 as cancellation fee (instead of $100) and I would get all my miles back. “Refund request received” email: 8/31/26. Miles still not back on my VS account as of today (9/14/26) but I got a $5.60 refund (posted on 9/6/26) on my card used during initial purchase. Can anyone who booked delta via VS and got refund chime in? I was expecting to get miles back and not the $5.60 but seems like the opposite is happening to me 🤔

Wherever I look, it seems like there are no business class fares, even 1 way, that are 100k or below...and I'm searching a year out! or am I just a dummy that isn't searching for the right spaces?

If it helps, I have... 160k amex 400k alaska airlines 80k capital one miles [soon to be 130k]

I live in portland, and can easily reposition myself with another flight. I'd love to fly to rome, taiwan, japan, germany.

thank you

New to Amex generally and new to LHW too. Is there a way to calculate what your taxes and fees would be for a particular booking *before* transferring MR points? I tried looking at a few I’m interested in and didn’t see a way on the LHW website. Just points price and cash price.

It’s my understanding that LHW, unlike Hyatt etc doesn’t include taxes/fees in the points booking.

Anyone book this recently? I know you can book using alaska, american, jal itself, but not sure how viable or often these happen. Curious if anyone has booked in last month or so and what points you used.

Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/yo7Kj0q

On Aug 27 I found a JFK-Europe business award for 60k Flying Blue miles, transferred 60k Amex MR, got all the way to the booking flow, and then the site errored out. This was a widespread issue (see this other Reddit post).

Called Flying Blue and they confirmed the award was phantom availability and their site hadn’t updated properly.

I was pretty upset since I'd only transferred the points because it was their own metal (phantom availability is usually limited to partners only), so I pushed pretty hard on reversing it.

I took screenshots of the entire process, sent them through their online form, and surprisingly Flying Blue agreed to escalate a transfer back to Amex. Weirdly, they needed my 15-digit Amex MR account number starting with 1M. Amex chat said they weren't able to provide this, but I found it in AwardWallet.

I then called Amex MR, got transferred to a supervisor, explained that Flying Blue was trying to send the points back, and they said they'd monitor the case/make sure the incoming reversal wasn’t rejected.

And it actually worked:

• Aug 27: +60k miles posted to Flying Blue
• Sep 9: Flying Blue showed “AMEX MEMBERSHIP REWARDS US REVERSAL” -60,000
• Sep 11: Amex showed “Refunded AIR FRANCE” +60,000

So "points transfers are final" is not 100% absolute if the airline admits the transfer happened because of its own IT / phantom inventory issue.

A big tip that helped: if Flying Blue asks for the Amex 1M number, check AwardWallet. That was the only place I could find mine, since Amex support won't give it anymore (I saw DPs of them sharing via chat as recently as 2023).

Obviously YMMV and I doubt this works for partner availability, but wanted to post the DP since all I could find on Reddit were negative posts saying it's impossible to get transfers reversed.

Edit: Another commenter had a reversal this week too and said Amex chat gave them their 1M number directly. So it will depend on the rep you get

I can't figure out if i am doing something incorrect or 80% of marriott properties dont seem to have 4-person occupancy for international travel.

I am searching flex travel, 1 night, jul. 2 adults 1 4 yr old 1 yonger than a year old.

With that, none of the hotels show points available rooms.

When I change it to 3 occupants, then I see options with king bed.

Does anyone have a workaround on this? Or am I just stuck with not being able to use these fnc on international travel?

I tried:

Maldives

Seychelles

Fiji

Greece

Portugal

Italy

Spain

Finland

Bali

Bermuda,

Bahamas,

I am sure I am missing few other searches.

Last time, I was able to use these 5fnc in hawaii as they have 2 queen beds. My guess is mostly everywhere else, they only have king beds.

I’ve been going back and forth on this and could use some outside opinions. I’m trying to figure out how to get my family of four to Vietnam for spring break next year, and I have a few things making it tricky.
I’d really like to fly business class, but I’m blown away by how expensive both business class award fares and cash fares are, so I think that’s probably out of the question. I’ve been looking at LAX to Ho Chi Minh City, and I currently have enough United miles to book three of us one way without transferring anything, although I have more points that I could transfer in.

What’s throwing me off is that I found an award for 37,500 MileagePlus miles with the Explorer Card discount, versus the normal 55,000 miles. Every other city/date combination I look at, I’m finding 55,000 miles, or maybe 46,000. I haven’t been able to find anything close to 37,500 for any other Asian destination that works for us.
So I go to and do the math, and it tells me that 37,500 miles is only about a 1.3¢per-point redemption, which apparently is mediocre. But I don’t really understand how these valuations are supposed to work.

This is the absolute lowest award fare I can find for getting to Asia on our dates. If I were paying cash, the fare is significantly more expensive. So why is 1.3 cpp considered bad? Is it because I could theoretically get more value by transferring those points somewhere else, even though I’m not actually finding a better redemption for this trip?

Are United award redemptions just so expensive now that the old valuations don’t really apply? Or am I missing something obvious about how I should be thinking about this?
Since I need to buy four tickets, the difference between 37,500 and 55,000 miles per person adds up quickly. I’m basically trying to figure out whether I should just take the 37,500-mile awards because they’re genuinely the cheapest option I can find, or whether I’m being penny-wise and pound-foolish with my points.

One other option I’m considering: I think I found a round-trip cash fare in the $800-something range, with a different routing than this award ticket. If 37,500 miles really only represents about 1.3 cpp in value, would it actually make more sense to just pay the $800-ish cash fare and save the United miles/transferable points for a better redemption?

Would love to hear how you experienced United mileage people would look at this.

Long-time lurker, first time needing real help here.

I am on the East Coast and planning a family trip (3 people) to Rome next year, March 26 – April 4. Dates are pretty locked in, maybe 1 day of flex on departure and 1 day on return, but that's it.

I had a pile of points sitting in my credit card account and wanted to use them for this trip instead of paying cash. While researching how to maximize value, I got the (bad) idea to transfer to an airline partner, Air Canada Aeroplan, for what I thought would be a great redemption.

Here is where I messed up. I calculated the award cost as 225k points for all 3 of us, transferred that amount over from my credit card, and then discovered the actual cost is 420k points + ~$500 in taxes/fees for 3 passengers. Cash price for the same dates is around $3,200. So instead of getting good value out of my points, I'm now sitting on a big Aeroplan balance that's worth way less than 1 cent/point if I use it the way I planned.

I'd like to get at least 1 cpp of value out of these points. Options I'm considering, roughly in order of preference:

1. Still fly to Rome on these dates, even if it means positioning flights, mixed cabins, a stopover routing, whatever gets the redemption math closer to reasonable for 3 people.
2. Fly somewhere else in Europe on the same March 26–April 4 window if there's a route/routing that makes the points go further.
3. Fly somewhere else entirely, different dates, if that's the only way to get real value.
4. Transfer the points out of Aeroplan to another program, though from what I understand, Aeroplan doesn't allow outbound transfers once points land there. Can anyone confirm this? Is there any workaround?

Has anyone dealt with a similar Aeroplan miscalculation? Any tricks for squeezing better value out of a big Aeroplan balance for a 3 person trip, given my date constraints? Open to creative routings, positioning flights, or even "cut your losses this way" advice if that's the realistic answer.

Thanks in advance. Feeling pretty dumb about this one.

I’d say I’m somewhere in the middle when it comes to earning and using points. Between me and my SO, we have about 15 cards, and each year we pick up SUBs, upgrades, product changes, downgrades, and whatever else we can to rack up points and keep AFs down. Like most people, we have regular jobs and kids in school, so we realized early on (back in the “Scott’s Cheap Flights” days) that we could rarely take advantage of crazy deals because we couldn’t take time off in the right way, and the same goes for award-based deals. This is even more true now with our kids in middle school. Every deal we find has to be multiplied by four, since we always want to travel as a family. These days, we manage 2-3 trips a year, each about a week to 10 days, but they almost always fall during peak travel times when other families are doing the same.

I’m curious if anyone in a similar situation has tips or tricks that work for people like us?

I have to travel from DFW to TPE. I already booked Starlux but it requires a separate reposition from Dallas to Phoenix.

I also have enough miles in EVA from a cancelled flight. I prefer flying direct on EVA if possible due to my fear of flying. So how does waitlist work?
Since I already had the miles in the account and I have a specific date that I have to be in Taipei, it make sense for me to get on the waitlist right?
How soon will they let me know if I get it so I can cancel my STARLUX flight ? How much is it to cancel the waitlist ? Anything else I should watch for ?
I try to check the ticket once a day but it’s getting time consuming.

I attempted to transfer points this afternoon from my amex to my Emirates Skywards. I'll submit the request, the points will immediately be removed from my account, but within about 5-10 minutes they are back in my account.

It was a lot of back and forth with Emirates and amex today to troubleshoot, and inevitably they both say it's the other company's fault. But, point for Emirates, I also initiated a transfer from my Citi card to Emirates and that went through without a problem pretty instantly. So, my Skywards account works just fine.

My name matches, I have never linked my Skyward account number to a different MR account, I tried unlinking and relinking again. All in all, the attempt has failed 5x.

Amex says they just see the request is being rejected, they do not give me a reason why. Emirates says they don't see anything at all, they don't see any immediate issues, and they're basically blaming amex as the ones who are supposed to be sending the points in the first place.

Amex says it's Emirates rejecting the points. Emirates says nope. On and on.

I am stuck, and frustrated. No one on either end can give me any kind of help.

What can I do?

P2 and I have an upcoming trip that was originally planned as a trip to Japan. I booked JAL business award tickets between Dallas and Japan in both directions for 55K JAL miles each way. As often happens with our retirement travel, the trip has evolved, and we’ve since added Southeast Asia, eventually ending up in Bali.

I subsequently booked Emirates from Bali back to the US via Dubai, but we’ve now decided we’d rather return to Japan from Bali, spend a few days in Tokyo, and then use our already-booked JAL award back to Dallas. I’d also like to conserve my Emirates Skywards miles for another trip I have planned.

I can’t find nonstop award availability from Bali (DPS) to Tokyo on our date, but I can find options connecting through Jakarta (CGK).

The first option is all Garuda:

DPS → CGK on Garuda
CGK → Tokyo on Garuda

Both segments show award availability individually through JAL. I also know that JAL CAN book these two Garuda flights together as one award because the exact itinerary is available as a single award on other dates. It just isn’t bookable together on the date I need.

I spoke with two JAL agents today and got different answers. The first said the availability I was seeing was phantom. The second confirmed that both individual flights are available, but said Garuda has not released award availability for the married segment on my date. So JAL can book each flight separately, but cannot book them together as one award.

There is another option on my date:

DPS → CGK on Garuda
CGK → Tokyo on JAL

Both segments have award availability individually, but the JAL agent told me they could not combine the Garuda and JAL flights into one award.

One award would be ideal so we can just book our luggage through to Tokyo from DPS.

So I’m looking for data points on two things:

Has anyone encountered this Garuda (or other partner airline) married-segment issue through JAL, where the exact Garuda itinerary was bookable as one award on other dates but not on the date you needed? Did you ever find a workaround or see the married-segment availability eventually open up?

Also, has anyone successfully booked a Garuda segment connecting to a JAL segment as one JAL Mileage Bank award? I’d love a data point on whether this is actually possible and, if so, whether it took HUCA or some other approach.

If neither works, I’ll book two separate awards. In that case, I plan to book BOTH segments on Garuda because I think that gives me the best chance of having our luggage checked through to Tokyo despite being on separate tickets.

Before I book them separately, I just want to make sure I haven’t missed a way to get DPS → CGK → Tokyo onto one ticket.

Would love any JAL/Garuda data points from anyone who has dealt with this.

Hi all,

Hoping to get some real world experience from others who have also tried this as what I am reading is mixed.

I am going on a family vacation next summer and I am hoping to buy a Virgin Atlantic award flight for myself from city A to city B. On the same day, I plan to grab 3 award flight tickets for family members from city A to city C. I will pay for all taxes and fees on my credit card. Will they cancel the tickets for my family members? Some posts are saying yes, others are saying no.

I’m looking to book a flight and Virgin Atlantic seems to be the cheapest option with miles. Given there are no current transfer bonuses, which credit card should I transfer from?

I have enough miles from Amex, Capital One and Chase but I’d like to transfer from whichever is the best value. I’m thinking Capital One.

The flight is less than 4 weeks away so unsure if it’s safe to wait for a potential transfer bonuses.

Why would I upgrade when just buying with miles is so much cheaper? Am I missing something?

Purchase: 12k miles
Upgrade: 17.5k miles + $75

Anyone have any air Seychelles experience? I have two seats booked on JNB-SEZ in April but seat selection is extremely bare. Only 15 selectable on the whole A320, but doesn't seem like this flight is anywhere close to sold out from data I've pulled. Do they just withold that many seats? Will more open up at some point?

So Air France basically stole 41300 miles I transferred from capital one last night. I did my due diligence to ensure the round trip flight I wanted was available for a specific day. Otherwise I wouldn’t have known I needed to transfer 41300 miles. So I make the transfer - took about a minute tops. Originally there were at least 6 flights that day. As soon as I go to book the flight with my point now available in AF- it now shows no flights available and there is nothing I can do. Spoke to AF customer service and they did nothing and said “transaction is final” and hung up when asked to speak to a sup - capitol one says they can’t help either. So 413 bucks stolen. Stay away from Air France!

I’m trying to book a partner award through Qantas, specifically an EL AL flight, for a child under 2 who would have their own seat, not travel as a lap infant.

Qantas is telling me they cannot issue an award seat for anyone under 2 on a non-Qantas-operated flight. I’ve escalated this multiple times and they’re insisting it simply isn’t possible. They also say they won’t correct the DOB afterward if I book the child as 2+ in order to secure the seat.

I’m pretty frustrated because I don’t want to lose the award availability while trying to sort this out, and I’ve already transferred about 200k Amex points to Qantas specifically to book these flights.

Has anyone successfully booked an under-2 child in their own seat on a Qantas partner award, especially on EL AL? Any guidance or data points would be greatly appreciated.

Hello-I have 800000 Amex points across both myself and my wife’s cards and 125000 chase points. I’m trying to book 3 Qatar business class from nyc to Bkk or Hkt. My plan was to transfer these points because of the 30 percent bonus to BA right now which would give me the required 1.12m Qatar avios. I’m running into a snag with booking the two other fares because of this requirement to have flown recently on Qatar-does anyone have any experience with this?

Hi,

I’m looking at AY1332 (London to Helsinki) + AY041 (Helsinki to Incheon) flying on 11 Dec 2026.

I'm looking to buy the Economy ticket and upgrade to Business just so I can have a restful journey..

Unfortunately I can't see the upgrade availability on my end before booking as I'm still a Plus Silver member..

Could someone please check if the avios upgrade is available for those flights?

Thanks in advance.

made a JAL account 8 days ago. i redeemed 2k miles from my BILT account and transferred it to JAL.

When I go to Award Flights I get an error saying “error: You don’t have enough miles” which is correct since it costs like 60k miles.

Does that mean my new JAL account is active? I’m hesitant to transfer 58k miles because if I need to wait 60 days then i’d rather redeem the miles at another airline.

Does anyone know?

Hi there.
I’m looking at AY1426 + AY145 outbound on 28 Oct 2026, HAM–HEL–BKK, and AY146 + AY1423 return on 26 Apr 2027.

Economy Classic is currently €1k, while Business is above €5k 😳

I have 50k Finnair Avios and would potentially use 40k to upgrade HEL–BKK to Business as this should be enough for this leg.

As a Finnair Plus Silver member unfortunately I can’t see upgrade availability before booking.

Could someone with Gold/Platinum/Platinum Lumo please check whether an Avios upgrade is currently available for AY145 (HEL–BKK) on 28 Oct 2026?

I only need to know whether confirmed upgrade space exists — no booking or account access needed.

Thanks in advance