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Hi folks,
I’m looking to travel from London to Dubai in November, and I’d like to burn down some Membership Rewards and travel in Business.
What would people recommend, and how can I check availability pre-transfer?
Tim
I’ve done Air France twice out of Paris on Virgin Points (because I had them) which is 100k plus €390ish plus cost of getting to Paris. AF just launched AUH at similar cost and lots of availability.
Of course if you’re going out of Amex then compare same seats booked via FBlue and possibly even Delta.
KLM similar choices.
I suspect SAS (redeeming on SWISS / Lufty) is a bad deal. SQ would normally be better but of course they cut their Amex transfer rate. LH / SWISS availability has been very poor recently too.
You can also do EgyptAir via Cairo or Turkish via IST using a Star redemption if you want a bit of novelty.
Obviously there is the BA route too.
+1 for AF and KLM, with Virgin or Flying Blue miles. You’ll have to check on Virgin and Flying Blue for availability, as they are not the same.
SQ isn’t worth using for Lufthansa group, charges too high, but good value with Egypt or Turkish. Flight times may be terrible though, the change is almost half way.
BA or Qatar on Avios. Qatar fly to four different airports in the UAE which may work for you, check them all for availability. It used to be cheaper to book Qatar with Asia Miles (Cathay) rather than BA Avios but maybe not anymore since Qatar adopted Avios directly.
Air France UK-CDG-DXB return is only £480 of charges + 100K Virgin points. Hardly worth travelling on a separate booking to Paris to save £150.
It occasionally appears for 45K Flying Blue miles one way on the monthly promo rewards.
Hi folks,
I’m looking to travel from London to Dubai in November, and I’d like to burn down some Membership Rewards and travel in Business.
What would people recommend, and how can I check availability pre-transfer?
Tim
Go via Newark in the apartment on Ethiad.
Air France UK-CDG-DXB return is only £480 of charges + 100K Virgin points. Hardly worth travelling on a separate booking to Paris to save £150.
It occasionally appears for 45K Flying Blue miles one way on the monthly promo rewards.
I booked two tickets LHR – CDG and CDG – DXB because only the latter was available to book with Virgin. I had a few FBs as well, and used them to book the first leg (in economy). The London checkin for AF cheerfully issued all my boarding passes and would happily have through-checked my bag if I’d wanted them to.
I paid just 42,500 Delta Sky Miles + 180 Dirham for KLM DXB-AMS-NCL, which I thought was a bit of a steal. You can check availability on Delta before you transfer.
I’m sure KL won’t win any prizes vs the Gulf carriers, but I found them fine.
Am I missing something obvious, but the best I can see on AF is 120k for a return? That’s the same if I start in LHR or CDG.
Am I missing something obvious, but the best I can see on AF is 120k for a return? That’s the same if I start in LHR or CDG.
120K is peak pricing. 10K extra per flight on peak days.
Am I missing something obvious, but the best I can see on AF is 120k for a return? That’s the same if I start in LHR or CDG.
120K is peak pricing. 10K extra per flight on peak days.
Oh ok, thank you! Am I better off searching/booking on AF or on VS website?
Am I missing something obvious, but the best I can see on AF is 120k for a return? That’s the same if I start in LHR or CDG.
120K is peak pricing. 10K extra per flight on peak days.
Oh ok, thank you! Am I better off searching/booking on AF or on VS website?
VS in my view. The price is fixed. It’ll either be 100 or 120K return. AF uses dynamic pricing; could be as low as 90K FB miles return, could be 9 million, who can say.
Am I missing something obvious, but the best I can see on AF is 120k for a return? That’s the same if I start in LHR or CDG.
120K is peak pricing. 10K extra per flight on peak days.
Oh ok, thank you! Am I better off searching/booking on AF or on VS website?
VS in my view. The price is fixed. It’ll either be 100 or 120K return. AF uses dynamic pricing; could be as low as 90K FB miles return, could be 9 million, who can say.
Thank you. Now managed to find off-peak on VS website, 100k Virgin points plus £490 on AF, and even 85k Delta miles plus £533 on Delta’s website, again on AF. The same flights on FB are 120k.
As per article today on redeeming VS, you will need to call them up to complete a reward booking on AF
As per article today on redeeming VS, you will need to call them up to complete a reward booking on AF
Thanks BWS for your advice, and sorry OP for hijacking your thread slightly, but hopefully it’s useful info for you too.
We’ve decided to fly out to Dubai, and return from Abu Dhabi, as we’ve never been AD. So decided to use a BA companion voucher and 1 BC upgrade voucher (there are 3 of us) to fly to DXB (saving the other half of the vouchers for the return of a later trip to DOH this year.)
Planning to return from our UAE trip on AF using Delta as its only 42.5k plus 220 AED pp, whereas using Virgin points its 50k plus 690 AED. Will be transferring from Amex MR.
Is there anything I should be aware of when redeeming on Delta’s website? Can I book online or do I need to call, same as if I was booking on VS website, due to the errors which can occur? Are the cancellation/ change fees the same as Virgin?
Thanks
Delta should be fine for online booking – the US airlines have their issues but online booking is one thing they do tend to get right (probably because the number of call centre agents they’d need otherwise is too scary to contemplate!).
Not sure about canx / change fees on Delta.
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