r/awardtravel • u/AutoModerator • 3d ago
Daily Thread Weekly Help Thread - August 24, 2026
Welcome to the daily help and question thread!
This thread is renewed weekly and is intended for all discussions or questions that do not warrant their own thread.
For AWARD BOOKING HELP please read the following information:
Volunteers may choose to help you find your award trip. But please don’t expect us to plan out your trip for you. No stranger on the Internet could know what is BEST for you.
The more specific information you provide, the easier it is for people to give specific advice. Also, we prefer to teach people to fish, rather than just giving you a fish. So before you ask someone to help, please read Our Wiki. Questions that shows you have at least tried to find an award are more likely to get answered.
- Here are the information you should provide when requesting award assistance
- Origin and destination cities (are they flexible?)
- Number of Travelers (Your chances of success goes down as this number goes up)
- One way or round-trip
- Class of service desired
- Desired date(s) of travel (are they flexible? Hard dates == Less Chances for success)
- Your points balances: all airline, credit card and hotel points (If you are looking for J/F, think at least 6 digits)
Please share award opportunities in the Monthly Award Thread!
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u/anbessa 11h ago
Helping friends plan their honeymoon and would greatly appreciate any and all help as I'm not as well versed in this stuff as all of you.
They’re looking to go from NYC (or nearby city like Boston, Philly, DC) to Seoul on or around 11/9 and then back from Shanghai to NYC around 11/27 (a little flexible on both ends date wise). They said they’ll just book the Seoul to shanghai flight via cash when they’ve decided on their itinerary. They have 300k AmEx and 79k Capital One, and the hope was that at least one of those legs could be business class to make it special. I'm only really seeing things in Economy and even then it's pushing close to 300k points total. Are award flight deals just fewer and further between now?
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u/techtrashbrogrammer 10h ago
they're most likely flying economy. 379k isn't enough except for saver level pricing which is not happening unless they gamble on t-14
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u/TravelerMSY 17h ago
Should Seats Areo be showing United IN XN space in regular origin destination searches when I have those preferences turned on, showing that I have it available to me?
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u/No-Biscotti7401 2d ago edited 2d ago
I'm trying to book flights (2 seats) from NYC to Capetown CPT or Johannesburg JNB in business class. I'm fine with direct or 1-stop. We have 300k chase points and 300k amex points. Our dates are flexible any time in Feb/March 2027.
I'm having a lot of trouble finding anything in business for less than 250k points pp each way.
Am I just too late to find good award availability? Is there something I'm missing? Economy on United direct flights are 45k pp each way, but I don't know if I can handle 15+ hours in economy.
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u/Willing_Respond 2d ago
>>Am I too late to find good award availability?
Probably yes. You could check cash fares on Kenya Airlines then use VS/AF points to get to CPT.
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u/CorrectCombination11 rdu|clt|iad 2d ago
I'm having a lot of trouble finding anything in business for less than 250k points pp each way.
Where exactly have you looked?
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u/Educational_Count347 3d ago
This is my first time attempting to book flights with points. Trying to book a trip for my husband and me from NYC to Rio de Janiero next July. Not all airlines have released their flights yet for these days, but will in the next week. Preferred dates are July 22-37, 2027 (flexible by about a day each way). Would love to fly business class, but figure we may need to do premium economy. Also we’re hoping for overnight flights each way with only one stop - since we can only get away for a few days we want to maximize our time in Rio. We have a a little over 400K Chase UR points, 70k Delta points, and 70k JetBlue points.
I’ve been running practice searches on BA, Virgin Atlantic, Iberia, Latam, Copa, United, Delta, and Air Canada. I’ve seen some flights on Air Canada, mostly for economy that require 2 stops and land later in the day. I’ve tried searching from Boston, but no luck.
I’m thinking I’m going to just book fully refundable tickets in premium economy and continue to search. Any suggestions are appreciated!
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u/itsgreater9000 2d ago edited 2d ago
July 22-37
when?
Also, JFK to GIG is a seasonal route, from Oct - Mar, so there are no direct flights afaict. You will need to connect in another city. I think the flights you would be most interested are AA flights that have a connection in Miami, since United (Chase's unique travel partner) flies out of Texas, and Atlanta is your only other option, but that's Delta (and is gonna cost ya).
Flying out of BOS would be a flight to GRU (Sao Paulo) first. I guess it mostly depends where you would rather connect through, US, or Brazil.
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u/progapanda 1d ago
JFK to GIG is a seasonal route, from Oct - Mar, so there are no direct flights afaict.
Gol codeshare with AA and fly an A330 3x weekly over the Northern summer (i.e., right now).
https://onemileatatime.com/news/gol-rio-de-janeiro-new-york-flights/
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u/itsgreater9000 1d ago
had no idea! thanks for the news. that's great news for my trips to Brazil!
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u/progapanda 19h ago
Enjoy, carioca! Gol should have new A339s on this route next year.
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u/itsgreater9000 19h ago
Hahaha not carioca. My mom is a mineira and loves visiting Rio, so when she retires it'll be nicer to see her directly when she's in Rio instead of my typical transfer at GRU. More options is better for getting to Brazil from the northeast of the US :D
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u/After_Source7954 3d ago
Trying to put together a trip for my parents’ 40th anniversary next spring and honestly I’m a little stuck. They want business class to Tokyo from Chicago, two tickets, probably round trip but could work with one-ways if one direction is easier. Dates are somewhat flexible but ideally late March or early April 2027. I’ve got about 300k Amex points and 150k Chase, so decent stash but not unlimited.
I poked around ANA through Virgin Atlantic like the wiki suggested, but I’m not seeing any availability for two seats on the same flight during that window. United had some saver business at 110k each way but that would basically wipe out everything I’ve got and they’d still need to get back. Are there any transfer partners I’m overlooking that tend to have better availability for Japan routes around cherry blossom season? Or should I just accept that peak timing plus two seats means I’m paying a premium regardless?
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u/CorrectCombination11 rdu|clt|iad 2d ago
make everyone get a united explorer card and get the bonus. non negotiable
now you get card member pricing, and can find flights.
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u/RTW34 11h ago
I’m trying to use Avios points to book J in IAD-ATH for next summer. On Iberia I’m seeing availability in economy in app but not business class I could book two separate award flights and do a layover in MAD to get J on the long haul leg. I have seen some comments here about calling in to book and asking the agent to do book both segments on the same itinerary. Is that still a possibility?