Best way to book flights using miles

Hi all,

I am planning on booking 2 upper class flights from LHR to New York using miles plus cash. What's the best (cheapest) way to do this?

I have around 70k miles to put towards the flight.

Thanks for your help!

I would buy the cheapest upgradeable economy fare (M) and use miles to upgrade to UC (G).

That costs 20,000 miles per person per leg, so for a return for 2 would cost 80,000 miles (plus taxes and fees).

You'd therefore need to buy or earn around 10,000 miles.

The M fare is normally about £600 each, the extra miles if you need to buy them would cost £165 and the additional taxes & fees should be around the £200pp mark at a guess so your total cash outlay would probably be around £1700, against a minimum of £3700 if you were to pay cash.

There do, of course, need to be UC reward seats available on your chosen flights which isn't a given. NYC tends to have decent availability though, and if you can be flexible with your dates your chances should be pretty decent.

Thank you very much Gumshoe, I'm fairly flexible on dates so hopefully can find something good. That's a great saving using miles vs. just a stright UC flight!

Now for the numpty questions...

Should I book an M fare online or over the phone?
Do I then upgrade to G over the phone or can that be done online?
Do I need to specify what my plan is at the outset if doing it over the phone?
By booking an M & upgrading to G, do I still get tier points & miles?

I'm still quite new to the forum so appreciate all the help I can get.

Thanks

You can book an M online, but would need to upgrade by phone so it would be far easier to do the whole thing on the phone (once you've bought/earned the required extra miles -that can be done online).

The call centre staff are normally excellent and very helpful - just explain you want to buy the cheapest upgradeable economy fare and use miles to upgrade and they will find the best option for you.

You can ascertain whether UC reward seats are available on your selected dates by doing a dummy booking online, selecting "spend miles" instead of "money". If they're not it'll bring up a calendar showing the nearest available dates.

And yes, by booking an M and upgrading to G you will earn miles and TPs for the paid economy element of the fare.

Welcome, by the way! Navigating your way through the minefield of reward bookings is tricky at the best of times but you're in the right place.

I've earned enough via the va credit card for a reward seat, does that just work for upgrades from y to premium?

I've earned enough via the va credit card for a reward seat, does that just work for upgrades from y to premium?

Yes it does but you have to be using miles to book your flight to be able to use the upgrade (also depends upon availability)