Honeymoon in the US using VA Reward Miles

Hello

Firstly apologies to everyone if this is a question asked all the time and there is a post which details all of what I am about to as Im pre-planning a bit here but we are getting married next August (2016) and are planning on going on honeymoon straight after (hopefully the summer holiday wont cause too much stress or over booking) I suspect it might!

We are thinking of flying from London to New York to start the holiday off, then transferring across to Hawaii for a few nights, flying back to Las Vegas for a few nights and then returning back to London.

I have 140,000 flight miles which I've been saving for ages and know I can either try and upgrade the VA flights from Economy to UC or PE to UC (which would be cheaper). I also know that there might be an option of spending some of the flights miles on Hawaiian Airlines too - but will look into that.

My questions is - what is the best way to try and get as best a deal as I can as when I tend to look at reward flights, they are always not available. I'm a total newbie here but as this is ultimately probably the most important trip I am likely to make, I really want to try and use the points to make the most out of the holiday. Flying UC is something we'd never be able to do normally.

Thanks and again, if there is somewhere which answers all of this, tell me where to go and I'll self serve

Cheers

Dom

Hi Dom and welcome.

You are right, reward availability in UC is often scarce and if there's none available when you first look, you just have to keep checking - daily if possible as seats can and do pop up at any time.

Remember flights only go on sale around 11 months before departure (T-336) so for August 2016 you're looking at September before reward seats even become available.

LHR-JFK shouldn't be a problem - there are 5 flights a day so plenty of capacity. LAS-LGW will be much, much harder - there's only one flight a day and it only has 14 UC seats so reward availability is very scarce. You might want to consider flying from LAX or SFO instead, both of which have more UC capacity (and Clubhouses!) although even so it can be hard to find availability.

When the time comes, just check on the VS website for reward seats on the flight you want. If you see any, be prepared to call up and nab them! Tell them you want to buy an M (economy) or S (PE) fare and upgrade to UC with miles and they'll sort you out.

Good luck - and remember patience, persistence and flexibility with dates and routes are the keys to success in finding reward seats.

First of all, congratulations!

As gumshoe said, it is a bit too early to check for Aug 16 flights. They will be released around Sept 15, and normally I understand that there's decent UC reward available at least to NYC.

Really good choice on the destination, too We did NYC followed by Maui, with a short stop in San Fran on the way back for our honeymoon in 2012, and it was amazing! You might be better off with SFO or LAS not only for the UC reward availability, but also for connections to/from Hawaii.

Would suggest an itiniary change and fly back from Hawaii to LAS, then drive to LA, then fly back from there if keen on miles - as mentioned LAX to LGW Upper redemptions for 2 will be rare due to only 14 seats, and fact you may find they can sell them at full 4k prices - LAS to MAN should be considered though. For LA - Not only has LA got a decent clubhouse now, but it's got more UC seats, so more reward availability.

The key we've found with reward bookings is to be flexible on dates. Flights back from US to UK are the harder of the pair to get booked.

The nice thing is VA do allow you to hold flights for 4 days with a call - so take advantage of this, if the return flight is available, hold it until you get the right outbound arranged. Don't hold an outbound as these are generally easier from my personal experience. Worst case, fly back PE if you cant get a miles return.

Personally with your miles - I'd be looking to book VS econ upgraded to UC with the miles you have, out to NYC, back via LAX, and then book NYC to Hawaii and Hawaii to LAS as paid for (try Delta for more miles earning) - but really I'd book with whoever is cheaper and consider flights to/from Hawaii from a different airport (try La Guardia as well as JFK), along with other NYC airports.. Issue is NYC can be more expensive than regional airports, so trying Philidelphia and a drive over may actually be cheaper (check one-way hire prices).

Hope that helps - the trick with miles is being flexible and being prepared to take a fun routing..

Hi Guys

Thanks for some great advice. Sounds like the NY leg is the easier of the lot to arrange due to the number of flights daily - I hadn't considered that - but thinking about it now - it makes a lot of sense!

Also interesting looking at Car Hires from NY to another airport or from LAS to LAX (we drove LAS to LAX last year) and if it made sense on the Return flight then tha'ts good - however PE isn't too bad so that could be an option too. So some great advice.

We definitely want to go to LAS as that's where we got engaged - so rounded it off nicely - and glad to hear you enjoyed your honeymoon doing something similar

Will pop a countdown into my phone to look at the flights as you suggest and then see where we go form there - good to know that VA allow us to hold flights.

One question is, as the flight back is likely to be 14 days after we depart - do I need to wait the 14 days (and then possibly lose the miles upgrade on the outbound)? and does it usually make sense to buy the M or S fares and hope the upgrade comes up later (if indeed you can upgrade later).

Cheers

Dom

With use of M fares, I would wait until the full itinerary is available to be booked. Don't book immediately on release. But do consider holding the mileage seats for the return leg (as this is harder to get) until the outbound released. Equally if you happy in PE hold book one side as a PE itinitary and phone back for upgrade later.

For comparison on our trip for this April, we booked late last June, and got both UC legs confirmed at time of booking before releasing funds, however when I initially phoned we were coming back in PE. Held both flights for max time, phoned back to pay, and they had availability for UC on the return from a different airport so we swapped and paid in one transaction. The fact you targeting August I missed - thats probably hardest time to get any redemption there is, on ANY airline, so just book anything you find thats near right out - hold it, and confirm after waiting a few days phoning daily for the chance of moving the return to UC.

The chances of getting an exact 14 day holiday match to depart after wedding... may be difficult. In your case I'd be prioritizing that outbound booking first, holding that, and waiting on the return. How my family approach these things is calling up 2-3 weeks after flight release, (so entire window open) and ask for a return with about 14 days in the parameters we set. Usually all west-coast, or all east-coast. If you have an BA miles, consider going one way on VS and one way on BA if they have availability for the return.

However the rule is definitely phone, don't use the web-site ... The agents seem to have some availability you don't see on the web. And try to phone the UC booking line, as that is what you want right?

Just thinking outside the miles box, have you considered an ex-Eu flight.

I've flown EWR and JFK on straight reward (miles only, no upgrade) in UC and whilst it wasn't an efficient use of miles against an M and upgrade, it was a case of burning that we had stashed. But I would consider ex-EU in future over a full redemption, purely as the tax is almost 1 fare.

If you work it right, you may get a full reward flight in UC to NY and save on an ex-EU UC bucket for a second break to LAX/SFO.

I think you need to break it down by segments
then compare the cost in cash to miles per segment & workout where best to pay cash ticket & where best to use miles.
Even look at dublin trick

Apart from that, I urge you to consider the following :-
Hawaii is a 12 hour flight from New York & probably about 7 hours back to Vegas.
Hawaii is also 6 hours behind New York (Vegas is 3 hours ahead of Hawaii)
So for a few days here & a few days there, you may really struggle with jet lag as your bouncing around a bit.

By the time you get home, your body clock will be all over the place.

Is flying direct (19 hour flight 11hour behind in time difference) to Hawaii an option & then coming back via Vegas & New York?

Hi Guys

Some great tips and advice there.

Hadnt thought of going straight to Hawaii and then back to Vegas (where we got engaged) and finally onto NYC. So thats very much an option and might help with the LAX element and possible better upgrade options as well as the well pointed out Jatlag!

Dom