Award Travel 101

QSuites, Longest Flight in the World, and Bali

10.20.2023 - By Joseph PetrovicPlay

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Get Thrifty Traveler Premium deal/award alerts sent straight to your inbox. Use promo code “AT101” for $10 off your first year. Head to ThriftyTraveler.com for more details and check out their Google Flights guide. Recent finds include:Business class to Rome for 58KBusiness class to Tokyo for 60KPremium Economy to Europe for 36K R/TYou can find these at ThriftyTraveler.com/Premium. Post of the week Elizabeth Holmes Hanes posted about needing to up her hotel redemptions. Was she blinded by status when there was a gorgeous Marriott right around the corner? NewsGet Bonus Hilton points -Is it worth purchasing points? There's a 100% bonus, and it could make sense in certain situations.What's going on with certain Award tools? ExpertFlyer and Seats.aero are having issues. Expertflyer is removing all Star Alliance carriers, plus seats.aero received a cease and desist order from Aeroplan. Is Expertflyer becoming useless?Support the AT101 Podcast/Community Trip updatesAngie - has both Australia and a safari booked but can she convince P2 to go?Allison - Still doesn’t love her Brazil flight. 2 options booked - which would you choose? Booked a hotel finally, Hilton Copacabana (5th night free). There was a JW Marriott with similar points price, so why did she choose the Hilton?What bonuses did we get?Angie - closed first Business Platinum. Calling to start the Chase Sapphire Reserve product changeAllison - has been holding steady. Should she get something new?Highlight feature: Bali! Doing a $12k trip for less than $1500 out of pocket plus some points How we Booked Flights Both of us booked Qatar (QR) by transferring American Express Membership Rewards to British Airways. 100K plus $202Angie: DPS-SIN 14K Lifemiles plus $40.60 then SIN-JFK for 112.5K transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards (took FOREVER) to Singapore Airlines (SQ) plus $59.92Allison: Same QR price, DPS-SIN was 8.5K SQ miles +$15.95 (transferred from AMEX), plus Etihad Business Class SIN-AUH-JFK was 87.5K and $122.63 booked through Aeroplan.How we Booked Hotels Angie and Allison discuss their Bali Girls Trip:A $12k trip for less than $1500 out of pocket plus some pointsFull trip report posted in the Award Travel 101 Community w/hotel and airline reviewsTip of the week Go to meetups to make friends!! Where To Find the Award Travel 101 Community

For questions, you can join us in the free 100,000+ member Award Travel 101 Community. For more intermediate and advanced strategies, join Award Travel 201 community To book time with our team, check out Award Travel 1-on-1. You can also email us at [email protected]. Our next meetup is located in San Antonio, TX on April 26–28, 2024. If you want a waitlisted ticket, see this post in AT101. Support the AT101 Podcast/Community

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