These 7 tips had come in really useful for my recent 2 trips this year, and I hope you found them useful too! If you know of any other tips & tricks I missed, share it with us below!
Honestly, I’ve never considered buying miles before, but this shows a really good use case for doing so. There are so many little ways to get more value from our points and miles and these were some great tips to do just that!! 👊🏼
I have to pull the thesaurus and dictionary out. I booked a flight to Asia and would have gladly paid $1300 ish. I have to learn about this buying points thing. Sounds like I buy from another company (aeroplan) who's linked or affiliated someway to my credit cards. This is all Greek to me at this point. Great info to look into.
1:35 The actual value is higher because you paid $1,392 for 55,000 points to book a $4,000+ flight. Hence the actual value of those points is (4,000 - 1,392)*100/55,000 = 4.75 CPP
Hey man I just wanted to say thank you for all the information you put out. I just made my first big redemption for some business class seats to Europe. It's tricky but it worked!
@@KevinYang one way from Boston to Barcelona for my player 2 and I on TAP Portugal. Booked via Air Canada with points transferred from capital one! Got about 4 CPP. I actually bought 15k miles as they had a discount so in all the tickets cost under $1k.
@@GenericmemberNice 4cpp is amazing, especially given its like 2x the "average" most people give. And definitely, buying points can be really effective to get good value too! Congrats Aaron!
@@KevinYang Yeah, man. 1. AEROPLAN is hugely undervalued IMO for rewards redemptions. 2. As odd as it may be - I've never considered buying airline pts to pay for a rewards ticket like in your example. I've always focused on getting max value via transfers from AMEX/Chase. Huge game changer. Thanks!!!
Lived thus video.. i just got my return flight from Japan using Alaska miles... another tip i used BA website (which opens calendar 355 days in advance) to see what flights would be coming onto AL website.snagged it up the first day available on AL because from there they go fast as its also open on AA and others then. Now i need to find my flight there. 😂 might book an economy and try to snag business last minute. Great tip!
Can you upgrade your seat using different miles programs? For example...bought economy seat using Lifemiles but then you find a business seat on same flight on aeroplan?
Great tips except for repositioning flight. Unless you do not live near any metropolitan city, it’s not worth it to reposition. The extra costs and stress added is just not worth it. Right now the US domestic delay and cancellation rate is extremely high and so unpredictable. For me repositioning is bending the gist of award travel backward and will likely cause bigger loss.
Excellent video. What credit card do you recommend for traveling and some lounge access? I do have Chase sapphire preferred and I m looking for 1 more credit that I can combine with CSP to get travel bonus ( Amex, Venture X, upgrade to Chase Sapphire Reserve ??). I don’t travel a lot but I do 1-2 international trips in addition to local trips. Thanks
Personally I think the Venture X is the best sweet spot that will give you decent lounge access. The only one better imo is the Amex Plat, but it's a lot harder to justify
@@KevinYang Thank you, I will look into Venture X. Does it give access to Lounge restaurants as well? Or it is access to Lounges but I will have to pay for restaurants? If Capital One pull from all 3 credit bureaus, does it mean that the credit score will go down 3 times more than pulling from 1 credit bureau?
As someone who wants to travel internationally as much as possible, but hasn't done a ton of aspirational trips in terms of First/Business Class flight redemptions, these tips were super helpful. Definitely see how buying points could actually be worth it in some cases if you don't have the points and have a specific award flight that makes sense. I've been doing a bunch of searches on Aeroplan recently (it's been really helpful) for business class availability for my trip to South America in January. Great tips in this one Kevin!
Glad you enjoyed the tips Matt! Have you found any good routes with availability for that upcoming trip? January 2024 is only a few months away so it might be hard.. unless you mean 2025!
@@KevinYang I have found some good routes! It seems like business class availability pops up consistently 1-2 weeks away from the date (I've been tracking it every week) for United & Copa Business which is what I'll do to have access to the United Polaris Lounge in Houston.
Honestly, great question! I was able to cover all 700k points without any referral bonuses. But that's also with over 5 years of accumulating and this year being my first and second times booking major redemptions!
@@KevinYang thanks for the note. I always wonder how many points y’all get from referral links. I’m at about 700k points in earn this year that’s with 3 new card bonuses though. Thanks for the tips!
These 7 tips had come in really useful for my recent 2 trips this year, and I hope you found them useful too! If you know of any other tips & tricks I missed, share it with us below!
Bundle of exceptional tips in just one video👏👏👌🏻
Honestly, I’ve never considered buying miles before, but this shows a really good use case for doing so. There are so many little ways to get more value from our points and miles and these were some great tips to do just that!! 👊🏼
Maybe you'll end up using one or two for your upcoming trips! Looking forward to recap videos as you start travelling more too!
I have to pull the thesaurus and dictionary out. I booked a flight to Asia and would have gladly paid $1300 ish. I have to learn about this buying points thing. Sounds like I buy from another company (aeroplan) who's linked or affiliated someway to my credit cards. This is all Greek to me at this point. Great info to look into.
Hopefully there are enough videos on the channel to help you through the process!
1:35 The actual value is higher because you paid $1,392 for 55,000 points to book a $4,000+ flight. Hence the actual value of those points is (4,000 - 1,392)*100/55,000 = 4.75 CPP
Excellent video. Thanks for the useful info.
Glad you enjoyed it! Hopefully at least one of these tips were new to you
Hey man I just wanted to say thank you for all the information you put out. I just made my first big redemption for some business class seats to Europe. It's tricky but it worked!
Congratulations!! What route did you go for and how was the redemption?
@@KevinYang one way from Boston to Barcelona for my player 2 and I on TAP Portugal. Booked via Air Canada with points transferred from capital one! Got about 4 CPP. I actually bought 15k miles as they had a discount so in all the tickets cost under $1k.
@@GenericmemberNice 4cpp is amazing, especially given its like 2x the "average" most people give. And definitely, buying points can be really effective to get good value too! Congrats Aaron!
Thanks for the tips + video!
Glad you enjoyed it! And hopefully you learned at least one new tip!
@@KevinYang Yeah, man. 1. AEROPLAN is hugely undervalued IMO for rewards redemptions. 2. As odd as it may be - I've never considered buying airline pts to pay for a rewards ticket like in your example. I've always focused on getting max value via transfers from AMEX/Chase. Huge game changer. Thanks!!!
Thanks for sharing all these tips. I've been just getting into points and it's hard to find a place to start
Hope you found them useful!
Lived thus video.. i just got my return flight from Japan using Alaska miles... another tip i used BA website (which opens calendar 355 days in advance) to see what flights would be coming onto AL website.snagged it up the first day available on AL because from there they go fast as its also open on AA and others then. Now i need to find my flight there. 😂 might book an economy and try to snag business last minute. Great tip!
Yes! I actually saw a TON more availability through JAL, but didn't have AA or AS miles to do so.
Can you upgrade your seat using different miles programs? For example...bought economy seat using Lifemiles but then you find a business seat on same flight on aeroplan?
Great tips except for repositioning flight. Unless you do not live near any metropolitan city, it’s not worth it to reposition. The extra costs and stress added is just not worth it. Right now the US domestic delay and cancellation rate is extremely high and so unpredictable. For me repositioning is bending the gist of award travel backward and will likely cause bigger loss.
Yeah not for everyone indeed, but I'd imagine that for a lot of people, a quick reposition for Business/First vs. direct economy would be worth it!
Excellent video. What credit card do you recommend for traveling and some lounge access? I do have Chase sapphire preferred and I m looking for 1 more credit that I can combine with CSP to get travel bonus ( Amex, Venture X, upgrade to Chase Sapphire Reserve ??). I don’t travel a lot but I do 1-2 international trips in addition to local trips. Thanks
Personally I think the Venture X is the best sweet spot that will give you decent lounge access. The only one better imo is the Amex Plat, but it's a lot harder to justify
@@KevinYang Thank you, I will look into Venture X. Does it give access to Lounge restaurants as well? Or it is access to Lounges but I will have to pay for restaurants?
If Capital One pull from all 3 credit bureaus, does it mean that the credit score will go down 3 times more than pulling from 1 credit bureau?
@@MayaKanaKa No only the Priority Pass from the CSR will give you non-lounge benefits like restaurants
Aeroplan may have waived the first time you called as a customer service due to the inconvenience you experienced trying to use their website
It's possible... but I mentioned that issue everytime I called so not sure..
As someone who wants to travel internationally as much as possible, but hasn't done a ton of aspirational trips in terms of First/Business Class flight redemptions, these tips were super helpful. Definitely see how buying points could actually be worth it in some cases if you don't have the points and have a specific award flight that makes sense. I've been doing a bunch of searches on Aeroplan recently (it's been really helpful) for business class availability for my trip to South America in January. Great tips in this one Kevin!
Glad you enjoyed the tips Matt! Have you found any good routes with availability for that upcoming trip? January 2024 is only a few months away so it might be hard.. unless you mean 2025!
Have you figured out your flights? I thought you needed to book 300+ days out to find good business/first class flights.
Matt, do you have Alaska miles? Some great redemption rates for business class to SA.
@@KevinYang I have found some good routes! It seems like business class availability pops up consistently 1-2 weeks away from the date (I've been tracking it every week) for United & Copa Business which is what I'll do to have access to the United Polaris Lounge in Houston.
Nice! And I do! However, likely using Aeroplan Points from Chase transfer for this one@@druiz012
you can only use aeroplan mile with asiana or air canada =(
Not true! Aeroplan miles can be used to book across their partners on Star Alliance! That includes EVA, SQ, ANA, Asiana, etc
Quick question: if you buy points with, for example, the venture x. Do you get the 2X miles or is it considered cash transfer
It's not a cash transfer. You'll get 2x miles
As @LK_EBM said, its a regular purchase, so 2x miles
and if you prefer AA miles, then use Bilt card on Rent day (gives double on that day)
Of your 700k this year how many came from referrals?
At least half I’d guess.
We should all start making RUclips videos and earn referral bonuses. 😊
Honestly, great question! I was able to cover all 700k points without any referral bonuses. But that's also with over 5 years of accumulating and this year being my first and second times booking major redemptions!
@@KevinYang thanks for the note. I always wonder how many points y’all get from referral links. I’m at about 700k points in earn this year that’s with 3 new card bonuses though. Thanks for the tips!
@@IanMaschal Yeah there's a decent amount, but with most are capped. Compared to the vast opportunities through SUBs, definitely not the majority
Great video! Thanks for the information!🫵
Glad you enjoyed it Cesar, and hopefully at least one of these tips is new!