Brilliant! I was able to find Delta 1 from Seattle to Amsterdam for 50k points plus $6 in fees because of this! I have been searching with nothing coming up for so long. The switch to calendar was $$$$ money. Thanks so much.
Thank you!! Very helpful. Taking my granddaughter to Amsterdam and Paris for her 10th birthday. I’ve been wanting to use up some of my 200k MR points. Awesome video. I followed this to perfection!!
This was very helpful although I'd booked my flights two days ago. I was using your website as my guide but hadn't watched the video until now. I had only one of two days that I could book my "adjoining" flight" (BOS-AMS-GOA was same cost as BOS-AMS) and one was available so I took it --high fees (KLM) notwithstanding. I had worked through a few of the issues you presented. I had two other issues that others may run into. The first one was transferring points (something I'd never done before so perhaps prep set-ups are needed). CITI gave me error messages the first few attempts but eventually sent the points which showed up immediately as promised. Then I went to AmEx as I still needed more points for the two upper class flights. What I got from their site was "It could take up to 48 hours to verify your account." I then moved to Chase. Their site said the action needed special handling which required a call. I did. About 5 minutes later my point request was transferred. The second issue at the Virgin site was the major one--esp as I'd already dumped 117,000 points into Virgin. The booking site said 4 available seats. I proceeded with my 2 seat purchase only to hit an error message: "Sorry, there are no longer seats available on your chosen flight. Please try another search.#100503A." which I copied from your website. I had to call VA and there were seats available. The call was answered quickly and settled even faster. Even with the high fees, booking this way gave me far more for my funds than anything else I could find. It was the Frequent Miler site that got me this deal. Thanks more than I can express.
Omg, I’m addicted to FM. Thank you for the tips! I didn’t know what to do with the greyed-out “points,” and I thought it was my slow wifi that didn’t autofill some airports. Mystery solved! Random other topic, just curious if I transferred 60,000 TY points to LifeMiles for the current bonus, and then transferred those 75,000 points to a family member’s LifeMiles account paying the $1125 fee, would that mean they would have 161,250 points? That seems like an amazing deal. I won’t do it because of the one year expiration, but I wish I had a flight to book right now to use those two promotions.
Thank you for the tip on changing dates to calendar. Tremendous help! I have a question. How do you determine the right departing city for certain airline portals? When I choose Atlanta in Virgin Atlantic no flights show, but when I use JKF I find more options. Thank you again!
I use flightconnections.com to see the routes that various airlines of interest fly. In this case, Atlanta also has flights served by Delta, Air France, and Virgin Atlantic so that wouldn't help you. There just seem to be far fewer award flights available out of Atlanta possibly because there are so many Delta flyers that snap up those awards and also because there are flights with more frequency flying out of NY.
I looked out of Portland to no avail. Only Delta to Amsterdam out of Portland. But out of Seattle there's KLM and Air France to CDG also Delta to CDG so various options showed up. Idk.. but it helps me to have Seattle close by as Portland is not very good internationally.
@@frequent-miler Anytime I try to book an Upper Class, no matter the destination, it errors out with code #100800 and says to call in. Any work around? Are you having this issue? I’ve tried multiple devices and browsers with no luck?
@@2808Heavy Yes, that problem has become more and more common. I've had some luck in the past getting them to book it via a Twitter DM to Virgin Atlantic, but it's probably easiest to call to book.
Kind of a hit or miss to be honest. Lots of black outs and searching mindlessly looking for something opening. Would like to see tips on klm/Air France bookings
Thanks for this! Very helpful! You mentioned you cannot book ana tickets online. Does that also mean you can't find award availability for Ana on virgins site?
That's correct. The best way to find ANA award availability is probably via United's website. If United can see ANA award space then Virgin Atlantic should be able to also. Ignore the amount that United would charge though. Virgin Atlantic has its own pricing scheme. Once you find award availability through United, call Virgin to ask about booking the award and they can tell you how many miles and how much in taxes it will cost.
This trick stopped working for delta one. Only shows me VS metal upper class flights. Economy on DL still works! If anyone can get it working for delta one - Nov 3 to LHR (from any DL hub) I'd appreciate if you can share the tips.
I've seen similar video but what I don't get is how are you getting back? I have tried using one-way and I would see the reward but when trying to do round-trip there is no reward returning. Do you just look for regular one-way economy flights returning?
You don't need to book both ways through the same program. You could book one-way via Virgin Atlantic on Delta and book the other direction on Lufthansa via Avianca LifeMiles for instance. It is often difficult to find the perfect round trip with a single loyalty program -- and this is why transferable currencies (like Amex Membership Rewards points, Chase Ultimate Rewards points, Capital One Miles, Citi ThankYou points, and Bilt Rewards) are so valuable: they give you access to many more options. When you're booking a ticket paid with cash, it is often far more expensive to book one-way than round trip, but when you're booking award tickets most programs charge the same amount each way whether booking one-way or round trip, which is what makes this technique feasible. Virgin Atlantic charges 50K each way for Delta business class between the US and Europe whether you book one-way or round trip. Avianca LifeMiles (just as one of many possible examples) charges 60-63K miles each way in business class (depending on city pair) to fly on Star Alliance in business class between the US and Europe -- so I'm using that as one example that gives you a lot of ways to build a round trip. If, for example, you had Capital One Miles, though might alternatively use Turkish Miles & Smiles to book Star Alliance business class for 45K miles one way (watch out for surcharges on Lufthansa / SWISS / Austrian and Turkish) or if you live on the East Coast and have any of the major transferable currencies you might be able to book Iberia business class for 34K miles between Madrid or Barcelona and East Coast cities during off-peak season. It pays to learn about multiple programs. If you are primarily interested in tickets to/from Europe, this post may be of interest: frequentmiler.com/best-ways-to-get-to-europe-with-miles-or-money/
I have used your advice on searching for a reward flight on delta via Virgin Atlantic. What it did was the cost of the flight in points and a charge of 327 dollars. I used the calendar and went through the whole year up to the end of November. The price in points and the cost of the 327 dollars did not change once. So does that mean Delta is not offering a flight, or am I doing something wrong?
Most likely you are seeing the results of flights on another carrier like Virgin Atlantic, Air France, or KLM. Delta has been extremely stingy with award space lately so it's possible/likely that no Delta flights were available
Any Upper Class booking, regardless of origin and destination comes back with #100800 error code and says to call in. Anyone else having this issue or know of a workaround?
Very useful how-to video. Great tips & tricks to navigate the site. Would love to see more of these types of videos!
I love videos like this, very helpful, keep up the great work!
I just found your podcast and fb group. This video is fantastic, I hope you have more!
Brilliant! I was able to find Delta 1 from Seattle to Amsterdam for 50k points plus $6 in fees because of this! I have been searching with nothing coming up for so long. The switch to calendar was $$$$ money. Thanks so much.
P.S. for me and my wife! So happy 😊.
Thank you!! Very helpful. Taking my granddaughter to Amsterdam and Paris for her 10th birthday. I’ve been wanting to use up some of my 200k MR points. Awesome video. I followed this to perfection!!
Best hand holding video . Excellent
Keep up the great work, Greg and the rest of the FM crew.
Amazingly helpful videos! Please (please!) make these for all other major programs over time!
This was extremely helpful. Thank you
Flying blue spinning wheel would be another useful video. Love the videos, thanks!
Thanks so much this is super helpful.
Super super helpful. I am flying out from DTW also. Thank you so much!😃
More of these please. Very helpful!!
Thank you for the video!
This was very helpful although I'd booked my flights two days ago. I was using your website as my guide but hadn't watched the video until now. I had only one of two days that I could book my "adjoining" flight" (BOS-AMS-GOA was same cost as BOS-AMS) and one was available so I took it --high fees (KLM) notwithstanding. I had worked through a few of the issues you presented. I had two other issues that others may run into. The first one was transferring points (something I'd never done before so perhaps prep set-ups are needed). CITI gave me error messages the first few attempts but eventually sent the points which showed up immediately as promised. Then I went to AmEx as I still needed more points for the two upper class flights. What I got from their site was "It could take up to 48 hours to verify your account." I then moved to Chase. Their site said the action needed special handling which required a call. I did. About 5 minutes later my point request was transferred. The second issue at the Virgin site was the major one--esp as I'd already dumped 117,000 points into Virgin. The booking site said 4 available seats. I proceeded with my 2 seat purchase only to hit an error message: "Sorry, there are no longer seats available on your chosen flight. Please try another search.#100503A." which I copied from your website. I had to call VA and there were seats available. The call was answered quickly and settled even faster. Even with the high fees, booking this way gave me far more for my funds than anything else I could find. It was the Frequent Miler site that got me this deal. Thanks more than I can express.
Great walkthrough. Thank you!
This is beyond fantastic. Thank you. This is huge. I fly out of MSP!
Very helpful video. Thank you for the great content
Terrific video. Super helpful!!!
You guys should do a comparison with the various avios sites and prices.
Omg, I’m addicted to FM. Thank you for the tips! I didn’t know what to do with the greyed-out “points,” and I thought it was my slow wifi that didn’t autofill some airports. Mystery solved!
Random other topic, just curious if I transferred 60,000 TY points to LifeMiles for the current bonus, and then transferred those 75,000 points to a family member’s LifeMiles account paying the $1125 fee, would that mean they would have 161,250 points? That seems like an amazing deal. I won’t do it because of the one year expiration, but I wish I had a flight to book right now to use those two promotions.
Thank you for the tip on changing dates to calendar. Tremendous help! I have a question. How do you determine the right departing city for certain airline portals? When I choose Atlanta in Virgin Atlantic no flights show, but when I use JKF I find more options. Thank you again!
I use flightconnections.com to see the routes that various airlines of interest fly. In this case, Atlanta also has flights served by Delta, Air France, and Virgin Atlantic so that wouldn't help you. There just seem to be far fewer award flights available out of Atlanta possibly because there are so many Delta flyers that snap up those awards and also because there are flights with more frequency flying out of NY.
I looked out of Portland to no avail. Only Delta to Amsterdam out of Portland. But out of Seattle there's KLM and Air France to CDG also Delta to CDG so various options showed up. Idk.. but it helps me to have Seattle close by as Portland is not very good internationally.
@@frequent-miler Anytime I try to book an Upper Class, no matter the destination, it errors out with code #100800 and says to call in. Any work around? Are you having this issue? I’ve tried multiple devices and browsers with no luck?
@@2808Heavy Yes, that problem has become more and more common. I've had some luck in the past getting them to book it via a Twitter DM to Virgin Atlantic, but it's probably easiest to call to book.
Thank you for this! Their site is so glitchy.
Super helpful - thank you!
Very helpful. Thanks a lot
This is great! Thank you
very great video, but it appears financially incentivizing to book with points , they do not make booking with points look very easy.
Ty
🔥
Kind of a hit or miss to be honest. Lots of black outs and searching mindlessly looking for something opening. Would like to see tips on klm/Air France bookings
Thanks for this! Very helpful! You mentioned you cannot book ana tickets online. Does that also mean you can't find award availability for Ana on virgins site?
That's correct. The best way to find ANA award availability is probably via United's website. If United can see ANA award space then Virgin Atlantic should be able to also. Ignore the amount that United would charge though. Virgin Atlantic has its own pricing scheme. Once you find award availability through United, call Virgin to ask about booking the award and they can tell you how many miles and how much in taxes it will cost.
@@frequent-miler thank you so much! This is exactly what I needed 😊
@@frequent-miler thank you so much! This is exactly what I needed 😊
This trick stopped working for delta one. Only shows me VS metal upper class flights. Economy on DL still works! If anyone can get it working for delta one - Nov 3 to LHR (from any DL hub) I'd appreciate if you can share the tips.
I've seen similar video but what I don't get is how are you getting back? I have tried using one-way and I would see the reward but when trying to do round-trip there is no reward returning. Do you just look for regular one-way economy flights returning?
You don't need to book both ways through the same program. You could book one-way via Virgin Atlantic on Delta and book the other direction on Lufthansa via Avianca LifeMiles for instance. It is often difficult to find the perfect round trip with a single loyalty program -- and this is why transferable currencies (like Amex Membership Rewards points, Chase Ultimate Rewards points, Capital One Miles, Citi ThankYou points, and Bilt Rewards) are so valuable: they give you access to many more options.
When you're booking a ticket paid with cash, it is often far more expensive to book one-way than round trip, but when you're booking award tickets most programs charge the same amount each way whether booking one-way or round trip, which is what makes this technique feasible. Virgin Atlantic charges 50K each way for Delta business class between the US and Europe whether you book one-way or round trip. Avianca LifeMiles (just as one of many possible examples) charges 60-63K miles each way in business class (depending on city pair) to fly on Star Alliance in business class between the US and Europe -- so I'm using that as one example that gives you a lot of ways to build a round trip. If, for example, you had Capital One Miles, though might alternatively use Turkish Miles & Smiles to book Star Alliance business class for 45K miles one way (watch out for surcharges on Lufthansa / SWISS / Austrian and Turkish) or if you live on the East Coast and have any of the major transferable currencies you might be able to book Iberia business class for 34K miles between Madrid or Barcelona and East Coast cities during off-peak season. It pays to learn about multiple programs.
If you are primarily interested in tickets to/from Europe, this post may be of interest: frequentmiler.com/best-ways-to-get-to-europe-with-miles-or-money/
I have used your advice on searching for a reward flight on delta via Virgin Atlantic. What it did was the cost of the flight in points and a charge of 327 dollars. I used the calendar and went through the whole year up to the end of November. The price in points and the cost of the 327 dollars did not change once. So does that mean Delta is not offering a flight, or am I doing something wrong?
Most likely you are seeing the results of flights on another carrier like Virgin Atlantic, Air France, or KLM. Delta has been extremely stingy with award space lately so it's possible/likely that no Delta flights were available
Any Upper Class booking, regardless of origin and destination comes back with #100800 error code and says to call in. Anyone else having this issue or know of a workaround?
Can you earn Sky Miles on Virgin Atlantic flights, if so how? Thank you for your time.
Yes, for paid Virgin Atlantic flights you can put your Skymiles number into the reservation and you'll then earn Delta miles for the flight.
The fees!....The fees!
Ay yi yi
Nice video! So how do you book on ANA?
Regular round trip awards can be booked online. For a RTW ticket, you will need to call to book.
@@frequent-miler ok thanks!
Great video!!! Could you please provide ANA 1 800 number for award redemptions. Do we call ANA in the US or Japan?
If you want to book ANA with Virgin Atlantic miles then you have to call Virgin Atlantic not ANA.
@@frequent-miler I think I asked the wrong question. I would like to do a RTW itinerary but I don’t have ANA 1 800 number?
@@edgarmena See the "Call at 9am" section here: frequentmiler.com/tips-for-booking-anas-round-the-world-award/
Hey can I get an invite to that "MS Slack"?