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How $800 buys you First Class + an hour massage

a man and woman sitting at a table in a plane

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How does 9 hours of ultra lux, lie-flat, wine and dine First Class sound?

Amazing, right? Who wouldn’t want to luxuriate and have an extremely well trained staff take care of your every need. It’s possible, and it won’t cost you an arm and a leg, just a little creativity. One of the SWEETEST of the Sweet Spots of United’s award chart is from South Asia to Australia, and one of the best ways to route is through Bangkok on Thai Airways First Class.  The greatest thing is you don’t need a single point in your account, and you don’t need to be under 5/24, or sign up for another card.  You’re gonna buy the flight with points. United offering a mileage bonus, I posted about it earlier today, and this is how $800 buys you First Class + an hour massage.

You can buy United miles with 100% bonus. When you buy 50k miles or more, that equates to 1.88 cents per mile.

United allows you you to buy up to 150k miles a year.

As long as you book your tickets from South Asia to Australia, or vice versa, before November 1st, you can fly for just 40k miles. 40,000 x 0.0188 = $752. You’re gonna have some taxes too. Hence the $800

After November 1st, United’s award chart will change and the cost will pop to 65k each way. Still not a terrible deal, but not NEARLY as incredible as 40k

a screenshot of a website

Miles, I bet there is no space avail. I did a quick search. Tons of availability until the year’s end. As long as you BOOK by November 1st, even if travel is next year, the rate is locked in at 40k.

By my understanding, the rate holds even if you need to change dates, you’d just need to keep the class of service in tact

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This is a $3k ticket.

In fact, you can buy 150k miles, almost enough for 4 tickets, for less than the price of this ticket 1 way.

a screenshot of a phone

You mentioned a massage. First class isn’t enough for me. Gimme, gimme, gimme.

You’re so right, I did. And deliver I will. Thai Airways is known for their insane spa in Bangkok. Flash that first class boarding pass and you have 60 minutes of flesh pounding bliss to look forward. Budget in a long layover, or arrive early, you don’t want to miss this.

a massage table with a flower on it
courtesy of thaiairways.com
a screenshot of a massage menu
courtesy of thaiairways.com

Interested in the deal…go here.

You can apply the principle of this post across the board. This just happens to be an unbelievably valuable route, and one that exemplifies creative thinking to extract value from buying points to get the flight you want.

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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10 Comments

  • Antonio July 28, 2017

    Very nice article! It definitely got the creative juices flowing for my next trip!

    • Miles July 28, 2017

      Thanks Antonio! Lemme know what you decide

  • Andre July 28, 2017

    “flesh pounding bliss”

    Hilarious!!! Hahaha. I already have the miles and intend to make this redemption in Oct. for travel in Sept. 2018. It’s just too good!

  • AG July 28, 2017

    @Piaa Panda – Even for those who don’t have the miles? i’d like to know a better way. Do tell!

    • Piaa Panda July 28, 2017

      see my answer above to Benedikt.

      here’s what i do for myself:

      i pay off my friends to sign up to the SPG card with my referral and buy the points from them.

      i get 10k starpoints for a referral and buy their 25k starpoints. i give each of them $300.

      so in the end, i get 105k starpoints for signing up 3 friends. for the price of $900.

      $900 gets me 7 nights in category 5 marriott and 162k aeroplan points ( with teh 35% bonus). hells yeah!

      • Piaa Panda July 28, 2017

        one more thing.

        after their spending $2000 (this is what i make them do) , i transfer 27k from each of their accounts.

        27k x 3 = 81k + the 30k referral = 111k starpoints = 333k marriott points.
        333k – 270k package = 63k marriott.

        i use the 63k marriott to upgrade to a category 7 if i wanted to.

        so my $900 cash gets me 7 nights in a category 7 plus the points (162k aeroplan or 132k united)

  • Piaa Panda July 27, 2017

    Hate to break the news to you, Miles, but this isn’t the best way to do it.

    • Benedikt July 28, 2017

      Then why don’t you tell us what the best way is?

      This actually sounds pretty incredible and I’m tempted to do this 🙂

      • Piaa Panda July 28, 2017

        it can be done during the SPG 35% discounted promo

        Here is what you can do:

        you’ll need to have 3 accounts, though (you can open accounts in other names) and use the same address so that it’s the same household.

        During the promo, each of the accounts buy the maximum 30,000 starpoints for $682.50 (no taxes) (regularly $1050). Total cost $2047.50. Transfer the points to one account. Then transfer it to the Marriott Rewards account. that’ll get you 270,000 Marriott Rewards points.

        Purchase the 7 night + 132,000 United MileagePlus package. (even better if there is a promo for transferring from hotel)

        now you’ll have the 7 night package (value $1200 roughly) and your cost for the points would be $847.50 (works out to be $.00642 per United MileagePlus Point.

        Even if there was no SPG promo, the total cost would be $3150 and subtracting the $1200 hotel package, the cost for points would be $1950. That still works out to be $.01485 per United MileagePlus Point.

        I haven’t done this but i don’t see any issues with my calculations.

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