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MMMondayMemo: How Wikipedia can be useful for routing
Wikipedia is an enormous asset that Miles and I use whenever we set out to plan a trip. Why? Wikipedia has a page for every airport I’ve ever thought of routing to, from, or through. How does this help? It lists the airlines that service that airport, and where they fly directly to/from. Let me show you how Wikipedia can be useful for routing when planning a trip. This will help you get creative in redeeming those valuable points of yours!
Wikipedia was enormously valuable when I planned my Southeast Asia trip last New Year’s Eve.
Because American Airlines allows you to change your award ticket as much as you want, so long as your origin and destination remain the same, we booked flights from Hanoi to Indianapolis with whatever routing was available at the time of booking. Now…this wasn’t the best routing, nor did it optimize time or cabin experience. It was just what was available.
As the trip drew nearer ( the day before we left) I used Wikipedia to derive our final routing: one that included 3 different lie-flats.
I had originally thought we would fly from Hanoi to Tokyo to Chicago to Indy. In fact, that was my first choice because I wanted to fly Japan Airlines First Class. THE PROBLEM…no avail on the Hanoi to Tokyo leg. I kept trying to find another way around it, but wasn’t finding anything that would be desirable. UNTIL I rechecked Wikipedia and saw that Qatar flew to Bangkok from Hanoi.
Qatar is a partner of AA so that works. Japan Airlines flies from Bangkok to Tokyo so that works. And it would arrive in time to put on us on the flight we wanted…JAL First Class from Tokyo to Chicago. I checked the legs I wanted by using BritishAirways.com and sure enough, there were seats on every leg we needed. BINGO!
You can use Wikipedia in the same way we did to come up with ideas of how to route your trip by knowing which airlines service it and where they fly!
We ended up flying Qatar Business Class to Bangkok, then Japan Airlines Business Class to Tokyo, and finally…Japan Airlines First Class to Chicago.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
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- 10% Anniversary Bonus
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- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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