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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
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card went through a major refresh in 2026 adding new bonus categories, travel protections, statement credits, and remains one of the best travel starter cards in the market. It earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based including Hyatt, Southwest, United, IHG, and Marriott. Note that Hyatt is now a 4:3 transfer partner
Welcome Offer
Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
Earn
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- NEW ACCELERATED EARN CATEGORY: 3x points on gas and EV charging
- NEW ACCELERATED EARN CATEGORY: 3x points on vacation homes at top brands
- Cardmembers will earn 3x points on vacation homes at these top brands: Airbnb, Vrbo, Plu Guide, HomeAway, Homestay.com and Vacasa.
- 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)
- 2x on all other travel
- 1x on everyday purchases
- 5x points on Lyft rides Earn 5x total points on eligible Lyft rides including ride share, bike and scooter rides and subscription and membership products through September 30, 2027.
- 5x total points on Peloton equipment Earn 5x total points on eligible Peloton equipment and accessory purchases over $150 through December 31, 2027.
Benefits and Credits
- $100 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- NEW: $120 Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or NEXUS fee credit Cardmembers will receive one statement credit of up to $120 every four years as reimbursement for the application fee charged to the card.
- NEW: Complimentary Apple TV subscription for one year
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Complimentary DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees & lower service fees for a min. of one year when you activate by 12/31/27. Plus, a $10 promo each month on non-restaurant orders
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® Card is great 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: Chase Ink Business Cash® , Chase Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into the Sapphire Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee remains quite low at $95 a year and if you use the $100 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠ you’ll wipe out that annual fee every year. It has great bonus categories and other useful statement credits to enhance your travel.
One thing that is a bummer is Chase lowered the transfer ratio to World of Hyatt from 1:1 to 4:3.
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