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Congrats Cpain99!
Miles asked his Instagram followers to comment where they want to go in 2018, and the comment with the most likes would get a custom post. After 35 comments in just a few days, the winner, with 12 likes, was cpain99. And where to? Kherson, Ukraine. Before we dig into how I would plan a simple trip there, I thought I’d highlight two other readers and give them some tips into nailing down a trip as well. Hanno.opperman and fatworm 2000, I’m going to write a short tip sheet for you guys to check out at the end of this post. What I loved about all three of these posts was the focus on doing it to see a loved one, for a loved one, or with a loved one. There’s no better use of points IMO – In Miles’ Opinion 😉
The winners:
Cpain99 was the out and out winner, has never left North America, and wants to visit her brother in the Ukraine. This is so awesome and a the perfect use for some points. I’m going to highlight a very simple way to approach this trip, and if you have any questions or want a more complex routing…please reach out.
Cpain99 wants to get to Kherson, Ukraine
The first thing I do when searching to a destination that I’m not uber familiar with ( Kherson, Ukraine would qualify) is to look up the airlines that service the airport. Once you see the airlines, you can figure out which points would work, and how to search for availability. I recommend going to the airport’s wikipedia page:
Kherson has a small number of airlines that service its airport. The two airlines that pop out to me are Turkish and Ukraine International Airlines. While Ukraine services the U.S. – it only flies into JFK, whereas Turkish has many destinations in the U.S. and amazing food, so we’ll concentrate on that, as it should be possible to find with just one connection.
What points can you use to fly Turkish?
Turkish is a member of Star Alliance so we need to look at Star Alliance partners to redeem. The easiest forms of redemption will be United, Singapore, and Aeroplan. How do you earn those points?
- United —> Chase Ultimate Rewards, SPG
- Singapore Airlines —-> Chase Ultimate Rewards, SPG, Citi Thank You, and Amex Membership Rewards
- Aeroplan —-> American Express Membership Rewards
There are several cards with each bank that can earn you those points. Sign up bonuses range from 30k points to 80k points. A roundtrip coach ticket will set you back roughly 60k.
One of the best cards you can hold in your wallet is the Chase Sapphire Preferred (it’s currently offering 50k bonus points). A great business card to compliment it, is the Chase Ink Business Preferred ( currently offering an 80k points bonus.)
With just one card sign up ( the Sapphire Preferred offers 50k points after $4k spend, and 5k points for an Authorized User) you pretty much have a roundtrip flight to Kherson, Ukraine wrapped up.
How do you search for the availability?
Regardless of the points you use to book your star alliance flights, the easiest search engine to use is United.com. I used random dates over the summer from JFK. Turkish services a number of U.S. airports ( Boston, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, LA, San Fran, D.C.)
As you can see, it’ll set you back 60k points and $52 roundtrip.
Once you have the points available, booking the ticket is as easy as transferring them to United and clicking through the booking process.
Cpain – if you have any other questions, please let me know 🙂 I’m happy to walk you through the process and get you to your brother.
Now for the other two commenters
Hanno.Opperman wants to get to the islands of Thailand from London
- The best deals to Thailand don’t originate out of London, so if you’re willing to position outside of London, you’ll find much better deals – potentially saving hundreds.
- Here’s a custom search on the ITA Matrix from Stockholm, Oslo, Amsterdam, Helsinki, Copenhagen to Bangkok and Krabi
- Rates start at just 450 USD – They can drop even lower than that.
- https://matrix.itasoftware.com/#calendar:research=ARNBKK-BKKARN
fatworm20000 wants to go from London to Tokyo
- He has a Loads of Virgin Atlantic miles but they don’t fly there and he wants to get his fam there in a premium cabin
- This is true
- However, Virgin partners with ANA and has really great prices roundtrip
- How do you find avail? United.com
I hope this helps! If you need help with award booking —we offer an award booking service. Please email us miles@monkeymiles.com for inquiries.
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
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- 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.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.