Can you help us travel hack? United Airlines or American

[Bliss]

We will be taking an extended vacation abroad this summer to visit family that we haven't seen in more three years. The current cost of the airline tickets is between $6k-$7k on United Airlines. We're looking to buy refundable tickets in economy and would prefer to choose seats at booking because there is a small child traveling with us. We're also looking at flying another route via American Airlines.

We need to make some home repairs in the next couple months which will require about $6k-$7k going on a credit card. I don't care about APR because we have the cash to cover this expense. Both spouses have credit scores in the Excellent range.

Can we travel hack the airline tickets over the next 1-2 months? I've done some preliminary research on this and, quite honestly, the concept makes my head spin. We would welcome any advice or travel tips to help us minimize the cost of the airline tickets.

Thank you!

[Duke03]

What is your origin and destination?  Also 1-2 months is extremely tight on credit card hacking.  You have to get approved and have the card in hand and then hit the spend limit and then wait for the points to post before you can use them.   That's why I'm always telling folks you need to be churning credit card approvals before you think about travel so you have the points in place and can use them at a moment's notice.

[Bliss]

Thank you for your input. Travel hacking wasn't even on our radar until now so I understand if the time period to do this won't work with out travel dates. We're prepared to go ahead with paying cash if it won't work, although we'll be prepared for the next trip.

Our origin and destination are EWR to NAP.

[MoseyingAlong]

This might be doable.

1. Apply for the credit cards today. 1 per adult if possible. DoctorofCredit.com is a great resource. https://www.doctorofcredit.com/best-current-credit-card-sign-bonuses/
There is a Chase United card on there. #11

2. As soon as you have a number (some provide immediate numbers upon approval, Chase does not) or the card, buy gift cards for where you're buying stuff for your home projects or grocery stores or wherever you usually shop. Basically meet the spending requirement ASAP. You can spend the gift cards as you undertake your projects. If you don't have a specific store in mind, you can buy Visa or MasterCard gift cards that you can spend most anywhere. I usually avoid those because of the activation fees.

3. The miles will post and then you reserve your travel.

If you have time and interest, while waiting for the miles to post to your account, you can read a lot more about travel hacking. With your time frame, I'd say the important part is to start now.

Happy travels!

ETA For the last few years, I have been only booking expensive tickets with miles because they are so easy to cancel and get the miles back if something comes up. Much better than getting a credit that has to be spent within a certain time frame.

[bacchi]

Look at AA and United and "price" the tickets.

If you both get the United card for 70k miles, can it be done? Can you pay cash for one-way and use miles for the return flight?

Is your origin actually EWR or are you flying into EWR? That'll make a difference too on award availability.

For future flights, you can get the United and Sapphire cards for (currently) 130k miles combined. Or the Citi AA and the Barclay's AA for 110k? miles.

[GilesMM]

This might be doable.

1. Apply for the credit cards today. 1 per adult if possible. DoctorofCredit.com is a great resource. https://www.doctorofcredit.com/best-current-credit-card-sign-bonuses/
There is a Chase United card on there. #11

2. As soon as you have a number (some provide immediate numbers upon approval, Chase does not) or the card, buy gift cards for where you're buying stuff for your home projects or grocery stores or wherever you usually shop. Basically meet the spending requirement ASAP. You can spend the gift cards as you undertake your projects. If you don't have a specific store in mind, you can buy Visa or MasterCard gift cards that you can spend most anywhere. I usually avoid those because of the activation fees.

3. The miles will post and then you reserve your travel.

If you have time and interest, while waiting for the miles to post to your account, you can read a lot more about travel hacking. With your time frame, I'd say the important part is to start now.

Happy travels!

ETA For the last few years, I have been only booking expensive tickets with miles because they are so easy to cancel and get the miles back if something comes up. Much better than getting a credit that has to be spent within a certain time frame.

How does that help? It is only 70k miles. A premium economy ticket in July is 120k miles. Three tix would be 360k miles.

[dandarc]

This might be doable.

1. Apply for the credit cards today. 1 per adult if possible. DoctorofCredit.com is a great resource. https://www.doctorofcredit.com/best-current-credit-card-sign-bonuses/
There is a Chase United card on there. #11

2. As soon as you have a number (some provide immediate numbers upon approval, Chase does not) or the card, buy gift cards for where you're buying stuff for your home projects or grocery stores or wherever you usually shop. Basically meet the spending requirement ASAP. You can spend the gift cards as you undertake your projects. If you don't have a specific store in mind, you can buy Visa or MasterCard gift cards that you can spend most anywhere. I usually avoid those because of the activation fees.

3. The miles will post and then you reserve your travel.

If you have time and interest, while waiting for the miles to post to your account, you can read a lot more about travel hacking. With your time frame, I'd say the important part is to start now.

Happy travels!

ETA For the last few years, I have been only booking expensive tickets with miles because they are so easy to cancel and get the miles back if something comes up. Much better than getting a credit that has to be spent within a certain time frame.

How does that help? It is only 70k miles. A premium economy ticket in July is 120k miles. Three tix would be 360k miles.

OP didn't say premium economy - they said refundable.

In any event, pretty easy to scare up 110K American Airlines miles pretty quick with credit cards - get the Barclay and the Citi, get your purchasing done (Barclay is super easy - pay the first year annual fee and make literally any purchase and you get the bonus. Citi is more standard "spend $X,XXX in 3 monhts). If both adults have good credit you can get 220K + whatever miles you get directly related to any spending. Right now that looks like enough to get 3 economy round trip tickets from EWR To ROM (I'm not finding availability easily at aa.com for EWR to NAP specifically) for most of the summer. But that changes - the cheapest tickets are connecting through London on British Airways I'm finding.

Worst case, you've got a bunch of miles you can use for another trip down the road if when the miles hit your account you cannot find acceptable award tickets.

[bacchi]

OP didn't say premium economy - they said refundable.

Right, award tickets are refundable.

[Kwill]

Rather than flying United or American, what if you flew to Dublin on Aer Lingus and then flew to Italy via Ryanair? I just tried a sample search for that, and the total cost for both was just over $3,000 for two adults and one child, even with a slightly higher cost to pick seats. Ryanair is a bit of a pain because you have to book on their website instead of something like Expedia, but it's a good value for flying within Europe. The nice thing about flying via Dublin is that it is one of the few airports overseas that have US customs and immigration staff. Everything with passports is done there before you board, and then when you land in the US, it is like you are coming off a domestic flight. You just need to allow yourself more time at the airport.

I suppose if you can do miles from a credit card, then that might be nice, but there might be blackout periods or restrictions that a paid-for flight wouldn't have.

[Bliss]

Wow! Thank you for all this great advice. It didn't even cross my mind to have each of us apply for a credit card individually!

A couple of follow up questions...
1) If each spouse has a separate credit card, how do we combine the points to buy the tickets? Or, would we need to do it through two different reservations?

2) Where is the best place to research and learn more about travel hacking? If I can't get the job done for this trip, I know there will be other trips in our future.

Kwill - Yes, that's a great suggestion. With savings like that I will certainly look into that route. That's very interesting about Dublin airport; never knew that!

[Catbert]

In general if you're having trouble finding availability to your chosen destination in Europe find an alternative airport.  Trains and Ryanaire are good ways to get to your final destination.  Trains can often be easier because train stations are centrally located and you don't need to arrive 2 hours early.
 
I like the Doctor of Credit for credit card information.  They do not accept referral bonuses from credit card companies so their recommendations are unbiased.  Here's a good start:

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/credit-card-reference-pages/

The Points Guy can also have good information.  Just keep in mind that they are owned by Bankrate (I think that's the current owner) and make millions from credit card referrals.  I take credit card recommendations from them with a large grain of salt.  They do have good guides on things like, "How to book XX airline using points".

[dandarc]

Wow! Thank you for all this great advice. It didn't even cross my mind to have each of us apply for a credit card individually!

A couple of follow up questions...
1) If each spouse has a separate credit card, how do we combine the points to buy the tickets? Or, would we need to do it through two different reservations?

2) Where is the best place to research and learn more about travel hacking? If I can't get the job done for this trip, I know there will be other trips in our future.

Kwill - Yes, that's a great suggestion. With savings like that I will certainly look into that route. That's very interesting about Dublin airport; never knew that!

I'll try on question #1.

1) Buy two one-ways, one from each account. Actually unless there is a cost advantage to buying a combined round-trip, this is generally the best way even if you're paying cash. Because stuff happens and two separate tickets kind of inherently affords you more flexibility with the way most airlines operate. Award tickets rarely have a discount associated with a round-trip vs. 2 one-way tickets, while when paying cash you are more likely to see that, but still not always.

Since there's three of you, you definitely want all 3 tickets on same reservation each way, so buying the outbound on Adult #1's account and the inbound on Adult #2's account achieves that. Because the airline has an obligation to get you from A to B and you're far more likely to stay together if you're all on the same reservation for each leg of the trip if anything happens to go sideways.

[clarkfan1979]

This might not be helpful for the OP because of the short timeline, however, it might be helpful for others. We have the Southwest card and companion fare. I know Southwest doesn't fly to Europe.

I just started to look at at the price of flights to Europe in hopes of a trip in summer 2024 or 2025. Our hometown airport is Denver. Flying from Denver to Europe is expensive. We will fly from Denver to Chicago or NYC with points on Southwest. We will then pick the cheapest airline to fly from Chicago or NYC to Europe.

[dandarc]

+1 on that @clarkfan1979  - although OP is saying origin airport is Newark (so I'd assume JFK and LGA are at least within reason as a starting point as well) so already in one of the big gateway markets, but someone posted a similar idea connecting in Dublin to save thousands of dollars. And of course, if you're doing two airlines, usually best to make it a very long connection to account for the miscellany that can happen.

[snic]

Wow! Thank you for all this great advice. It didn't even cross my mind to have each of us apply for a credit card individually!

A couple of follow up questions...
1) If each spouse has a separate credit card, how do we combine the points to buy the tickets? Or, would we need to do it through two different reservations?

2) Where is the best place to research and learn more about travel hacking? If I can't get the job done for this trip, I know there will be other trips in our future.

Kwill - Yes, that's a great suggestion. With savings like that I will certainly look into that route. That's very interesting about Dublin airport; never knew that!

1. Some credit cards that earn points (that can be transferred to airlines) allow spouses and domestic partners to combine miles. Chase is one of them; other banks like Citi and Amex my also allow it (but I don't remember). So you combine the credit card points from 2 accounts and transfer them to a single airline FF account. I don't think this is possible with the United card because United doesn't allow people to combine miles.

2. Try FlyerTalk.

My 2 cents: it's going to be difficult to get enough points for 3 tickets to travel this summer. Airlines have started "dynamic" award pricing, so while the lowest cost of a ticket to Europe might be 50k miles or so, the reality is that in the high season - especially this year - award tickets are going to be a lot more expensive. Miles tickets are best for planning way in advance and for cases when you can be flexible.

Why do you need refundable tickets? If you're worried about someone getting sick or some other catastrophe, you could get travel insurance for a few hundred bucks that would save you $3000 or so.

I suggest using Google Flights to figure out how to get to Naples. As someone mentioned, look in to flying to different cities in Europe and then taking a low-cost airline from there - but keep in mind that they charge you for everything including seat selection and carry-on bags. And if your plane is delayed and you miss the connecting flight, you're considered a no-show because you have two tickets, and the second airline is not responsible for the first airline's delay. With Google Flights you can also enter a region as a destination, like "Italy" or "Europe" and you can then explore the fare landscape. You're likely to find that flying to Rome or Milan is cheaper than Naples - and maybe you can rent a car or take the train from there.

Google Flights is also reasonably good about piecing together itineraries on different airlines.

[GilesMM]

Have a look at budget transatlantic startup Norse Atlantic.  JFK-Roma RT is only $594 (example Aug 8 return Sep 8) and changeable for a fee.

[zygote]

Others have given more info than I could on travel hacking, but I wanted to chime in to say that refundable tickets just aren't worth it in most cases. Ever since covid, most airlines have waived any change or cancellation fees. United definitely does not charge them anymore, though I'm less familiar with American. If there is an issue on the airline's end, you should get a full refund anyway. And if there is an issue on your end, you get your money back as a credit. So as long as you fly occasionally, you can use the credit up. Imo, it's not worth the significant extra cost to get a cash refund if you cancel.

[Bliss]

Thank you all again for the helpful hints. I will check out FlyerTalk and look at different ways to plan the route through various cities.

So much to learn!

[314159]

Yes, even economy award tickets are refundable, so if you buy a ticket with points, you can later cancel it and get the points back.

Yes, you have time to meet the sign up bonus on some credit cards before your trip.

Award booking becomes easier and easier the more flexible you are. Most important questions: How many people are flying with you? Is it possible to fly on different planes? (E.g. if it's you, a spouse, and three kids: probably not; if it's you, your spouse, and your siblings-in-law, then it's probably fine) Second, what are your date ranges? Do you need to be there on a specific day (e.g. wedding?) How long are you trying to stay?

Look at other major and medium airports near your destination. In this case definitely look at Rome-FCO, which is a half hour from Rome city center by train, and under 2 hours from Naples. Or 2:30 if you drive. (Though Napoli drivers are considered horrendous!)

Are you asking about United and American for a specific reason? Do you already have a pile of points with one of them? Or are other airlines possible too? (TBH it's likely these are indeed the best options in your situation.)

The most informative resource I've found are the subreddits r/churning and r/awardtravel. You can read up there, however they are pretty mean to newcomers so I don't recommend posting there, just reading. Mustachians are also knowledgeable, and much kinder.

If you answer these questions, I am eager to give more specific advice!

[314159]

Digging in a bit more:

- Note that if any children are under 2 and will fly in your lap, you won't have to pay more than $250 for each on a United ticket.
- United does indeed look good for you. They fly direct from EWR to both FCO and NAP, these routes have some Saver availability in the summer (Rome especially), and they charge minimal taxes and fees. A one-way ticket for one person can be had for 30k points.
- Don't forget to consider flying in to one airport and out of another.
- Buy your tickets as one-ways. Two one-ways are much more flexible than a single round-trip.
- You may need to fly on different airlines in each direction.

Credit card currencies of interest to you will be: United MileagePlus, British Airways/Iberia/Aer Lingus Avois, American AAdvantage, Chase Ultimate Rewards (transfers to United & Avios), Air France/KLM FlyingBlue, AmEx Membership Rewards (transfers to Avios & FlyingBlue).

Do not apply for any credit cards until you understand:
- the difference between personal cards and business cards,
- the 5/24 rule for Chase,
- how much you can spend in the next three months (both with and without your extra upcoming spending) i.e. whether you can meet the sign up bonus, and
- why you chose to apply for x card over any of the other options.

Again, I'm happy to explain any of these or answer any questions if you don't want to Google it! This is a bit of a hobby for me :-)