I very distinctly remember sitting in a packed room at my first Frequent Traveler University and hearing Ben Schlappig of One Mile at a Time ask by a show of hands how many people in the audience primarily used miles and points to fly business and first class. I couldn’t believe it when nearly every hand in the room shot up. I wondered what I was missing; I had never in my life flown anything but economy class and wondered why I would want to use more miles to ultimately fly less when I could use fewer miles (to fly economy) and travel more. Until that moment, despite having read some premium cabin flight reviews, I was pretty firm that I wanted to use my miles to travel more instead of more comfortably — after all, the back of the plane arrives at the same time as the front of the plane, right? Still, the proportion of hands that went up made me wonder what I was missing…..
Years (and many premium cabin flights) later, my hand would now also rise in response to that question. But there are always newcomers to the game who share the same perspective I long held: better to travel more than less and miles can make that possible. Recently, a member of our Frequent Miler Insiders Facebook group posted a question about this topic:
New to points and miles. Looking at options for international travel and while I know business class is nicer, the difference in miles for economy is tempting. So my question is how bad is economy on long haul flights? Say 8 hours. Everyone always talks about business class obviously your miles will stretch further on economy.
We often see variations on this question. The truth is that I flew plenty of 8hrs-or-longer flights in economy class in the years before I discovered points and miles. Despite the impression you might get from reading points and miles blogs, millions of people fly in economy class every year and live to tell the tale. You can certainly do that with miles (and let’s be clear: most people who book awards book economy class awards despite the hype around business and first class).
In my case, I soon after that first conference began digging deeper into award charts and sweet spots (our Best ways to get to guides provide info on many of the best sweet spots for booking awards to all of the various regions of the world) and I began realizing how easy it is to accumulate a large number of miles through credit card sign ups, shopping portals, good category bonuses, and all of the games we play.
I specifically remember looking at flight from Cairo to Tokyo using American Airlines miles. At the time, I think that at the time the economy class price for a partner award on that route was 22,500 miles one-way (to travel from the Middle East to Asia 1 – note that this award costs the same price today). Business class was 30,000 miles back before March 22, 20215 — just 7,500 miles more than flying economy class! (Today a business class award on the same route costs 40,000 miles). I distinctly remember thinking about just how far it is from Egypt to Japan and that the difference between economy class and business class was less than the cost of a one-way domestic economy class award ticket within the United States. It seemed like a steal!
The first class price on that route – *first class* – was 45K miles (today it still only costs 50K miles from the Middle East to Asia in first class). I realized that for 50% more than the business class price at the time (or double the economy class price), I could have free-flowing champagne, a chef in the sky with dine-on-demand food, a flat bed so that I could arrive fully rested and ready to hit the ground running instead of crashing at a hotel with jetlag, lounge access to eat for free at the airport, etc. I decided to try it — and I haven’t looked back since.
I could run the same numbers to a place like Europe and they would work out similarly. Most programs charge 25K or 30K miles one-way in economy class between the US and Europe, but you could fly off-peak business class on Iberia from east cost cities for 34K miles (See: Avios sweet spots for award travel) or use Turkish Miles & Smiles to fly Star Alliance business class for 45K (See: Turkish business class sweet spots from the US) or Virgin Atlantic to fly Delta One for 50K miles (see How to book Delta flights with Virgin Atlantic miles). Keep in mind that in two of those three examples — Avios and Virgin Atlantic — there are frequently transfer bonuses. You may be able to use even fewer transferable points than those numbers if you catch a transfer bonus (which is of course also true with the economy class redemptions).
Of key importance, the difference in the mileage cost between flying in economy and business or first is far smaller than the difference in cash cost. The gap between the price of an economy class award to Europe and a business class award to Europe can be quite small, whereas the gap between the cost of an economy class cash fare and a business class cash fare could easily be a couple thousand dollars (multiple times the cost of a cash ticket in economy class).
Yesterday afternoon, we saw an example that illustrates the gap in value when ANA suddenly released a ton of first class award space between San Francisco and Tokyo (See: ANA First Class wide open, up to 5 seats in The Suite). That space is long since gone, but it provides a good example.
Those first class seats were bookable with 55,000 Virgin Atlantic points one-way (and about $450 in surcharges one-way or $730 round trip).
By contrast, most airline programs charge around 40,000 miles each way for economy class awards between North America and Asia. The cheapest one-way economy class awards of which I am aware would cost 25K miles one-way. However, on an example date used in my post yesterday (May 10th), American Airlines was charging 56,500 miles one-way in economy class.
Alternatively, the cheapest one-way economy class flights on the same day were around $400.
If we compare the main cabin price of $408 against American’s cheapest economy class award price of 56,500 miles on that date, it only yields a value of 0.7c per mile. Even on the days where American is only charging 32.5K miles one-way, assuming that the cash prices were the same and that we would compare against the “main cabin” fare, you’re still only looking at a value of 1.26c per mile. If you get really lucky and they have released partner availability, you could book it via Etihad Guest at 25,000 miles one-way, yielding 1.6c per mile. That’s not necessarily bad if you earned the majority of your miles from credit card welcome bonuses, but if you spent on an American Airlines credit card at 1 mile per dollar spent, it would be akin to getting just 1.26 to 1.6% cash back. You’d be better off using a 2% cash back card and using your cash back to buy a cash ticket (and earn miles!).
Again, if you’re earning the majority of your points and miles from welcome bonuses and/or good category bonuses, those values can certainly be good enough. Astute readers will recognize that if cash prices are about $400, you could alternatively book the same flights via the Chase Travel portal for around 27K Ultimate Rewards points one-way if you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve (with no need to hunt for award availability).
On the other hand, premium cabin travel offers the opportunity for far more outsized value. In my post about the ANA first class availability last night, I showed the first class price on May 10th was a bit over $12,000 one-way.
International premium cabin one-way tickets sometimes cost more than a round trip, and in truth, a round trip cash ticket was available for almost the same $12K price. Let’s therefore consider a one-way ANA First Class ticket to have a cash value of around $6,000 (about half the cost of a round trip). An award seat in first class on the same flight was available for 55,000 miles and $450. In that case, 55,000 miles was yielding roughly $5,500 in value against the cash cost of a ticket.
Of course, you shouldn’t really value a redemption like that at 10c per mile. Rather, if we value the miles at 1c per mile to keep the math simple, it’s sort of akin to paying $1,000 one-way for the first class award. Compared against ~$400 for economy class, I’d consider that to be a great deal.
Essentially, for a bit more than double the cost of an economy class award ticket, I could have an experience that I would never otherwise get. ANA is well known for excellent service, but the seat itself and its 43″ entertainment screen look amazing. They serve ~$200 champagne and on some routes whiskey that runs even more per bottle. Catering will no doubt be fantastic. Vacation will begin the moment I get to the first class check-in area at the airport and continue on to the first class lounge and for the entire flight. Let’s be clear: I don’t need $200 champagne or $500 whiskey (truthfully I’ve never even had a sip of whiskey) and I could easily fly in economy class for 11.5 hours, but for what feels like a relatively modest premium over economy class I could end up with a far more comfortable and enjoyable experience. The flight becomes part of the vacation rather than only a means of transportation.
And let me reemphasize the value in arriving with a full night’s sleep and ready to go. That’s made a big difference on a lot of trips.
The other key is the ease of earning the miles. These past few years, Amex has been throwing out points like candy — we’ve extensively covered the incredible welcome bonuses, many with no lifetime language, and spending offers and upgrade offers, etc. Staples has (apart from one recent sale) increased the number of fee-free Visa and Mastercard gift cards you can buy each week when on sale (so you can take advantage of earning 5x), etc. By some measures, it has been easier than ever to stockpile plenty of points.
Of course my Japan example is cherry-picked in the sense that it displays massively outsized value and ANA is notorious for releasing such little premium cabin availability. And if my starting airport were somewhere in the middle of the country, I would need to consider the additional cost of positioning to/from San Francisco and I’d be comparing against a significantly increased cash price for an economy class ticket. And for more obscure / difficult to reach destinations, economy class prices can climb into the thousands — yielding far more value per point used for those economy class awards. At the same time, the ANA example is a perfect example of how hoarding points and cherry picking awards can yield massive value. It’s a great immediate example of how being “on the hunt” and ready to stick and move when the time is right can reward you with incredible redemptions.
The bottom line is that redeeming for economy class is the most popular way to use miles and points. And if you travel with a family, it can be far easier to find availability for multiple passengers in economy class. And at least from my perspective, if my choice were to redeem miles for economy class flights or not travel at all, you would find me in economy class (just as you would have en route to the 50+ countries I visited before I knew anything about miles and points).
On the other hand, armed with things like our Best Ways to Get to guides and Greg’s post yesterday full of hacks to reduce the cost of awards even further along with strategies for earning as many miles and points as possible, the gap between the cost of economy class and business class awards can be reduced considerably. Many of us who redeem miles and points for travel find the comfort and quality of experience of premium cabin travel to be worth ~double the cost of economy. While I would never dream of paying 4x or 8x or 10x the cost of an economy class ticket (or more), and certainly not for my family of four, I get a thrill from cherry picking the best awards and striking while the iron is hot (as it was yesterday afternoon). If you play those games, you can get amazing value out of premium cabin international travel. That’s not at all to say that redeeming for economy class travel is the “wrong” way to play the game — on the contrary, if it means more travel or the difference between traveling and not, I would say that economy class redemptions are a clear “win”. But by far the most outsized wins come leveraging sweet spots like that ANA example yesterday to get the most incredible premium cabin redemptions for the best price possible. That’s not at all what attracted me to this game, but it has been what has kept me on the field day in and day out, excited to continue playing the games we play.
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I think the way to evaluate the difference between an economy or premium redemption on given route is to calculate it based on what you value the miles at. The cash price is irrelevant to me as I would never consider paying cash. it just isn’t in the equation at all (except for rare dramatical specials). If I value a given mileage currency at 2 cents, for the sake of round numbers. and a given redemption is 25,000 in economy or 60,000 in premium, then I’m committing $375 worth of miles against $900. Would I pay $525 for the difference in comfort, service and amenities? Probably not. I’m still in the “make a lot of trips” category, as I have about four months a year I can travel and want to go lots of places.
I said 2 cents, then calculated at 1.5. Numbers should be $500, $1200 and $700
Nick, get more to the point. Your article just rambles on and on. You guys would be so much more effective if you were more concise and articulate.
Also, the podcast is so drawn out, it’s unbearable to listen to. That being said, you guys are great. Keep up the good work, all constructive criticism aside.
I think that’s too harsh. And clearly I’m not alone in appreciating Nick’s long form articles.
That said, they are quite demanding pieces. If I were Nick, I’d put a short abstract–maybe a couple of paragraphs tops–at the beginning of pieces like this. That would help all readers, and especially those with less time or attention span, to benefit from them.
My wife & I took my first international premium cabin flight in 2013 (Cathay in first) & we have been exclusively in biz on every intl trip since, usually once a year. Now that I have 2 kids though its getting harder & harder to find 4 seats and my routings are getting sillier. I’ve started to question if its worth it take a positioning flight, have a long or overnight layover, when I could fly direct in econ. Is the comfort on an 8-10 hour overwater flight worth it if it adds 10+ hours of positioning & layovers to your routing? This summer i was booked in biz IST-DUB (2 day stopover) DUB-YYZ-YVR-SEA. There are direct flights from IST & DUB to SEA. I had to ask myself why i was doing such a ridiculous routing just to be in biz on a daytime flight. Luckily, I was able to change last minute to IST-FRA-SEA, which made sense. Trying to realize that just b/c i can find a routing in biz, doesn’t mean i should fly it!!
Fine perspective for someone like me, who’s been knee-deep in First/Business class for point for years now (Thank You !FM!). One OBJECTIVE perspective to judge cost/value per airline mile for 1st/biz vs. econ that i have never seen done is based the actual cost to an airline for moving a passenger from A-to-B that simply comes down to this formula: (1) space volume per passenger and bags (0 bags basic fare vs ≤3 bags) and extra aisle space per passenger in upper classes + (2) weight per passenger including baggage (0 lb. basic fare vs ≤150 lbs) + (3) overhead costs pro-rated on variable costs (i.e., (1) volume + (2) weight). My guess is that for international flights seat volume is roughly 3 econ passengers to 1 biz passengers. Yet, often miles required for biz class typically cost 2 biz to 1 econ. FF miles value is much better for biz class than econ.
Great article. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and all the comments, I, found it all very informative But I can’t help but being a little disappointed, I always saw you, Nick, as the one in the Frequentmiler duo who spoke to the more cost-conscious less luxury chasing readers. I guess we still have Dr Pepper.
For me, part of a young couple who is focused on saving, even covering part of an economy ticket through say, using flying blue promo awards, is a lot of value to me because that’s $500 more we have to use to spend on food and experiences. I know that I could get business to Europe for 15000 more points each way, but that’s a bunch of hotel stays that I’m also saving on.
How can I attend this Frequent Traveler University?
I am preparing for a possible trip in economy to Japan in March. Still hoping that better award seats might be released last minute, but we are not canceling the trip if we don’t get better seats. That’s the breaks. Japan has been really tough finding award seats.
On the other hand, I don’t need business for Europe anymore. P2 does not sleep on planes, so we go for the economy+ seats in the middle 3 seats. Each of us takes the aisle seat, hoping that the middle seat flies empty. That has worked for us on 2 trips. But overnight flights that are longer than 10 hours, I really want lie flat. But I can do the return in PE. It just depends on the destination and the airline. From ORD international non-stop award seats are easier to find than the East or West coasts airports. So no need for me to fly to SFO/LAX and deal with a positioning flights. Which considering all the delayed flights lately, I’d rather be on the non-stop from ORD.
What route would that be? What are you using to book award flights?
ORD>HND and return. Used Alaska miles on JAL out and return is on United.
Millions of people do fly economy and live to tell about it. But is that really a life worth leading?
Pass the caviar, please.
I have 2 kids and I don’t want them to think that the only way to travel is on lie flat seats. Flying long haul in economy is part of a life lesson. Most people are not fortunate enough to be able to afford even that. That doesn’t mean to never fly J/F but I don’t want that to be the norm.
Put those kids in economy and wave back athem from time to time.
Just make them fill out a bunch of pretend credit card applications first. Then they’ll understand the amount of work involved.
My reasons can basically be encapsulated by your fourth-to-last paragraph – because I can spare the points.
I’m not a digital nomad, nor a creative. I have a normal job in an industry with a stalwart culture, and generous, but ultimately finite PTO. All that to say, there’s a cap in how many times I head out on a long-haul trip per year to begin with. On those flights, I sometimes paid for a premium cabin before I took points and miles seriously. Now, sometimes I’ve even replenished a good number of the points I spent by the time I take the trip, so why wouldn’t I?
On my more frequent, short-haul domestic trips, I’m less concerned about premium cabin travel as much as I am greasing the wheels of getting through the airport via expedited security and perhaps lounge access delivered through credit card benefits. Partly because the difference in cabin is negligible to me on those segments, but mostly out of necessity because I live in an air market utterly dominated by Southwest anyway.
Nick, I’m in the process of getting Caesars diamond status through Wyndham match in order to try and get a “free” cruise and I was wondering if when I get Caesars diamond can I see if MGM will match to gold? I read on the internet to just take my Caesars card to an MGM and ask but there are no MGM casinos nearby where I live and I would have to make a trip to Las Vegas to do so. I don’t want to waste my time on a trip if there’s not at least a good chance that I will succeed. I want MGM gold because I read your post where it said it would increase my likelihood of getting the “free” cruise offers if I had status with more than one casino brand.
MGM only allows a free cruise for Noir and Platinum. Caesars Diamond matches to MGM Gold. So no free cruise for Gold. You might get an on-board credit of $125.
Yeah, I guess I wasn’t clear. I want to submit both Caesars Diamond status and MGM gold status to Carnival cruises. I’ve read online that the more statuses you submit the better chance of getting a “free” cruise.
Caesars partners with Carnival. MGM partners with Celebrity and Royal Caribbean. MGM at the Gold level only offers an on-board credit. Whereas Caesars offers many more cruises. Usually only paying taxes and fees. It is not “free” like you state. I get the offers all the time from Carnival, but I have taken one yet. I am a retired airline employee so I get huge discounts on all cruise lines. Meaning that I am a little more picky. Just a little recommendation, Celebrity out of the 3 lines mentioned offers the best food. Royal Caribbean offers the biggest and best “featured” ships. Also using Virgin miles, you can also book “free” cruises thru Virgin Red.
If I am flying to London, I try to book business because I want to sleep since it is a night flight. But coming back, I book premium economy; I find it much better than economy and since it is a day flight I don’t need a lie flat seat. You didn’t mention premium economy in your article. I find it is often a great alternative.
Same here, totally agree and my normal strategy.
That’s making more sense lately. For a long time, and still on some airlines (ahem, United), the difference between premium economy and business on miles has been be trivial, and many times business is cheaper!
If there weren’t devaluations, I would say that it might best to fly more economy flights, but with devaluations being common, I am trying to enjoy first/business class while I can.
You’ve highlighted why traveling this way is better for YOU. I get it, you can rack up hundreds of thousands of mile per year. More power to you.
But when I see constant articles talking about 1st class or business class redemption, I skip. Its completely irrelevant to me because I can’t get those miles. So if you run a travel blog and want to reach some eyes who can’t possibly afford first class, you can make a small mention about econ redemption also.
If you don’t that’s fine, keep doing what your doing and I wish you all the success with a fantastic blog.
Your article was a good read and very informative, Thanks
So I think for me the take away is that large credit card bonuses and category bonuses and shopping portals and things are out there and most people can find ways to earn enough of them (whether or not they are interested or have the time or desire and so on is obviously variable). If I weren’t going to find ways to earn large credit card bonuses, I would probably be focusing on cash back because the value just isn’t there in most cases for economy class travel. I do know that there are certainly exceptions to that based on where you are originating and going and other variables (like if you have to book at the last minute, start from a very small airport, etc), but at least on what seem to be the most popular international routes, You’re looking at a low enough cent per mile value that buying tickets makes more sense than redeeming miles in very many cases. There just really aren’t that many sweet spots to cover in economy class. Again, I recognize that there are situations where economy class redemptions make sense, but even as a normal person with a more normal job before I became a blogger, I was finding ways to earn the points to travel. I started out thinking that economy class was going to be it for me, but I came to realize that I could bridge the gap to fly more comfortably without a great deal more effort.
I hope that the takeaway from our blog in general is that “can’t possibly afford first class” is certainly a statement I would have assumed for most of my life but that doesn’t have to be true with some strategy to leverage outsized numbers of and values from miles and points. There are literally millions of miles and points available from welcome bonuses alone.
A lot of us our domestic travelers. Some have no desire to leave the country and are flar out scared to. Does it make sense to you for us to spend our miles on these upgrades to fly domestically? If you were us where would you focus spending your points? Most of my points go to hyatt stays by the way. Is using points for rental cars a waste?
No, I don’t think it generally makes sense to spend miles on upgrades. I’d be focusing on cash back or cash-like points (whether that’s Ultimate Rewards points to use through the Chase portal or Amex points with a Business Platinum). The US-based programs just aren’t releasing much space to foreign partners and I’m rarely seeing opportunities to do better than the 1.5c per point that you can get through Chase/Amex with airline miles in the US-based programs (which some occasional exceptions).
My mom’s father was always adamant that you don’t need to leave the country to see amazing things (my mom’s parents spent most of the years of my childhood living in an RV full time and traveling the US). I know there is plenty to see and do here in the US (we’re fortunate for that!). But if you’re “flat out scared” to travel overseas, I would encourage you to reach beyond your comfort zone. The world is a big, mostly good place and most people are good people. Bad things can happen anywhere of course (including at home), but my experience has certainly been that the world is a less dangerous place than some would believe.
FWIW I’d disagree with that, Nick.
I often find AA–my primary airline now that we are based in CLT–offers far better value via miles than cash, esp for close in flights. Even lowly Delta runs specials as low as 2,500 miles for routes like SEA-GEG, giving > 3cpp value.
But the HUGE advantage is award flights’ 100% refundability. Now that permissive pandemic policies are being lifted on paid fares, canceling typically means PITA vouchers, which may not be combinable; leave residual amounts that are all but unusable, et cetra. I’ve let a few of these just expire as not worth messing with.
Canceling an award stay is super easy. AA, Delta, and more recently UA have all joined most smaller carriers in refunding miles and taxes 100%, with just a few clicks. That’s a huge value unlock for a variety of reasons.
Excellent point! I could not agree more!
Completely agree. I book way far out in advance to get the Hyatt hotel suites I desire and the aisle seats I want. So to me, one of the biggest determining factors is the cost to change my mind or make the trip go away without having to deal with vouchers or other compensation I may or may not use. Points let me do that for free.
I think 2.2%-5+% gets you the best of both worlds if we’re talking about just earn, through Citi, so I don’t see why you have to choose.
Really what your article is talking about is that the difference in points is a lot less than the difference in $$, so makes sense. Cool, but that’s not everyone’s valuation. I think we all get that they fit your biz model of increasing valuation numbers per point and make better photos. But what about redemption values without the inflation too?
@Bubbly Not to be mean… but if you live in America and can get one credit card sign up bonus, you can fly business class anywhere in the world. This is an American blog, so it shouldn’t be too hard. If you’re from another country, I totally understand the struggle.
That’s not really true and sounds like blog marketing speak. With one cc bonus one person might be able to fly J to some parts on the world on some carriers. (even earning 7 figures of points last year doesn’t mean I can find availability, especially availability for more than one person). Getting back in J might also be an issue. The only way to have the opportunity to consistently fly premium products is by regularly opening multiple cards. Then understanding the ins and outs of multiple award programs, how they work/route/etc. Earning 3x on dining on the 2nd Tuesday of the month with your $153 dollar wallet of ‘keeper cards’ will almost certainly not be sufficient. Tempering expectations is a tough sell and therefore rarely mentioned in this space.
@Parts Unknown: I understand the point you’re making, but I don’t think you need to “regularly open multiple cards”. In a two player household, in order to access a large part of the world in business class, you do need to cherry pick the good bonuses when they come around, but I think playing in two player mode with a budget of two new credit cards per person each year, it would be fairly easy to accumulate plenty of points to fly round trip in business class for at least one trip to almost anywhere in the world (of course pending finding availability, which is certainly a challenge that not everyone enjoys). I do think it is reasonable to enjoy traveling to new destinations more than hunting for award availability.
I have never had trouble finding Award space in J if I book 330 days out and am a little flexible. Will I find direct to Australia? Probably not unless I snag the amazing Qantas deal a few months ago. But can I book JAL business class to Tokyo and then to Sydney on one ticket with AsiaMiles? Yep, and I literally had months of award availability to choose from when I booked with an Amex transfer bonus. You can book for 90k AsiaMiles (amex points) currently and there’s currently a 15% bonus for CX so 79k only.
Same thing with South Africa. It’s been tough to find direct United, but Ethiopian has a ton of availability all lie flat with a small layover. You can book for 88k United points.
These are just two examples of “tough awards” that are pretty easy to book with one sign on bonus and a little flexibility. Want a round trip… get a second card and you’ve got a round trip on one of the most expensive award spots in the world. Not too shabby.
So I think you’re saying that to fly premium products consistently you’d need to open multiple cards on a regular basis and then understand the ins and outs of multiple award programs.
Personally I don’t have issues with either of those things. Someone saying ‘open one card and go anywhere in the world!’ is being a bit naïve or mainlining TPG articles regularly.
Ha, I originally got into this by opening 2 cards for my honeymoon. My future wife also opened 2 cards. We flew Qsuites to the maldives and it changed our perspective. Now we’re 40+ cards deep. I think if you have one special trip it’s not too crazy to say open a card or two and you can go anywhere. If you want to go to Spain on Iberia business class you can do 2 lie flat roundtrip tickets with 1 sign up bonus (extremely easy to book as well and a ton of availability). I think I did Australia and South Africa to prove a point that even difficult to book awards can be done relatively easily with some flexiblity and you don’t need to know all the ins and outs of a program. Honestly read one or two sweet spot articles and it’s pretty easy to figure out.
I do feel sorry for non-Americans though. We’re given basically unlimited points if we want while other countries get excited about a 10k offer. As long as you don’t carry a balance, it’s free money and travel.
Noooooo, don’t say “free”!!! (Nick hates that.)
I’m not sure how you keep saying what I said but then think it’s somehow a different statement…
You had to open multiple (4) cards to take a trip. You decided that in order to consistently be able to do (for the next trip) so you would need to open multiple cards on a regular basis (40+ cards in x years). Learning about different award programs was necessary (QR, CX, AA, etc.)
These aren’t outlandish statements.
I also have dozens of credit cards & millions of points, I would never tell anyone who asked that one lone card would get you anywhere in the world. Unless I was selling credit cards.
You want to go to Spain in business class on a trip for 2 people round trip… get one credit card. EZ PZ. Also, the free comment was related to the sign on bonuses, not the travel. Other countries dream of our sign on bonuses. I still think you can go anywhere in the world in business class with one credit card. You can go round trip to a lot of places like Hawaii, Japan, Europe, and South America in business class round trip with one credit card (for a lot of people these are once in a lifetime trips)… Do you need 2 credit cards for Australia or New Zealand… or need to open more to take 4 trips a year… yea, but it’s insane you can get 4 round trip business trips a year just by opening 3-4 cards and meeting the sign up bonus.
I would love to see the routings of someone who opened 3 credit cards and got 4 RT international J tickets in one year. Maybe if you went to Spain 4x on off-peak dates from the east coast (better have the correct format Iberia number and their customer service is chef’s kiss). Or maybe be the one person that managed 4 J via ANA bookings from that awful website built circa 2002.
My last 4 trips are below, and the first 3 I only needed 1 credit card sign up bonus per booking. I also found awards for 2 people for each itinerary.
Tokyo, Japan – 93K round trip in ANA first class with a 30% transfer bonus (amex). Direct flight.
Naples, Italy – 63k roundtrip turkish miles booked during their promo for 30% off business class (transferred from citi). There was a 8 hour layover in Istanbul but the lounge is super nice there.
Lima, Peru – 70k roundtrip in United Polaris business class booked with United points. Had a 3 hour layover in Houston, but we got to experience the Polaris lounge.
Johannesburg, South Africa – 75k AA points there in Qsuites one way with a 8 hour layover in Doha (wife wanted the longer layover because she loves the lounge). Return trip was 88k United points and it was a bit trickier… Capetown to Addis Ababa on Ethiopian lie flat, 2 hour layover, Addis Ababa to Istanbul on Turkish which was not lie flat but still business, then Istanbul to the states in lie flat.
A bunch of different programs too.