Up until Marriott purchased SPG, I have never transferred my American Express Membership Rewards (MR) points over to SPG because of the transfer ratio.

The current transfer ratio is currently 2 MRs to 1 SPG so it is typically is not a good use of your MRs but because you can transfer 1 SPG to 3 Marriott Rewards points, it can make a lot of sense if you are redeeming for a Nights and Flights Redemption or if you want to stay at a higher end Marriott property.

As my daughter and I are traveling to San Francisco for another father/daughter trip, it makes sense for me to transfer because hotel prices in San Francisco are ridiculously overpriced. A 3-night stay at a nice central hotel would run us well over $1,150 CAD so I decided to use Marriott points instead.

The only problem is that I didn’t have a lot … thus the transfer from MR → SPG → Marriott.

The Process

The process to transfer Membership Rewards to SPG is pretty straight forward.

Log into your American Express account from the homepage at www.americanexpress.ca

Find your points balance and click on the View and Redeem button.

Go to the Travel menu and find the Frequent Traveler Participants submenu. Click on the link.

Scroll down until you find the SPG as a transfer partner.

Click on Transfer my points and then choose how many points you want to transfer over. For security, you will need to confirm your credit card information.

In my case, I needed 40,000 SPG so I transferred 80,000 MRs.

After you click Complete Transfer, you will receive a confirmation.

How Long Does It Take?

The American Express site tells you that it takes 5 business days for the transfer to complete.

But how long does it take in actual practice?

Well, I made my transfer request at approximately 3:30 pm MST on February 12th, 2017 (Sunday) and the SPG points were credited to my account when I woke up this morning (February 13th, 2017).

So as the Count would say … it takes 1 … 1 ah ah ah … 1 business day.

Conclusion

While American Express tells you that it takes 5 business days to transfer your Membership Rewards to SPG Points, in actuality, it takes 1 business day but your mileage may vary depending on the day of the week you choose to transfer. My guess is that transfers that happen on Friday nights and Saturdays don’t get credited until Monday morning … but that’s just a guess.

Originally published at PointsNerd.

Data Point — AMEX Membership Rewards to SPG — Transfer Time was originally published in PointsNerd on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Did you know that as a Marriott Rewards member, you can reserve a hotel room even if you don’t have enough points?

This is a great way to make sure you get the room you want while you are awaiting a point transfer to be completed. As an example, while I was waiting to complete my Membership Rewards to SPG to Marriott Rewards transfer, I was able to reserve a hotel room in San Francisco even though I didn’t have the points in my account.

How To Do It

All you need to do is log into your account, and search for a room (make sure you search using points).

Find the hotel you want to stay at and choose the rate. You will see a warning about not having enough points but you can still proceed.

You will be then given the opportunity to book the room. Notice that you are reminded that you will need to come up with the points and then pay for the room with the e-certificate you will receive when you cash in the points.

You will receive a final confirmation, again reminding you to order your e-certificate once you have the required points. You may notice that the example above has a different hotel than my confirmation … that’s because I neglected to get the screenshots when I made the booking so I just recreated something fanciful … the Ritz Carlton was an obvious choice.

Fulfilling Your Commitment

When you do get the points in your Marriott account, all you have to do is to order the e-certificate to pay for the room and it’s fairly simple.

All you have to do is click on the Order e-certificate link. Once you click the link, you will be taken to a confirmation page.

Click the Submit Changes button and you will complete the order.

You are given the confirmation that your e-certificate has been ordered and will be sent to your hotel, thus fulfilling your payment obligation.

Conclusion

There aren’t a lot of hotels or airlines that will allow you to hold a reservation until you can come up with the points but when you find one, you start to realize how much freedom it gives you. Take advantage when you can.

Originally published at PointsNerd.

Data Point — Marriott Points Holds was originally published in PointsNerd on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Here at PointsNerd, we pride ourselves on keeping abreast of the latest news, especially if it affects Canadians. Often times we get slow news days and you don’t see articles for days at a time and some days it feels like you can’t even take a breath because there is so much information.

Today is one of the days that feels like we’re drowning. But this is a good thing but please bear with us as we unpack the news of the day because there is a LOT to know. On top of the deluge of information from Marriott, we are sad to see Chao leave PointsNerd. I think we were all pleasantly surprised at how well he was able to engage with the readership and deliver information with a great sense of humour. He will be dearly missed.

What’s New With Marriott?

Well, there’s quite a bit. First off, Marriott has announced the pricing for all hotels effective as of August 1, 2018. What we need to keep in mind is that the period between August 1, 2018 and December 31, 2018, there are two things that will not take effect:

• There will be no Category 8 hotels (Marriott’s new highest point category)
• There will be no differentiation between Off-Peak, Standard, and Peak pricing

Once January 1st, 2019 rolls around, the above two points are null and void. This means that for this short period of time between August 1st and December 31st, we have a HUGE arbitrage opportunity.

I will be delving into what some of these opportunities are over the weekend but just know that there will be plenty of opportunities to take advantage of excellent deals.

While you could certainly use Marriott’s website to take a look at each hotel’s new pricing and hotel categories, one of the limitations is that the table cannot do a multi-sort, so if you wanted to know which JW Marriott in California has gone down in price, you would have to look through a long list. I got annoyed with that so I created the Marriott Master Spreadsheet.

You can access the Google Sheet at:

PointsNerd.ca/Marriott-Master

This sheet has everything I could cram into it, including previous categories (2017), the Award Chart (including cash + points), and the new Travel Package pricing.

Just a Taste

I realize that there’s not a lot of information in this post but that spreadsheet took some time to put together so I’ve run out of daylight today.

Here’s what I plan on unpacking in the coming days:

• Best hotels to book during the August 1 — December 31 time period (and how to do it)
• An analysis on whether or not you should purchase the Marriott Travel Package now or after August 1, 2018
• The new SPG card news

Give me a bit of time and I’ll help guide you down the path for the best use of your SPG/Marriott points.

Conclusion

Marriott has given us a LOT of information to digest. We’ve only taken a nibble at the information but promise to have more for you in the coming days. Stay tuned and as always, thanks for your support.

Originally published at PointsNerd.

Marriott — It’s Been a Helluva Day was originally published in PointsNerd on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

As first reported by my friends over at the French-language Travel Hacking Blog, Milesopedia, American Express has quietly increased the spend requirements of the American Express Platinum Card from $1,000 in the first 3 months to $3,000 in the first three months.

Some may find that the new spend requirement is a touch on the high side (and it is) but if you put all of your monthly spend on the card, the number is certainly achievable. If it isn’t I would stay away from the card because there is nothing worse than getting a credit hit for the card, paying the annual fee and not meeting spend and thus not get the sign-up bonus.

If you are looking for a creative way of meeting the minimum spend requirements, you may want to consider using Plastiq for bill payments. I pay my mortgage each month with Plastiq and mortgage or rent payments are a great way to meet the spend requirements for a small cost.

While the change is unfortunate, I can still wholeheartedly recommend the card due to the fantastic benefits it affords as well as your ability to reduce the annual fee from $699 to $299 using the $200 Annual Travel Credits. Refer to my review of the card for more information on how to do that.

Originally published at PointsNerd.

American Express Platinum Spend Requirements Increased was originally published in PointsNerd on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Through the first two parts of the mini-RTW series, we have taken a look at the rules associated with the redemption as well as how to actually get enough points to redeem for these incredible trips. Now that you have an idea of the rules and the number of Aeroplan miles you need, it should be pretty easy to book your flight right?

Well yes and no.

If you just went out and looked for flights to your 3 destinations and stayed within the rules of the mini-RTW, you would be able to book a valid itinerary fairly easily but you may be shocked at the price of the ticket due to the extremely high fuel/carrier surcharge, which is known in the industry as YQ.

Today, we look at how we can avoid these high YQ airlines and focus on airlines that can get you to Europe for very little out of pocket cost. I will focus on other areas of the globe in the next parts of the series as I can fully appreciate that there are many people that would rather travel to places outside of Europe.

Structure

I, like many of you, would rather have as few connections as possible to get to your final destination, so I will be focusing on the finding the best possible route to Europe through each major Canadian city.

In terms of which airline you should fly, it’s going to come down to personal preference and availability. If you are lucky enough to have a choice of no YQ airlines to fly to Europe, I would encourage you to watch a few YouTube reviews on the airline to see if it’s right for you.

I won’t be going into depth about Fuel/Carrier Surcharge (YQ) but if you want some more background, please refer to my previous post on the subject.

I will go through each major Canadian city and provide some options to get to Europe. I’m not claiming that this is a complete list but I’ll try to give you some solid options and hopefully, you can extrapolate from there.

I will also refer to cities using their IATA code so if you don’t know them, I would encourage you to learn them but until you do, you can refer to the IATA city and airline lookup tool.

Key Airlines to Europe

The following are key airlines that do not charge fuel surcharge, their IATA code (in brackets) and the cities in North America that they have a direct flight to with Canadian cities bolded.

• Toronto (YYZ)
• Washington (IAD)
• New York (JFK)

• San Francisco (SFO)
• Los Angeles (LAX)
• Chicago (ORD)
• Washington (IAD)
• New York (EWR)
• Boston (BOS)
• Miami (MIA)

• Montreal (YUL)
• San Francisco (SFO)
• Los Angeles (LAX)
• Chicago (ORD)
• New York (JFK)
• New York (EWR)
• Boston (BOS)
• Miami (MIA)

• Toronto (YYZ)
• Montreal (YUL)
• San Francisco (SFO)
• Los Angeles (LAX)
• Chicago (ORD)
• Houston (IAH)
• Atlanta (ATL)
• Washington (IAD)
• New York (JFK)
• Boston (BOS)
• Miami (MIA)

• San Francisco (SFO)
• Los Angeles (LAX)
• Denver (DEN)
• Chicago (ORD)
• Houston (IAH)
• Washington (IAD)
• New York (EWR)

Canadian City Suggested Routings

Let’s take a look at some of the routings that I would look at to get to Europe from each major Canadian city. I will give a bit of commentary for each city so you understand my train of thought. We’ll go from west to east and look at the major Canadian markets. I apologize in advance if I didn’t include your city but hopefully, you’ll start to understand how to think about the problem and look for routes that work for you.

I won’t spell it out for each city but you can obviously connect from your Canadian city to Toronto or Montreal to catch a Brussels Airlines, Swiss or Turkish flight out but you will do so on Air Canada, which will attract fuel/carrier surcharge (YQ). Depending on whether or not you want to fly the aforementioned airlines, you can make the call as to whether it is worth it or not.

Personally, I would choose any of those airlines over United but that’s a personal choice and I have not had a chance to try out United’s new Business Class product, Polaris, which could be a game changer.

Once you get to Europe, finding flights that can get to your chosen city is pretty easy, so our primary concern is getting across the Atlantic Ocean.

Vancouver (YVR)

If you want to go to Europe from Vancouver, your best bet is to connect to a United hub such as San Francisco (SFO), Los Angeles (LAX), Houston (IAH) or Chicago (ORD). You would fly United all the way but your taxes would be extremely low.

United (UA)
YVR-SFO-LHR/CDG/FRA
YVR-LAX-LHR
YVR-DEN-FRA/MUC
YVR-IAH-LHR/AMS/FRA/MUC
YVR-ORD-LHR/AMS/BRU/CDG/FRA/MUC/FCO

Calgary (YYC)

This is probably gonna get pretty repetitive but if you are in the west, you are probably best off going with United, though I have flown to Montreal (YUL) to connect to Turkish Airlines on my way to Istanbul.

United (UA)
YYC-SFO-LHR/CDG/FRA
YYC-DEN-FRA/MUC
YYC-IAH-LHR/AMS/FRA/MUC
YYC-ORD-LHR/AMS/BRU/CDG/FRA/MUC/FCO

Edmonton (YEG)

If you live in Edmonton, your choices are limited … very limited. Luckily, Houston affords many options to the rest of Europe and you can get to Frankfurt (FRA) or Munich (MUC) through Denver. Connecting through Montreal or Toronto is always an option.

United (UA)
YEG-IAH-LHR/AMS/FRA/MUC
YEG-DEN-FRA/MUC

Regina (YQR)

If you live in Regina, you basically have no choice but to connect to another Canadian city to get to Europe. Your best bet here is to connect through Toronto to get your overwater flight. Unfortunately, you will be paying fuel surcharge on Air Canada no matter what option you choose.

Air Canada (AC) and Turkish Airlines (TK)
YQR-YYZ-IST

Air Canada (AC) and Brussels Airlines (SN)
YQR-YYZ-BRU

Winnipeg (YWG)

Winnipeg is decently connected to the United network through Denver and Chicago. Chicago affords more options so you have a lot of options and routes to look for.

United (UA)
YWG-DEN-FRA/MUC
YWG-ORD-LHR/AMS/BRU/CDG/FRA/MUC/FCO

Toronto (YYZ)

Being in the Centre of the Universe affords you a LOT of choices. In fact, you would be hard-pressed to find a better location to be based in Canada. Not only do you have access to Brussels Airlines and Turkish for a direct flight to Europe, you also have access to United’s network out of New York (EWR), which basically can connect you to anywhere in Europe.

Brussels Airlines (SN)
YYZ-BRU

Turkish Airlines (TK)
YYZ-IST

United Airlines (UA)
YYZ-DEN-FRA/MUC
YYZ-ORD-LHR/AMS/BRU/CDG/FRA/MUC/FCO
YYZ-IAH-LHR/AMS/FRA/MUC
YYZ-IAD-DUB/MAN/LHR/AMS/BRU/FRA/CDG/MUC/ZRH/GVA/FCO/MAD
YYZ-EWR-OSL/ARN/GLA/EDI/BFS/DUB/MAN/BHX/LHR/HAM/TXL/AMS/BRU/FRA/CDG/MUC/ZRH/GVA/MXP/VCE/FCO/BCN/MAD/LIS

Ottawa (YOW)

While Ottawa does not have any direct flights to Europe, it is well located so you can get there with one connection. Both Toronto and Montreal are quick flights if you want to pay a little bit of money in taxes to fly with Swiss, Turkish or Brussels Airlines. If you are okay with United, you are blessed with choice.

United Airlines (UA)
YYZ-ORD-LHR/AMS/BRU/CDG/FRA/MUC/FCO
YYZ-IAD-DUB/MAN/LHR/AMS/BRU/FRA/CDG/MUC/ZRH/GVA/FCO/MAD
YYZ-EWR-OSL/ARN/GLA/EDI/BFS/DUB/MAN/BHX/LHR/HAM/TXL/AMS/BRU/FRA/CDG/MUC/ZRH/GVA/MXP/VCE/FCO/BCN/MAD/LIS

Montreal (YUL)

If you are based out of Montreal, you have the good fortune of being able to fly with Swiss Airlines or Turkish directly to Europe. Both airlines are amazing and I would jump at the chance to fly either to Europe. If you can’t find availability, you can always connect through Chicago, Washington or New York and get pretty much anywhere in Europe.

Swiss Airlines (LX)
YUL-ZRH

Turkish Airlines (TK)
YUL-IST

United Airlines (UA)
YUL-ORD-LHR/AMS/BRU/CDG/FRA/MUC/FCO
YUL-IAD-DUB/MAN/LHR/AMS/BRU/FRA/CDG/MUC/ZRH/GVA/FCO/MAD
YUL-EWR-OSL/ARN/GLA/EDI/BFS/DUB/MAN/BHX/LHR/HAM/TXL/AMS/BRU/FRA/CDG/MUC/ZRH/GVA/MXP/VCE/FCO/BCN/MAD/LIS

Halifax (YHZ)

As much as I hate backtracking, it makes a lot of sense if you live in Halifax … also, you don’t have a choice unless you want to pay fuel surcharge with Air Canada. Your best bet here is to fly with United to New York (EWR).

United Airlines (UA)
YHZ-EWR-OSL/ARN/GLA/EDI/BFS/DUB/MAN/BHX/LHR/HAM/TXL/AMS/BRU/FRA/CDG/MUC/ZRH/GVA/MXP/VCE/FCO/BCN/MAD/LIS

St John’s (YYT)

Unfortunately, if you live in St John’s, you are very limited in what you can do to get to Europe. There are no United flights in or out of St John’s so you need to fly Air Canada to Toronto or Montreal

Air Canada (AC) and Turkish Airlines (TK)
YYT-YYZ-IST

Air Canada (AC) and Brussels Airlines (SN)
YYT-YYZ-BRU

Air Canada (AC) and Swiss Airlines (LX)
YYT-YUL-ZRH

Air Canada (AC) and Turkish Airlines (TK)
YUL-YYZ-IST

Conclusion

I hope you are starting to see that there are a lot of options to start your mini-RTW if you want to get to Europe. Each Canadian city has its options and access to many routes without fuel surcharge.

As I have preached through my other posts, getting across the ocean is the most important aspect of piecing together your itinerary as it is the toughest leg to find availability on due to the limited number of daily flights. It should be the first thing you look for as you are putting together your itinerary as the connector flights within Europe are infinitely easier to find.

I know that this post strictly talks about finding the first leg in your route to Europe but hopefully you can now start to see how many choices adding a connecting city like New York (EWR) provides you. Keep that in mind as a backup option.

Up Next

In the next post, we’ll examine how to get to Asia using the same methodology for getting to Europe. I am on the fence right now for whether or not to provide as much detail for continents like Africa, Australia or South America so let me know in the comments if you really want this level of detail for those continents.

Originally published at PointsNerd.

Aeroplan’s Mini-RTW — Part 3 — Airlines with No Fuel Surcharge — Europe was originally published in PointsNerd on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

As we continue on with the mini-RTW redemption series, we will take a look at airlines that can get you to Asia without fuel surcharge. This list has expanded in the past couple of years due to some countries making it illegal to charge fuel or carrier surcharges, which is fantastic.

Structure

I, like many of you, would rather have as few connections as possible to get to your final destination, so I will be focusing on the finding the best possible route to Europe through each major Canadian city.

In terms of which airline you should fly, it’s going to come down to personal preference and availability. If you are lucky enough to have a choice of no YQ airlines to fly to Asia, I would encourage you to watch a few YouTube reviews on the airline to see if it’s right for you.

I won’t be going into depth about Fuel/Carrier Surcharge (YQ) but if you want some more background, please refer to my previous post on the subject.

I will go through each major Canadian city and provide some options to get to Asia. I’m not claiming that this is a complete list but I’ll try to give you some solid options and hopefully, you can extrapolate from there.

I will also refer to cities using their IATA code so if you don’t know them, I would encourage you to learn them but until you do, you can refer to the IATA city and airline lookup tool.

Key Airlines to Asia

The following are key airlines that do not charge fuel surcharge, their IATA code (in brackets) and the cities in North America that they have a direct flight to with Canadian cities bolded. If the airline does not charge a fuel/carrier surcharge but does not fly direct to North America, they are not included in this list.

I should note that while Air China (CA) is listed below, they have proven to be almost impossible to book due to very limited availability. Keep this in mind if you are looking to use them to get to Asia.

• Vancouver (YVR)
• Montreal (YUL)
• San Francisco (SFO)
• San Jose (SJC)
• Los Angeles (LAX)

• Vancouver (YVR)
• Seattle (SEA)
• San Francisco (SFO)
• San Jose (SJC)
• Los Angeles (LAX)
• Houston (IAH)
• Chicago (ORD)
• Washington, DC (IAD)
• New York (JFK)
• Honolulu (HNL)

• Vancouver (YVR)
• Toronto (YYZ)
• Seattle (SEA)
• San Francisco (SFO)
• Los Angeles (LAX)
• Houston (IAH)
• Chicago (ORD)
• New York (JFK)

• San Francisco (SFO)
• Los Angeles (LAX)
• Houston (IAH)
• New York (JFK)

• San Francisco (SFO)
• Los Angeles (LAX)
• Denver (DEN)
• Chicago (ORD)
• Houston (IAH)
• Washington (IAD)
• New York (EWR)

Canadian City Suggested Routings

Like the Europe routings we explored in Part 3, we will look at all the Canadian city suggested routings starting in the west and working east. I again apologize in advance if I didn’t include your city but hopefully, you’ll start to understand how to think about the problem and look for routes that work for you.

As before, you can connect through the Canadian hubs to Asia such as Vancouver but you will have to fly Air Canada and that means fuel surcharge.

Air Canada charges a LOT of fuel/carrier surcharge on their reward flights with one exception … flights to countries that have made it illegal to collect fuel surcharge. In Asia, that includes Japan, so in this post, you may see Air Canada sprinkled in but keep in mind that this is the exception, not the rule. Also, keep in mind that this could change at any time.

Once you get to Asia, finding flights that can get to your chosen city in that region is pretty easy, so our primary concern is getting across the Pacific Ocean.

Vancouver (YVR)

If Toronto and Montreal were the European gateways, Vancouver most definitely serves as the Canadian gateway to Asia. If you live in Vancouver and want to go to Asia, you live in the perfect city as you are likely to be able to find a direct flight to a major hub in Asia. In the unlikely event that you cannot find availability through Vancouver, you can always connect to a United hub like San Francisco, which will give you the option of 12 different Asian hubs to fly to.

Air Canada (AC)
YVR-NRT

Air China (CA)
YVR-PEK

ANA (NH)
YVR-HND

EVA Airlines (BR)
YVR-TPE

United Airlines (UA)
YVR-SFO-HND/NRT/KIX/ICN/PEK/XIY/CTU/PVG/HGH/TPE/HKG/SIN
YVR-LAX-NRT/PVG
YVR-DEN-NRT
YVR-IAH-NRT
YVR-ORD-NRT/PEK/PVG/HKG

Calgary (YYC)

Unfortunately, your choices are limited in Calgary but as I had mentioned earlier in the post, Japan provides a safe haven for YQ free flights and with a direct flight from Calgary to Tokyo (NRT) on Air Canada, it’s probably the easiest way to get across the Pacific. Add to the fact that the route is serviced by Air Canada’s new 787 Dreamliner, it starts to become a very good option. If you can’t find availability, you could always route through a United hub to get across the ocean.

Air Canada (AC)
YYC-NRT

United (UA)
YYC-SFO-HND/NRT/KIX/ICN/PEK/XIY/CTU/PVG/HGH/TPE/HKG/SIN
YYC–DEN-NRT
YYC-IAH-NRT
YYC-ORD-NRT/PEK/PVG/HKG

Edmonton (YEG)

Edmonton features absolutely no international flights with Star Alliance so you are forced to connect. The best options are to connect with United through either Denver or Houston to Tokyo or through Vancouver but again, if you connect through Vancouver, you will fly with Air Canada, which will have fuel/carrier surcharge.

United (UA)
YEG-IAH-NRT
YEG–DEN-NRT

Air Canada (AC) and EVA Airlines (BR)
YQR-YVR-TPE

Air Canada (AC) and Air China (CA)
YEG-YVR-PEK

Air Canada (AC) and ANA (NH)
YEG-YVR-HND

Regina (YQR)

Regina is another Canadian city that simply isn’t serviced with direct international flights or even direct flights to the US. If you live in Regina, you are forced to fly Air Canada before your onward connection.

Air Canada (AC) and EVA Airlines (BR)
YQR-YYZ-TPE
YQR-YVR-TPE

Air Canada (AC) and Air China(CA)
YQR-YVR-PEK
YQR-YUL-PEK

Air Canada (AC) and ANA (NH)
YQR-YVR-HND

Winnipeg (YWG)

Winnipeg is very similar to Edmonton and Regina in that there are no direct international flights from the city. You are forced to connect through a US city to Tokyo (NRT) or through Vancouver or Toronto. That connection would be with Air Canada and would thus attract YQ.

United (UA)
YWG–DEN-NRT
YWG-ORD-NRT

Air Canada (AC) and EVA Airlines (BR)
YWG-YYZ-TPE
YWG-YVR-TPE

Air Canada (AC) and Air China (CA)
YWG-YUL-PEK
YWG-YVR-PEK

Air Canada (AC) and ANA (NH)
YWG-YVR-HND

Toronto (YYZ)

Hazah! Finally, Toronto gets the short end of the straw on award redemptions. For most award flights, Toronto is the place to be but for flights to Asia, they are quite limited if you want to fly YQ free.

Air Canada (AC)
YYZ-NRT

EVA Airlines (BR)
YYZ-TPE

United Airlines (UA)
YYZ-DEN-NRT
YYZ-ORD-NRT/PEK/PVG/HKG
YYZ-IAH-NRT
YYZ-IAD-NRT/PEK
YYZ-EWR-NRT/PEK/PVG/HKG

Air Canada (AC) and Air China (CA)
YYZ-YUL-PEK

Ottawa (YOW)

While Ottawa does not have any direct flights to Asia, it is well located so you can get there with one connection on United. You could also try connecting through Toronto if you want to fly EVA Airlines or Montreal for Air China.

United Airlines (UA)
YOW-ORD-NRT/PEK/PVG/HKG
YOW-IAD-NRT/PEK
YOW-EWR-NRT/PEK/PVG/HKG

Air Canada (AC) and EVA Airlines (BR)
YOW-YYZ-TPE

Air Canada (AC) and Air China (CA)
YOW-YUL-PEK

Montreal (YUL)

Montreal has one direct flight to Asia on non-YQ carrier Air China, so if you don’t mind flying with that airline, you can get there fairly easily. You also have the option to connect to Asia through a United hub in the US.

Air China (CA)
YUL-PEK

United Airlines (UA)
YUL-ORD-NRT/PEK/PVG/HKG
YUL-IAD-NRT/PEK
YUL-EWR-NRT/PEK/PVG/HKG

Halifax (YHZ)

With Halifax, your options are limite to a connection in either Toronto (YYZ) or New York (EWR)

Air Canada (AC) and EVA Airlines (BR)
YHZ-YYZ-TPE

United Airlines (UA)
YHZ-EWR-NRT/PEK/PVG/HKG

St John’s (YYT)

Little choice is the theme of the day for St John’s. If you live in St John’s you probably know there are no direct flights internationally except for London with Air Canada so you are forced to connect to either Toronto or Montreal to get to Asia.

Air Canada (AC)
YYT-YYZ-NRT

Air Canada (AC) and EVA Airlines (BR)
YYT-YYZ-TPE

Air Canada (AC) and Air China (CA)
YYT-YUL-PEK

Conclusion

Like travel to Europe on a mini-RTW, Asia has many options, especially if you consider that fuel/carrier surcharges are currently illegal in Japan. This opens up a world of possible routes even from cities that typically do not have direct routes to Asia, like Calgary.

Now that you have seen how to get to Europe and Asia on non-YQ airlines, hopefully, you can see how you can leverage this information to build your own mini-RTW.

I don’t think I will do a post on trips to Africa or Australia on non-YQ airlines as you would typically have to route through Europe or Asia respectively since there are very few direct routes to those continents. If I get a lot of comments asking for it, perhaps I can write a supplement to the series later on.

Next Up

Next up, we will build a mini-RTW from scratch so if you have an idea of where you would like to go on a mini-RTW, leave a comment below and I’ll see if I can figure something out for you. If you are interested, leave your three cities, your dates of travel, how many passengers and the class of service you are after.

Originally published at PointsNerd.

Aeroplan’s Mini-RTW — Part 4 — Airlines with No Fuel Surcharge — Asia was originally published in PointsNerd on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

For those that missed out on the free 10,000 Alaska Miles, you now have a chance at 5,000 Alaska Miles but there’s a bit of catch. You need to fly on an Alaska Airlines flight before September 30, 2017, to receive the miles.

Even if you aren’t planning on flying Alaska, it’s a good idea to sign up because there’s quite a bit of time between now and the end of September so there’s a real possibility that you could fly with them.

You need to be a new member and have to register before April 30th, 2017 in order to qualify. If you opened an account previously and you have no points in the account, I would suggest registering a new account.

Here are the specific rules of the sign-up bonus:

• Bonus miles offer is valid only for new Mileage Plan members who enroll between March 23 and April 30, 2017, and complete a qualifying Alaska or Virgin America flight between the enrollment date and September 30, 2017.
• To qualify, the flight must be eligible to earn Mileage Plan miles and must be credited to the new Mileage Plan account; codeshare flights with other airlines do not qualify.
• An individual may receive the bonus a maximum of one time, even if they hold multiple separate Mileage Plan accounts.
• Offer is not combinable with other Mileage Plan enrollment or account activation promotions.
• Mileage Plan conditions of membership apply.

Sign up at https://www.alaskaair.com/content/deals/mileage-plan/discover-mileage-plan/join-5k.aspx

Originally published at PointsNerd.

Free 5,000 Alaska Miles With Your First Flight was originally published in PointsNerd on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A few days ago, I was asked by Matt Lau from PointsHogger if I was interested in being interviewed.

I thought it would be a good way to help people in the community and even my readers understand why I write the blog. If you would like to know what makes me tick and why I decided to start the blog, check out PointsHogger by clicking the link below.

Who is PointsNerd? - Pointshogger

Originally published at PointsNerd.

PointsNerd in the News was originally published in PointsNerd on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Blogging in the travel and travel hacking space sometimes feels like screaming into the abyss. Posts can take 3–4 hours to research and write and while most do it altruistically, it’s nice to “feel the love” when you look at your traffic stats. That’s why I’m featuring an excellent new blog from a friend of mine, Ricky Zhang — Prince of Travel.

One of the posts that caught my eye was Ricky’s look at 9 Amazing Redemption Ideas, which is a great overview to get you thinking about how you can really stretch your points. His ideas are fresh and unique and deserve a read.

Do yourself a favor and check out Prince Of Travel at www.princeoftravel.com.

Originally published at PointsNerd.

Friends of the Blog — Prince of Travel was originally published in PointsNerd on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Hey guys,

I have another reader question for you that I answer using my new video format. Let me know what you think of it!

Here’s the email from Santiago:

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Hello Jayce,

I found today your blog when reading pointshogger. It’s an excellent tool as you layout all the complexity of the Travel hacking in very simple language.
After reading today your article about CPM earning and CPM Burning. I would like to share with you my not so excellent story about earning and burning.
I travel every year YYZ — FNC by Christmas- New Year time. Busy season. I earn most of my points through the Business Amex Platinum. Where I can transfer to Aeroplan should I decide to do so.

However, when using Aeroplan the Carrier Surcharge makes almost not worthy to use this redemption. It’s usually around $500/ticket. Unless, I decide to do a three stop flight via Brussels or Warsaw and sometimes spending one night at an airport hotel. So what I’ve been doing is just using MR points to pay for the ticket when I buy them with SATA Airlines ($800 each). I know that seems a terrible redemption.

Am I missing something in the “hacking” game or is just this particular destination/time of the year limiting my options

Regards

- Santiago

[/perfectpullquote] [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sBgyvrdjDs[/embedyt]

Originally published at PointsNerd.

Reader Question — Santiago — Video Response was originally published in PointsNerd on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.