Noticed a huge drop of award availability for Cathay Pacific business class to/from Hong <> North America (SFO, LAX, JFK, YVR, YYZ, DFW, BOS, ORD, SEA).

Found using Roame SkyView & Alerts:

Boston to Hong Kong:

- February: 28

- July: 10, 16, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27

- August: 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30

- September: 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19

Chicago to Hong Kong:

- March: 24

- July: 9, 11, 15, 16, 18, 19, 26, 29

- August: 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 26, 27, 30, 31

- September: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18

Dallas/Fort Worth to Hong Kong:

- February: 9, 10

- March: 24

- July: 4, 28, 29, 30, 31

- August: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31

- September: 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18

Los Angeles to Hong Kong:

- July: 14, 15, 19, 20, 22, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31

- August: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, - 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31

- September: 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 17, 18, 19

New York to Hong Kong:

- July: 28

- August: 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31

- September: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

San Francisco to Hong Kong:

- July: 12, 19, 26, 28

- August: 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 29, 30, 31

- September: 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

Seattle to Hong Kong:
- April: 29

- July: 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31

- August: 2, 4, 5, 7, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 23, 24, 25, 26, 30, 31

- September: 1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16

Toronto to Hong Kong:

- April: 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29

- May: 3, 7, 8, 9, 10

- July: 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30

- August: 2, 3, 5, 9, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31

September: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

Vancouver to Hong Kong:

- August: 23, 25, 26, 27, 31

Hong Kong to Boston:

- February: 24

- June: 1, 8, 13, 14, 15, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 28, 29

- July: 5, 7, 9, 13, 14, 17, 18, 20, 22, 24, 27

- September: 6, 7, 8, 10, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19

Hong Kong to Chicago:

- November: 26

- May: 8, 10, 12, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28

- June: 6, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 18, 22, 23, 29

- July: 7, 13, 15, 18, 20, 21, 23

- September: 6, 7, 8, 9, 15, 16, 17, 18

Hong Kong to Dallas/Fort Worth:

- February: 9, 15

- May: 10, 12, 13, 19, 23, 25, 27

- June: 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 29

- July: 9, 12, 14, 15

- September: 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18

Hong Kong to Los Angeles:

- May: 14, 23, 28

- June: 1, 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 29

- July: 1, 3, 10, 11, 15, 17

- September: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

Hong Kong to New York:

- June: 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 28, 29

- July: 14, 19, 21

- September: 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17

Hong Kong to San Francisco:

- May: 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31

- June: 10

- September: 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

Hong Kong to Seattle:

- January: 27

- April: 3, 22

- May: 11, 20, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27

- June: 2, 3, 16, 30

- July: 1, 26, 29

- September: 2, 6, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18

Hong Kong to Toronto:

- June: 14, 19, 20, 22

- July: 1, 5, 6, 8, 19

- September: 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

Hong Kong to Vancouver:

- February: 14

- September: 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19

I currently have CSP, IHG Select, Marriott Boundless, CFU, BoAT and Apple Card. I’m planning on putting BoAT and Apple in the drawer since benefits are minimal, and closing the Marriott card because I don’t really stay at hotels and just stay at Airbnbs or aparthotels now that I have a toddler. Due to this I want to focus more on flight awards to lower our flying costs since we are now paying for three tickets instead of two. Should I focus on a new airline card or a card with transferable points?

Edited to add we are out of Tampa and use TPA and MCO if that makes a difference

Has anyone done a long-haul flight on Finnair? My wife and I decided to head to Lapland, Finland in March.

I’m trying to use AA rewards, but the only award availability I’m seeing on Finnair is in economy. Trying to gauge the trade-off between using the points for economy vs. just paying for Premium Economy/Comfort. Anyone have experience with Finnair’s long-haul economy or premium cabins?

I know Air India historically has been terrible but have read about recent upgrades. I see a rewards ticket, 16 hours, in a business class seat on a 786-9. Do these newer planes make it better? Are all 787-9 updated? Or is it possible any of them are not refurbished to the updated style?

Anyone have recent experience flying with Air India YYZ to DEL?

Hi everyone!

I have about 200K Amex Membership Rewards points and I’m hoping to use them for round-trip flights to Tokyo in April/May 2027.

I’m based in the Washington, DC area, but I’m very flexible with departure airports. I’d be willing to fly out of pretty much anywhere on the East or West Coast if it means getting a good redemption.

Ideally, I’d love to book Premium Economy (or possibly Business if there’s an amazing deal) using points.

For those who are experienced with Amex points/Award Travel, what routes, airlines, or transfer partners would you recommend looking at? Any advice on the best way to search or when to book would be greatly appreciated!

My wife would really like to go to Greece, and I've been trying to figure out whether award travel is realistic for us. So far, every promising option I find seems to end with "no award availability," during the dates we're able to travel.

There are 4 of us total, 2 adults and 2 kids. Our home airport is PDX, although we could potentially drive to SEA if it made a substantial difference. We would probably travel either during spring break or sometime from late June through early August to work around the kids' school schedule.

I've looked at cash fares and have generally been seeing around $1,500 per person. I'm not particularly interested in spending $6,000 on economy airfare if I can build a reasonable points strategy instead.

Our current situation:

* We both have excellent, well-established credit and should have no problem getting approved for new cards.

* We each just signed up for Alaska cards with 75k point bonuses.

* I already have about 50k Atmos points from normal travel.

* I have had a Chase Sapphire Reserve for years and currently have about 60k Chase UR.

* I also opened a Marriott Bonvoy Boundless a few months ago.

* My wife's only relevant card right now is the new Alaska card.

* I'm at 2/24 and she's at 1/24.

I'm pretty new to actual churning/award travel. I've had rewards cards for years, but historically I've mostly transferred Chase points to Southwest and treated them more or less like a cash equivalent. So far I've mostly been searching Reddit and asking ChatGPT trying to figure out airline partners and award availability.

The biggest lead I've found so far was Finnair. It looked like PDX to Europe is 23k points each way depending, but every date I've searched says there is no award availability. I've searched dates during both spring break and summer and haven't been able to find anything useful.

That's basically where I'm stuck. I don't know if I'm looking in the wrong place, looking too early or late, or if trying to find 4 economy award seats during school breaks is just unrealistic.

Economy is completely fine. I'm not trying to find four business-class unicorn seats. The goal is just to get all four of us to Greece for a reasonable number of points.

If you were starting from this position, what would you do? Which programs or routes would you be watching? Is there a realistic way to make use of our Alaska/Atmos points? Should we be building Chase UR, Avios, Flying Blue, United, or something else?

Most importantly, is this realistically doable for a family of four during spring break or summer, or are those travel windows going to make award travel to Greece extremely difficult?

EDIT: I think I have this figured out. I can either take the train to Seattle and fly SEA to ATH for 35k points through Alaska, or fly from PDX to London, Amsterdam, or Frankfurt for around 35k points. I even found some options for 27k.

Then on the return trip, I can fly ATH to PDX for 37k Flying Blue points with a layover in Amsterdam.

So now I’m thinking it may make more sense to use London, Amsterdam, or Frankfurt as part of the trip rather than positioning to Seattle. We could spend a few days in one of those cities, then fly cheaply to Greece, and finish the trip in Athens before flying home.

I keep seeing so many good deals on here but I personally haven’t seen any with the Amex Delta card. I have a lot of Delta pesos saved up and would love to find a website that gives me better deals than Delta. They never have any good deals, unless I’m not looking on the right area or time. Any information would be greatly appreciated!

Finding good redemptions to Australia is so hard. Have been searching for nearly half a year and have all sorts of alerts set.

Still surprised that I actually booked 2 flights, but excited to fly Qantas first!!! Thank you all in the subreddit for your tips and help.

Does anyone have tips or advice for Qantas first? I saw that the Qantas first class lounge in LAX is closed for repairs

I'm looking at a trip - NYC to DPS, April 28 - May 19 (dates are slightly flexible by a day or so on either side)

Avoiding the super cheap options on Air India for now, I found an option on Emirates for 105,000 each way plus about $1200.

I have 2.2m+ Capital One points. I know the transfer ratio isn't awesome.

Am I missing any other options? This is my first attempt at using points to book an international business class ticket so any help or advise is appreciated.

Are they worth it? Which one is the best?

Has anyone purchased round trip from lax to tyo recently through using Virgin points with ANA? If so how many miles and how much were the fees?

Struggling to find anything reasonable. Everything is about 400k points from Moldova to SAN Oct 25/26. I I have checked MUC, ROM, CDG, WAR currently flying back via IST on a cash ticket.

AMEX points are where i am starting from. I am flexible on dates by 1-2 days either direction.

Looking for some advise / perspective for a trip I’m planning.

Looking to take 3 ppl business from either PHL; EWR; JFK; or LGA into Italy (ideally). Trip is flexible, ideally leaving last 2-2.5 weeks of sept 2027 and returning ~2 weeks after.

Trip would be Naples -> Rome -> Florence. Open to flying into surrounding cities (e.g., MXP) or even CDG or other close by cities to then fly into Italy.

I booked 2 business class on Air France 3 years ago for like 50-60k pts per person per way but I’ve heard it’s gotten more tricky of recent.

The routes ive been thinking of monitoring:
1. Aeroplan to book united EWR to Rome or surrounding
2. Emirates fifth freedom JFK to MXP. Either direct with them or using JAL if availability exists
3. American from PHL to FCO - though no clue how hard to get 3 tickets at a reasonable rate
4. Flying blue JFK to CDG then another flight from CDG to Naples.

I was using a few sites to track and monitor but open to suggestions / what has worked for you.

Points wise:
-350k chase
-700k Amex
-200k BILT
-200k American Airlines
-70k JAL

Anyone plan something similar recently? I know 3 is going to be hard but trying to ensure I’m doing everything right or if I’m missing something.

Interesting factoid. Nearly 2 million have used Roame to redeem their points and miles.

Tokyo is by far the most popular non-US destination every single year. It represents 9% of all searches using the Roame award flight search engine.

So if you're ever wondering why it's so hard to find good redemptions for Tokyo or why those deals disappear so quickly, the reason is that competition is intense.

Are you surprised by any cities on this list?

I have ~102K HDFC Diners Club Black points and am planning my first international family trip.

Trip details

• 2 adults + 1 child + 2 senior citizens = 5 passengers
• Origin: Bengaluru (BLR)
• Possible destinations: Kuala Lumpur (KUL) or Bangkok (BKK)
• Tentative dates: Dec 23, 2026 – Jan 1, 2027 (± a few days possible)
• Economy
• Prefer direct flights because of the senior citizens
• Current cash fares I'm seeing:
  • BLR → KUL: approximately ₹1.85–1.90L total for 5
  • BLR → BKK: approximately ₹1.75–1.80L total for 5

I initially thought of transferring DCB points to KrisFlyer because of the 1:1 transfer ratio, but after looking at award pricing, I'm not sure the mileage redemption actually beats SmartBuy.

I understand some DCB partners are 1:1 while others are 2:1 / 1:0.5, so I'm looking for advice based on actual redemption value, not just the transfer ratio.

Questions:

1. For BLR–KUL–BLR or BLR–BKK–BLR for 5 people, which DCB transfer partners are actually worth checking?
2. Is KrisFlyer useful for either Malaysia or Bangkok, particularly for Malaysia Airlines/Singapore Airlines or Singapore Airlines connections?
3. Are there other programs I should check — Avios, Flying Blue, Asia Miles, etc.?
4. Given cash fares of roughly ₹1.75–1.90L for 5, would you use SmartBuy at ₹1/RP rather than transfer?
5. Are there any current or expected transfer bonus windows that make it worth waiting?
6. If anyone has actually redeemed DCB points for Malaysia/Thailand/Singapore for a family of 4–5, I'd appreciate your experience.
7. If I have to choose between KUL and BKK, which route generally gives better opportunities for using DCB points in economy?

I'm not looking for business-class redemptions — economy is perfectly fine. The main goal is to maximize the value of the 102K DCB points without transferring speculatively.

Thanks!

Had some work travel and extra churning that allowed me to reach plat pro on AA this year.

I have award tix to Japan in Q2 2027 so now I want to look into a hotel strategy. It’s possible I’m too late if I want to book Japan hotels now?

I have the Marriott Bonvoy that starts me at gold so I was thinking of sticking with that but I’m open to other cards because I can do some manufactured spend with.

I’m also thinking of booking a Hawaii trip for Feb 2027 so I’m not sure if I should use my AA credit card for that (I get like 5x points for airline spend) or try to do a hotel credit card because it doesn’t make sense to chase any higher status on AA.

Has anyone tried booking it under someone else’s name? Trying to use P3’s credit for P1&2 upcoming travels before it expires since P3 won’t need it anytime soon. We all have the CSR if they ask for the card. Wondering if we can avail of P3’s credit to save on more OOP costs. Already using P1 & P2’s credit for the same trip and even P1’s FHR credit.

Staying here in December using The Edit & stacked with Chase Hotel Credits, anyone had nominal upgrades? I booked a premium room but considering downgrading to a basic room and hoping to be upgraded? Hoping for a room with a balcony or maybe a suite haha. Going for a birthday trip so hoping they consider it. I’ve activated my status for IHG through Chase too so hoping that’ll butter up the offer for an upgrade.

Heard good things about their lounge, worth paying 150-200€ for it at check in?

I debated on staying here vs Kimpton St. Honore but let me know if I should change my mind again - i still have time lol.

Please help me understand or tell me what I'm doing wrong.

I have 113K points with Chase. I need to go to Melbourne, AUS next spring. Dates are flexible. I've missed the opening rewards opportunity, so I'm watching for reasonable fares I can use some points with money. Here's an example of how I get frustrated. I see a nice looking deal on Air New Zealand in Premium Economy. I don't have any point with them directly. Chase does not transfer to them directly. However, they are a part of the Star Alliance, as is United, which Chase does transfer directly to. I thought the strategy is to go to United and search for a flight that Air New Zealand operates, book that ticket after transfering my points to United. The problem is I never see the flight LAX-MEL operated by Air New Zealand because United has enough of their own flights on that route.

Am I understanding how the process works? Am I missing some search option to see Air New Zealand flights on the United site? Will this never work because United is "too big" with it's numerous routes? Will this never work because United is the only member of the Star Alliance that Chase transfers to?

Thanks for any help you can give me, including tips on getting to Melbourne from LAX. :-)

New to this sub but a big fan of “Travel on Points” Facebook group.

Wondering how to pivot my strategy.

I joined the points game late 2024 when wedding planning. In May we went on a fabulous honeymoon paid for mostly in points. (Around 400k points used)

Now I have my sights set on a 7-day trip to Hong Kong in October with 3 or 4 day stopover in Japan. My mom is likely going to be racing in the Dragon Boat world championship.

Problem is, I don’t have any large expenses like a wedding to generate points!

We are a two player household, and have around 60k points leftover, scattered around our cards.

Player 1 (Me)
Recent cards since 2024
- Amex Green Business (recently downgraded from Gold)
- Capital One Venture
- Chase Sapphire
- Chase Marriott
Old Cards before the game
- Chase Amazon 2021
- PFFCU 2019

Player 2 (Husband)
Recent cards since 2025/6
- Capital One Venture
- Chase Sapphire
- Chase British Airways
Old cards
- TD Cash 2018

Not sure what SUB to go for next. Any downgrade/upgrade churn ideas?

Our bills including rent are around $3,800/month. Willing to pay service fees for the right payout. It would be amazing to book two Business Class round trips from East Coast USA to Hong Kong.

I was thinking we could get P2 a Chase Marriott card and use the 5 free nights in Hong Kong. But maybe that’s low hanging fruit?

Hi all, I’m new to travelling with points.
I have about 170k Avios I’m wanting for a business flight but need 187k.
I’ve recently transferred in 94500 points from my Amex to Avios so now have the opportunity to boost that anount. I can double my 94500 for £907 which seems like an amazing deal (boosting by 200% or 300% obviously even better too).
It seems like a great opp to get more points quickly for a good price considering it took me 3 years to earn that 94k.
Am I missing anything here? Is it good value?
Thanks in advance!