I am a newbie, I have lurked here and there for years. This was my first international booking experience and it was frustrating. I'll get down to it.
I'm military traveling to Bahrain. My dates and flexibility on the fare are Aug 5th (-1) - 12th (+1). My departure airport was flexible, FAT SF or LA area.
I guess booking way in advance might have been the way to go but unfortunately the SOONEST I could have made this booking was 4 weeks out. I've followed the fare closely but learned a lot along the way. I made my fourth or fifth consecutive reservation last night, within each 24 hours a better deal has magically appeared causing my to re-book over the past week.
I currently hold a Lufthansa ticket from FAT-DEN-FRA-BAH, then BAH-FRA-SFO-FAT, with the FAT legs and the FRA-SFO leg operated by United.
The fare was $1700. I would have liked to use points but I don't have that many. I have about 120,000 AMEX and maybe 30,000 with Chase. I currently have only the MB Amex Platinum as well as other cards earning 2-5% cash back.
Any suggestions on making this travel a little more comfortable? Or cheap? I know upgrading isn't always the best use of miles, anyone care to comment here? AMEX said they could reimburse me for the fare by applying my points after the purchase, it sounded like the rate for that was close to 1.5c/point. Just curious how I could have done better, or still could improve, this trip.
EDIT -- Fare on the way out is S, on the way back is U. Only seats I could select were United, took 60H for an aisle seat BEHIND the 3-4-3 combo of the 747. Definitely the back of the bus though...
Thanks in advance. This is a real wealth of knowledge!
I'm military traveling to Bahrain. My dates and flexibility on the fare are Aug 5th (-1) - 12th (+1). My departure airport was flexible, FAT SF or LA area.
I guess booking way in advance might have been the way to go but unfortunately the SOONEST I could have made this booking was 4 weeks out. I've followed the fare closely but learned a lot along the way. I made my fourth or fifth consecutive reservation last night, within each 24 hours a better deal has magically appeared causing my to re-book over the past week.
I currently hold a Lufthansa ticket from FAT-DEN-FRA-BAH, then BAH-FRA-SFO-FAT, with the FAT legs and the FRA-SFO leg operated by United.
The fare was $1700. I would have liked to use points but I don't have that many. I have about 120,000 AMEX and maybe 30,000 with Chase. I currently have only the MB Amex Platinum as well as other cards earning 2-5% cash back.
Any suggestions on making this travel a little more comfortable? Or cheap? I know upgrading isn't always the best use of miles, anyone care to comment here? AMEX said they could reimburse me for the fare by applying my points after the purchase, it sounded like the rate for that was close to 1.5c/point. Just curious how I could have done better, or still could improve, this trip.
EDIT -- Fare on the way out is S, on the way back is U. Only seats I could select were United, took 60H for an aisle seat BEHIND the 3-4-3 combo of the 747. Definitely the back of the bus though...
Thanks in advance. This is a real wealth of knowledge!