Please email me at:  postcardATjonathanchao.com (replace AT with “@” symbol)

This is only really good for those based in the USA.

I’m used to seeing credit card promotions offering between 10-30k miles for signing up for a branded credit card.  Although generous, you can’t really redeem them for much.  At most, you might be able to redeem a round trip domestic coach ticket.  However, once in a while a great deal comes around.

British Airways and Chase have teamed up to offer an incredible deal.  You receive 100,000 British Airways miles for signing up to the British Airways Signature Visa and spending $2000 within 90 days.  According to their partner award chart, 100,000 miles on British Airways gets you your choice of the following:

2 RT tickets to Asia from LA/SF/NY on Cathay Pacific in Coach

-OR-

1 RT ticket to Asia from LA/SF/NY on Cathay Pacific in Business Class

-OR-

4 RT US Domestic airline tickets on American Airlines.

2 RT flights to Asia are worth about 1200, 1 Business Class ticket is worth about 3,500, and 4 domestic RT tickets probably are worth in the ballpark of about 1200.  There are more options available based on the One World alliance.

Now you COULD use the British Airways miles for flights on British Airways planes, but the fuel surcharges British Airways levies on award tickets are horrendous…typically 400-500 dollar range, more if you’re in Business Class.  If you use the miles on Cathay Pacific, you’re looking at about 1-200 in taxes.

So for about $75 out of pocket plus about 200 in opportunity costs (assuming you use the 2%  rebate Schwab card) for a Business Class round trip flight to Asia from any Cathay Pacific gateway (NY, SF, or LA).

Good deal, no?

US Airways is currently having a promotion awarding double miles for all miles purchased.  Normally I don’t recommend purchasing miles because the purchase rate on miles is abysmal and availability of award seats can be spotty.  However, with the benefit of this promotion the value proposition changes greatly.  While that doesn’t do much for inherent nature of limited availability on award tickets; it does become possible to get a real cheap business class ticket if you have some flexibility in your departure/return dates and routing.  Remember, the key for any award ticket is to be FLEXIBLE.

A roundtrip USA-North Asia (and vice versa) ticket using US Airways miles on a Star Alliance carrier is currently 90k miles + tax.  Currently each mile costs $0.0275 and due to the promotion, the cost is cut in half.  The offer is limited to the first 50,000 miles purchased (which can net you a maximum of 100,000 miles).  So the math for a RT Asia ticket is as follows:

(90,000*.0275)/2= $1237.50 plus sales tax and ticketing taxes for a Business class ticket from the USA to the aforementioned countries!  Normally a business class ticket to Asia would go for about $3000!

Now, if your desired destination is another country in the Southern Asia Pacific region, you can fly into Hong Kong, Taipei, or Macau and fly elsewhere using a low cost carrier such as Air Asia or Tiger Airways.

If you want to fly into Europe, the mileage cost is 100k miles or (100,000*.0275)/2= $1375+taxes.

Now while using miles to purchase a coach ticket is a waste, using this promotion to snag a premium class award ticket makes this promotion a steal.  Essentially to fly to Asia, you’re only paying a few hundred in premium for a round trip ticket to fly business versus a paid coach ticket.  The premium –for me– is well worth it.   My jetlag is reduced because I can actually lay out and sleep and add to the fact that I probably can drink my body weight in champagne and scotch makes this a steal.

Here is a link to the current award chart to see if you can find any other deals.

Enjoy the champagne and don’t forget to write me postcards

“I drink to make other people more interesting.” ]]> http://jonathanchao.com/blog/archives/70/feed 0 http://jonathanchao.com/blog/archives/73 http://jonathanchao.com/blog/archives/73#comments Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:23:10 +0000 Jonathan Chao http://jonathanchao.com/blog/archives/73 Gotta love it.  Going to my favorite restaurant TODAY.

www.seafood.co.th

Feeding and playtime with a 4 month old baby tiger.

Walking a 7 month tiger.

I have more pics–some of which of are me holding a 450 pound tiger…but I’m not sure if I’m going to share as of yet.

I’ll be doing inspections on the 3 restaurants I’ve scouted in the past few weeks.  Hopefully in a month or two one of those can be ALL mine.