I love credit cards so much! v7.0 - 2025 (see first page for add'l details)

[calypso726]

Has anyone done a Greece / Turkey trip?

What airline do people recommend to fly to IST from the east coast?

If I were flying to IST, I would probably use Citi TYP transfers to Turkish Miles & Smiles to book an award ticket. We did a cruise from Greece and flew to Athens out of EWR on Emirates fifth freedom flight last year. Not sure how feasible those are anymore. I understand the taxes have gone way up on their flights.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

If you have a JB card check your offers, DH and I had get 10 tiles after spending $1,000 between 9/1 and 11/15…My daughter had earn 20 tiles after spending $1,200 in the same timeframe

 

[VGCgroupie]

Not as good as the current offer with spend requirement. But if you are looking for the no spend offer I got this on my flight last week.

 

[DCLMP]

Has anyone done a Greece / Turkey trip?

What airline do people recommend to fly to IST from the east coast?

If I was doing this and I might be next year I would fly to LHR spend the night and then fly to Istanbul. You can fly LHR to Istanbul for 12.5k AA points on BA. Hotels around LHR are cheap. My thought is if you can get to LHR than anywhere from LHR is relatively cheap or low miles.

I'm flying to Rome next year on Condor using Alaska miles. That's if I don't change my mind and go to Istanbul. Everything with Condor goes through Frankfurt. Frankfurt seems to be another European hub that you can get about anywhere from.

I've never flown on any of the middle eastern airlines so I'm no help there.

 

[Minnie368]

How many seats do you need? No experience stalking ANA since they tend to only release 1 J and 1 F at calendar open. It sounds very competitive from what I've read.

Lots of experience stalking and booking JAL from SFO. Usually fairly easy with Cathay at calendar open (2 J and 1 F is typical). Probably with Finnair (Avios) too since they also open at 360 days. Haven't tried though since they only recently came on my radar. The number of miles, taxes, and redeposit/change fees are different, so would need to weigh the pros and cons. Booking with AA or Alaska is cheaper, but takes a lot of luck because their calendar open is 331/330. I used to like booking with BA since it's a little less miles from SFO and better redeposit fee compared to Cathay. But they open at 355 and it's too competitive now to wait.

We would need two. I'll have to read about Cathay because I'm not familiar with them.

 

[lsutigers03]

Just closed DW's CIP on September 5. I have homeowners insurance renewing on October 3. I want to try and get another CIP one to pay the insurance and two before Chase stops the support points for existing business accounts. Anyone have a recent DP of applying for the same Ink within 30 days of closing one?

 

[wanderlust7]

Just closed DW's CIP on September 5. I have homeowners insurance renewing on October 3. I want to try and get another CIP one to pay the insurance and two before Chase stops the support points for existing business accounts. Anyone have a recent DP of applying for the same Ink within 30 days of closing one?

Yes, I've done that within the last year and it was fine. I think it's not a concern because there's no rule against having multiple.

 

[Best Aunt]

I just wanted to say thanks for the advice I received on this thread. I applied for my first business card. It arrived in the mail today. You guys are great!

 

[mmmears]

Looking for advice on first/biz class from east coast (preferably) to Tokyo. I'm getting caught up on this thread, so if it's been talked about in the past 20 or so pages I apologize. I know there are options like amex MR to Virgin to book ANA, and AA to book Japan Airlines, but which of these is more realistic? We're looking to go in May of 2027, so we have some time to accumulate some more points. Currently we have about 350K in MR and tons of UR, but I don't know how helpful UR are. We also have some Delta and AA. I just know I need to focus now so that I have some time to earn what I need. Any suggestions? We should be able to plan far enough in advance to book when seats are first released and should have a little flexibility. Flying from Pittsburgh but will need to reposition. I'm open to just using SW or sprit or whoever to get us to the best airport as a starting point. I've read a lot of blogs/articles on how to do this, but I know it's not as easy as it sounds and want to make sure I'm increasing my chances by focusing on the right type of points. Thanks in advance!

We went to Japan this past May, so my booking info is a year old, but we chose to go through BA because they have access to the JAL J seats a long time before AA does. As it was, I could get the dates I wanted to for the outbound, but for the return we couldn't get a non-stop (although LAX and SEA were both open). Less than a week before our return, United had access to ANA Biz direct, so we switched to get the direct flight. I didn't mind having extra Avios because I needed them anyway for a 2026 trip. I didn't use Cathay because I didn't know what I would do with the miles if I canceled the flight, but they get to post the JAL seats first, so you'll have the best luck booking through them.