Ticket/Airmile quandary

[CdnCarrie]

Which leads me back to my original question about Marlin. The only thing I can find is that you can get gift cards up to $400. Do you just accumulate them or how do you do it?

$400 per person. So $1600 off the package for our family of 4. I just book with my TA and take in the vouchers as I redeem them.

They did raise the number of Air Miles needed recently. Last December when I cashed in my Air Miles for Marlin Travel vouchers they were less than that. You use to be able to do $50 vouchers as well.

You can also book the Universal or Disney hotels directly with Air Miles. We used Air Miles to pay for a Universal Hotel last winter.

 

[damo]

$400 per person. So $1600 off the package for our family of 4. I just book with my TA and take in the vouchers as I redeem them.

They did raise the number of Air Miles needed recently. Last December when I cashed in my Air Miles for Marlin Travel vouchers they were less than that. You use to be able to do $50 vouchers as well.

You can also book the Universal or Disney hotels directly with Air Miles. We used Air Miles to pay for a Universal Hotel last winter.

Perfect. Thank you!!! That really helps to have those options. Do you recall how many points it was for the Universal hotel? Which one did you stay at? Wonder if the Disneyland hotels work that way too.

 

[KandyM]

Carrie is right you have to do the math - In her example the math shows getting flights at value of less than 10 cents per mile, and sometimes this is the case, but when I plan far enough in advance it is easy to get my family of 5 to from Saskatchewan to Florida and back for 25 cents per mile. I have yet to see the value of cashing them in for anything else besides flights go anywhere near 25 cents per mile.

If I have to travel and can't get flights for 22 to 25 cents per mile then I save them until when I can (as opposed to cashing them in at a lower rate). However, I know some people are just concerned about getting their current trip at as low of a cost as possible and cashing them in for 10 cents per mile is better than nothing. So you have to decide if you goal is to get the best value for your airmiles (that may take planning up to a year in advance), or do you just want to save as much as you can immediately. One goal isn't better than the other, nothing is wrong with cashing them in for 10 cents per mile, but it is better if you are making an informed decision.

Hi!
I also have a family of five that I would like to get from Saskatchewan to Orlando next August. I have about 13000 miles, so 1-2 tickets have to be bought without miles. Do you have any airmiles advice for me? It seems like the regular tickets on the airmiles site are way more than anywhere else and wipe out any savings we get on the other three flights.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Perfect. Thank you!!! That really helps to have those options. Do you recall how many points it was for the Universal hotel? Which one did you stay at? Wonder if the Disneyland hotels work that way too.

Depends on time of year and which hotel. I checked and it too far back to see my online Air mile redemption history. Sorry I don't remember. It was 3 nights at peak season at Hard Rock Hotel and was perhaps 3000 Air Miles? I can't remember for sure.

 

[redrosesix]

I have yet to find a good deal for my airmiles in wdw except...

last year I used 800 miles to get a $200 alamo gift card which covered all of my rental car fees

we do use our miles for flights but not to Orlando -- it would cost over 2k airmiles each!!!! we save a lot more by using them for a trip to indiana that we do every few years -- just over 1100 airmiles for a ticket that would cost us $750

 

[redrosesix]

Hi!
I also have a family of five that I would like to get from Saskatchewan to Orlando next August. I have about 13000 miles, so 1-2 tickets have to be bought without miles. Do you have any airmiles advice for me? It seems like the regular tickets on the airmiles site are way more than anywhere else and wipe out any savings we get on the other three flights.

I agree -- their prices are way too high. Just see if you can get the rest of the tickets on the same flight using another booking method. The flights you book on airmiles are available for anybody to book into. Your chances of getting everyone seated together aren't great, but you might get it very close.