My mission to save $100,000 on my honeymoon with points and miles – Part Two: Flights

Yesterday, we did a rundown of the money we saved on hotels during our seven-month honeymoon by using credit card and hotel points. Today, we’ll finish up the tally by focusing on flights and determine whether we saved $100,000 using points and miles during our trip.

Japan Airlines, Business Class, 8 hours, Boeing 787-9, 25,000 Alaska Airlines Miles, $1,755 Cash Rate Per Person

If your flight leaves at 2:40 AM, you’re not going to want to be in an economy seat. This provided a perfect excuse for our first business class redemption. For 25,000 Alaska Airlines miles each, we scored lie flat seats on Japan Airlines’ Boeing 787 SkySuite product for the nearly eight-hour flight from Bangalore to Tokyo which otherwise would have cost $1,755 each, not the craziest cash rate, but not one I would have wanted to pay either. We slept all the way to Narita, and picked up our Japan Rail Passes for our month-long trip consisting of hiking, sushi and onsens. Due in part to the plummeting yen, the price of the Japan Rail Pass will soon increase for the first time in over 30 years. The Japan Rail Pass isn’t for everyone though – even though we locked in the cheaper price and trained all over the country, for us, it still wasn’t worth it. You can read about our itinerary and how much we would have saved if we had bought single tickets here.

Etihad Airlines, Business Class, 16 Hours, 48,000 Aeroplan Miles, $4,103 Cash Rate Per Person

The first flight of our trip was to Bangkok. We did it in a comfortable fashion, on two of Etihad’s Boeing 787s. Though the product isn’t quite as polished as that of Qatar’s or Emirates, it was still a great deal for 48,000 and being able to arrive in Thailand feeling refreshed. On top of that, the ice cold champagne and phenomenal vegetable biryani in the lounge at the Abu Dhabi airport didn’t hurt. I think I had three plates and a full bottle of Laurent Perrier.

Korean Airlines, Economy Class, 2 hours, Airbus 220-200, 17,500 Delta Skymiles, $196 Cash Rate Per Person

By the fifth month in our seven-month trip, cash wasn’t necessarily a concern, but it wasn’t free-flowing either. We had some Delta Skymiles to burn, and one thing I’ve noticed is that you are apt to get a much better deal for your miles if you use them on international partner flights than you get for domestic or international flights departing from the US. For example, a KLM flight from AMS-KIX in business class will set you back 90,000 Skymiles, while a SEA-KIX flight in business will cost you 380,000 Skymiles. So while a total of $196 wasn’t the priciest for two tickets from Taiwan, it was a good reason to burn 17,500 Skymiles. Plus, we got to ride on Korean Airlines’ new A220, as opposed to the low-cost carrier we probably would have taken otherwise, which was fun.

Garuda Indonesia, Economy Class, 8 hours, Airbus 330-300, 17,500 Delta Skymiles, $622 Per Person

Flights originating in Japan can be expensive. This was the case for a nonstop flight from Narita to Denpasar, Bali, which would have been $622 had we paid cash for it. Instead, we booked it with 17,500 Delta Skymiles, an even better deal than the Korean Air flight mentioned above. It was an uneventful flight, comfortable enough with Garuda’s 33 inches of legroom of economy, especially as it was a daytime flight. While there’s no denying that Bali is a popular honeymoon site, it was a bit of a miss for us. You can read why in an upcoming post.

Asiana Airlines, ICN-HNL, Economy Class, 9 Hours, Boeing 777, 30,000 United Miles, $680 Cash Rate Per Person

As all of the flights from Asia to Hawaii leave at night, this was one of the award flights that I really wanted to be able to fly in business class. Alas, sometimes your travel plans are dashed and you’re destined to spend 10 hours on a red eye in economy. Decent award business class fares to Hawaii at this time of the year were simply too hard to find so we settled for a nonstop flight on an airline with 33 inches of legroom and a good reputation. We lucked out and were able to enjoy “poor man’s business class” – a row of three seats each that we were able to stretch out across. Sometimes the travel gods smile on you.

Qatar Airways/Iberia Airlines, First/Business Class, 27 hours, Airbus A380, Boeing 787-8, Airbus 320, 110,000 American Airlines Miles, $10,217 Cash Rate Per Person

We decided to meet up with my wife’s parents in Portugal in May. The long weekend we spent in Lisbon was phenomenal, complete with a visit to my favorite Michelin-starred restaurant and perfect weather. The only issue was that we had to get there from the literal other side of the world, in Australia. Sitting in the back of the bus on a flight from Australia to one of the farthest west points of Europe was simply not in the cards, so I got to work trying to figure out the best business itinerary we could pay for with points. We settled on the stellar Qatar Airways, which would route us from Perth to Doha to Madrid to Lisbon.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) there was no award space in business for the first leg, so we had to shell out 30,000 more American Airlines miles, for a total of 110,000 and sat in First Class on Qatar Airways’ A380 from Perth to Doha, an 11-hour flight where we dined on caviar and sipped Krug 2004 before falling asleep in a seat that was even larger than Qatar’s Q-Suite.

First Class was had only one other passenger and he was in the row behind us, so even though it’s not all that private of a cabin, when you looked around, there was no one else to be seen. It felt like we were traveling on our own private jet. While I wouldn’t have sprung for First Class had business been available (after all, the tagline for the Q-Suite is “First in Business”), it was a very comfortable flight. Still, by the end of it, in the stuffy Madrid airport (the last leg of the flight was on Iberia), where the air conditioning isn’t allowed to go under 80 degrees due to some stupid law they passed, we were absolutely knackered.

The Bottom Line

While some of the miles came from specifically branded cards like Chase’s Marriott Boundless or Barclay’s American Airlines Red Mastercard , many were earned on cards like Chase Sapphire Preferred, which can be transferred to dozens of different airline and hotel programs. Once you hit their 75,000 welcome bonus, you’ll be well on your way to booking flights like these. If you are planning a trip in the coming months, consider signing up for one to have a nice collection of points in your pocket.

We used 496,000 miles to book flights during our seven-month honeymoon and this saved us $35,146. Together with the money saved from our hotel bookings ($23,370), we saved $58,516. This is a far cry from the $100,000 I set my mind to, but still a pretty penny! I guess it just means we’ll have to go out for 14 months next time!

What’s the most you’ve ever saved on a trip by using points and miles? Let us know in the comments!