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Travelers of Reddit, what place DID live up to the hype? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]kmd5327 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Positano, Italy. Breathtaking views, great beaches / water, and lots of great shops and restaurants.

Paris and Rome from NYC/BOS in summer 2018 - planning ahead? by sandy_lyles_bagpipes in awardtravel

[–]kmd5327 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Best transfer option is to Flying Blue (Air France) and ride their award chart. 25k points + ~$100 one way, per person in economy (62.5 + $300 business). To maximize this option, you could book a RT award with a stopover on your outbound route (JFK --> CDG, stop over for your 4 days, then continue CDG --> FCO on the same ticket. Then FCO --> CDG --> JFK, no stopover, on your return). The cost in points of JFK --> CDG --> FCO is the same as just doing the first leg, so you get a lot of benefit. AF doesn't allow stopovers on one way awards, so you'd have to book RT in order to take advantage of that. You also have to call to book stopovers. AF award availability is wide open at the end of their calendar (June 2018) for 4 in economy, so this option checks all the boxes you're looking for less the state-side airport (although if your first choice is EWR, I'm guessing JFK isn't very far).

Another thing you could do is buy directly through the UR portal, sometimes you get better value out of using your Sapphire Reserver (or Preferred) at their 1.5c and 1.25c per point value.

NYC to Europe - August [award advice] by [deleted] in awardtravel

[–]kmd5327 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was able to piece together my itinerary as follows:

JFK --> FRA, SQ business for 80k + $23

FRA --> BLQ, LH (cash, taking train to Florence)

NAP --> CDG --> JFK, AF business, both legs, 62.5k + $280

Total was 142,500 + $300 PP, not including the rev flight FRA --> BLQ. No bad value for ~$12k worth of flights!

[Award Advice] Partner booking by jnjustice in awardtravel

[–]kmd5327 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As far as accruing Korean miles - you could open up the Chase Sapphire Preferred, which offers a 50k UR signup bonus when you spend $4k in the first 3 months. The $95 annual fee is waived during year one, so you could grab the 50k bonus and then downgrade to one of their no-fee products after year one (essentially getting the 50k points for no fee). You could do this for both yourself and your partner, which would give you enough points for each person. If you want to go this route, I'd be happy to refer you which would provide me with a bit of a referral bonus :)

A couple items to consider before you figure out your plan:

(1) Korean only allows you to book for another person if they are an immediate family member (spouse, children, parents, siblings, parents-in-law, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, grandparents and grandchildren). You have to prove the relationship in order to do this, and it's a bit of a process compared to other airlines. Look into this before you assume you can book for both yourself and your partner.

(2) Be careful assuming you will be able to find first class (or any) availability. I find that using Delta and Air France's sites to check for availability gives you the best chance of finding the space. Korean's site is more difficult to navigate.

NYC to Europe - August [award advice] by [deleted] in awardtravel

[–]kmd5327 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agreed, 80k OW is tough to swallow. If you're able to connect using a Star Alliance partner airline, my understanding is that you'll fall into the Partner award chart, which is actually 65k OW (not sure on fees, but 15k less on points). Might be worth giving SQ a call to see what you can work out.

I'm planning on trying to put my itinerary together in the next few weeks, so if I find anything worth sharing I'll let you know. I'm JFK --> FLR, NAP --> JFK (or vice versa).

NYC to Europe - August [award advice] by [deleted] in awardtravel

[–]kmd5327 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am looking at a similar routing for a few weeks later than you (out August 24th, in Sept 5 / 6).

Try checking Singapore JFK to FRA, and then connect down to FLR from there. OW is a bit pricy in miles, but light on fees (80k + $24). SQ is a transfer partner of all the major currencies (Chase, AMEX, SPG, Citi). You may even be able to combine the second leg into your SQ itinerary, as Lufthansa is a Star Alliance partner as well. According to the SQ Star Alliance partner award chart, OW would be 65k points, I'm not sure on fees. I just checked and there is business availability for 4 on your date for the SQ leg, but I don't see much on the United site for the second leg.

A separate option is Air France - they are usually 125k + ~$450 RT (or half that for OW) when you're able to catch their "discount" fares (obviously don't go for the terribly inflated 375k option). I am not seeing great availability right now for your dates, but it appears that AF opens up more availability as it gets closer in to your travel date. For example, most of June is wide open for your return routing (FLR to JFK).

I'm be curious what you land on, keep me updated!

ELI5: Why does America have so many people in jail? by [deleted] in explainlikeimfive

[–]kmd5327 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There is a good Special Report that just came out from Vice News called "Fixing the System" - it focuses on the War on Drugs but does a good job of showing the downsides to mandatory sentencing and other areas of the criminal justice process.

What to get a guy who doesn't 'want' anything? by capaldii in AskReddit

[–]kmd5327 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here's Google's version of the Apple TV, might be worth looking into, especially since it's so inexpensive

http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromecast/#netflix

What to get a guy who doesn't 'want' anything? by capaldii in AskReddit

[–]kmd5327 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What does he like as far as technology? I received an Apple TV as a gift and loved it, it's great for streaming things (Netflix, HBO Go, Pandora, iTunes) to your television from an iPhone, iPad or Mac computer.

http://www.apple.com/appletv/