Are first class awards worth the extra miles? | Ep209 | 07/01/2023
Frequent Miler on the Air
Frequent Miler
4.9 • 640 Ratings
🗓️ 1 July 2023
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this week's show Greg and Nick discuss the huge advantage of flying business class over economy or premium economy (and how airline miles make that possible at a reasonable cost), and debate the next step: is it worth paying more miles to fly international first class instead of business class?
00:00:48 Giant Mailbag00:03:14 What crazy thing did Amex do this week? • Amex sometimes claims that tax payments don't count... • See also: Pay taxes via credit card 00:09:54 Deal talk: Save 40% to 50% at Amazon.com 00:16:56 Award Talk • Lufthansa often releases first class award space near last minute • Aeroplan not always showing awards that are bookable with United and/or Avianca00:19:37 MAIN EVENT: Are first class awards worth paying more for? • 00:21:26 Comparing economy, premium economy, business class, and first class • 00:32:10 First class ground services (Lufthansa example) • 00:36:39 Award cost econ vs. prem econ vs. biz vs. first class (AA example) • 00:41:40 Special first class products that ARE worth paying a huge premium for • 00:47:33 Award cost econ vs. vs. biz vs. first class (Aeroplan example) • 00:51:04 Award cost econ vs. prem econ vs. biz vs. first class (Lifemiles example) • 00:55:00 ANA First Class vs. JAL Business Class • 00:58:22 Conclusion: Is it worth it? 01:03:07 Question of the week #1: Are Greg and Nick out of touch? 01:07:31 Question of the week #2: Status match to get international upgrade?
Music Credit: Annie Yoder "Ocean Deep"
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a Voyescape podcast. |
| 0:03.9 | You can find all of our travel podcasts from around the world at voyescape.com. |
| 0:10.7 | Let's get into the giant mailbag. |
| 0:13.5 | What crazy thing did City this week? |
| 0:17.5 | It's time for mattress running the numbers. |
| 0:19.8 | Ready for the main event? |
| 0:21.0 | The main event. |
| 0:22.3 | Frequent Miler on the air starts now. |
| 0:26.5 | Today's main event, International First Class Awards. |
| 0:30.5 | Are they worth paying more for? |
| 0:32.8 | Now, you can use your miles to book International First Class. |
| 0:37.3 | And it's pretty nice. And it's very nice. Or you could use your miles to book international first class. And it's pretty nice. |
| 0:38.5 | And it's very nice. |
| 0:40.1 | Or you could use fewer miles and book international business class, which is still very nice. |
| 0:44.7 | Pretty nice. |
| 0:45.8 | Yeah. |
| 0:46.4 | Or pay even less in book like econ or premium econ. |
| 0:51.2 | And they get there at the same time. |
| 0:52.7 | They do. |
| 0:53.3 | They all arrive at the same time so we're going to |
| 0:55.3 | discuss whether it's worth paying more for these luxury flights first of course giant mailbag time |
| 1:00.8 | today's giant mail comes from saluki mike this is a podcast review uh so luci mike says most useful travel podcasts i listen to pretty |
... |
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