Award flights can be a pain to comb through and redeem, but the rewards are well worth the hassle. After about 4 months of churning, I finally have enough points to redeem a Marriott hotel and miles package. After a quick call into Marriott’s travel center, I was able to trade in 270,000 Marriott points for 120,000 Alaska Miles and a 7 day hotel voucher at any of their Category 1- 5 properties. The process typically takes anywhere from 1–2 weeks for the Miles to deposit according to the Marriott representative, but I received mine within 4 days of the redemption. Redeeming through Alaska Airlines meant that I had access to many of Alaska’s partner airlines. I was particularly interested in two: Japan Airlines and Cathay Pacific.
Now comes the hard part…booking the flight.
To my surprise, booking an award flight isn’t as easy as it seems. After going through the Alaska Airlines flight portal to look for flights from Toronto to Tokyo, I realized that the only results I would get were 30+ hour flights through American Airlines with several 10+ hour layovers. I turned to the Churning Canada sub-Reddit for an answer and found that there were direct flights on Japan Airlines available from Chicago to Japan. Cathay Pacific flights were not listed anywhere on the Alaska Airlines website, so I decided to call in to request availability.
Calling them was the best decision I made that day.
The customer service representative I spoke with patiently searched for flight availability through many dates, airlines and paths. It turns out that Cathay Pacific would fly direct from Hong Kong back to Chicago and with a few positioning flights in and out of O’Hare International, I could travel with Japan Airlines into Tokyo and Cathay Pacific back from Hong Kong! The rep even managed to include an additional flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong in business class without any additional charges or points.
What would the flights cost out of pocket?
This is the exciting bit: I did a quick search on Google to find the exact flights that I would be boarding and the prices were astonishing; They totaled over $40,000!
What did these flights cost me?
A total of 140,000 Alaska Miles and around $100 in fuel surcharges and taxes were used to redeem the flight. For those who have read my post on the first class credit card collection, the total card fees associated to acquire 140,000 Alaska Miles come to a total of $635. Altogether, this redemption was made possible for under $750 (Not to mention we have a 7 day hotel voucher)! Albeit, I would never pay $40,000 out of pocket for a flight, but with miles, first class becomes something of a very affordable luxury.
If you are interested in learning more about churning, I recommend taking a look at some of my other posts on which cards to collect. Whether you’re looking at flying in first class, or some extra points to splurge on anything with, having a few good cards will quickly make that dream a reality.
Thanks for reading!
Points Smart 