re: #350 klys (maker of Silmarils)

I don’t have quite enough to do the tickets for both of us. I haven’t sorted out yet if it would make sense to buy one and use miles or one or what.

At this point, once I use them I’m not bothering with saving them again. Most of them were actually with Continental, when I lived in NJ and flew out of Newark. mr. klys and I highly prefer flying Southwest these days for domestic flights, although Delta gets its share of business too if we can get a reasonable direct (their upgrades to first class are not too horrible) and Virgin America can also be nice.

When we travel internationally we’re generally looking at the international carriers.

I do have enough American miles that I should sort out what we’re going to try and use those for as well, so I can wash my hands of that program.

Again, look at alternative methods of generating United miles. If you are thinking about Europe, I can tell you after exhaustive research in the last month that they have the best routes that add the fewest extra charges to so-called “free” tickets. The majority of American Airlines connections to Europe entail making a British Airways connection at Heathrow which will set you back $490! Last year I spent an extra night in Berlin to avoid this. The train ticket from where I was to Berlin and a hotel night there STILL saved me money!

Having said that, I would highly recommend sorting out your American miles ASAP. The award chart is not getting SO much worse, but you will get the most bang for your miles there if you can get something booked before the end of the year there (to fly anytime in the next 10 months).