Many of the best uses of points and miles occur outside of the United States. Sometimes it is a lack of competition that makes deals available, while other times it is the blissful ignorance Americans apply when viewing the rest of the world.
For example, American Airlines charges the same number of miles (60,000) to fly from the Middle East to Africa (practically neighbors) in first class as it dos from the Middle East to the South Pacific. If you look on a map, the South Pacific involves a lot more flying.
Using this creative mapping, we were able to snag a flight in Etihad A380 Apartments Class Using 54,000 American Miles (after 10% rebate for cardholders). The flight, from Sydney (SYD) to Abu Dhabi (AUH) only cost $66.40 per person out of pocket and includes 15 hours of flying first class, chauffeur service and all of the other goodies that come along with flying Etihad first.
When people ask me what I am most excited about as a full-time traveler, I show them this picture.
From a pure luxury standpoint, this is as good as it gets. The fact that I can take a shower on a plane for $66 and a credit card signup bonus amazes me every day.
But I think I just made an even better redemption, at least for our my upcoming travel needs
It seems impossible to top the value of the Etihad Apartments using AAdvantage miles, but this one may take the cake.
Last week I booked a flight online using 20,000 United miles. The route touches on the Caribbean sea, Central America and South America – dubbed “the Latin Hopper” by my friend Drew at Travel is Free.
For 20,000 miles and $134.06 per person, you can start off in the Caribbean, have a layover in one Central American hub city, a stopover in another, a destination in northern South America, and then a return flight to Central America or the Caribbean.
I know that is a lot of words, so let’s see a picture of all of the flights that I was able to book with one ticket of 20,000 miles:
This one ticket allows us to visit 5 new countries on a single ticket, fly for 15 hours and 5,570 miles over the course of 3 months in South America.
For the sheer amount of countries visited, it is hard to imagine a better award redemption.
Booking this flight on the United Website
I don’t like dealing with phone agents to book awards. I’m just not a phone person. So I try to book online whenever possible.
Fortunately everything we are talking about here is bookable online (assuming that the space is available on flights).
Before we search for options, let’s get familiar with United’s routing rules, to the best of my knowledge:
- A layover occurs when you spend less than 24 hours in a connecting city on an international flight. In our case, 13 hours in Panama City counts as a layover, even though we have to leave the airport and get a hotel.
- You are allowed one stopover on any roundtrip award ticket.
- A roundtrip award ticket does not mean you need to fly in/out of the same airport. It doesn’t even require you to fly in/out of the same zone! You can leave from an airport in the Caribbean and return to an airport in Central America as a “round trip” ticket. This is really what makes the Latin Hopper possible.
- Your destination is the city of your choosing in the Caribbean, Central America or Northern South America region.
Valid Latin Hopper route ideas found on the United website
1) The “El Padron”
This route lets you start in Mexico City and then go to Bogotoa, Colombia -> Guayaquil, Ecuador -> Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Two direct flights, and then a 3 segment flight to get to Montego Bay, Jamaica. 20k miles + $235.28 in taxes.
2) The Saint John to Saint Joe Connection
Start in San Juan Puerto Rico. Fly to San Jose, Costa Rica for some fun in the sun. When you get bored? Go on down to Machu Picchu for a while. Then finish off for more relaxation in the Bahamas.
Lots of time in an airplane, but a lot of destinations for 20k points and $120.81 in fees.
That is a lot of flying for a little price! A couple could travel this route by simply opening up the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and using the 40k point signup bonus to transfer to United.
Almost every route that you can imagine will work with the hopper, but you need to be patient
This blog post has taken me far too long to write, because the United website can be slow and error out if you do something wrong. So it can take a while to find available space at a saver level.
You will need to be patient if you want to make this work.
Personally? I am already looking at changing my Latin Hopper route to end in Cusco instead of Lima, since I may be able to see Machu Picchu without adding another ticket. Or at least adding an open jaw.
Leaving from the US? Then combine your Latin Hopper with Southwest positioning flights
Now you might think that this is a cool post, but probably won’t work for you, especially when you are based in the United States.
I get that, but I also have a solution.
The Jeffsetters will be jumping on the Latin Hopper from the United States, and we are using Southwest Airlines and their companion pass to get us there.
Using the Southwest Interactive Route Map, you can see that Southwest services several destinations that qualify as Latin Hopper jump off points.
All of these destinations look pretty awesome, and you can get to them on Southwest.
We were able to book our flight to Aruba for less than 10,000 RapidRewards points total for two people. These points could come from a Southwest credit card (used to get the Companion Pass), transfer from Ultimate Rewards, or you could earn them the old school way from actually flying.
Using Avios works as well!
For our return flight on the Latin Hopper, we used Avios to get us from Belize City to Miami. While this was a higher miles cost than Southwest + higher taxes on the ticket, we decided to take this route due to our need to be in Florida for the next leg of our trip.
If you are doing this route from your home base in the US, then you will probably find the most value using Southwest in both cases.
You can also use Avios to get from South America Region 1 to South America Region 2, if you want to continue on to Southern South America at any point of your trip. This is something that the Jeffsetters will be doing during our time in South America, and you can expect a future post about that as well.
If you are looking to see a lot of countries, the Latin Hopper may just be the best deal in Points and Miles
This is not the most glamorous flight for using miles. It is simply a bare-bones way to get to see a lot of countries that are located in a similar geographic region. Mile-for-mile, you get to see a lot of places on a single ticket.
We all value things differently, but I would like to make it into the traveler’s century club by 2018. Visiting several countries on a single ticket is one of the only ways I can make this happen while still enjoying the “slow travel” lifestyle.
The best part? By taking advantage of sweet spots in mileage award charts, we can experience the best of both worlds with the Etihad Apartment and the Latin Hopper.
We have a lot of travel coming up, so our priorities have changed. I am far less interested in using 100k+ for a long-haul first class flight than I was a year ago. Now it is all about finding the best deals based on proximity or our unique positioning outside of the United States.
