HELP! 50,000 points+$160 for short haul United flight?

[newdanfan]

Looking into flying from NYC to ORD for a bris next week (Thurs-Fri), and I'm a little confused with the mileage and fees, so I hope someone can help me quickly.

For both my husband and I to fly on United leaving Thursday afternoon and coming back Friday afternoon, it's 50,000 miles (25,000 each ticket) plus $160 fee.  Which means, according to my calculations: if we're transferring Chase points, which are worth about 1.75 each, that's $875 for the miles +$160 = $1,035 for short haul flight from NYC to Chicago?!? 

Am I missing something or does that make sense?  It seems like that's a lot of money, but I don't really have much to compare it to.  Looking at regular fares on other airlines, it almost seems cheaper to just pay full price for a ticket.  Is this a stupid use of points?  Is there something else I can transfer Chase points to that would make more sense?  When I searched on BA.com it said that BA doesn't fly directly between NYC and Chicago.

Can someone please give me some advice, quickly!  Thank you all in advance!!

[moko]

bad use of points in general (tickets are around $250 cash-that would be 1cpm before fees) plus you're probably getting hit up with last minute redemption fees. bad bad bad

[ganizzy]

check aa, if they have saver award, non stop flight. then u could book that with ba

otherwise ur paying the $75 fee for booking last minute
if u want to save the $150, then u have to transfer ur chase points to someone who has status or the club/explorer card and have them book for u

in general using mileage for domestic especially short haul flights is a bad use of points, unless the prices r really high.

[newdanfan]

check aa, if they have saver award, non stop flight. then u could book that with ba

How can I book with BA?  I tried searching on BA's website from NYC to ORD and it gave me a message that it doesn't travel between those cities.  Can you walk me through how I can do that?

[Yaalili]

How can I book with BA?  I tried searching on BA's website from NYC to ORD and it gave me a message that it doesn't travel between those cities.  Can you walk me through how I can do that?

I tried on ba for you, nothing for the times that u wanted to go.

[AJK]

Looking into flying from NYC to ORD for a bris next week (Thurs-Fri), and I'm a little confused with the mileage and fees, so I hope someone can help me quickly.

For both my husband and I to fly on United leaving Thursday afternoon and coming back Friday afternoon, it's 50,000 miles (25,000 each ticket) plus $160 fee.  Which means, according to my calculations: if we're transferring Chase points, which are worth about 1.75 each, that's $875 for the miles +$160 = $1,035 for short haul flight from NYC to Chicago?!? 

Am I missing something or does that make sense?  It seems like that's a lot of money, but I don't really have much to compare it to.  Looking at regular fares on other airlines, it almost seems cheaper to just pay full price for a ticket.  Is this a stupid use of points?  Is there something else I can transfer Chase points to that would make more sense?  When I searched on BA.com it said that BA doesn't fly directly between NYC and Chicago.

Can someone please give me some advice, quickly!  Thank you all in advance!!

You're being charged expedite fees of $75/pp which is why it's expensive.

Your best bet is BA miles for flights on AA, and despite what it says there are non-stop flights between NYC-ORD.

Alas, as per the post above, there is no availability. But it is fluid, so depending on how long you wanna wait/risk you wanna take, you can wait.

[moko]

Your best bet is BA miles for flights on AA

or spg-lan-aa

[ganizzy]

How can I book with BA?  I tried searching on BA's website from NYC to ORD and it gave me a message that it doesn't travel between those cities.  Can you walk me through how I can do that?

ba will only show flights that is listed on aa as saver award and is non stop.
as of now there are none so ba is not showing it. sometimes availability may open up last minute, but u cant count on it. ba does not charge expidite fee

[Yaalili]

or spg-lan-aa

That is definitely the way to go for nyc to ord travel.

[newdanfan]

or spg-lan-aa

What does this mean?

[MEIR613]

What does this mean?

Transfer your SPG points to LAN. Every 20k SPG you transfer you get 50k LAN. Then you could book with your LAN miles on AA flight.

I wouldn't bother with it since it takes time to transfer and BA miles are a lot easier to use.

[Menucha]

I dont know if it helps, my friend has a ticket NYF-ORD-NYC that was not used.
any way it would be transferable?
(no show)

3 tix

[AJK]

I dont know if it helps, my friend has a ticket NYF-ORD-NYC that was not used.
any way it would be transferable?
(no show)

3 tix

No.

[shmiel]

OP, this is a terrible use of points, especially UA points. At the very least you should use Amex (cheaper than Saphire) and transfer to Aeroplan. You will get the same flights on UA (no YQ for UA flights) but at least you will avoid the $75 pp last minute fee. Good luck!