My decision to fly First Class

270,000 points for 2 first class tickets on Cathay Pacific Airlines was determined by consulting the Oneworld airline award chart available here.  I had a base of 150K from credit card signup bonuses (detailed in a prior post).  Then from meeting the minimum spend to earn the point bonus, utilizing online shopping portals and various purchase bonuses I acquired 34K more miles for a total of 184K.  If you review the Oneworld airline award chart you’ll see that my flight orginates from North America and ends in Asia Zone 2.  This particular air alliance breaks out Asia into two zones.  Southern Asia is where Thailand is classified in the award chart and since Phuket is my final destination I fall into the Asia Zone 2 category for points.

Economy class requires 35K, business 55K and first class 67.5K, this is each way per ticket.  So 70K/110K/135K for roundtrip depending on what class I wanted to fly.  Had I decided to acquire two economy tickets my total outlay for two roundtrip tickets would have been 140K for which my stockpile stash of 184K would have more than covered.  To fly business class and have a lie flat seat I would have needed 220K.  To acquire the additional 36K needed for business class seats I would have to move points from other points earning programs (Starwood) to American Airlines and the flight would have been free. All award tickets require mandatory fees.  Mine amounted to $45 per ticket for taxes plus a telephone booking fee of $50 (which was later credited back to my account) since this flight cannot be reserved via the internet.  I already knew due to the length of the flight I was not flying economy, I wanted a lie flat seat.  I was all set to transfer my Starwood points to my American Advantage account when a friend/coworker who is as obsessed with points travel talked me into traveling first class.  Of course I had a 86K point deficient to make up and I didn’t have the luxury of time as I wanted to depart this summer.  Enter the purchase points scenario.  Purchasing points is not always the best option.  Sometimes airlines offer bonuses if you purchase points but in addition to the outright purchase fee, taxes  and service charges are sometimes tacked on.  However, if you are smart about your travel then a point purchase option can be beneficial.  I’ve already explained that I could have flown either economy or business class for a nominal fee and I would have been overjoyed at the business class option, but my travel obsessed co-worker talked me into buying the remaining points and flying Cathay’s first class product.  American was offering a purchase bonus at the time so my cash outlay for the remaining 86K points came to $931.88 or $465.94 per ticket.  Meaning, I purchased a $26,000 ticket for a little over $450.  I did not have to spend any money to take a comfortable flight, I chose to purchase points to upgrade to first class.  The experience alone will be well worth the investment.  Some people do not care how they get to their destination as long as they arrive without having to pay a fare, some people only travel business or first class and structure their points earning to accommodate that type of travel. I tend to structure my points acquistion based on my chosen destination.  There is no straight forward rule.  It’s what makes sense for the traveler.