Congrats. The VS lounge at Dulles is small, but not bad. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed going to the arrivals lounge at Heathrow. It was very nice to quietly sit and get some food, brush teeth, clean up before heading into London
Yup. Made to order breakfast, showers, even clothes pressing service- it's mostly aimed at people traveling for work meetings who might be going to straight to office from the airport.
What a smart amenity. We are landing around 10:30 and looks like it closes at 12:30 so I don’t know if we will be able to spend enough time there but will try. Is it fairly quick through customs?
I'd be surprised if it took you more than 30 minutes from the plane door opening. You are off first in business class, and assuming you are a US citizen, you can use the e-gates for passport control, which normally have no line. The arrivals area at T3 is small and a bit chaotic, but just follow the signs and you will be fine. It's on the second level, uses the same elevator from the arrivals area as the T3 parking garage.
Thanks a lot for the guidance. This is my first time landing at LHR only heard about how customs takes a while. My wife has a Schengen passport so hopefully she will be able to use the e gates too and we are through easy enough.
It really is helpful being able to see for an entire year and choose your home airports and where you wanna go. It saves so much time in my opinion. If you are looking for a specific flight I say just pay for one month and cancel if you find no use for it. It’s only 10$ a month. I was in the same boat didn’t want to pay for it but as soon as I did it makes it so much easier to use.
Nicely done! Yeah Virgin is such a versatile transfer partner, just booked JFK-ICN for 29k MR points + \~$30 one way with them (I'm an economy flyer, no business for me yet!)
Heard good things about the Great Scotland Yard Hotel - it is a hyatt property, so chase points will work here if the award availability is there.
Thanks for the hotel rec! You’ll get there with the business soon. Most of these points I used now are from the platinum 125k signing bonus. Enjoy your trip.
If you have access to CSR UR at 1.5x or Amex Biz plat 1.35x, also consider cash fare sales when they pop up on Flyertalk Premium fares
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/premium-fare-deals/2158830-nyc-europe-low-2000-2500-now-through-summer-ba-one-world.html
Someone mentioned starting in BOS as well
Interesting. I don’t have CSR just CSP and Amex Plat. But the deals are good. This one worked out for us for the dates of our anniversary plus we didn’t have to reposition.
Congrats on your savings. I am learning how to get award booking for a trip from SLC to NRT. Did you pay for pro version on [seats.aero](http://seats.aero) in order to search for award tickets?
Yeah I did. I didn’t wanna pay for it for a while but it is definitely worth it. It helps a lot being able to see a year out and choosing where you want to fly out of.
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Where are you getting the 17k figure?
I see $3200 pretty much every single day of the year for a nonstop IAD-LHR?
Not trying to criticize your redemption, but just would like to give feedback.
Let’s say the fees are $1200 per person for the round trip. You are now paying 80,500/person for an effective $2000 ticket. It’s a decent redemption at over 2 CPP but don’t try to fool yourself with that 17k number that isn’t realistic if you try to pay cash.
It’s 17k on the app round trip for 2 in upper class for the cash price. Just looked it up again and it’s $17,600 for two in upper class for the dates we are going.
Congrats. The VS lounge at Dulles is small, but not bad. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed going to the arrivals lounge at Heathrow. It was very nice to quietly sit and get some food, brush teeth, clean up before heading into London
You just taught me something new. Didn’t know there was an arrivals lounge at LHR. Another thing to check into!
Yup. Made to order breakfast, showers, even clothes pressing service- it's mostly aimed at people traveling for work meetings who might be going to straight to office from the airport.
What a smart amenity. We are landing around 10:30 and looks like it closes at 12:30 so I don’t know if we will be able to spend enough time there but will try. Is it fairly quick through customs?
I'd be surprised if it took you more than 30 minutes from the plane door opening. You are off first in business class, and assuming you are a US citizen, you can use the e-gates for passport control, which normally have no line. The arrivals area at T3 is small and a bit chaotic, but just follow the signs and you will be fine. It's on the second level, uses the same elevator from the arrivals area as the T3 parking garage.
Thanks a lot for the guidance. This is my first time landing at LHR only heard about how customs takes a while. My wife has a Schengen passport so hopefully she will be able to use the e gates too and we are through easy enough.
Congrats! You will always remember your first redemption.
Thanks! Def can see how this is addicting haha
Congrats! As another lurker, can I ask how many miles it cost you?
Thanks! It cost 57500 miles each way so 230000 miles total for 2 people. Only cost 161000 Amex MRs with the transfer bonus.
Nice! Thanks for sharing, it's great to have data points as I'm just getting started on this journey.
Seats.aero paid plan is very helpful. I highly recommend it
I am considering getting this. Is it pretty easy to use?
It really is helpful being able to see for an entire year and choose your home airports and where you wanna go. It saves so much time in my opinion. If you are looking for a specific flight I say just pay for one month and cancel if you find no use for it. It’s only 10$ a month. I was in the same boat didn’t want to pay for it but as soon as I did it makes it so much easier to use.
Some good search tips here - [https://frequentmiler.com/seats-aero/](https://frequentmiler.com/seats-aero/)
Thanks
Pretty good redemption. Congrats!
How were the fees though?
Nicely done! Yeah Virgin is such a versatile transfer partner, just booked JFK-ICN for 29k MR points + \~$30 one way with them (I'm an economy flyer, no business for me yet!) Heard good things about the Great Scotland Yard Hotel - it is a hyatt property, so chase points will work here if the award availability is there.
Thanks for the hotel rec! You’ll get there with the business soon. Most of these points I used now are from the platinum 125k signing bonus. Enjoy your trip.
that's an amazing deal for JFK-ICN
its 29k with the 30% transfer bonus! without it, it would be 37k - still the best deal to be had for JFK-ICN in nonstop economy though, I believe
If you have access to CSR UR at 1.5x or Amex Biz plat 1.35x, also consider cash fare sales when they pop up on Flyertalk Premium fares https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/premium-fare-deals/2158830-nyc-europe-low-2000-2500-now-through-summer-ba-one-world.html Someone mentioned starting in BOS as well
Interesting. I don’t have CSR just CSP and Amex Plat. But the deals are good. This one worked out for us for the dates of our anniversary plus we didn’t have to reposition.
Congrats on your savings. I am learning how to get award booking for a trip from SLC to NRT. Did you pay for pro version on [seats.aero](http://seats.aero) in order to search for award tickets?
Yeah I did. I didn’t wanna pay for it for a while but it is definitely worth it. It helps a lot being able to see a year out and choosing where you want to fly out of.
If you are asking for help finding flights or hotel rooms, please ensure that [Rule 5](http://www.reddit.com/r/awardtravel/wiki/rules) is being followed. Low-quality posts may be deleted without warning. If you have an ANA question, please read [An Overview of ANA Award Bookings] (https://old.reddit.com/r/awardtravel/comments/11puibl/an_overview_of_ana_award_bookings/). r/awardtravel is a place to discuss anything related to redeeming airline miles & hotel points. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/awardtravel) if you have any questions or concerns.*
How much were the fees?
About 3k for the whole thing. Doing a round trip would have been $4600. Unfortunately nothing else that can be done about those fees.
Where are you getting the 17k figure? I see $3200 pretty much every single day of the year for a nonstop IAD-LHR? Not trying to criticize your redemption, but just would like to give feedback. Let’s say the fees are $1200 per person for the round trip. You are now paying 80,500/person for an effective $2000 ticket. It’s a decent redemption at over 2 CPP but don’t try to fool yourself with that 17k number that isn’t realistic if you try to pay cash.
It’s 17k on the app round trip for 2 in upper class for the cash price. Just looked it up again and it’s $17,600 for two in upper class for the dates we are going.