Great reminder that it's not always about optimizing or getting most out of every points or getting the best CPP. It's whatever makes you/and your family the most happy and gives peace of mind!
Thanks for the breakdown Max. This is more real life for the rest of us. We aim for maximum redemption value but when traveling w family/SO, we try our best.
Love the breakdown and the honesty of the redemption value. A lot of us are tied to similar redemptions due to flexibility of other factors which is lost on a lot of “travel bloggers”. Appreciate it!
Great video. I feel you on getting points stranded on a program you don't really use. I personally find it hard to transfer credit card points for hotel stays. I feel I get much better value putting those points toward long haul business class tickets. I do understand if you have the opportunity to get an aspirational hotel stay.
Yeah hotel bookings outside of Chase to Hyatt is kinda difficult. But if you have some aspirational hotel stays transferring points to Marriott and Hilton might make sense with a transfer bonus but that usually only applies to really high end properties. Another video I have coming up is how we transferred a bunch of Amex points to Marriott (which I don't often recommend) to book JW Masai Mara which is typically a $15k stay
Nice find on the Park Hyatt Kyoto! For JAL, did JAL themselves have availability? The Chase/Amex -> MB -> JAL route is worth considering too! Also the flexibility to travel last minute just like that must be amazing! I always like to say Asia has a lot of "replay" value to re-visit whenever 😂
I didn't check JAL directly mostly because PE on JAL is 32.5k meaning I'd have to transfer 83k Chase/Amex to MB which is not worth it since it's available via BA. I like the idea! but in most cases (at least in my experience) the MB to Airline transfer is usually not the way unless there's special JAL award availability.
@@MaxMilesPoints Yeah it wasn't until a recent reddit post I saw where in certain months, traveling from the west coast non-Tokyo cities in Japan (yes even though you'll transfer through Tokyo), only costs 35k JAL points in J, with some dates having as many as 5 seats available! I wonder if it's to do with JAL's recent free domestic flight thing...
Taking this same Asiana flight on the 24th of this month. Then we're also paying cash to fly to Osaka. We're also staying at the Park Hyatt Kyoto on points for 4 nights. We're actually flying JAL business class from NRT to Seattle before catching a Delta flight back home to Atlanta. Seeing that you booked so many of the same things we did makes me feel a little better.
What I book might not be the best of the best but it’s the best of the available options and makes me (and the wife) happy and we get to travel so that’s what it’s all about 😏 I have a video on Asiana Business class , the Caption by Hyatt in Osaka and the Park Hyatt Kyoto video is going to be posted in about half an hour here!
If you are flying out of lax you want to fly delta if possible for lounge access. It is neatly impossible to get into the centurion and there are no priority pass lounges at lax.
@@MaxMilesPoints I wouldn’t know I can never get in it. It makes it extremely hard when there are no centurion lounges there. The last time I flew through lax I made sure I flew delta so I could use their lounge they have a great lounge there.
I think this is a great redemption - anything that lets you travel and have fun 🎉 Also finding close in availability from Tokyo is akways hard & premium will be comfy 😊
Thanks for sharing Max. Let us know how your flight with JAL goes. I heard that their Premium Economy seats are clam shelled and don't recline back. So wondering how comfortable they are.
No Hyatt options in Osaka? I just stayed two nights three adults at Hyatt Place, $160 per night breakfast included, in my opinion it is the best hotel value for cash in Japan. Edit: nevermind that Hyatt was in Kyoto. That's why we ended up staying three nights at thr HP and the Ritz in Kyoto and only one night in Osaka at the W.
I'm trying to also book last minute to japan, but i don't get any returns when trying to redeem points for park hyatt kyoto. Can anyone help? I clicked on their calendar for points This hotel is not accepting World of Hyatt point reservations during these dates; please modify your search.
That means theres no rooms bookable with points at this time. The points calendar doesn't reflect current award availability, it just displays what the points rate is.
Hello - In the AF website it doesn't show flights from SAN to LAX. It gives me the following message Sorry, there are no flights available for this itinerary. Please try again
Hi sometimes the website doesn’t work the way it should , I’ve had better luck using the Air France app. For example search on Nov 29 there’s a 6:30 am flight from SAN to LAX operated by delta for 5k miles
I spent 600k UR points but my wife and kids just flew Y roundtrip 😐 she had to fly on KE to be on the same flight with her parents worst redemption ever. I get annoyed everytime I think about it
Great content as always. Just booked multi city business class from East Coast Canada to Zurich, final destination Athens. Booked on Aeroplan. However I find Aeroplan is super high mileage even on premium economy on the return leg. So looking at booking return flight through Flying Blue, drastically less miles but…. Amex to Flying Blue is 1000-750 points. Does flying blue ever do points transfer bonus??
Flying blue usually has transfer bonuses a 1-2 times a year for Amex Chase and Capital one . Today 9/30 is the last day for the transfer bonuses to flying blue from capital one!
Max, big fan of your content since before your YT channel when you were IG only. My advice , and this is coming from a good place, is to work on your redundancies. I'm not sure if you're repeating things for SEO or the algorithm but you tend to say the same thing in 3-4 different sentences when the point got across on sentence 1. For example, your explanation on your Hyatt points said you paid 35k per night then said its 70k total then broke it down to 35k and 40k, then totaled it up to 75k. You could have easily eliminated the first sentence two sentences in editing and gotten to the point faster/ less confusing. I would say this is the weakest part of your content as the visuals and overall ideas of the vids are engaging. Keep up the good work but keep improving.!
💯 appreciate the feedback! Speaking is not one of my strong suits even after doing social media for a couple years now talking on camera is still uncomfortable and over the last 6 months or so I stopped using a teleprompter so working on getting better at talking on camera. I often say things weirdly and repeat my self often when I’m speaking off the cuff it’s my way of stalling while I gather thoughts. Always room for improvement I appreciate the constructive feedback!
Hello Max, I redeem 620,000 points for 4 one-way tickets in business class in Air Canada, Osaka to San Francisco, In august 06, 2024 was that a good redeem of points?
You need to go to SE Asia, much more to do and will cost you a lot less. Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Much better than Korea and Japan. IMO.
Yes agree lots of cheaper travel destinations around the world but that’s not where we wanted to go or where the wife wanted to go for a week long trip
@@MaxMilesPoints, I understand, most people think of Japan or S. Korea when they think of going to Asia. I only go there to position myself to SE Asia, since there's not much direct flights to SE Asia except to Singapore. One week is not enough. I go for a month every year and have been for the last five years. Air Canada and Alaska has the lowest business class fares to Asia. Once you make it to SE Asia, you won't want to go to Japan or S. Korea lol.
@@jaiho9442 haha yes agree we’ve been to lots of places in SE Asia just hard to take enough time off to make it all the way down there , hopefully in 2025 if some fall award space opens up and now with the new Amex > Hawaiian > Alaska pipeline
@@MaxMilesPoints, going to be 75K one way to TPE/ICN/NRT/HND on Alaska, 60K are gone, I haven't seen that price in half a year. Can be as low as 58K to the same places on Aeroplan. 20% transfer bonus plus 10% extra if you have the Aeroplan CC. JAL premium economy is 55K on Alaska, JAL has the best premium eco. IMO.
Helpful detail for an overall trip. Quick question on repositioning flights - are you able to interline the checked luggage to your final destination if they are in the same alliance? I have heard some folks mention that possibility. thanks as always.
You can depending on the airline and partnerships! Always ask when checking in for your flight. For us we weren't able to since it was Delta (skyteam) on to Asiana (star alliance) so they aren't able to interline our bags.
@@MaxMilesPoints thanks again. My wife just used your link to take advantage of the elevated CSP offer. i downgraded by CSP (which i had since 2012). Hopefully will get another elevated offer next year after i get over 5/24 rule.
Hey Max, loving the breakdown on each flight! would love to see more of that going forward.
Thanks! Will do!
Great reminder that it's not always about optimizing or getting most out of every points or getting the best CPP. It's whatever makes you/and your family the most happy and gives peace of mind!
💯 🙌🏼
Great redemption point is not scoring records but traveling
💯 🙌🏼
Now these are the kind of videos that make me really understand the way points over cash work 🤙🏽 thank you max 🤙🏽
Love these kinds of travel wrap ups. Please make more like this.😊
Will do! 🫡
Thanks for the breakdown Max. This is more real life for the rest of us. We aim for maximum redemption value but when traveling w family/SO, we try our best.
I couldn't agree more. Use your points in a way that makes you happy. I'm glad you got the PH Kyoto! That hotel is amazing.
💯🙌
I really enjoy all your videos! Short and straight to the points.
Thank you for showing realistic redemptions. Too many Brian Kelly types that claim $0.08+ with points.
Love the breakdown and the honesty of the redemption value. A lot of us are tied to similar redemptions due to flexibility of other factors which is lost on a lot of “travel bloggers”. Appreciate it!
Happy wife, happy life!! Thanks for posting!!
great video! thanks for setting expectations too
Thanks for sharing the details.
Great data tied to an even better story. Great job.
Stayed at PH Kyoto, HP Kyoto, Caption Namba, W Osaka, Andaz Tornanomon Hills. Great experience
Nice! I love that Andaz in Tokyo!
Hey Max! Saw your appearance at the sw expo on bigerns story way to go!
putting those points to work !
Great video! thank you for sharing the details
Great video. I feel you on getting points stranded on a program you don't really use. I personally find it hard to transfer credit card points for hotel stays. I feel I get much better value putting those points toward long haul business class tickets. I do understand if you have the opportunity to get an aspirational hotel stay.
Yeah hotel bookings outside of Chase to Hyatt is kinda difficult. But if you have some aspirational hotel stays transferring points to Marriott and Hilton might make sense with a transfer bonus but that usually only applies to really high end properties. Another video I have coming up is how we transferred a bunch of Amex points to Marriott (which I don't often recommend) to book JW Masai Mara which is typically a $15k stay
That Japan Airlines PE actually look pretty good
If I have fly PE on any airline I'd probably pick one of the Asian carriers especially JAL or ANA :)
Nice find on the Park Hyatt Kyoto! For JAL, did JAL themselves have availability? The Chase/Amex -> MB -> JAL route is worth considering too! Also the flexibility to travel last minute just like that must be amazing! I always like to say Asia has a lot of "replay" value to re-visit whenever 😂
I didn't check JAL directly mostly because PE on JAL is 32.5k meaning I'd have to transfer 83k Chase/Amex to MB which is not worth it since it's available via BA. I like the idea! but in most cases (at least in my experience) the MB to Airline transfer is usually not the way unless there's special JAL award availability.
@@MaxMilesPoints Yeah it wasn't until a recent reddit post I saw where in certain months, traveling from the west coast non-Tokyo cities in Japan (yes even though you'll transfer through Tokyo), only costs 35k JAL points in J, with some dates having as many as 5 seats available! I wonder if it's to do with JAL's recent free domestic flight thing...
Taking this same Asiana flight on the 24th of this month. Then we're also paying cash to fly to Osaka. We're also staying at the Park Hyatt Kyoto on points for 4 nights. We're actually flying JAL business class from NRT to Seattle before catching a Delta flight back home to Atlanta. Seeing that you booked so many of the same things we did makes me feel a little better.
What I book might not be the best of the best but it’s the best of the available options and makes me (and the wife) happy and we get to travel so that’s what it’s all about 😏 I have a video on Asiana Business class , the Caption by Hyatt in Osaka and the Park Hyatt Kyoto video is going to be posted in about half an hour here!
@@MaxMilesPoints Awesome. I'll definitely check all those videos out!
If you are flying out of lax you want to fly delta if possible for lounge access. It is neatly impossible to get into the centurion and there are no priority pass lounges at lax.
LAX has the worst centurion lounge of all the centurion lounges!
@@MaxMilesPoints I wouldn’t know I can never get in it. It makes it extremely hard when there are no centurion lounges there. The last time I flew through lax I made sure I flew delta so I could use their lounge they have a great lounge there.
I think this is a great redemption - anything that lets you travel and have fun 🎉 Also finding close in availability from Tokyo is akways hard & premium will be comfy 😊
Great! Talking slower n teaching is the 👑
Great breakdown...Knowing all of the alliances is key and the bottom line is you only spent $1100 for all of those experiences for 2 people
The availability in summer to Japan is pretty limited! I wonder if you have some Alaska and/or AA Miles so to check the possible JAL redemption?
Thanks for sharing Max. Let us know how your flight with JAL goes. I heard that their Premium Economy seats are clam shelled and don't recline back. So wondering how comfortable they are.
Love the intro 😂😂😂😂
wow amazing info
You are the GOAT on redemption content. How much transfer time do you allocate for the domestic to international positioning flights at LAX?
2 hours minimum but 3 hours is safe, 4 hours is super safe.
Hey Max.. we're planning for an Asia trip. Wondering if you recommend getting two PE seats with lap infant or 3 E seats with an infant?
Wait I didnt know ur based out of SAN?! I just graduated from UCSD and fly out of SAN all the time lol
Yes I’m San Diego based! And Congrats!
Why no vlogs on the trips? Or is there a second channel for that?😅
Love your content, Max! Had you not had the Avios, how would you have booked the JAL flight back to LA?
I probably wouldve anyways , no business class availability at the time of booking for the return and limited options for PE
No Hyatt options in Osaka? I just stayed two nights three adults at Hyatt Place, $160 per night breakfast included, in my opinion it is the best hotel value for cash in Japan.
Edit: nevermind that Hyatt was in Kyoto. That's why we ended up staying three nights at thr HP and the Ritz in Kyoto and only one night in Osaka at the W.
It would be interesting to know the $ per point.
Couldnt you have flown JAL from NRT to San Diego? Maybe there was no reward availability?
Unfortunately no award availability 🫤
I think it was a great redemption
‘Listen to ur wife, or u will have a crappy life’. Max, I didn’t know u can funny too!!😂😂👍
Hey Max,
For the Delta flight from SAN to LAX, are you paying checked bag fees for that?
Hey , yes pad the fee for that to check a bag for that flight
How many points per year do you make? What are the primary sources for those points? I'm always curious about that.
This might help answer your question
th-cam.com/video/9RaFKlW1b7E/w-d-xo.html
Happy wife, happy life
I'm trying to also book last minute to japan, but i don't get any returns when trying to redeem points for park hyatt kyoto. Can anyone help? I clicked on their calendar for points
This hotel is not accepting World of Hyatt point reservations during these dates; please modify your search.
That means theres no rooms bookable with points at this time. The points calendar doesn't reflect current award availability, it just displays what the points rate is.
Hello - In the AF website it doesn't show flights from SAN to LAX. It gives me the following message Sorry, there are no flights available for this itinerary. Please try again
Hi sometimes the website doesn’t work the way it should , I’ve had better luck using the Air France app. For example search on Nov 29 there’s a 6:30 am flight from SAN to LAX operated by delta for 5k miles
@@MaxMilesPoints Thank you! 'll try the App
I spent 600k UR points but my wife and kids just flew Y roundtrip 😐 she had to fly on KE to be on the same flight with her parents worst redemption ever. I get annoyed everytime I think about it
But I’m sure it made your wife happy 😄(maybe?)
Great content as always. Just booked multi city business class from East Coast Canada to Zurich, final destination Athens. Booked on Aeroplan.
However I find Aeroplan is super high mileage even on premium economy on the return leg.
So looking at booking return flight through Flying Blue, drastically less miles but…. Amex to Flying Blue is 1000-750 points. Does flying blue ever do points transfer bonus??
Flying blue usually has transfer bonuses a 1-2 times a year for Amex Chase and Capital one . Today 9/30 is the last day for the transfer bonuses to flying blue from capital one!
@@MaxMilesPoints ok. Good to know. I use my Amex so I’ll check it out!
Hey Max, what would you do with 80k ANA Points? My calculations went wrong and I didn't know that the fees were so high ($630).
Maybe find United operated flights via ANA the taxes should be lower
Max, big fan of your content since before your YT channel when you were IG only. My advice , and this is coming from a good place, is to work on your redundancies. I'm not sure if you're repeating things for SEO or the algorithm but you tend to say the same thing in 3-4 different sentences when the point got across on sentence 1. For example, your explanation on your Hyatt points said you paid 35k per night then said its 70k total then broke it down to 35k and 40k, then totaled it up to 75k. You could have easily eliminated the first sentence two sentences in editing and gotten to the point faster/ less confusing. I would say this is the weakest part of your content as the visuals and overall ideas of the vids are engaging. Keep up the good work but keep improving.!
💯 appreciate the feedback! Speaking is not one of my strong suits even after doing social media for a couple years now talking on camera is still uncomfortable and over the last 6 months or so I stopped using a teleprompter so working on getting better at talking on camera. I often say things weirdly and repeat my self often when I’m speaking off the cuff it’s my way of stalling while I gather thoughts. Always room for improvement I appreciate the constructive feedback!
Hello Max, I redeem 620,000 points for 4 one-way tickets in business class in Air Canada, Osaka to San Francisco, In august 06, 2024 was that a good redeem of points?
That’s great and all but how the heck did you accumulate so many points??
6 Ways to Earn More American Express Points in 2023
th-cam.com/video/9RaFKlW1b7E/w-d-xo.html
You need to go to SE Asia, much more to do and will cost you a lot less. Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Much better than Korea and Japan. IMO.
Yes agree lots of cheaper travel destinations around the world but that’s not where we wanted to go or where the wife wanted to go for a week long trip
@@MaxMilesPoints, I understand, most people think of Japan or S. Korea when they think of going to Asia. I only go there to position myself to SE Asia, since there's not much direct flights to SE Asia except to Singapore. One week is not enough. I go for a month every year and have been for the last five years. Air Canada and Alaska has the lowest business class fares to Asia. Once you make it to SE Asia, you won't want to go to Japan or S. Korea lol.
@@jaiho9442 haha yes agree we’ve been to lots of places in SE Asia just hard to take enough time off to make it all the way down there , hopefully in 2025 if some fall award space opens up and now with the new Amex > Hawaiian > Alaska pipeline
@@MaxMilesPoints, going to be 75K one way to TPE/ICN/NRT/HND on Alaska, 60K are gone, I haven't seen that price in half a year. Can be as low as 58K to the same places on Aeroplan. 20% transfer bonus plus 10% extra if you have the Aeroplan CC. JAL premium economy is 55K on Alaska, JAL has the best premium eco. IMO.
like how do you get that much points. sheesh
Happy wife happy life! Then it’s happy kids happy life 😂😂😂
😂😂😂 something for me to look forward to haha
@@MaxMilesPoints yeah you have to downgrade from park Hyatt or Hyatt house hahaha
@@ManorothFamily 🫠🫠🫠🫠
Of course he went to Asia.
Helpful detail for an overall trip. Quick question on repositioning flights - are you able to interline the checked luggage to your final destination if they are in the same alliance? I have heard some folks mention that possibility. thanks as always.
You can depending on the airline and partnerships! Always ask when checking in for your flight. For us we weren't able to since it was Delta (skyteam) on to Asiana (star alliance) so they aren't able to interline our bags.
@@MaxMilesPoints thanks again. My wife just used your link to take advantage of the elevated CSP offer. i downgraded by CSP (which i had since 2012). Hopefully will get another elevated offer next year after i get over 5/24 rule.
yall overpayed af damn. #singlelife
Where the fuck do you get all these points kid?
It's my job
th-cam.com/video/9RaFKlW1b7E/w-d-xo.html
good redemption, bad destinations
Not a bad destination if that’s where we want to go