We did a long weekend trip to New York, sightseeing/food crawl, catching up with Christine’s cousin after 10 years.
We visited:
- New World Mall at Flushing Chinatown
- Top Thai Vintage
- Zucker’s Bagels
- Joe’s Shanghai at Manhattan Chinatown
- Central Park
- All’Antico Vinaio
- Chelsea Lounge
I booked American Airlines F using FinnAir Avios, which has a very affordable pricing of 40k one-way anywehre within the US in first. (It was even cheaper at 30k until a few weeks ago).
Originally I booked in AA Y LAX-JFK via 11k/pp FinnAir and MR Delta Y via 17k/pp Amex Travel (after BizPla 35% refund).
I had been monitoring LAX-JFK partner availability daily on Qatar Air’s app (it has the least friction to run searches regularly). I accidentally found the SNA-JFK 1:30pm two days before flight when it randomly popped up on a AA search, and booked it at 38k/pp. Then changed my mind, cancelled it, which brought it back to BA inventory. Chatted with FinnAir support after a 2 hour hold, and booked it. Unfortunately FinnAir booked the ticket as “Yong Ho / Yong Ho”, copying and pasting the wrong name. I should have caught the error while support was still on chat. I only realized later of the error, and AA couldnh’t change tghe name for me. So I cancelled it and used the remaining 80k balance (I had 160k Avios sitting after a preliminary transfer bonus in the summer) to rebook it with the correct name.
Then, one day before the return flight, found JFK-LAX inventory for 8am, at 44k and probably on BA/QR/AY as well. If the AY 80k Avios refund (from the incorrect SNA-JFK booking) had been processed by then, it would have been a perfect use of the 160k Avios. Since the refund hadn’t processed yet, I used 87k AA. Christine wasn’t feeling well, so we decided this was worth it. It helped a lot with arriving rested. Cancelled the Delta booking for a 1-year credit on Amex Travel’s system.
Cost: $550+300k points
- $10+80k FinnAir Avios SNA-JFK AA F T-2
- $10+87k AA JFK-LAX AA F T-1
- $0+112k Marriott Fairfield Inn Chelsea 2N
- $0+20k Hyatt Place Manhattan Midtown 1N
- $255 Subway, Taxi, Bus
- $225 Food
- $40 Other
