How I used points and miles to book business-class flights to Madagascar for my honeymoon

09.10.2024 - 16:24 / thepointsguy.com

When my fiance and I started planning our honeymoon, we knew we wanted an outdoor adventure with plenty of hiking and wildlife, as well as some time to relax on a beach. We also knew we wanted to splurge and get there in lie-flat seats, which was only financially feasible if we could buy our tickets using points and miles.

My fiance holds two United credit cards and had been stocking up on United MileagePlus miles for a while, so we started our search with United Airlines. Our hearts leaped when we found business-class Ethiopian Airlines award seats to Madagascar — the vast, lemur-filled island off Africa's east coast — for only 88,000 miles each way. With plenty of hiking trails and wildlife-spotting opportunities, as well as world-class beaches and luxurious resorts, Madagascar seemed like the perfect marriage of outdoor adventure and relaxation.

But booking these tickets was much harder than we thought, thanks to a quirk in Ethiopian Airlines' award seat system. It took some flexibility and persistence, but here's how we managed to book our dream honeymoon with points and miles.

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Madagascar has two international airports: Ivato International Airport (TNR) in the capital city of Antananarivo and Fascene Airport (NOS) on the island paradise of Nosy Be. We decided to fly into TNR, take a tour from there to Nosy Be and fly home from NOS.

Since United and Ethiopian Airlines are both members of Star Alliance, we could book Ethiopian award flights using United MileagePlus miles via United's site. We would need 88,000 miles per person each way, plus taxes and fees of $14 on the way there and $120 coming home. The award flights were mixed-cabin, so the shortest leg (a 2 1/2-hour flight to Chicago from our home in Denver) was in economy and the rest of the journey was in business class. That was fine by us — our main priority was getting lie-flat seats for the 14-hour flight between Chicago and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

My fiance had been saving up United miles for a trip such as this. He's had the United℠ Explorer Card for several years, and earlier this year, he boosted his mileage balance with a welcome bonus on his new United Quest℠ Card. Now we were finally ready to spend those hard-earned miles on our honeymoon.

We started by booking a one-way flight for both of us from Denver International Airport (DEN) to TNR. Booking one-way fares separately is often cheaper than purchasing a round-trip flight, and it can be easier to search for award space this way. I had some United miles of my own, but we ultimately decided to have my fiance book both flights because his Explorer Card gives him Premier Silver status, two annual lounge passes and a free checked bag