Questions and Answers

Hello all. Hope you can help me out. I am currently planning out a honeymoon to England and France for April/May 2017. I have a decent amount of points or have plan to get more. So I have a few options. I want to minimize fees and surcharges while flying business or above (its our honeymoon after all). We will be leaving from Chicago.

So plan on doing AA one way. I haven’t decided yet if we want to use it on flight there or back. Also deciding on what is the best arrival departure/arrival city. As mentioned depends on convenience and fees.

But trying to decide best airline for other leg. I currently have points in the following programs:

United: 33K
Ultimate Rewards: 63K
Citi TY: 110K
BA Avios: 55K

Options I have come up with

1) BA/AA ORD to JFK( economy 7.5Kx2)
Singapore AirlinesJFK to Frankfort (Business 57.5K+$200×2)
BA Frankfort to London(Economy 4Kx2)
Pro: Premium class with Singapore.
Cons: High surcharges with Singapore, amount of connections.

Not sure if it is worth doing overnight in Frankfort and maybe seeing it for a day.

2) Air France Chicago to Paris(business 62.5K+fees)
Pros: Direct flight, nice food
Cons: High points. Fees and surcharges appear to vary quite a bit and depending on Paris/France. But range pretty cheap at $23 to London, or $20-200 to Paris.

3) Iberia to Madrid to Chicago(business class 41K+$200*2)
Pros: Low points
Cons: connection flights and fees.

4) BA ORD to Boston to Dublin to London/Paris also an option

I am leaning toward Air France or Iberia now. I don’t like the amount of connections with the other two. Fees will probably end up being the same. Probably comes down to if connection is worth an additional 40K in points. It sounds like the products are probably similar, or Air France slightly ahead.

How about AA ORD-JFK-LHR, assuming you can find availability on their 77W between JFK-LHR?

For the return, AF CDG-ORD. Or SQ FRA-JFK and pay for the CDG-FRA and JFK-ORD (or use Avios for this)

SQ surcharges aren’t terribly expensive, especially compared to BA

And, arriving in LHR and departing from the continent will significantly reduce your departure taxes. Would consider what [USER=29]@David W[/USER] suggests.

So sounds like you guys recommend taking AA to LHR. Then departing by France regardless of airlines to help reduce airport departure fees.

My main concern also is Singapore award availability. I have enough points for the first class suite, but only on the saver level. And once I move the points to Kris they are parked there. I also don’t really want to take changes with waitlist clearing… especially for two people. I am a anal retentive planner(according to the fiancee, what are the chances of finding open award space for two ppl… if I look as soon as they open 355 days out. also are you able to hold awards while the points move? Thanks all!

I understand this is for a honeymoon but which do you value more, SQ First or the ability to travel together?

If SQ First trumps flying together, I’d search awards for single seats and book an award a day apart and hope a 2nd seat opens up. KrisFlyer allows free date changes on awards.

If you must travel together, then would you consider settling for SQ Business class? I’d assume 2 award seats are easier to obtain ahead of time, compared to First.

Also check to see if AF CDG-ORD has a first class cabin on the date you want. If it doesnt, consider booking a Business award and paying for First class ground services at CDG. It’s steep cost but according to Ben, its AMAZING and well worth it.

While I would love to experience SQ first class suites, I don’t think I would be married too long if we were not sitting together or if we end up flying on different days. 😉

My understanding is that you need enough points in account to waitlist. Are you able to book Business then wait list first? I will have probably 180K or so points I could transfer, so enough for each but not for both. So not sure if that counts?

I guess I can hope for SQ, and “settle” for AF otherwise.

[USER=1499]@Rhoman[/USER]–you would transfer points to SQ, put the suites award on waitlist then book business. If it clears you would cancel your J award to release miles and then book 1st. There is undoubtedly a risk in moving miles to SQ but it is a useful currency to have to travel in the US or to Hawaii. The miles do expire after 36 months so something else to keep in mind. My personal opinion, as [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] suggested a while back, is to show your fiancé the options, maybe pictures of cabins, routings and let her choose.