Questions and Answers

New to the forums. Hello all!

Sorta last minute, but I’d like to go to Rio over the holidays and am trying to figure out the best way to do so. I’m thinking American/one of their partners would be the best way to go. A little background:

– I live in Los Angeles.

– I have both the Citi Premiere and Prestige cards, each with roughly 60,000 thank you points on each card. I also have a legacy US Airways (now American Airlines) mastercard also with roughly 60,000 points. So 180,000 points to play with.

– Ideally, I’d like to go in business/first class (That’s a long flight!) and am aiming to leave around the 18th of December and be back shortly after new years. Not worried about a room/car since I have friends I’m visiting.

I’m about 4,000 miles short of Elite status (which is another reason to stay with American), but if it REALLY comes down to it I’ll purchase the ticket outright just for the status. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[USER=1075]@ezikyle[/USER]

Welcome.

If you have not already booked the ticket, have you considered using the City Thankyou points for travel on AA?
[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/07/06/redeeming-citi-thankyou-points-for-travel-on-american/[/URL]

The Citi points you have should be worth 1920$ for travel on AA if my math is correct.

This flight would cost 3390$
[URL]https://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=LAX;t=GIG;d=2015-12-17;r=2016-01-04;sel=LAXJFK0AA4-JFKGIG0AA973,GIGJFK0AA974-JFKLAX1AA33;sc=b;a=AA[/URL]

Flight to and from JFK on AA321 transcon
[URL]http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/American_Airlines/American_Airlines_Airbus_A321_new.php[/URL]

JFK-GIG-JFK should be on this plane
[URL]http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/American_Airlines/American_Airlines_Boeing_777-200_B.php[/URL]

If returning on Jan 4 is too late, there is also an option around 3500$ returning on the evening of Jan 1.

Should push you over the limit for status this year and give you good start next year.