Questions and Answers

I have almost 600,000 AAdvantage miles. I have the entire week of Christmas off from work and my wife can take that time off pretty easily. We live in NYC and would prefer to fly business class for trips over ~5 hours. We are pretty flexible with what days we can fly and are happy to fly during Christmas or New Years.

Where can we go with those miles? Assuming Latin America would be a good place to go during the winter I’ve been looking at GRU, GIG, EZE, LIM, and others but haven’t find any SAAver availability. I’m happy to fly to/through MIA since I have family in the area to visit, but those flights are also unavailable at SAAver levels.

I also have 150,000 miles trapped in Aeroplan due to a changed vacation plan so if I could use those miles for part of the trip that would be great, but I’m having the same difficulty finding flights using Aeroplan as well.

If anyone has some tips I’m all ears. I know I’m booking this late but we only recently found out that this week would be a good time for us to travel.

Are you locked into South America?

I see two business class seats to Madrid out of ORD on 12/24 and two back on 12/30 on Iberia. I’d assume you can find (or buy) tickets to Chicago.

The benefit of flying out of ORD is that it’s a longer flight so you’d have more time to sleep. Of course ORD weather in the winter is always a question, but then so is NYC.

Go to Paris on oneworld (open skies) from JFK and come back on star alliance thru aeroplan from Frankfurt (on Lufthansa), all in business. I am sure you could find a cdg-fra connection easily using aeroplan (you might have to call it in though)

If you are extra adventurous and dont mind the flying or points expenditure go to Hong Kong from Paris and return through Frankfurt on CX! Whirlwind trip! Hong Kong during New years is supposed to be fun!

In addition to what [USER=184]@MidSouth Skier[/USER] & [USER=859]@Cal[/USER] said, you can also try looking for travels to SE Asia since AA miles offer a phenomenal value in that aspect. If you are looking for burning your Aeroplan miles, FRA is a good hub to go out of. I am seeing availability from EWR-FRA on LH with flexibility. On the way back you can burn AA Miles. Lucky also owns an award booking service and I consider them very good. Give a shot and usually you will never regret unless you are a pro at awards.

[QUOTE=”MidSouth Skier, post: 7849, member: 184″]Are you locked into South America?[/QUOTE]
No, I just assumed that it was a good place to look since AA has lots of destinations there. I’d prefer warm weather.
[QUOTE]I see two business class seats to Madrid out of ORD on 12/24 and two back on 12/30 on Iberia. I’d assume you can find (or buy) tickets to Chicago.[/QUOTE]
It seems a bit weird to me to fly to ORD to go to Spain if I’m in New York. My wife and I love Spain, but we’d prefer it in the summer.
[QUOTE]The benefit of flying out of ORD is that it’s a longer flight so you’d have more time to sleep. Of course ORD weather in the winter is always a question, but then so is NYC.[/QUOTE] The longer flight doesn’t seem like a benefit to me since it requires an additional 2 hour flight to get there.

[QUOTE=”Cal, post: 7852, member: 859″]Go to Paris on oneworld (open skies) from JFK and come back on star alliance thru aeroplan from Frankfurt (on Lufthansa), all in business. I am sure you could find a cdg-fra connection easily using aeroplan (you might have to call it in though)[/QUOTE]
This is interesting. How do you book OpenSkies with AA? Does it show up on aa.com? Do they charge the same high fuel surcharges as BA?
[QUOTE]If you are extra adventurous and dont mind the flying or points expenditure go to Hong Kong from Paris and return through Frankfurt on CX! Whirlwind trip! Hong Kong during New years is supposed to be fun![/QUOTE]
Hong Kong is a bit extreme for us and neither of us prefer it as a destination.

[QUOTE=”PhatMiles, post: 7859, member: 522″]In addition to what [USER=184]@MidSouth Skier[/USER] & [USER=859]@Cal[/USER] said, you can also try looking for travels to SE Asia since AA miles offer a phenomenal value in that aspect. [/QUOTE]
Any suggestions on which destinations?
[QUOTE]If you are looking for burning your Aeroplan miles, FRA is a good hub to go out of. I am seeing availability from EWR-FRA on LH with flexibility. On the way back you can burn AA Miles. Lucky also owns an award booking service and I consider them very good. Give a shot and usually you will never regret unless you are a pro at awards.[/QUOTE]Thanks, I’ll look into that as well.

[QUOTE=”pman1892, post: 7906, member: 513″]

It seems a bit weird to me to fly to ORD to go to Spain if I’m in New York. My wife and I love Spain, but we’d prefer it in the summer.
The longer flight doesn’t seem like a benefit to me since it requires an additional 2 hour flight to get there.[/QUOTE]

Most flights US-EU is red eyes and short ones at that . 2 hours extra on a flat bed means you will hopefully get a full night sleep or close to it. And will hopefully not have to spend your first day sleeping off the jet lag.

[QUOTE=”pman1892, post: 7907, member: 513″]This is interesting. How do you book OpenSkies with AA? Does it show up on aa.com? Do they charge the same high fuel surcharges as BA?[/QUOTE]

Yes it does show up on aa.com. Not sure how outrageous the fuel surcharges are though as I have never booked them. You may have to price it out.

As for using your AP points to fly back through Frankfurt, keep in mind that Aeroplan does have fuel surcharges on Lufthansa flights. That said, it might be a good moment to spend those points given the upcoming devaluation on December 15. You might also be able to come back in first class if space opens up within the two week window, as is often the case with LH.