Trip Reports - 2 million miles of F awards in 18 months - thanks Amex and Aeroplan

A stroke of lightning and I suddenly find myself with 2 million Amex points from several large business purchases.

What to do?

Thanks to FT, I learned that Aeroplan was the best place to transfer miles, and over the past 18 months I've experienced all the best that Star Alliance has to offer:

64 international first class flights
28 international business class flights
31 first class flights in N.A.

So, without further adieu, here are my "best of" lists.


BEST ITINERARY: Around the world in 50 hours.

Last December I tried to book an award trip to SCL for Christmas with only 3 days notice. Of course every seat from N. America to S. America was long gone.

Determined to get to Santiago over Xmas, I started looking at unconventional routings and ended up flying around the world TWICE in F to get to South America and back using 150,000 AA miles.

My final itinerary with only brief connections was:

SFO-NRT: JL F
NRT-FRA: JL F
FRA-SCL: LA F

and the return was:

EZE-LHR: BA F
LHR-NRT: BA F
NRT-ORD: JL F
ORD-PHX: AA F


BEST AIRLINE

This one was easy. It's SQ without a doubt. 25 flights in SQ F and every one was a masterpiece.


BEST FOOD

BEEF: OZ from ICN-LAX
LAMB: SQ from NRT-SIN
DUCK: BA from LHR-NRT
FISH: LAN from FRA-SCL
SUSHI: Tie - NH from NRT-LAX and JL from NRT-ORD
GOOSE: LH from MUC-LAX
APPETIZER: LX from ZRH-BKK


BEST BED

1: LX from LAX-ZRH
2: SQ from LAX-NRT
3: JL from NRT-FRA
4: NH from NRT-LAX
5: LAN from FRA-SCL


BEST CABIN CREW

1: Tie: LX from BKK-ZRH and LH from FRA-DEN
2: BA from YVR-LHR
3: SQ from NRT-SIN
4: NH from NRT-LAX
5: JL from SFO-NRT


BEST SEAT

1: LX old style - 1-2-1
2: JL on a 777 with three rows of 1-1-1
3: NH
4: SQ on a 744
5: LAN on the 343 with one row of 2-1-2


BEST LOUNGE

1: LH FCT in FRA - 9 times
2: TG F lounge in BKK - 12 times
3: BA Concorde Room - 7 times
4: LH FCL in MUC - 3 times
5: JL F lounge in NRT - 4 times


BEST CHAMPAGNE

1: BA - 1995 Pommery Cuvée Louise
2: SQ - 2000 Dom Pérignon
3: JL, LN, OZ - 1995-1998 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne
4: LX - 1998 Pommery Cuvée Louise
5: LH - Heidsieck Rare


BEST SUNSET/SUNRISE

1: BA from YVR-LHR - the most incredible 4 hour sunset
2: LH from FRA-SEA - daybreak over the arctic
3: JL from LHR-NRT - sunrise in orange storm clouds
4: SQ from LAX-NRT - sunset
5: LAN from FRA-SCL - sunrise


BEST FLIGHT

1: BA from YVR-LHR
2: LH from FRA-DEN
3: LX from BKK-ZRH
4: OZ from ICN-LAX
5: SQ from NRT-SIN


So, my miles are gone and I have to rely on nothing but fond memories to keep me going while I replenish the account.

Now it's time to start working again. :(

Wow.

And that's coming from a person who spends a fair amount of time buzzing around in F cabins.

That having been said, you're majorly missing CX, EK, and QF from your list. Once you build up some more miles and try those out, then you can do a real comparison. Particularly CX.

Wow.

And that's coming from a person who spends a fair amount of time buzzing around in F cabins.

That having been said, you're majorly missing CX, EK, and QF from your list. Once you build up some more miles and try those out, then you can do a real comparison. Particularly CX.

You're absolutely right about CX, EK, and QF.

They're next on my list. ^

My final itinerary with only brief connections was:

SFO-NRT: JL F
NRT-FRA: JL F
FRA-SCL: LA F

and the return was:

EZE-LHR: BA F
LHR-NRT: BA F
NRT-ORD: JL F
ORD-PHX: AA F

Holy smokes. That's what I call taking the long route! :eek: (:D^)

Determined to get to Santiago over Xmas, I started looking at unconventional routings and ended up flying around the world TWICE in F to get to South America and back using 150,000 AA miles.

Brilliant! Bravo! and for 150,000 miles... AA redemption is amazing :)

Fascinating summary.

You speak of working again. Did you give up your job while you traveled?

Fascinating summary.

You speak of working again. Did you give up your job while you traveled?

My business has been pretty slow for the past year and I was able to take off for a few weeks each month.

Now it's time to re-focus my efforts and build up my client base again.

I jammed an obscene amount of travel into the last few months in the hope that I would get burned out and not want to fly for a long time. But it's only been a week since returning from an intense RTW and I'm already feeling the travel itch once again.

Good thing I don't have any miles left.

Wow, quite impressive. Im gonna have to look into that 150k AA miles the way you did that. Any pics?

Wow, quite impressive. Im gonna have to look into that 150k AA miles the way you did that. Any pics?

I booked that trip before AA changed the rules for OneWorld awards.

Previously, only the distance between the origin and destination cities was used to calculate the award level - regardless of the routing used to get there. PHX-SCL is about 11,000 miles round-trip, and I used a OW150 award to fly my crazy itinerary in F for 150,000 miles - even though the actual trip was over 45,000 miles.

Now AA adds up the mileage for all flight segments on the itinerary. Which can double or even triple the award levels.

As FT posting legend GUWonder notes: "The game is not as much fun as it used to be."

Wow, absolutely incredible! What "large business purchases" do you make? Diamonds? ;)

Now it's time to write a trip report for all of these! :p

OP: Great set of lists. Agree with some of the #1s, yet to try out some others!!! Many thanks !

I'm not often jealous, but I do wish I could make a couple million in reimbursed business expenses!

FWIW I am proud of you. You made the most of your points. Yes there are other great airlines as others have noted, but all those F trips are well worth it I am sure. I hope you had some great hotel experiences too. You can transfer Amex points to Starwood, and at certain times they have promos on transfers.

I'm not often jealous, but I do wish I could make a couple million in reimbursed business expenses!

FWIW I am proud of you. You made the most of your points. Yes there are other great airlines as others have noted, but all those F trips are well worth it I am sure. I hope you had some great hotel experiences too. You can transfer Amex points to Starwood, and at certain times they have promos on transfers.

Thanks Stimpy, I appreciate that.

The only problem with F air travel is that you can't stay at some budget hotel after 12-18 hours of luxurious pampering.

So I always treated myself to suites at the finest hotels - and used SPG and Marriott points for the biggest bang for the buck.

Sad to say that my Amex spend lately has been a fraction of the previous few years. Hopefully that will change soon.

Cheers,
M