American Express Membership Rewards - BOM-JFK Award Travel

I have 500K+ Membership Rewards Points with Amex and need to get 2 tickets in Business from BOM-JFK (or NY Area) during August. Any suggestions on getting the best deal (least amount of points)? So far I have got the option of a SkyChoice Delta Award, but that uses up a steep 250K miles per person.

I have 500K+ Membership Rewards Points with Amex and need to get 2 tickets in Business from BOM-JFK (or NY Area) during August. Any suggestions on getting the best deal (least amount of points)? So far I have got the option of a SkyChoice Delta Award, but that uses up a steep 250K miles per person.

you haven't specified your dates, but if you travel towards the end of august you should be able to find seats. Air France usually has decent availability in business class. However, although you can transfer your MR points directly to Flying Blue, I would avoid that route since their fuel surcharges are very high. I would stick with delta unless you want to go first class in which case you need to transfer the miles to flying blue. also, you can always pay the $50 change fee and snag the nonstop flight if it is available. Often Delta will open up award seats a day or two before the flight so be on the look out!

Good luck!

I'll go ahead and move this to the Amex MR forum.

Regards,

Flipside

I would agree with flipside - I can't find any availability on AF in August in business using FB miles.

Two other options are available. One is Virgin - 190k miles RT per person, 90k for JFK->LHR and 100k for LHR->BOM. The other is Singapore Airlines (transfer miles to Virgin then book through Virgin on SIN) - this would probably be at least 145k and you'd have to go JFK->FRA->SIN->BOM - call Virgin and ask for a specific quote.

In other words, I wouldn't spend more than 190k miles on the trip given that it's a lock that 190k is what Virgin would "charge" you.

Also, if you're willing and you have an Amex Platinum, you could spend $500 and 45k to get from JFK->Stanstead on EOS then book VS for 100k to BOM from LHR. The rub of course would be getting from Stanstead to LHR and back. As far as I can tell, that would be the smallest outlay of MR points at 145k.