American Express Membership Rewards - Ideas for both AMEX SPG & AMEX MR transfers?

Greetings all,
I was looking for some input on some transfers to an airline so that I can do an international Business Class Award. Some Background

1. I need to do transfers from both my AMEX MR and SPG accounts to the same airline
2. I am looking for an airline that I can fly out of SAN
3. I am looking to use my Airline Miles for a Business Class International Award.
4. I am looking for hopefully a decent award inventory.
5. I am looking to Europe, possibly Australia or South America.
6. *A Alliance would be nice but not neccesary (I am Premier Exec with United (* Gold)

At this point I know of these common Airlines with SPG and MR
1. Delta (Bonus now, but what about Biz Award inventory?)
2. Hawiian Airlines (not sure--I have only used them for the HHonors double)
3. Air Canada (*A Alliance)
4. Virgin Atlantic (can I redeem an Award ticket out of SAN)
5. ANA (Their awards seem a bit high?)

Anyone I am missing or experience with these specific carriers?

sdcarver

Mexicana (which can book on AA)
Singapore Airlines (15% discount for booking reward tix online; need double the points/miles if on A380 or 773 flights tho)

Any other thoughts/Experience with award availability and redmption issues?

Thanks for the heads up on the Singapore doubling the award redemptions for the A380/B773 flights--good thing to know.

Thanks for your help--I did do my homework I am just now lookng for some experience/wisdom from the wonderful Flyertalk community :)

sdcarver

Europe, Australia or South America is pretty wide open.

If it's to South America, I'd investigate going with AA, esp if you're going biz or first. You'll fly first either to JFK, DFW, or MIA then connect to whatever South American city (EZE, GRU, GIG, etc.) in biz or F. Biz savers are 90k, 125k for F. Pretty good deal, if you ask me. The saver F rates are usually what you "pay" to go biz to Asia and F on AA I think is pretty great, just because the bed is fully flat.

EDIT: You could also, I suppose, funnel all your miles into Mexicana for an AA award. So that should let you avoid the following Coupon Connection headache.

If you're short on the miles for AA, visit the Coupon Connection and try to swap your MR miles for AA miles. Or buy a discounted economy ticket to SA and trade miles for eVIPs.

For Europe, your best bet is through Virgin. It appears one of their partners is USAir, so they should be able to ticket you from SAN to LAX and then it's a direct flight via Virgin for 100k.

For Australia, SQ is probably your best bet. UA or US from SAN to LAX, LAX->SIN->SYD. The trouble may just be avoiding 773s and A380s. You can try for NZ via VS but I've heard that award availability is next to impossible for J.

Hope that helps maybe a little more.

Mexicana (which can book on AA)
Singapore Airlines (15% discount for booking reward tix online; need double the points/miles if on A380 or 773 flights tho)

add the all Business configured A345 to the list
all 5 are currently being upgraded and the EWR-SIN route will require double miles every day by end of june. Right now only a few days a week have the new cabin.

By the fall the nonstop LAX-SIN will also be all C and require double KF miles.

So help me understand - of all flights are double points, why not just double the number of points required and not have to piss people off by telling them they need to pay DOUBLE points!

So help me understand - of all flights are double points, why not just double the number of points required and not have to piss people off by telling them they need to pay DOUBLE points!

It's not all flights. It's just the ones with the new business and first seats, which are of course increasing in number pretty rapidly. Even if you're not using miles, you're paying a pretty hefty surcharge (something like $1500 per segment) to use the new product.

It's not all flights. It's just the ones with the new business and first seats, which are of course increasing in number pretty rapidly. Even if you're not using miles, you're paying a pretty hefty surcharge (something like $1500 per segment) to use the new product.

Law of Supply and Demand? I can believe that the SQ experience is in incredible but twice as incredible?


Thank you everyone for you ideas--I am leaning towards Mexicana and redeeming Business miles to possibly SA. I am also hoping on finding a decent A* carrier so that I can redeem some *A Awards (I just finished redeeming one and have more familiarity with A* over OneWorld and Skyteamm

sdcarver