American Express Membership Rewards - Need advice on use of Membership Rewards Points

Hi there--

I am a new member to the site, and a relatively new member to the world of award travel. I apologize in advance!

I am looking for some advice on travel between LAX to FCO in April. I have 150 K Amex Membership Rewards points, as well as 140 K American Airlines points. My travel is being paid for by a company, but they will only pay round trip economy fare, and only for me. I am planning to bring my wife along with me.

I would ideally like to go first class, and it appears we could transfer our Amex points to Virgin, and go LAX-LHR-FCO (second leg BA). That way we'd only have to buy two round trip economy fares (the company would pay for one) and could use the points for upgrades to upper class.

Alternatively, we could try for upgrades on American using points, but there is a $350 per leg per person upgrade fee, so it would cost up $1400 for the upgrades. American does have a better schedule though, because we could go LAX-ORD-FCO and avoid changing terminals at LHR.

I would appreciate any input you may have.

Thanks!

Your situation isn't too easy because of the combination of wanting to use Amex MR points and AA points, which don't really go hand in hand for a variety of reasons.

Presumably, flying separately is out of the question? If not, I have some lovely suggestions.

If it is, I guess the way I would do it is to have the company buy you a Virgin W fare via LHR to FCO. Then we can upgrade this using Amex points and no tax outlay.

For the wife, we use Amex points to get a straight award ticket in Upper, and buy a revenue ticket for around $200 LHR-FCO roundtip.

I suspect that what this translates to for you is a total outlay of 120,000 Amex points, about $200 in taxes for the wife, and another $200 or so for her ticket LHR-FCO. Of course, this is very much contingent on availability of upgrades/awards on the VS legs (same bucket).

There is a similar result as well that can be obtained through a slightly different method. Lower taxes, around $100, a total outlay of 135,000 points, and no cash outlay for the revenue ticket. So, practically, you have a choice of 120,000 Amex plus about $400 or 135,000 Amex plus about $100, which, frankly, is a toss-up, and for reasons I can detail to you via email/PM, I'd actually suggest the latter option.

PM or e-mail me if you want details.

Hello!

Well you have several options, and a lot will come down to personal preference and what your priorities are. Personally, I think Virgin is the best bet here.

I'll leave it up to the experts to figure out how to get you to FCO on a Virgin fare with optimal point/dollar outlay, looks like Stevenshev (posted above) can help you with that.

But as far as AA, you'd need to upgrade from Econ to First, a two-class upgrade on a three-class plane, the infamous "double upgrade" which AFAIK know isn't kosher and is a rare occurrence (someone please correct me if I am wrong.)

You are very much right, but since the OP was considering Upper Class, it seems that he equates business with first, and wasn't actually implying he wanted to go in three-cabin first, a task which would be *very* daunting with his requirements and funding.

Thank you both, this is very helpful. Have you personal experience with upper class in Virgin, and is it worth blowing all those points for? I have flown business on the LAX-LHR on American and was pleasantly surprised.

Thank you both, this is very helpful. Have you personal experience with upper class in Virgin, and is it worth blowing all those points for? I have flown business on the LAX-LHR on American and was pleasantly surprised.

I have not flown UC on VS LAX->LHR, but I would expect it to be excellent. I am a big Virgin (America/Atlantic) fan, so I'm biased.

I have on a couple occasions flown Business LAX-LHR R/T on AA, and I find it very pleasant. I would certainly do it again. I actually enjoyed it about as much as First on United on the same route. I love the AA lounge at both LAX and LHR (the AA lounge at LHR is superior, IMO, to the United first class lounge) and the AA arrivals lounge at LHR is a very welcome comfort after the long trip.

One of my favorite travel memories is sitting in the AA lounge at LHR early on a crisp December morning as the sun came up. It's calmly snowing outside and everything is perfect and white and clean like a beautiful painting. The lounge is on a corner and has a huge panoramic view. Sitting inside in the warm lounge, eating a light breakfast and reading FT as the snow fell silently outside the window really made me appreciate the advantages of traveling well.

That said, I have not been to any of the new Virgin facilities at T3 yet. My last few trips to LHR were on AA, BA, or United.

Though we can discuss this further, I have been an EXTREMELY frequent passenger in VS UC for the past few years. That having been said, I'm not sure that I love it, but I'm spoiled. If you like American business, you will LOVE Virgin. But, let's continue our conversation, I have even better ideas for you.