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NYC to London if you had the time and miles

NYC to London if you had the time and miles

Old Sep 2, 2014, 3:31 pm
  #1  
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NYC to London if you had the time and miles

I am flush with miles (airlines, AMEX and UR) and time and need to get from NYC (or US east coast) to London on awards. What is the best way to do it in style with "reasonable" mileage rates? I would be by myself so if it is inconvenient then so be it. I've done BA and LH FC enough that I am looking for a little spice in my travels. Call this my mid life crisis.

I am thinking of taking Emirates FC one way through Milan and Signapore FC the other way through Frankfurt. Yes, shorter flights but better than taking other carriers. I am thinking of also utilizing the chauffeur service of Emirates and Signapore uses the A380. I can use BA miles to/from those airports to London.

What other creative possibilities do I have? I was thinking CX through Asia or Emirates through Dubai but I think those milage rates are way too high. I would consider ~100K each way for a great experiance. I am open to all ideas.
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Old Sep 2, 2014, 6:27 pm
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Originally Posted by mileshound
I am flush with miles (airlines, AMEX and UR)

Emirates FC one way through Milan and Signapore FC the other way through Frankfurt.
book 2 middle suites on SQ so you get the double bed
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Old Sep 2, 2014, 6:48 pm
  #3  
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If food is one of your callings, how about NH (ANA) through Tokyo?
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Old Sep 3, 2014, 6:28 am
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Direct? Maybe Virgin Atlantic. Otherwise SQ via Frankfurt.
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Old Sep 3, 2014, 9:50 am
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Don't use miles. Do a crossing on the QM2.
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Old Sep 3, 2014, 10:14 am
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Your plan sounds pretty good to me. I didn't realize SQ flies the A380 on that route, but in my far from comprehensive experience and according to some bloggers its A380 F suites are the best F in the world. I guess if I were doing it, I'd fly SQ both ways as the seat is much more spacious and the service much more reliable than what I've read about read (but not yet flown) on Emirates.

If you do decide to splurge and fly via Asia, CX F really is wonderful. But you're right that it would be over 100,000 miles.

From what I've read, the only other great F options that occur to me for flying over the Atlantic are Swiss and Etihad (which has limo service), neither of which I've yet flown. But I don't know if they are partners of Chase UR or Amex MR. Perhaps you could access their seats through LH for Swiss and AA (if it's UR or MR-friendly) for Etihad?

I know the programs are combined, but I'm very hazy on whether LH miles get you into Swiss F unless you're a Swiss FF elite member.

Of course, with Etihad it would also involve more than AA 100,000 miles and could well be a longer overall trip, as you'd have to go all the way to AUH...I believe it's 100,000 to AUH and then 40,000 back to LHR. If by some chance you're going after Etihad starts flying its new F "Apartments" on its AUH-LHR route (I believe in December) and if by some miracle Etihad is opening up those seats for regular levels of points redemption, that could well be worth the splurge.
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Old Sep 3, 2014, 10:11 pm
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AF offers FC between NYC and CDG, but you'd have to then connect back to LHR in their European business class. The problem is that AF FC award seats are normally available to FB (the AF/KLM etc. FF program) elites.

SQ is great (and uses LH lounges in FRA) but their schedule is optimized for connections on the SIN-FRA and vv route, so the timings might not be convenient.

There are a number of excellent Asian carriers for premium cabin travel, but in some FF programs routing through Asia to Europe from the east coast can be forbidden or possible only as two separate awards.
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Old Sep 3, 2014, 11:36 pm
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Originally Posted by farbster
Don't use miles. Do a crossing on the QM2.
explain?
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Old Sep 4, 2014, 2:10 am
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Wirelessly posted (beckoa's BB: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

Originally Posted by FTRox87
Originally Posted by farbster
Don't use miles. Do a crossing on the QM2.
explain?
Its a boat
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Old Sep 4, 2014, 7:46 am
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If the QM2 is a boat, then the Emirates A380 in F is a cropduster...

But seriously, the Queen Mary 2 is a luxury cruise liner that does crossings across the Atlantic.

My travel agent just did it on that ship and I'm anxious to hear what she thinks.


Originally Posted by beckoa
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Its a boat
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Old Sep 4, 2014, 7:48 am
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......a classic and very nice elegant "boat" (I've been told that the proper term is "ship" for this ocean liner), but one would want to be ticketed in a higher class cabin for the better food, etc.......sort of like on an airline one doesn't want coach.....
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Old Sep 4, 2014, 8:28 am
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Certainly, there are different classes on the QM2 (from what I've heard). We've done three cruises on Silverseas and there is no distinction between the cabins. I just mentioned QM2 as I thought they had more regular crossings.

Most of the cruise lines do crossings, as they reposition ships.
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