Originally Posted by
moondog
Since he lives in Tucson, I was thinking AA would be cool on the return because they could get him all the way home (assuming NRT-DFW-TUS isn't considered backtracking), meaning he'd only need to purchase/redeem a oneway ticket to a CX gateway. That having been said, since both CX and JL fly out of LAX (and LAX is the easiest redemption according to my research), a TUC-LAX RT for positioning purposes might not be a bad way to go.
I agree that JL Y probably justifies a $72 premium over AA Y, but both are ambien material for persons recently spoiled by CX F. At last NRT-LAX is a relatively short flight.
Good info guys. Yes, reasonable positioning flights are the lifeblood of great redemptions, sometimes.
Now, what about HNL? The former WP program allowed a great boondoggle from HNL to Asia. For 70k, one could redeem in J from HNL-Asia via NRT. The normal routing of course would be NW from HNL-NRT-x. However, west coast mainland gateways like LAX/SFO/SEA/PDX were legitimate routings on such redemptions. Splicing two of these itins with precision therefore yielded two return J trips LAX-Asia, plus one F trip LAX-HNL, for only 15% more miles than one normal CONUS-Asia J redemption (120k). The NW stopover rules allowed for a stopover of months to be invoked at LAX, thus making it perfect for spacing the trips during the year.
I know nothing about EC... is redemption from HNL is cheaper than CONUS? Can it be bent through mainland US? Or how about one-way from HNL to EU via Asia, then a positioning flight? I don't care about originating in TUS, I'll originate in EZE or CAI or GUM for the right redemptions, there are always ways to get there.