Originally Posted by
paugom
1. Can CO do more over the phone then the website? How reliable is the website's results for reward searches?
Yes. ANA is a good place to start, too.
Originally Posted by
paugom
2. We're more concerned about the long haul being first class then the Intra-Europe travel. Is it possible to combine a reward NYC to Europe flight with a paid intra-europe flight to our final destination? (Since CO doesn't fly to Istanbul direct)
No, but you shouldn't have to pay for that segment. Getting NYC-ATH, ATH-IST, IST-NYC on a single ticket is possible, assuming you find the inventory.
Originally Posted by
paugom
3. Should I be trying to pay for my tickets and upgrade them instead?
Probably not, IMO. It will cost more and finding the upgrades are often harder than the reward seats.
Do you have specific dates?
ETA: Without specific dates I found the following...
LH 403 or 405 in F on 5/14/2011. That's either Newark or JFK to FRA. LH 401 (early flight ex-JFK) is available in C but I don't like the 4pm departure; too early to get a decent night's sleep.
LH 1282 on 5/15/2011 in C. That's FRA-ATH with a 2 hour layover. Not enough time for much lounge excitement but the only other flight FRA-ATH with inventory arrives after midnight so probably not worth it.
TK 1848 or 1850 on 5/22/2011 in C. That's ATH-IST. Either a morning or evening flight. Your choice.
TK 1 is a bit harder on 5/28/2011. I see plenty of days where 1 seat is published in F but not with 2. The tricky part here is that in some previous similar scenarios I've seen CO issue two F seats. Just request it and see where you get.
Should be 135K each in F for the r/t F ticket. Get CO to confirm the seats and then transfer the points over from AmEx to top off the account.