Hi,
My husband has a conference in Rome Sep 12-15, 2012. We'd likely fly Sep 8-15.
What is our best strategy for getting both of us business class RT tickets, and what is the critical timing for doing so?
His airfare will be reimbursed (couch only) and mine will not, so we'd want to purchase his ticket and get an upgrade through miles if possible. For mine we could do pure miles or purchase base and upgrade with miles; whichever is the smarter use of $$ and miles.
Like many, we're on a mileage acquisition streak, so we'll soon have 300K AA points, 100K Chase Sapphire points. (No Amex MR; I'm trying to decide whether to apply for the various Amex MR deals out there.)
Now that I will have a lot of miles, it is time to learn how to use them. If anyone can recommend good resources to start with, I would appreciate it, and am grateful for any advice about this particular flight.
Thanks.
Hi
akp, welcome to FT!
You've been given some terrific information from
sdsearch - who should be commended for the effort he expended on your behalf by rewriting what has already been compiled on FT. You're a better man than I Gunda Din.
I'm not so patient(!) but since you've asked for "good resources" and seem capable of using this site, let me point you in the right direction.
It seems AA is going to be your program - so best to acclimate yourself with that forum:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-aadvantage-445/
Read the stickies on the top of the page. There's even a sticky just for newcomers like yourself.
The 2 main master threads from that forum that you should be familiar with are:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html
and
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ld-awards.html
In those 2 threads do a search for FCO and also do a search for Rome. That will cover your bases to insure you'll be able to read up on how others have secured their award seats to FCO.
And you'll most likely come across some of my posts. I've taken many award flights to Rome in Business - and the very depressing news is that AA has stopped offering the Business MileSAAvers which require 100k miles ("U" bucket) for their ORD-FCO and JFK-FCO routes the way they have historically. Right now it appears that they load in one Sunday when the mood strikes them at about 314 days out.
I used to buy coach and upgrade for my Rome trips - but this was quite some time ago (I stopped when AA started charging the copay) so I have no helpful info on the amount of upgrade availability ("C" bucket) that AA currently loads - but I wouldn't be surprised if it was as bad as the "U" fares.
So this results in your having to find "partner award" availability - and I would steer clear of BA as much as you can. You'll be forced to pay a LOT of $$$ for their fees and surcharges that you won't have to pay on IB.
IB has thus become my carrier of choice. And I'm finding pretty decent award availability. So although your desire was to purchase one coach ticket that will get upgraded and use miles for the other - you may have to reconcile yourself of spending 200k for the 2 of you to fly together in business on IB - and forego your reimbursement. (That would be my preference over flying separately - but you could of course have one of you on IB with 100k AA miles and the other flying on AA and using 50k miles plus the atrocious copay).
Another avenue is to look for decent "I" fares, which are discounted business fares so that your one revenue ticket won't actually cost you ANY miles and you'll EARN more miles than flying coach. And then use your AA miles for the other outright award ticket. Of course this could prove problematic for expensing if the policy is only for coach reimbursement. (But the cost of a coach ticket plus the copay fee might very well be not that less than a good "I" fare).
Lastly, we have a new Iberia forum with lots of great info including detailed reports comparing AA's to IB's business class product - with the consensus being that IB excels.
Here's the link to the IB forum:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/iberi...eria-plus-683/
So these resources should set you on your way and come October when you'll be able to book your flights you should be as well versed as the rest of us!
I look forward to "seeing you" over on the AA and IB forums.
