You have 1.6 million Radisson miles, which are worth 200K airline miles.

According to the Radisson site, your choices are Air Canada, America West, American, Asiana, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Continental, Delta, EL AL, Gulf Air, Icelandair, Latin Pass, Mexicana, Midwest Express, Northwest, United, US Airways. Check their sites to see how much they want to France (and if you want more than just Paris, consider their partners if you choose a NA airline).

I think United is 100K for F to Europe (or 80K for J). BA is out of the question, they recently raised First and Business award ticket prices a lot (150K for F, 100K for J, in this case). Also their tickets have very limited flexibility. But they usually have good award availability. And they have a decent upgrade price (25K) if you can buy their Premium Economy and upgrade to Business.

Also consider that Radisson has a limit of one million points (125K airline miles) transferred per year, so it will take you 12 months + a day to get all the points transferred (it's a moving 12-month period). They also require a Radisson stay in the previous 12 months but I don't know how well they enforce this.

You're also going to be exposed for 12 months, you'll have miles transferred to a plan that could change or go down the toilet. On that basis, if you're not buying until all 1.6MM Radisson points are transferred, maybe move the 600K now and the million in a year. That way if you choose UA (for example) and they devalue their program or shut it down, you'll only be stuck for 75K instead of 125K. Of course this increases your Radisson exposure. Or see if you can make something out of 100K airline miles as a companion ticket.

I recently transferred miles and they checked my previous transfer's date but didn't ask about the stay (which I had done, so they may already have known).

andrew


[This message has been edited by Andrew Webber (edited 08-28-2003).]