Originally Posted by
dr58
Thanks, this is incredibly helpful. I'm starting to see that launching my trip from IAD may be difficult to do on *A, at least if I want to avoid flying Y and spend fewer than 40 hours traveling each way! And it doesn't look as if other East Coast locations are much easier. Other than CMB, has anyone recently used creative routings on *A to fly J or F to MLE from the East Coast? I'd certainly be open to finding award tickets to some point before MLE and then paying for tickets for the rest, but CMB didn't seem to have a ton of premium award redemption options either.
If I were based in IAD and was looking at Star Alliance redemption I can't see any circumstance where I'd do anything other than Turkish Airlines. Twice daily from IAD to IST with wide open business class availability and a nice onward connection to MLE. One stop, open availability, good product - seems a no brainer. No need for wandering around CMB or going the long way around the world to enjoy SQ's Y product. We went the long way around on our trip to experience SQ
F product and I can say it was fabulous but not so good that frankly I'd ever do it again vs getting there quicker via the Middle East
From East Coast USA I'd say your options are:
UA/USAir/*A: Turkish one stop service from IAD/ORD/NYC
Delta/SkyTeam: Aeroflot one stop service from JFK/ORD/IAD/MCO/MIA
AA (not OW): Etihad one stop service from JFK/IAD/ORD
Amex Membership Rewards: Qatar (transferred to ANA) one stop service from IAD/JFK/ORD/YUL
In theory you could also use SPG>Emiratess or Chase UR>Korean Air miles to book Emirates too, but prices are very high
The only practical F option from East Coast is Etihad and that is only to AUH the onward flight will be in J