Originally Posted by
naranjero
mtkeller, thanks for clarification. There will be one segment from JFK, so 4-seg each way rule is ok. MPM should be fine in my case.
roknroll, for outbound just found great option in biz on KL metal (one connection only in AMS).
Getting from SFO to RDU in low is a problem, as I'm not very flexible in dates. Only found an option with overnight in MSP... Probably I'll just skip RDU, without it there are good options in low biz.
This has been my problem finding flights out of SFO to the east coast. Most of the low level awards are on the overnight flights. Try searching both in Y and F, segment by segment. You might find SFO-DTW with 1 seat in F available, and DTW-RDU with 1 seat in Y available which you can have the agent manually build. But if you search SFO-RDU for one seat in F or Y, it won't prioritize low miles and mix cabins, but will prioritize keeping in the same cabin and bumping you up to mid or high miles.
Also make sure you are logged in when searching, as FO has slightly better economy award availability than no status.
If you can find a cheap one way flight SFO-RDU, you could book it as an open jaw and buy a ticket for that segment. That would eliminate the stopover in RDU, and if you wanted to you could end up adding a stopover somewhere else.