Hi..

In Sept, I will be visiting England and Hamburg for a long weekend both times departing the NYC area. I'm hoping you guys might be able to offer some expert advice on the best way to go about this using award miles and thoughts on what I've found so far. I'm fine flying economy BTW.

I have 120,000 Amex MR points (convertible to 162,000 avios) and 100,000 united miles.

So far I have come up with the following

For Hamburg with Avios through air berlin

NYC - Dusseldorf Return 40000 miles and $101
Dusseldorf - Hamburg return 9000 miles and $75

All in all 49000 miles and $176

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I can't come up with anything ideal for the England trip without paying British Airways huge fees.

I want to leave NYC in the evening of Thurs 12th Sept and arrive in London (from NYC) around midday on Fri 13 Sept and depart Manchester on the 16th in the morning or midday.

I can get OK flights on the way back

Manchester - Dublin - JFK for 30,000 united and $163

But so far can't find anything suitable for NYC - London. If I do the aer lingus trick I still have to get from dublin to the UK using ryanair and pay around $125 each way.

Any thoughts? Thanks for reading