Hello everyone,

I've been a Frequent Flyer for many years and thought I was quite knowledgeable of the various FFP systems until this new task presented itself... and mostly, until I found this forum through KVS Tool (just downloaded). I just realized I am quite the novice!

So here is what I am trying to accomplish and I hope you can point me in the right direction.

I'm planning our honeymoon for September 2016. Before the flight schedule posts to the various airlines (I believe 355 days is the furthest one can book) I wanted to research on how to best make use of the miles and Amex points I have saved over the past few years for this special occasion.

Right now I have 100,000 miles on American Airlines and I have 360,000 points on Amex Rewards points.

Here's the flight plan so far after these past weeks of research:

SFO-FCO: First stop for the wedding
FCO-DXB-MLE: We would like to spend a couple of nights in Dubai so this would be a long transit, ticket would be FCO to MLE via DXB.

MLE-SIN-SFO: We would like to spend a couple of nights in Singapore, so again a long transit in Singapore. Ticket would be MLE to SFO via SIN.

Goal: Travel Business Class all the way.
All tickets need to be Award Savers or the miles I have are not enough...

Looking at the AA award site it seems I can fly us Business Class for 50,000 miles each from SFO to Chicago (ORD) on AA then to Germany on Air Berlin, then final destination to Rome (FCO) IF I can catch the award saver fare.

Amex points can be transferred only to certain airlines. Looking at the list here's how I thought of using them:

I would transfer 180,000 points from Amex to Emirates Skyward and book with Emirates an award flight (their equivalent of Saver) to Male (Maldives) with stopover in Dubai from Rome (FCO). I called and they said it can be done once the fares are available (not before 12 months from departure date of course).

I would then transfer the last 180,000 points from Amex to Singapore Airlines and book with Singapore another award flight (their equivalent of Saver) to San Franscisco via Singapore, with a long transit in Singapore. I called and they also said this is possible once the fares are available.

So three separate bookings, three airlines, all Business Class.

Do you think this is doable? If so when exactly should I be contacting the airlines given that the dates we are planning our trip are:

Sept 12 SFO-FCO

Sept 20 SFO-DXB then Sept 22 DXB-MLE

Sept 29 MLE-SIN then Oct 1 SIN-SFO

OR

Should I just use and Award Booking Service for this?

Thank you all in advance for any input you can give me to make this plan come alive!

Sincerely
Leonardo