Originally Posted by
Jasper2009
Yes, in the M&M program, you have to pay the higher number of miles for a 3 region award if you connect a 3rd region when travelling between two other regions, even if there is no other way to fly between the two regions:
Since you'd be connecting in North America during your trip from Australia/NZ to South America, you'd have to pay 50k miles in Y / 92.5k miles in J for a one-way trip.
I ended up booking a business class seat in New Zealand flight AKL-EZE for 67k miles and only 22 EUR in surcharges. Unfortunatelly the flight is much later than I was hoping for but this was the only reasonable option I was able to find that wouldn't cost me a fortune.
On the positive side, I am looking forward to flying on a Dreamliner for the first time, business class on it should be awesome.
Now thr question is how to move around South America cheaply.
Thank you guys for your help!