Within a year we have to go to Johannesburg from our home in Seattle. I would like to use UAL flights as much as we can; however, they don't fly to JNB.

What would you suggest for us to fly to SIN on UAL and SQ to JNB or UAL to FRA and LH to JNB. We would like to travel in Business Class. I heard that SAA is joining *A but people are also saying that SAA's C class is not good compared to other carriers.

Can we redeemed miles to fly on SQ or LH? I probably would prefer SQ because I know their C class is a top notch. But how hard it is to redeem miles on SQ from SIN-JNB or even SEA-SIN-JNB?

Does anyone know how many miles are required for this? If we fly UAL, we'll fly them as far as SIN or FRA and we'll buy an upgradable Y class. I know that we can't upgrade Y class tickets on SQ or LH so our only option is to redeem miles on either SQ or LH from SIN or FRA.

We definately won't be flying coach considering it takes about 24-25 hours of flying from SEA to JNB. So please give us some ideas...

Your thoughts?