For awhile now, I've been planning a trip to Europe, thanks to the knowledge I've gotten from all of you guys. I realized I had excess points, so I decided to add on a small stop in the UAE, since it's long been on my list. Since I started in this, I've wanted to fly either Emirates or Etihad first class, as an aspirational redemption, and this is where I run into trouble. I'm currently sitting on 76K AAdvantage miles, enough to redeem for business class AUH - JFK, but not first. I have 127K MR, but I'd really prefer not to use those on one flight. I've also considered waiting until I get enough AA miles, but I'm concerned about devaluations, as well as American possibly ending their partnership with Etihad which makes me hesitant to wait. Both business and first are currently available on my dates I would need to head back to the US as well. So, I wanted to get a little feedback, I'm leaning towards the business class redemption with AA, but if you were in my situation, would you splurge for the first class, or consider waiting it out?


A little additional info: I've already gotten both the Aviator and Citi AAdvantage cards within the past year. I tried to cancel and reapply for the aviator in hopes of churning it, but I got denied for it, as well as the Citibusiness AAdvantage(which really surprised me)