Originally Posted by coconutjay

Hi All,
I've been reading most of the stuff on this thread and planning on buying a Cat 1-5 package, but cannot figure out the best FF program to get. I don't have a need for the hotel stay yet, but hoping post conversion, I will be able to book SPG hotels with the package (either equivalent point refund to be used for bookings or new Category cert assumption, I know there are many other speculative ideas out there, but I am gambling here with the hope it is in our favor). I am also going to attach this to a category 5 hotel that will be a cat 5 in the new program in hopes there is a bonus when I need to cancel it, the hope is that this doesn't happen enough for them to have to program something for, my bet is this is not so common.

Note: I converted a bunch of Amex MR Canada to SPG to buy this for the gamble, I may lose on this bet as I could have used the Amex travel program or the Aeroplan, but wanted to get a taste of the business/first class flight people often speak of.

I've tried to find information every where about flying to Tokyo from Toronto and which program is best to collect and use, but all that is mentioned are the flights from the US, nothing from Toronto. I apologize if this is not the right thread to post in, but any suggestions on the program would be great. I tried to post in one of the VS threads, but since this was related to the travel packages, I thought maybe someone may know this here. I looked at JAL, ANA as these were the best ones, but hard to collect here in Toronto. I found Virgin Atlantic and Alaskan, however can these be used to book the connecting flight to one of the US hubs with ANA or JAL. ANA uses I believe a code share with UA metal and was hoping I could use VS miles for this, but nothing I could find confirms this. I am not sure how the JAL flight using Alaskan could be done without getting a separate itinerary to get to the US, which is not preferred since additional costs are required (ie luggage/flight).

Any help would be appreciated.