Originally Posted by dingo

I have never in all my years thought about using miles from another airline to book an award on AA. I don't know if it is a good idea or not, or when it is a good idea.

I am trying to get from CLT to either AMS or BRU in business. AA wants 360,000 per roundtrip ticket. I could book on AA and BA using AA miles but I'm looking at a triple hop plus the UK carbon taxes.

I've poked around and it seems like there are at least some ways to get the same award space on AA using partner miles (Ethiad being one). I have enough points currencies or points outright to pull this off. In fact, it needn't be AA/Oneworld...I could probably get to any carrier in any alliance (they're all steep booking directly w/ the airline operating the flight though i.e., Delta, UA).

I'd lose the heartburn even if I could get the per ticket cost down to 200k or so.

Added: I have access to ExpertFlyer, though I'm roughly a novice on it.

Any starter tips/tricks, etc. for me to dig into deeper?