Originally Posted by NJJAM

Hi all,

Have AMEX Gold and 50K+ miles ready to transfer to an airline.

Based in MKE but have been told to fly out of YYZ or YVR for international flights, since the costs are usually much, much cheaper.
The cost for a flight from MKE should be minimal compared to the savings...so I've been told.

Will be going Japan in Nov (final dest is MMY) business class.
Think I have flights lined up for my return leg (award flight using AA points from Aviator Red bonus).
Would like to use the AMEX points for the depart leg, but JAL and American are not AMEX transfer partners.

Looked at transferring to ANA but from what I understand, there's no guarantee that an upgrade will be allowed because tickets have to be purchased first - then a request for upgrade can be submitted.
IF the request is accepted, the amounts of points required are very high and the upgrade fee is almost the cost of a ticket.

Have tried using Qantas, BA and Virgin Atlantic - to look up flights (using money and/or points) to MMY but no luck. Even tried to use alternate dest of OKA and NRT/HND (even KIX) - same results.
By the way...been told how smooth those sites are but found the opposite to be true (I'm a no points member on all 3).

Contacted a few points brokers (?) and all I got was pressured to pick for flights leaving now. Wow.

Appreciate recommendations on which airline to transfer the AMEX points to.

My eyes are starting to cross