Originally Posted by headinclouds
If you can keep the actual flight mileage under 20K, it is only 130,000 miles in BC for a oneworld award. Otherwise 25K mileage is 150,000 miles, the same as a regular BC award from N.America to Africa. Getting 2 BC seats on CX across the Pacific is easier than on BA from what I've heard. Check the mileage, but you could do SFO-HKG-JNB-NBO-LHR-SFO/LAX.
DON'T take a voluntary downgrade. Contrary to what AA tells you, BA will not put you in BC if your ticket says coach and there are empty seats. You would have to have AA reissue the ticket with the BC as BA puts you in the cabin per the ticket.
excellent suggestions. the oneworld ticket might be the better option here IF you don't mind the EXTRA travel time. the only other issue is whether you can hit the trifecta of getting availability on SFO-HKG, HKG-JNB, JNB-NBO on the dates you need them. Note that it is just under 20K mileage distance if you don't stopover anywhere between SFO and NBO (regardless of routing) and just under 25K mileage distance if you want to stop in HKG, JNB *and* LHR. You may want to route SFO-LAX-HKG-JNB-NBO since there are 3x daily CX flights ex LAX versus only one ex SFO.
http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=s...avy&MAP-STYLE=