Your points are well taken. I did a quick check last night and found some limited availability in the London-Chicago segment which I think is the stickiest as we want to travel around Easter. I should mention that we would like to do a stopover in London.

We have a second routing option on One World and that is via Brussels. I am guessing those flights would have more availability than via London.

I will have to use a US carrier as much as possible (so to Europe). There is some flexibility in carriers if prices are competative for my ticket.

Yes, we would like to travel together. But I will likely be going over by myself some weeks ahead of her. So, if it means for instance that we save $500 by returning on seperate flights or carriers; got to consider that.

So, I concede that at this point the question is hypothetical. But, if I could book an award flight for 75,000 miles is it a "better deal" than buying a $1500 ticket?