Have you looked at ANA?

Thanks for your reply.

I've looked at ANA but it seems business class seats are limited for reward tickets.

The date I want to book are all in waiting lists in September.

You might check for availability on EVA, which you could book with either Aeroplan or ANA miles. I believe Air China flies to Taipei as well (I presume with a stop on the mainland first). My understanding is there are no fuel charges when booking on EVA or Air China through Aeroplan.

Hi guys - looking for some advice.

We are in need of two one-way seats RAK-GVA. Don't care what airline, but would like to use points instead of cash. Most of our actual miles are with DL, which do us no good on this route, but we have plenty of Amex MR.

Award in J would be nice, though not essential since most (all?) carriers operate this route with euro-J.

Suggestions for programs/airlines to look to? Aeroplan doesn't allow one-ways on this route (and prices as 100k for the RT). BA Avios gives a connection through LHR but still seems pricey at 29k in coach (plus ~$100+ in fees).

Is it possible to transfer MR points from a US based account to an Australian based account?

(To get into Qantas points....)

This is an easy one. Transfer to IB Avios (Iberia sometimes have lower fuel charges for some reason). RAK-MAD-GVA is 12000 + $58 per person. I found availability the first day I checked, which happened to be April 15. A further search for next Thursday had only business available on the MAD-GVA leg so that would be pricier, 20250 + $64 pp.

Thanks! I don't have an IB account yet, but do you know what the ballpark mileage would be for business on both legs?

If not, I'll register and price it out myself. Just feeling a bit lazy at the moment. :)

It's typically double the miles, but I didn't price it myself.

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No, not so easy, given the current 40% transfer bonus from Amex MR to BA Avios (assuming that one is a U.S. cardholder).

And if flying on BA, I probably wouldn't bother with Business Class. BA's Club Europe service has recently been downgraded, and now features markedly reduced pitch between rows.

Hmm, forgot about the transfer bonus. Yeah ideally you would transfer to BA and thence to IB, and take advantage of the transfer bonus and also IB's lower fuel charges when flying IB metal. But to do that both your BA and IB accounts must be three months old, and I doubt OP meets that requirement. If so, great, if not it's a question of whether saving the 6000 or so MR points is worth the $50 difference in fuel charges. I suppose it probably is.

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I don't think that the cash components would be any higher on BA. A Reward Flight Saver RAK-LON should cost 10K Avios + $27 per person in Coach; an RFS LON-GVA should cost 4.5K Avios + $27 per person in Coach. The only tricky part is that the two RFS redemptions might have to be booked separately, so there could be an issue in the event of IRROPS. Of course, the travelers might want to stop over for a day or more in the U.K. ;)

I priced the itinerary on both websites RAK-MAD-GVA. It was 12000 + $58 pp in fees on IB and 12000 + $84 on BA. If you flew on BA metal and routed through LHR, it may be different, but the most direct way is to go through Madrid and IB (always? usually?) have lower fuel charges for travel on IB metal.

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Ah, I see now.

Yes, redeeming BA Avios for travel on IB will typical cost more cash than redeeming IB Plus Avios on IB.

Redeeming BA Avios for BA via LON will cost more Avios than routing via MAD, but you get to benefit from the (slightly) lower cash component on RFS redemptions. (And you get to stop over in LON -- or any other BA UK destination, for that matter -- if desired.)

I have about 98k MR points. I was going to use these points for a flight to Costa Rica, but I used miles from a Discover Card instead.

I see that there is a 40% bonus for transfer to Avios. Should I just go ahead and transfer most of my points there? Everything I've read seems to indicate that this is a great deal. Two more questions.

1. Do the points expire?
2. As far as I've read so far, I just look for mileSaaver seats and then transfer from Avios to American? Or do I call Avios and ask them to book when I find seats that I want?

Forgive my ignorance. As I've mentioned, I fly Southwest and the occasional Delta flight.

You cannot transfer Avois points out of BAEC. You redeem through BAEC, using their award charts and terms, for flights operated by their partners airlines which include all members of the OneWorld alliance plus Alaska Airlines and Aer Lingus. (American Airlines is a member of OneWorld).

I strongly encourage you to spend some time in this thread before deciding:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...os-2014-a.html