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Looking for suggestions in C or F to LAS from LHR/ZRH/FRA for the first weekend in March 2012.

EF has some availability on LX to LAX on the Sunday, but the call center cannot see it. In fact, they offered me only economy on FRA-ORD, and then to LAS in first.

Ideas?

EF shows availability for M&M members and these days LX don't release many premium seats at all to other *A partners until very close to time.

AC has availability via YYZ from either FRA or LHR (with a long layover) on the Saturday. Only one seat though if that matters.

Tanks - as pronounced in Dublin, without the 'h'. Going to have to think more about this...

Now I know that 4 seats MAN-FRA-MCO are not going to pop-up, but would appreciate a starter for 10 for getting us out and back. Last two weeks of July through end of August is the target. Would like to spend 10-14 days in the US.

Happy to land in NYC and move on.

Happy to go to SFO or LAS if that's easier.

Happy to start in LHR.

Accept the need to travel as 2+2 (one adult + one child) and maybe arrive/leave different dates.

OK to fill in short cheap internals with SWA, Jet Blue, or whoever.

Looking to burn the last tranche of 200K miles. Cash + miles for all seats, to give some sort of protection if DC does go south in the meantime.

So - routes and cities should I be checking?

Yo MAN Pax! (Sorry, I know you must get that a lot, I'm just slightly starstruck. )

I've seen a lot of TATL C availability on LH for next summer. Just re-checked FRA-EWR and FRA-IAD and can see lots of dates in your time frame with seats, including some flights still showing when I search for four seats.

You shouldn't even rule out getting MCO (though I can't for the life of me think why anyone would want to go there...). Right now continental.com is showing four C seats on FRA-MCO on 27 July, for example (LH 464, departs 14:15 so easy to get there in time from MAN).

I know not everyone here rates LH C, but it's a perfectly acceptable option (especially for a day flight).

Good luck!

That is so, but add on the connection from MAN and the seats vanish courtesy of the married sector monster. Still, maybe an opportunity to save on APD instead.

One other route to consider is to come in the back door and drive, using LH FRA-MIA.

Oops. You're right of course -- that particular monster hasn't scuppered any of my plans recently, so had slipped my mind.

With four travellers there's certainly potential to save, even if it's necessary to spend a night in or near FRA.

Lots more availability there than I thought - even found some potential dates for booking.

Will probably head to MCO, then back via EWR.

Will need to get to/from FRA at my own risk, but I think the APD savings and a LH �200 MCO I have from last December will go a long way towards the additional cost.

Just looking at availability for Jun 12 for 2 passengers, looking for interesting routings too. I fancy the idea of flying into SEA and out of LAX/SFO, or something similar. Thanks to some good advice on here, I think I will make use of the SQ A388 on at least one sector. Does anyone have any ideas for getting to SEA around the 1st of Jun? In C

Hi, first time poster here so please be gentle!

I'm looking for advice re best use of BMI miles for a UK - New Zealand trip in November 2012. Through a number of years flying and BMI credit card use I've amassed 240,000 miles which hopefully I can put to good use here.
Looking for 2 x Business Class returns, MAN-AKL so will need to be miles + cash. Staying approx 3 weeks and we need to be in NZ week of 27th Nov 2012, otherwise dates are flexible. Also flexible on route and airline but rather not route via US. Cleanest and simplest routing preferred.

Can anyone offer suggestions, likely availability, best time to start looking etc?

Thanks in advance.

Welcome to FT!

The simplest route would be with NZ via HKG from LHR, but availability in business on those flights are pretty non existent.

One option would be MAN-SIN-SYD-AKL, on SQ and NZ. I found availability on the SIN-MAN leg no problem (though you need to phone bmi to check, you can't view that availability online anywhere), and others have reported SIN-SYD is proving easy to find seats on.

As you're looking to go in late November next year, you'll need to wait a little while to book - SQ and NZ both release their award seats ~350 days out. The usual recommendation is to book two one-ways, so you can snap up the outbound availability as soon as it appears, and then the return a few weeks later. That way you also get an extra stopover if you want it (SIN/SYD on the way out, the other on the way back, or come back a different route and stop in BKK maybe)

As ever, you can save on the taxes if you go to Dublin or similar first and start your redemption there, but that doesn't really tie in with "cleanest and simplest".

Thanks for your help, will give it a few weeks and start searching in earnest. The ideal would be MAN - AKL via SIN all on SQ. Anyone have an idea on the chances?

Certainly not inconceivable - because BD can see availability on SQ 77Ws that other *A members apparently can't, you might find seats on the overnight flight (SQ285). Availability on the daytime flight looks pretty scarce.

A good way to get an idea is to phone up bmi and ask to check availability for the equivalent days a month or two earlier (ie if you're looking for a Friday in November, check a couple of Fridays in September/October 2012). If you find plenty of availability on the random days you pick, the chances are you'll probably find it on the days you want!

Certainly plausible, looks like SIN-AKL will be more of the issue though (2 seats is especially pushing it:

On the return there is NOTHING on SQ one-stop service for all of December.