Looking to travel to Brazil from San Francisco in mid-February for Carnaval. This will be my first time going and am looking for tips on the best way to maximize my miles as my budget is low. My updated tentative itinerary is as follows:

Feb 7 Arrive in Sao Paoulo
Feb 12 Arrive in Salvador (for carnaval)
Feb 16 Arrive in Rio
Feb 20 Return home or use a stopover in Toronto or Miami (leaning towards Toronto) for the weekend.

AA.com, United.com and Britshairways.com and koreanair.com are the best ways to check for availability?

Points I have:
Airlines
130k Avios
60k AA
100k Us Air
100k Chase (so basically united and hyatt i suppose)
55k Luthansa

Hotels
85K IHG

I am fairly sure that American airlines no longer allows stopovers on award tickets. One thing you might want to consider is that Korean Airlines flies direct from LA to Sao Paulo and you can use Chase points on Korean Airlines. Korean may also fly from San Francisco and/or to other places in Brazil. I've just never had any reason to check. But it's an option that not many people consider. I did the L.A. to Sao Paulo trip and it was much better than most airlines.

Check out a website called Award Nexus. You may be able to do some free award searches there. If you have to pay, the cost is reasonable.

If you are headed to Rio, your biggest problem may be finding a hotel during Carnaval.

I second workandski's point regarding cost of accommodation in Rio (and in Brazil in general) over carnival. Most of us Brazilians try to flee during carnival as hotel and B&B owners really lose all sense of decency and multiply the high season rates by 3 or 4 times, and require a 5-night minimum stay. Same goes for airbnb.

It's not infrequent to see U$50+ rates for a dirty dorm bed during Rio carnival.

Using miles around Carnaval at any time would be difficult, and doing it a matter of weeks ahead of time will be, IMHO, virtually impossible unless, perhaps you had a ton of miles. And getting accommodations in Rio or Salvador this late seems unrealistic (people start booking a year ahead of time). Higher than normal rates and minimum stay requirements are common. I'd seriously think of going to Brazil at a different time of year, when airline costs (in terms of cash or points), hotels, etc. are cheaper, and the crowds are less, and weather better. Or start shooting for Carnaval 2016.

Can you mix Chase miles with United miles??

American Airlines, in addition to KAL, now flies LAX-GRU non-stop. When looking at tix for cash, KAL was much higher than KAL, but don't know about points. Traveling from SFO, I don't think you'd be any better off going via LAX. You're going to have to change planes at least once (e.g., Houston, Dallas, Detroit, JFK, Atlanta), whether in the U.S., or Mexico City or Lima or Panama City (Copa).

Thanks for all the great tips. I had a couple questions.

1 - Booking on KAL seems like a great option. Ideally I'd like to do business or first class going to Brazil and coach back since I only have 104 chase miles to transfer. My question is, can I do a free stopover somehow while booking on KAL using chase points? I was thinking a stopover in Miami or NY on my return home would be great.

2 - A tenative itinerary update looks like this:

Feb 7 Arrive in Sao Paoulo
Feb 12 Arrive in Salvador (for carnaval)
Feb 16 Arrive in Rio
Feb 20 Return home or use a stopover in Miami for the weekend.

From what I gather Coach/business/First one way is 30k/52.5k/70k, correct? So using all my miles I can do a one way in first for 70k and a return home for 30k in coach. I mainly want to arrive in Brazil fresh which is why i am choosing first or business. Going home coach is perfectly fine and a stopover in Miami or NYC would be sweet.

KAL are SkyTeam, so be aware that your Chase points to United would be useless here, but perhaps you could transfer them to DL?

Mileage varies: Avios are 25k/50k/75k each way, not sure what it is on AA, and that's only applicable on direct routes. If you want a stopover in MIA, it'd have to be a <24h stop, or get a one way to MIA for 50k Avios, then a one way MIA-LAX for 12.5k (I think).

That still leaves the question of extortionate accommodation over Carnival...

And finally: have you checked availablility? With such short notice it would be hard to get paid tickets, let alone with miles.

What is DL, delta? Looks like Korean Air has first class lax-gru for 70k +124. I checked on Korean air website. For my return looks like I can do either Mia or jfk to lax for an easy 12.5k avios in coach which is sweet. Just need to find the best redemption choice to get there from Brazil. I most likely will end the trip in rio but might have to fly to Sao paolo if it's cheaper points wise.

Yeah lodging in Salvador might be tough for carnival but surprisingly still some Airbnb options according to my buddy for Sao paolo and rio.

Also, canada may be a option as a few day stopover on my return home. Would i just need to transfer to Air Canada from Chase, or book on United; or, are there better options?

Thinking I definitely want to do Toronto to end up trip before heading back to SFO or LAX. What is the best/cheapest/fastest way to reach toronto from Rio? I See Air Canada has direct flights but it's an insane amount of points 99k wow. If my avail points aren't an option i wouldn't mind paying for a decent flight but can't seem to find anything noteworthy.

Rio Toronto would be the most direct. Anything else connects via MIA or JFK (and perhaps IAH on UA).

Can't comment on Chase/UA redemption options as I'm not familiar with those, perhaps someone else can chip in.

Thanks for the advice. Looks like only Air Canada goes direct and i don't have any options to transfer to them, and probably wouldn't as it's too pricy. Looks like Amex is the only option to get to Aeroplan.

I may have to either settle with Miami - seems rather difficult to do Toronto

Have you looked at Copa or Avianca for a layover in Panama or Bogota? Oddly enough, I've found better deals on both of those airlines during past carnivals when booking with short notice than with AA, AC, or UA.

I did a couple days layover in Miami returning from S.A. recently. I didn't regret it.