Routing and partner advice
 

Im looking to go from BOS to JNB in the fall. This will be my first huge point trip and I need (and appreciate)all advice. I would love open jaw but I'm not sure if I could pull it off on this route. I thought AirCanada was my best focus but now it seems Emirates and OW partners. I need to monopolize a credit card( I have most already), it seems Alaska is my goto?
Thank you!!!

Welcome to FT
Are you looking for an award flight? What class of travel?
What ffp's are you a member of now?
Expecting to get ff miles now from a nil balance and then get a long haul award flight is very ambitious. Long haul awards are far from certain.

Thank you for your "welcome". I am not coming from nil but it could seem so. I have 38k thank you miles and 30 spg, AA 70k. I will have 75k avios When I finish my spending next month and could have 100k if I had to.
I would like to travel non-coach if it's even possible. I would do a great deal to get out of coach, but will settle if need be( hopefully not).
I read all these sites a great deal, I just need some pointed input. I am pretty ambitious, it's a good trait, I need a direction to shoot.

Premium cabin awards to South Africa are very hard to get with any ffp. Many people start looking & booking 355 days or 330 days out to snatch awards when they become available.

Have looked at what airlines Citi thank you miles can be transferred to?
From SPG you can transfer to a wide range of airlines

AA & BA (avios) are both OneWorld alliance so have the same alliance partners with the same nominal awards available. However award availably does seem to vary with ffp. Both have non OW partners. With 70,000 AA miles you have a start. Many BA awards have high cash surcharges.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...demptions.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...s-seconds.html

AA information
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...es-2015-a.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...iscussion.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...l#post26495098
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html

Edit
Having lived in JNB for 2 years its not a place I would visit. Far better places in South Africa to visit

Membership rewards are 40k, avios I'll get 25k next month and Alaska I thought would be important as a sort of " middle man" so I opened that with just the 5k you get at the start . I also have 71k Ultimate Rewards. I forgot those. I don't think I'm in a horrible spot, I think it could happen. One world I guess then? The citi thank you rewards 66k. I figured jfk-jnb Emirates but it seems beyond me.

JNB because my best friend and I plan to meet there. I think it will be fantastic.

Having multiple ffp’s with low balances is never a good idea. You never get enough miles to be of use before they expire. FFP’s are for the long term.

You cannot move miles from one ffp to another ffp.
Some ffp's have one way awards and others do not.

EK are as AS partner. Look on the AS forum on how(& the problems) using AS miles for EK awards. BA is also an AS partner. The AS award chart is limited and has restrictions.

I thought
 

I had the idea, if organized, you can cross them around to work together. For instance, Alaska is a middleman doe so many.
I started without a goal( biggest error), I still had great times and smaller great travels ( all over Mexico, New Orleans jazz fest this week!!!) but now something huge comes up and I'm screwed but at least I'm not SOL, or am I.... Maybe I should just be saving for full price but that seems like such a failure or waste

If you have AA miles you must spend with AA and are subject to AA t&c’s for awards.
If you have AS miles you must spend with AS and are subject to AS t&c’s for awards.
If you have BA avios you must spend with BA and are subject to BA t&c’s for awards.
With redeemable miles/points/avios in an airline frequent flyer program you can spend(use) for an award flight on that airline and the airline frequent flyer partners of that airline.
Each ffp has different rules & costs (in miles and cash co payments) for awards.
Frequent flyer miles/avios/points are not equal to earn or use.
You cannot move miles/points/avios from one ffp to another ffp
Awards are not guaranteed to be available a when you want to travel. You need to be flexible on dates & routes

Tutor
 

But aren't any of them families in OW or SA? Couldn't I take points and move them to emarites since its within gone of the alliances? Then take my UR, Amex and spg in that same place and make it happen?
I know I'm to the point of being an annoyance but I need a path,I'm the average person. I just need to learn. Am I that scre**d? Does the aero plan even mean anything in this web or it is just another nusance? I should have picked one from the start, then why does everyone say pick up this, this, and this..?

UOTE=Mwenenzi;26495970]If you have AA miles you must spend with AA and are subject to AA t&c’s for awards.
If you have AS miles you must spend with AS and are subject to AS t&c’s for awards.
If you have BA avios you must spend with BA and are subject to BA t&c’s for awards.
With redeemable miles/points/avios in an airline frequent flyer program you can spend(use) for an award flight on that airline and the airline frequent flyer partners of that airline.
Each ffp has different rules & costs (in miles and cash co payments) for awards.
Frequent flyer miles/avios/points are not equal to earn or use.
You cannot move miles/points/avios from one ffp to another ffp
Awards are not guaranteed to be available a when you want to travel. You need to be flexible on dates & routes[/QUOTE]

[
I think it's seeping in, same thing as hotel points.So I pretty much am screwed? Ppl just pick one "currency"? None can switch?

QUOTE=Megz;26496016]But aren't any of them families in OW or SA? Couldn't I take points and move them to emarites since its within gone of the alliances? Then take my UR, Amex and spg in that same place and make it happen?
I know I'm to the point of being an annoyance but I need a path,I'm the average person. I just need to learn. Am I that scre**d? Does the aero plan even mean anything in this web or it is just another nusance? I should have picked one from the start, then why does everyone say pick up this, this, and this..?

UOTE=Mwenenzi;26495970]If you have AA miles you must spend with AA and are subject to AA t&c’s for awards.
If you have AS miles you must spend with AS and are subject to AS t&c’s for awards.
If you have BA avios you must spend with BA and are subject to BA t&c’s for awards.
With redeemable miles/points/avios in an airline frequent flyer program you can spend(use) for an award flight on that airline and the airline frequent flyer partners of that airline.
Each ffp has different rules & costs (in miles and cash co payments) for awards.
Frequent flyer miles/avios/points are not equal to earn or use.
You cannot move miles/points/avios from one ffp to another ffp
Awards are not guaranteed to be available a when you want to travel. You need to be flexible on dates & routes[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

No. Effectively you cannot move miles/points/avios from one ffp to another ffp. :td:
You can move points from SPG, UR, Amex & thank you points to ffp's as allowed by those loyality schemes.

Emirates EK is not a member of any of the 3 main global airline alliances.
EK are a ff partner of several other airlines.
For example with AS miles you can get an award flight on EK if available and if in accordance with the AS rules for awards on EK.

Aeroplan is the Air Canada ffp: many unhappy frequent flyers in Aeroplan (see the forum). Air Canada are in the Star Alliance.

That would be Air Canada. ;) CP went out of business many years ago!

To the OP - you will need about 300,000 Aeroplan miles for a round trip on Star Alliance from Canada to South Africa. You are far far away from that. Even if you had the miles, I think you'll find it hard to actually get the seats.

Do I am s o l. I'm devastated but my bestie in London will be so excited it's easier to get there I suppose. I never should have cancelled Barclay but I raged it and thought I was done. So just start cancelling or organize? Only use the Amex I guess or UR.
Devastated but I'll just have to push to Hong Kong in Jan 2017.
I can't believe how sweet you are, I want to delete everything for appearing a pinhead. When people say open all these cards they mean only if they are in your plan( miles or points?)


QUOTE=LondonElite;26496271]That would be Air Canada. ;) CP went out of business many years ago!

To the OP - you will need about 300,000 Aeroplane miles for a round trip on Star Alliance from Canada to South Africa. You are far far away from that. Even if you had the miles, I think you'll find it hard to actually get the seats.[/QUOTE]

You need focus your cc spending and flying so that you have one FF account where all the miles go. Having 16 different small buckets everywhere does not help you. Even if you had the necessary miles there is no guarantee you would have been able to get the seat on the date(s) you wanted since, particularly from Europe to South Africa there is very heavy demand for these. Also, depending on what airline you eventually chose, you would have had to pay a fuel or carrier surcharge (potentially a lot of money). It might be easier to just look for cash seats in economy.

Edit
 

I hate Amex as a company but I guess they are what to focus on. Everything will be used, of course. I travel so much around on much smaller scales and I could probably pull EU with some push. It's just this was a big trip I thought I could use everything no make it but that was naïveté. I guess I'll just have to go pick one, I should just go for UR or a "transferable" would be my smart move (heh). Too bad chase loves me. They are my biggest split with UR,BA,SW. Damn them.
I'm semi crushed but I will still bounce around do I can be happy for the freedom.

I know it seems counter-intuitive, but one of the best values for travel to Africa using Alaska Airlines miles is on Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong. In business class it's 62,500 miles one way, including an allowed stopover in Hong Kong.

Welcome to FT!

For the arbitrarily selected dates I checked in the fall (October 4-18), you would need 80k miles on AA for two one-way economy reward flights (assuming award seats are available). Award flights using BA incur prohibitive surcharges, and award flights using Etihad cannot be booked online. For the same dates, RT economy flights BOS-JNB can be purchased for approximately $825 on various combinations of AF/DL/KL.

In your planning, don't forget that AS award tickets can generally use at most one partner on the same ticket.

There are also cheap J flights out of YYZ at the moment down to JNB/CPT. If you can afford those why not just use your miles for the positioning flight to YYZ and do paid J down to CPT/JNB.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/premi...usiness-6.html

Not knowing your travel plans, obligations or aspirations, maybe pointless, but I'll mention that South Africa currently offers very attractive prices for Oneworld Explorer business class RTW tickets, e.g. 4 continents in business class, up to 16 flights, for US$4047 plus taxes/fees. Good for a year, fairly easy to change. Have a look at the Oneworld board if interested. Fly on miles one way and start the ticket while you're there.

When I applied for AA I didn't get the premium card, I got a lesser one with less bonus( this summer). When I called, they said to just apply for the other( better) card in three months, I could have gotten the basic for any reason.
With aero being a part of AA, it would seem you could really ramp up those points fast( td is local). All my idiotic notes I've taken. Mr Leff told me ages ago I need a goal but I just figured everything could cross together via some commonality, so everyone just uses one card really? And has the others....

DO you mean Aeroplan? No, it is not affiliated with AA at all.

If by people you mean bloggers, they get $$ when you click their links.

You have a good start with AA miles and some BA avios. SPG points can transfer to AA. One problem with AA awards is to that part of the world is that BA flight are often offered. With AA awards on BA they charge the hefty BA cash surcharges :td:. Cathay CX, Qatar QR & Etihad EY are also partners with AA. And QR & CX are partners of BA.

Long haul awards on popular routes are not easy.

Doesn't Alaska Air potentially play a big role here. Since it does have Emirates?
I am so appreciative you guys are so helpful. I'm generally just a reader but I had to step up bc I was confused but I am starting to have some faith here since my dates are sort of open. But Alaska can also do KLM which I thought could be possible since they are AA too.
QUOTE=LondonElite;26497906]DO you mean Aeroplan? No, it is not affiliated with AA at all.[/QUOTE]

In the future if you don't want Alaska Airlines to be confused with American Airlines, use Alaska's symbol AS rather than AA, which is American's.

Okay, sorry. I'll switch it up! Thank you.

Emirates EK, KLM/AF & American Airlines AA are all frequent flyer partners of Alaska AS. As is Cathay CX. Howver the AS award chart is very limited on which airlines you can use for awards on specfic routes. As above, with AS you cannot mix partners airlines on 1 award. (no such restriction with AA)
I would not get to fixated on EK for USA to South Africa award flights. EK are just 1 airline to South Africa.

[/QUOTE]
Yep, I see that's a no go. at the beginning of this post I felt like this was impossible, now potentially I could make it happen with work but I might be better off taking what I've learned here and see how big it can become. I could ask more and more. Are lesser flights worth just paying for? Why bother wasting.
Also, do people specifically go to the airport early to spend time in the lounges? I travel as quickly as possible.
This is a cool board.

BOS-JNB
 

Op,

Being clueless as to when you actually want to take this trip (other than Fall), I did a cursory check on BA and there happened to be very reasonable availability via DOH on Qatar. Business class was available, and I believe it's just one award with AA miles. Not absolutely certain, but I think it's 75,000 miles one way, so you would need to top off your AA account with some SPG points.

As for the return, you could transfer some UR points to UA. Coach is readily available in October, with some days having business as well.

It was very tough to follow OP, so I'll condense my understanding of the question. OP wants premium class travel BOS-JNB round trip. Current balances:

Citi TY: 66k
SPG: 30k
AA: 70k
Avios: 75k
Amex MR: 40k
Chase UR: 71k

As wcrhkd posted above, you're just short of enough AA miles for a business class one-way. Fortunately, you can trasnfer 5k SPG to get the 75k AA needed. Definitely hold off on transferring until you find a flight you want to book. SPG transfers aren't instant, but you should be able to put a hold on the flights and then transfer. AA via DOH could be quite appealing since QR (Qatar Airways) flies BOS-DOH-JNB. Most awards will have at least 2 connections as there are few cities that are served by both BOS and JNB within the same alliance.

Do you have any United? Not to offend but you left some out before and mentioned you apply for cards bloggers direct you to, so I wouldn't be surprised if you have a UA balance as well from the Chase UA card. 80k UA would be enough for one-way on a United partner in business class. So that would do it for you. You have 71k UR, which transfer to 71k UA. If you don't have an existing UA balance, there are other ways to get the 9k UA needed, but nothing attractive. For example, 18k SPG transfers to 9k UA (though if you do that you might as well do 20k SPG to get 12.5k UA).

Another possibility is using Singapore miles. Amex, Chase, Citi, and SPG all transfer to Singapore (SQ) miles, so they're a good way to combine your disparate balances. However, depending on which airline you find availability on, you may have to pay fuel surcharges using SQ miles, so you'd want to make sure they're going to be reasonable/non-existent before transferring to SQ. Transfers to SQ take a day or two from Amex, Chase, and Citi (no experience with SPG transfers to SQ but I would save the SPG anyway and use up the others) and SQ doesn't allow holds, so there's a slight risk there. But you definitely should not transfer before knowing there's a way to use them. SQ miles also expire 36 months after earning (unlike most programs where earning 1 new mile extends the validity of all your miles), so you don't want balances there without a planned use. If fuel surcharges are reasonable on an SQ award, you have enough miles to do a round trip SQ business class award.

Weren't people having some problems (accounts closed, for example) when they tried to transfer AmEx into a new SQ account, especially if the details on the account didn't match exactly? I think this was reported here and in at least one blog, although I don't recall the details or whether there was a resolution of the issue.

I'm not clueless, I just have an open period of time..But I now have faith I can do this. It would seem a benefit to be able to jump into a day if you see something good. Of course it's around the 17th but plus or minus. It's holiday.
I do not apply for the bloggers credit cards. I definitely do not but I do look around. No UA really.

Oh no...I meant I was clueless in regard to your travel dates. That's why I just tried random dates in Fall for a simple search.

No, you're good! I'm sure I appear such but I can only ask questions to learn. I'm speaking the lingo but I know most of it( from the wiki, to be honest)
No shame.

Just to be clear, wcrhkd was not being rude, he meant that he didn't have a clue when you actually wanted to travel, so he guessed. ;)

I'm clear but thanks.