Perplexed Points Person
 

We have about 150,000 AMEX points and 300,000 Delta points (and more coming), and want to book good flat-bed seats on any carrier from LAX-NAR
for travel in September.

How can we maximize these points? Also have about 100,000 Chase points.

Thanks!

I think you want to look for award tickets to NRT (Narita) and HND (Haneda) - The two international airports that serve Tokyo.

From LAX, the airlines with non-stop services include Singapore Airlines, United, American, Delta, ANA, and JAL. (If you're unable to find awards on your preferred dates, you could expand this greatly by allowing connecting flights - and expanding your search to include other gateway airports in Japan - KIX (Kansai), NGO (Nagoya), and FUK (Fukuoka) )

How many of you are there? Two? If so, I guess you should have enough Delta + Amex + Chase points for two business class round-trip tickets. My guess is that's the only way for you to get a biz. class / flat bed award. Delta flies LAX-HND. The folks on the Delta forum can certainly give you tips on using the miles in the best way and exchanging Amex points for Delta Skymiles etc.

Another off the wall possibility is to use your Delta miles for a one-way award with Delta. And use AMEX / Chase to get an award with another airline for the return leg. (e.g. JAL from KIX to LAX - open-jaw style approach).

Hope this helps. I recommend you check out the Delta forum.

less perplexed
 

Thanks...very useful and of course! One way deals....will scope them out.
Will also try Delta.

Last time I looked (over a year ago) business class awards LAX-HND on Delta were pretty easy to come by at the low price.

You're a genius!
 

It works Angra!!!

I can't tell you how many searches I've done!

But.....it starts out looking great, but the real price for biz is 160,000 each way. I KNOW I can do better, but I can't make it work.

yeah 160k each way is not low. I think if you hunt dates you can get down to 70 or maybe 90k each way. I am not sure what the floor is now for Delta.

I know thank SQ is not a SkyTeam partner but since you have AMEX points, if you can transfer that 2 J class one-way from LAX-NRT comes out 131,750 KrisFlyer miles
+ USD 107.20 if you book online since there is a 15% redemption discount (65,875+USD 53.60 per person) which is okay. My only tip is to not transfer more than the miles required since they expire after 3 years regardless.

The only Skyteam member that would come close to a Japan redemption would be Korean Air.

I just booked from LAX (for FOUR!!) and was amazed when I found 4 biz on Singapore (LAX - NRT) and 4 biz on JAL (HND - LAX). I used my AA miles for the Japan flights (60k per person) and combined AMEX, Citi TY and Chase points for Singapore. Don't make the mistake I made though and make sure you give yourself enough time to transfer. I unknowingly transferred SPG points to Singapore only to find out it takes 7-10 days for transfer. I then had to rush and use up additional miles from my Chase account to complete the booking. Now I have 25k sitting in my Singapore account after the SPG points finally clear... ah well.