mlm

My spouse and I will be flying Round Trip to South Africa on KLM business class in May 2017 (already booked and paid for). I am not sure if I should credit the miles to Flying Blue or Delta ??

We will be flying to South Africa again in July 2018 and hoping to use KLM outbound and AF on the return . We're hoping to redeem Flying Blue miles for the round trip.
My spouse and I each have our own Chase Sapphire Reserve points which are accumulating points that can be transferred to Flying Blue. We also have 400,000 SPG points accumulated through the years.

We both opened up a Flying Blue account (currently have Zero points in it). We seldom fly Delta within the USA but do like the fact that the miles don't expire (We currently each have 27,000 miles sitting in Sky Miles).

To further complicate my decision, on our July 2018 trip we will be stopping over in Amsterdam for 3 nights going to CPT and stopping over in Paris for 3 nights on our return from JNB. I don't know if each leg needs to be booked individually or combined into a multi destination round trip using miles if possible. Not sure how generous FB is with Business Class reward tickets. It would be LAX - AMS - CPT and then JNB-CDG-LAX (hopefully all non-stop flights).

I'm a novice and appreciate any advice you can offer.

SFO777

If you plan on using FB for your trip, then credit your miles to FB. It would mean fewer Chase points to transfer for your trip next year. A FB roundtrip permits one free stopover. I would consider doing AMS and CDG back-to-back and qualify for a single stop.

Also, 27K DL miles are pretty useless. Adding to that is not the best strategy, IMO.

PHXflier

I disagree with SFO777 that 27K Delta miles are pretty useless... A roundtrip ticket within the US or to Canada can easily be had for 25K or less if one plans well ahead and does not fly on peak days. Regarding whether to credit to Delta or Flying Blue: If the OP does not fly frequently, then Delta may be better as Flying Blue requires a flight at least every 20 months. However, if the OP can work it to exactly get the right amount of FB points for award travel in 2018, then FB makes the most sense for the OP.

Mwenenzi

What are your objectives from a ffp?
Awards? Status? What ever?
For availability of USA South Africa awards likely to some threads down the page. Very few ffp's allow (free) stop overs on awards.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/skyte...i-sign-up.html

www.wheretocredit.com/klm For redeemable miles. Status is a different calculation

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...-t-expire.html

Awards assistance tools
Use at your own risk. These may not be up to date. (These are not recommendations)
If a multi segment award check the rules/cost carefully. With some ffp’s it can be 2 or more awards or cost more ff miles than a direct flight.
Some awards/airlines/routes can have cash surcharges, in addition to real taxes.
-AwardAce: Compare Award Redemptions Across Airlines In Seconds --> http://www.awardace.com/
-Economical Excursionist's Tools to compare Frequent Flyer Mile Redemptions --> http://www.flyermiler.com/
-http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...ast-miles.html --> http://www.awardhacker.com/

mlm

Thank you. I should have added that the primary reason for the AMS and CDG stops (3 nights each) is to break up the long flying time, especially for 4 children. So how would you route the trip from LAX and eventually ending back to LAX. Is it possible to consider this one big round trip?

mlm

Thank you for the links below. I will look into this. Ideally I'd love to hire someone who has the software and Know how to handle ALL of it for me. With 10 passengers, this may be too overwhelming for me. I just don't know how to find a reputable person to hire who does this for a living.

SFO777

Yes, this would be one big round trip, with two non-stops each way. Here are the mileage requirements. FYI, you are not going to find 6 Business Class saver award seats. Even 2 Business Class could be a challenge. Depending on the age of the children, you might consider mixed classes.

MSPeconomist

How many award tickets are you planning to get? Six or ten in business class on the same flights is very extremely unlikely to ever happen. Airlines also have rules about letting kids fly alone in coach while the parents sit in business class and you CANNOT visit back and forth between cabins.

You need to rethink your plans. I would have suggested crediting miles to FB if you need award flights on AF/KLM since availability is likely to be better than for DL miles, but this point is greatly overshadowed by the unrealistic nature of your plans.

Mwenenzi

Consider one of these http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...e-reviews.html

As above, anything more than 2 business class awards on the same aircraft is extremely optimistic tending to impossible/unrealistic. How will get the ff miles for 10 USA-South Africa award flights?

mlm

We will be getting only 2 RT Business Class tickets. The other 8 tickets (2 families with children) will be in economy RT.

I am still unclear how this is a round trip since I thought we could only do ONE stop over per round trip. We need to stop for 3 days in AMS outbound (3 nights) flying to CPT and CDG (3 nights) on the return from JNB. I'm hoping someone can give me the specifics. I really want to use Flying Blue points. I do understand that we may not be able to book all 10 tickets with FB points and we will pay for economy RT tickets as necessary.

Thank you all very much for your help. Merry Christmas to all.