LA to NY for in-laws
 

My in-laws helped pay for a large portion of my wedding last year. As such, I want to do something nice for them, and send them off to New York for a week.

They've never flown a flight longer than an hour, and my mother in law has minor health issues, so I want to book them in a comfortable business class.

Here are my choices:

I have about 150k in BA miles I could use to book on AA.

I have about 200k Amex MR points I could transfer to any of the partners that fly LAX-JFK (or nearby airports).

The trip would be sometime in May 2012. Of my available choices (basically, any MR transfer partner), who offers the most comfortable J cabin?

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Unless there is a Business Class on this route that is clearly superior to AA's, I would use the BA miles to fly AA. Your in-laws would get to use the Admirals Club at both ends, and AA's J seat on the three-class transcon is comfortable. Moreover, you would not have to pay any fuel surcharges when redeeming BA miles on this route.

Since BA permits en-route stopovers on award redemptions, you could probably add on a Coach leg -- to be flown at a later date -- from LAX to places like SFO, LAS, RNO, PHX, etc., as long as BA approved the award routing.

I believe delta offers the "business elite" international product on this route for certain flights/aircraft, and right now MR points can be transferred at a 1:1.65 or so ratio.

Definitely consider Delta - they fly the 757-200 (75E) with true BusinessElite service on this transcontinental route. You can get roundtrip BE tickets for 80,000 miles each and I'm sure your in-laws would love the experience. Here's a video on their BE product for this route.

It would take only around 100k MR points to transfer to DL SkyMiles with the current bonus offers. If you've never transferred into Delta SkyMiles, you can take advantage of the offer for first-timers where transferring 100k MR will give you 150k SkyMiles plus 25k MQM's which instantly gives you Silver Medallion status.

you can look for availability now on aa & call quickly to book w/ba....

probably do the same w/dl & maybe hold while pts transfer....good luck...

Super, thanks for the options. Will likely be AA (via BA) or the Delta route, going to look into both choices.

For an extra 10K you can book JFK-LAX-HAwaii. With a stopover at LAX. You could even fly business to hawaii if that actually exists. Domestic F would require more mileage.

I think BA is your best bet here.

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No Business Class to Hawaii. The extra 10K would get a Coach seat to Hawaii (only the JFK-LAX leg would be in Business).

Thanks all for the advice. They decided Hawaii was not on their wish list.

Booked them this morning using my BA miles in J on AA metal.

Per the ticket info I got, they each get to check up 3 bags at no charge? Is that correct? Did not realize AA was so generous.

Also, are they going to get any lounge access at either LAX or JFK, and if so, which one(s)?

no lounge access for domestic flights....day passes can be purchased....

Except on non-stop T-Cons between certain cities, in premium cabins, paid with cash or miles. JFK-LAX is included.

What hotels will you be using? Manhattan is not a particularly cheap place to stay - but there are some reasonable deals these days at various properties. Robyn