Some Whimsy to Pass the Day
 

Please respond to the following hypothetical question.

Given that you have a sufficient balance in ANY airline or alliance loyalty program, which loyalty currency would you choose to use for a business cabin round-trip award redemption considering the value of the redemption, preference of routing, quality of seat and any other considerations for the following destinations: Europe, Asia and South America. Briefly explain the factors in your decision.

the one that has availability!

I couldn't imagine a FT'er answering any other way. Maybe "I need more info. What airport? What's your sign? How long are you going? Did you eat breakfast today? Need more info!"

Assuming that I have sufficient balance in multiple programs that see the same partner award inventory, however, there are reasons to choose one over others.

Say there is plenty of LX F inventory available on the SFO-ZRH flight (yeah, yeah, I know...) and I want to book the trip. Using US miles would limit my flexibility vis-a-vis stopovers and creative routings versus OnePass for additional stops/destinations as part of the trip.

Or if I want to fly from NYC to LON on VS in Upper Class and there are seats available I'd much prefer to redeem points from ANA for the trip than from VS's own program based on the total costs involved. Now that ANA charges YQ on those awards it is a bit tighter between CO and NH for that same award but it is certainly worth considering both options.

Of course, if I have an infinite balance in all the programs then I don't care nearly as much about the details because I can just redeem whatever I want.

Every program has its pros and cons and there are some great quirks in the various programs that get you more value than comparable earn/spend on other programs. I think that the question is too broad to give a simple answer to but it is certainly more nuanced than the "whomever has inventory" answer would suggest.

Nah just hypothetical. No more info.

I suppose the thought for the discussion has come from a recent redemption to Asia. Looked at redeeming Skymiles and Advantage miles. Advantage seemed a better redemption. Delta's negatives were it's redemption engine, high point costs and mediocre business offering. Advantage I found availability through BA's engine and Award Nexus for a reasonable amount of points, no Y charges on JAL. JAL's biz offering is ok. Still shooting for Cathay Pacific business to Asia via Advantage redemption as my ideal Asia redemption and answer to my own question at least for Asia.

Likewise BA may be a good redemption via OneWorld for South America. Maybe Delta to Europe? They seem to have good availability at low tier awards this spring.

No specifics. Just a general think through on the best way to get from North America to X in the business cabin. I have several pots of points to ladle from and thought it might help to get a sense which pot to draw from. Been a good year for points.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Between North America and South America, BA's 40,000-mile one-way Business Class award on AA or LA is a very good value, especially since there are (currently) no fuel surcharges assessed on such a redemption, and BA permits free, en-route stopovers (which will be more useful on a LAN redemption than on an AA redemption for this route). And BA's South America zone includes Easter Island.

There is speculation that the 40,000-mile award will be changing next month, when BA revises the BAEC program.

That's exactly the kind of tips I'd hoped to encourage in this thread. Good info.

These are a few airlines I would redeem a C ticket on:

1. SQ C on the A380 (ex. JFK-FRA-SIN) or 77W.
2. LX C on the A330 or A343.
3. CX's new C on the B777.

Europe: Aeroplan. 90K to Europe in J with no YQ is very damn good.
Asia: US Airways. Reasonably priced awards and loose routing rules- also *A has good availability
SA: LAN. 2:5 SPG transfer and some great prices for own-metal awards.

For oneworld; From my perception...

redemption prices ^

CX and JAL to Asia ^
QF to South Pacific ^
BA to Europe :td: (taxes) and ^ (service)
South America is okay for major routes

I'd use BA miles for J tickets on CX for travel from JFK to BKK.

Why the carrier: I find the CX J product to be one of my favorite J products. (I get F lounge access on this trip due to my Emerald card!)
Why the points: BA points are a very good value to Asia on CX from the US...for the moment.
Why the destination: I've wanted to go to BKK for some time.

Thanks for the post. I used your recommendation to review the Swiss Air biz product. Seems like a great Sky Team redemption.

I really like that Cathay Pacific business product. They have the new seats on that route and it's a healthy portion of comfort with a 16 hour flight. Sadly I just released an F hold on that route as I couldn't make a connection and just didn't want to overnight for Krug and caviar.

Bangkok is great. The islands are wonderful. Watch the touts and you'll be fine. Now is a bad time though with the flooding they're having. Klongs and Chao Praya are full with monsoon rains. Everyone's a bit worried.

Swiss is in Star Alliance, not SkyTeam. :-:

Thank you for the correction. Sorry I looked at it yesterday afternoon.