I've got 207,000 Avios to burn and would like to use them to take my wife to Buenos Aires for a long weekend (Thurs/Friday-Monday/Tuesday) either around the MLK holiday (1/21/13) or around her birthday (3/9/13) weekend. And, btw, I want to maximize my hubby-points and take her business class as she's never flown international business.

I'm having the darndest time getting the BA site to give me anything other than mid-week flights, which won't work for us, and every time I try the route on the AA site (just to find available sAAver fares) it insists on sending me on a ridiculous route through Chicago and Miami to EZE.

I'm willing to drive to IAD or DCA to make this happen, but not having any luck there either.

Any insights from our brilliant booking gurus would be greatly appreciated!

I should have mentioned, I have a little over 50,000 AA miles if I need to somehow combine an AA award to Miami with the BA award from MIA to EZE.

I also have over 100,000 Starwood points to convert if I'm a little short of what I need in terms of BA miles.

Not a brilliant booking guru, but spent considerable time trying to book flights from RIC to EZE for an April 2013 trip. BA charges by segment, it is going to cost 200,000 Avios points for the two of you in Business Saver from MIA-EZE round trip. Better, you could book on AA one way for one person from DCA-EZE for 50,000 AA miles. You can book online and put this segment on hold for 5 days. I would then invest the $40 or so and call BA directly to book remaining segments of your trip in Business Saver from DCA with Avios points. Total Avios required for Business Saver should be 195,000 (3 one way segments MIA – EZE @ 50,000 + 3 one way segments MIA- DCA @ 15,000). BA online booking system is quite unreliable. Use the AA system to obtain the relevant information on available flights before calling BA. AA shows Business Saver available from DCA to EZE for 3/8 to 3/11 period. Call to see if this inventory is available to BA. There is only one non stop each way from RIC to MIA, so award inventory is often difficult at saver levels. I could not make RIC work for my April trip to EZE and will have to fly out of DCA.

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"(3 one way segments MIA – EZE @ 50,000 + 3 one way segments MIA- DCA @ 15,000)."

A one-way between MIA and DCA in First Class costs 22,500 Avios each way, not 15,000 Avios. (AA does not offer Business Class on the MIA-DCA route.)

If you can't find business seat for MIA-EZE-MIA, check LAN Argentina (4M) on Qantas.

You can fly MIA-DCA-MIA in economy but if you use AA miles for one award, it will cost you the same (50K) but you will save 7.5k Avios points.

Another option, from MIA-EZE it will cost you 50k but if you want to stop in LIM for few days, it will cost you 45k

I think we'd be fine doing coach from DCA to MIA, honestly, and that change would appear to make the numbers work. Will play around with this later today after recovering from my baby-packed redeye from Mexico City last night. Anybody else have suggestions?

Generally speaking, I find availability RIC-MIA very hard to come by when flying AA nonstop. That is likely why you are seeing a routing RIC-ORD-MIA-EZE.

However, I am seeing availability on the AA daytime flight from MIA to EZE on March 7/8 returning March 12 again on AA daytime flight. I am also seeing availability in business/first class for flights that work as connecting times from DCA (though not IAD/RIC and nothing in coach). They do mean for some long days, though - like departing DCA at 6am and returning at midnight.

If the flight times work for you, I'd use the 50K AA miles for one person's one-way DCA-MIA-EZE, and then 50K pp per direction of travel MIA-EZE for a total of 150K Avios. I'd then wait to see if availability opens up in coach class on the desired connecting segments DCA-MIA or simply pay cash. The remaining three one-ways should cost you roughly $350-400 and save you Avios for future use.

To avoid these really long days, consider flying the DCA-MIA segment the night before with an overnight layover in Miami and pay cash for the segment MIA-DCA to get better flight times on the way home.