NA Award - Which Program/Miles to Use?
 

Please take pity on this *A FTer who has been jumping back & forth through the AA & CX forums trying to figure out the best miles to use/way to book the following award:

(Ideally) One Way: ANC-stopover in YVR- (CX metal in F ) - JFK in late Aug/early Sept

I'd be willing to consider a r/t if necessary or just getting from ANC-YVR separately. Or maybe even ANC-SEA (ferry) YVR-JFK? now you can see how confused I am ;)

Given your experiences on availability, is this even feasible and if so which program would be best to use?

Also, iirc, FTers use both the BA or Qantas web sites to check on OW award availability, is 1 better than the other for this ?

fwiw, I've got AA and BA miles but am sure I could find whatever else would be needed.

I'm just hoping y'all could point me in the right direction so I can be more effective in my attempt to try out CX premium while visiting both ANC & YVR (and YYJ).

Thanks so much from someone who thinks the new UA will soon lead me straight to OW....

FWIW, I use AA.com to check AA award availability, and KVS to check CX award availability. Both seem to be extremely accurate.

(1) There is no Oneworld or AA partner with direct ANC-YVR service; AC is the only airline that flies that route, seasonally.

(2) You can use AA miles to redeem on AS, ANC-xSEA-YVR. If you want to stop over in YVR, then it will likely be two separate one-way awards, ANC-xSEA-YVR, 25K AA miles for F (Y on SEA-YVR) then another 32.5K AA miles for CX F, YVR-JFK, or 25K one way YVR-JFK in J. If you don't want to stop over, you ought to get away for just the 32.5K F award.

(3) I'd just phone AA with your dates, ideally a range, to ask about availability. If you use KVS you can look for space, or if you use EF you can see AS space (AA typically has the same inventory) but not CX. Phoning will be easier; you'll have to phone to book anyway.

(4) There is no ferry ANC-YVR; the AK state ferry runs from Whittier, south of Anchorage, to Juneau, then connects to a second ferry that runs to Bellingham, WA, around 60 miles south of Vancouver. The ferry from Whittier to Juneau runs monthly in the summer and takes 2 days; the ferry from Juneau to Bellingham runs weekly and takes 3 days. There's usually a 2-4 day layover required in JNU, thus it takes around 7-9 days all in. You can take a bus or a train from Bellingham (or indeed, Seattle) to Vancouver. Flying is much cheaper, as is (typically) a one-way cruise ship in the summer.

Thanks all for info!

So, this looks like a straight AA award then, eh?

• I was thinking there might be a better "back door way" (such as using ANA to book a reduced rate Virgin Upper Class award) or
  
• another OW program that has more flexible routing rules? or
  
• some way to add another partner & then somehow turn it into a OW mileage based award?

btw, apologies if I wasn't clear but the ferry idea was not from ANC. Rather, I'd fly to SEA & then ferry to Victoria from there.

Still, I appreciate the insight and can now proceed with a bit more confidence.

You can only use the miles you have in each program and with what parters they allow. Suggest have a read of both AA & BA ffp rules for awards

Yes, that's true.

Still, I'm quite confident that I could rustle up the needed miles from whatever program was deemed best.