I may need to go to Madrid on business next September. If I do, my employer will fly me there on American Airlines miles. When we've done this before, they actually give me access to the account so I can do the booking myself (we are a small company). I will be looking for any business class One World options, ideally a red eye direct flight from LAX to Madrid. Coming home, we might fly from the Costa del Sol area (Malaga), Barcelona or Madrid.

I will only go if I can take some more time & bring my husband. To get him a business class seat on my flights we have 45,000 AA miles, 30,000 Avios, and 75,000 Alaska Airlines miles. Plus about 12,000 SPG points in my acct that could transfer to the AA and about 10,000 SPG points in his account that could transfer to the BA or Alaska accounts.

Searching, I am finding direct red eye flights LAX to Madrid some days of the week on Iberia. How is Iberia business class, especially the quality of the seat for sleep purposes?

Flying home, we are fine with multiple shorter flights. Tips as to the best airlines flying these routes?

We own several timeshares, so right now the plan would be for a week in a timeshare on the Costa del Sol, Madrid for 3-4 days (plus another 3 for my conference), Corbova 1-2 nights, Seville 1-2 nights. If we can't get the timeshare trade, we will cut the Costa del Sol portion of the trip by a few days and substitute Barcelona. Or alternatively, we could do a second European location if it makes sense based on cities we might fly through- Paris, perhaps?

Thanks for any advice.

H

Are you planning on using milrs hopscotching around Spain? AA T&Cs will limit your plans on the same ticket.

No, we were thinking we'd fly into Madrid, stay in Madrid for 5-7 days (including 3 days for my conference), then taking a train to Cordoba, train to Seville, then car to drive down to Costa del Sol. We'd keep the car for the Costa del Sol week and ideally fly home out of Malaga.

But there's a number of variables- the biggest being whether/when we can get business class flights and whether/when we will get our timeshare exchange. We will almost certainly need to book the flights before we know about the timeshare but should have 80,000-90,000 Starpoints by the time the trip takes place so can switch to a points-based hotel stay if need be.

We're also open to returning home from Barcelona, in which case we'd probably be looking at a one-way car rental. We'd also consider a two city trip if it makes sense with flight schedules- ex Madrid & Paris or Madrid & Geneva, etc.

H

I am sure you know that if you transfer 20K SPG points to AA, you will get 25K AA miles. Thus I would not transfer less than 20K at a time.
IB J is reported as being very good.

Iberia's business class is very nice indeed, and Madrid airport is terrific for transfers - huge but well organized, with great lounges.

I'll mention however that questions regarding the use of air miles or points should be directed to the particular airline's board rather than the Oneworld board. I'll let this remain for the time being but if there are further airline- or FFP-specific questions they should be addressed accordingly.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

While IB in Y can be truly awful, in J they are pretty good. Have flown J many times with them, the biggest negative has always been very bad IFE, for the rest no complaints. So maybe go out IB and back BA, I THINK they might be using the A380 to LAX by then

IB in J is perfectly fine.

What you will find difficult is award availability in J on the LAX-MAD route. I've never seen it myself and I'm looking quite frequently...