Adoption travel - Options to use OneWorld points for travel
 

Hello -

My wife and I will need to make two trips to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (ADD) this year to complete the adoption of a little girl. The adoption costs have been daunting and I am trying to figure out how to maximize my various frequent traveler accounts to reduce (or eliminate) plane fares. Our travel time is still unknown, but we expect the first trip is likely in June and the second later in the summer. It is not always clear to me how to use FF miles on partner airlines, etc. so any advice from more seasoned travelers would be greatly appreciated. Also if needed we could break up the trips into two segments if using the miles on various programs on the same trip makes any sense. Thank you!

Our particulars:
US Air Silver 150,000 miles
AMEX Mem Rewards 300,000 points
HHonors 115,000 points
Hertz 10,000 points

It looks like you will be using US miles. Start by reviewing this thread in that forum:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/us-ai...lp-thread.html

Very helpful, thank you jerry a. laska

You can transfer your Amex points into several airline programs, then use those miles on that airline or partner airlines. For example, transfer your Amex points to Singapore Airlines' Krisflyer program, then fly in economy for 80,000 miles round trip from North America to Ethiopia.

Because of routing restrictions, using US miles is going to be difficult and quite expensive - the only Oneworld route into Addis at present is served by Qatar Airways from Doha, and AA won't allow you to connect in the Middle East for travel to Africa, only Europe, so you'd need two separate awards in each direction, US - Middle East, Middle East to Africa. The old "Explorer" award that could have been used for routes like that has been eliminated (2 weeks ago.) So I would look at your Amex points (transfer them, maybe buy 20K more since 80K x 4 trips = 320K points) for these flights.

Edited to add - ANA's awards are mileage based. Ethiopian Airlines flies nonstop from Washington DC to Addis, a distance of around 7200 miles, so 14,400 round trip, which equates to 65,000 miles needed in economy. 65,000 x 4 = 260,000 miles, so you'd have enough Amex points to transfer to ANA points, then redeem them for flights on ANA's partner, Ethiopian. Business class is 105,000 miles round trip, so you wouldn't have enough for both trips to be in business class. Here's ANA's award chart.

Good luck!

Adoption travel - Options to use OneWorld points for travel
 

If you start now on a new card you "might" be able to get enough miles to fly UA miles from a chase sapphire preferred/ink plus/bold to do your second trip. Ethiopian airlines availability is usually decent through united, though fills quickly for summer and unfortunately the cost of partner redemption increased recently.

Congratulations on your pending adoption. Be sure to see the destinations threads on Ethiopia, I'm sure there is other airport and Addis info you'll find helpful or interesting in addition to what your agency gives you.

OP already posted this on April 1.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...ts-travel.html

KrisFlyer
 

Gardyloo - thanks for the recommendation. What would be the process to go through with, for example, the KrisFlyer transfer and award ticket? I know at times I have checked with airlines that on paper it appears I could use partner miles on their airline for award tickets, only to find out that the airline I want to use has certain restrictions that don't allow award tickets to be issued. Before transferring all my AMEX points to KrisFlyer (or whomever) do I simply call that airline and have the conversation to tell them what I am trying to do (i.e. where I want to go and when), confirm the miles required and that there is availability, and then make the point transfer?

I have a feeling we might get somewhat short notice on our travel date to ADD once our adoption court case is set so I may not have much time to pull this all together. Would love to get some things in motion but at the same time don't want to make a move or transfer too early and find out it doesn't work or can't be used. Thanks for the help!

With any points transfer (NOT straight redemption) you first open a mileage account with the target airline, then when you have that user ID, you go through the steps required by the (in your case) AMEX program to move your points to that airline program. When they're there, you go through whatever process is needed (online, phone, whatever) to redeem the miles on flights. Whether you choose Krisflyer or the (cheaper for coach) ANA program, you'd be looking at redeeming the points for partner airline travel, most likely travel on Ethiopian Airlines, a Star Alliance member and partner with both Singapore and ANA (also Air Canada, another AMEX transfer partner.)

I haven't done AMEX transfers, and of course this is the Oneworld board, so I can't be much help with the ins and outs, but I DO know it's a fairly straightforward process. Why not try a "dry run" using the ANA or SQ websites to see how it would feel with miles transferred from Amex?

As you know from other boards, cross-posting similar questions is against FT guidelines. I'm going to leave this question open for another day or two, but will close it eventually as it's obviously not related to Oneworld. You might "lurk" a little on the Amex, ANA or Singapore boards to get a feel for those members' insights.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator