Hi,

My father is 70 years old and is retiring after a long career. He gave up everything in Cairo to bring our family to the states when I was a year old including leaving his family behind. I will spare you the details, but he is a truly beautiful man.

He would like to go back to visit his sisters. He has gone a few times and has always flown coach/economy.

He has sacrificed so much to give my sister and I more opportunities I would love to book him a business class or first class ticket as the long flight for him will be very difficult. He would stay 2-3 months. I have United (Star Alliance), American, Delta and Continental miles. I also have several Southwest tickets so I can fly him out of anywhere in the US.

Can you help steer me in the right direction?

Do you have enough miles in each program to book a business or first class award ticket?

I suggest you start on the Continental site since it allows you to search all Star Alliance awards. I saw plenty of availability for dates I checked to Cairo in business class for 115,000 miles. Itineraries that are shown as "SaverPass" business/first should most likely (not 100% of the time) be also bookable at United but only by calling them. The mileage amounts should be similar.

You can also book one way with United miles and one way with Continental miles if you do not have enough in one program.

Routing will most likely be via Europe using either LH or MS from Europe to CAI.

Also ask about any restrictions or fees on changing the return if the date is not definite.

Wow, booking through Continental, you've got a number of options! I'm surprised; the only thing they had available for my wife & I was on EgyptAir, and while that may be his sentimental favorite, their "casual" way of doing business leaves much to be desired (if you believe that schedules and accurate information about delays are relevant). Only 120,000 miles round trip from San Francisco. That's in business; I didn't check first.

Note you should not need to use the Southwest tickets as any of the programs should include necessary domestic flights (although it is possible sometimes you have to accept economy on the domestic legs if first/business is not available, but that isn't a big deal).

TK may also be an option with Star (*A).

Besides *A, Delta (Skyteam) has Air France and KLM as partners who serve CAI. Since Delta miles are notoriously hard to get anything decent from, if you can find an itinerary for 120,000 miles in business (I think that is the lowest regular level), you might want to grab that and save your other miles, which are more valuable. I saw availability on random dates I checked. Be cautious about (1) very long or very short layovers (2) extra stops and (3) some itineraries or dates that require a lot of "extra" miles.

On American, you can use British Airways or Royal Jordanian to reach CAI. I think AA requires more miles and doesn't have partner search online so I don't know about availability but you can call and get an idea.

This sounds like a great idea.
It also looks like the only way to get to CAI without connecting in Europe is JFK-CAI on egyptair. No F.
I have seen F between Europe on Swiss (ZRH) and LH (FRA, MUC has C only).
Swiss F is nice, ZRH a good (small) airport to connect, good F lounge and many Swiss flights to ZRH. I assume your father has some flexibility about the day. You should be able to find seats using some other Star carrier miles.

Another options should be BA via LHR. I was never too enthusiastic about the BA F offering, but mute since it will be the first F experience for your father. Just make sure to also use BA on the US-LHR flight, otherwise he needs to change terminals in LHR.

In any case: the ticket inside the US should be included in the award. It would also be better to have all flights in one ticket, then he is protected all the way if something goes wrong.

No, they do not. They show MANY more than UA does but not all. Notably, LH is lacking.
CO does not offer one-way awards at this time. Splitting it AA/UA might work, depending on the account balances. It is also worth noting that CO is adding EWR-CAI service on a 772 in May 2011, adding another *A option with a pretty solid product, albeit only C.

OP, I'd probably go with LH F across the pond and LH C connecting onward from there (no F FRA/MUC-CAI) or LX if you can find the seats. If you are willing to share the starting point and desired travel dates someone here can probably help you find the award inventory you need.

You've mentioned balances in many airlines. How many miles do you have in each of the UA, CO, DL and AA accounts. It will likely make a difference.

BA has great F service via LHR on a 744, and you can use AA miles.

The standard N.A. award to Egypt in F is 100,000 miles each way, so I would recommend using a OneWorld award for 180,000 miles in F.

LX would be my #1 choice though...

The BA option will incur a significantly higher cash outlay because AA passes along the BA YQ surcharge for those redemptions. I'd be cautious about that while investigating the options.

Thank you all for the great advice. That is very helpful and gives me some good leads. I had originally checked AA because I was trying to find a "netsaver" fare but was a little intimidated when it said that they didn't even have any flights between LAX and Cairo.

Would it make sense to try to fly him to someplace in Europe and then book a seperate flight from there to Cairo?

Almost certainly no. You'll pay nearly the same amount of points and would pay a bunch of extra cash on top of that.

Again, if you offer up a departure city and desired date range we can help find you much more specific answers if you're interested.

Also keep in mind that you can make stopovers on an award. So adding a few days somewhere in europe is doable on an award (as long as you don't exceed the number of segments allowed). But the rules are different on the different programs.

as i understand he is flying out LAX Los Angeles , your best bet considering more the comfort level for your father , just take the newly introduced flight from Los Angeles to Istanbul ( which is the longest leg) and than connecting service Istanbul -Cairo about 2 hrs flight all on TK Turkish Airlines. It is the most direct flight.The less flights he changes the better it is. and TK has quite improved service in J class I would say very pleasant and since it is a new service might find offers and more availability if travelling on miles.

Thanks for the corrections on partner awards and searching.

LH operates three-class (747-400) FRA-CAI and it connects with the flights from LAX or elsewhere in the USA (at least in some seasons). I believe all other service from MUC or FRA is MS two-class. Because of LH's April 2011 changes to F on the 747 I do not know if there will be any award availability in F, though, after that time.

LX has three-class service but doesn't work for a single connection from LAX.

TK via IST is a nice idea although some of the connections at IST are long.

I agree try to limit to one connection and carriers with at least decent business class.

I need to reverify, but I believe CO is initiating the first nonstop EWR-CAI soon. I've found their award availability to be excellent. I'd check it out.

CO will begin nonstop service between EWR and CAI on May 18. He could do a LAX-EWR on CO and then go on to Cairo. This would seen like to most expeditions way to get him between points. They'll be using a 777 on the route.