help for award from South Africa to Brazil
May 25, 2014 | 8:58 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 1999
Location: Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL
Programs: AA 4MM EXP; Starwood Lifetime Plt
Posts: 2,498
help for award from South Africa to Brazil
Hello to everyone in this thread. I need some help with a Star Alliance award, specifically CPT-GIG (or at least JNB-GRU) on South African in business class. As I always fly oneworld, I have no points on any Star Alliance member airline and no knowledge of their programs. I do have Chase UR points, AMEX MR, and Starwood points that I could transfer into any of their respective Star Alliance partners. I could also apply for a US or Brazil based Star Alliance credit card for an initial bonus. Could anyone help by pointing me to the right Star Alliance partner airline that would be best from the point of view of award redemption levels, availability, and avoidance of fuel surcharges? Thanks in advance to all!
May 26, 2014 | 12:47 am
#2
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: EWR, SLC, SGN
Posts: 1,113
United has South America to Africa flights for only 45k in J, which is very reasonable. It's only available if you fly direct, and not via the EU or US. The only two direct flights are JNB-GRU and ADD-GRU. But you can build around that on either end. United is a UR partner. Space should be visible on united dot com, although the short hops in South America I'm not sure about booking online.
May 26, 2014 | 3:53 am
#3
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: NRT / HND
Programs: AA EXP, A3 Gold, Former UA 1K
Posts: 6,358
If you're dates aren't quite flexible then I know its a bit further out of the way but I expect you're going to find availability on ET much easier than SA in C.
As the previous poster mentioned UA Mileage Plus is probably the way to go (no fuel surcharges on award tickets) but depends on your UR balance. Applying for one of the US based UA cards could get you there too. Unfortunately SPG to UA is a poor ratio and it's not an AMEX MR partner.
I'm not as up to date on Oneworld but isn't/wasn't there an MH flight JNB to South America as well?
As the previous poster mentioned UA Mileage Plus is probably the way to go (no fuel surcharges on award tickets) but depends on your UR balance. Applying for one of the US based UA cards could get you there too. Unfortunately SPG to UA is a poor ratio and it's not an AMEX MR partner.
I'm not as up to date on Oneworld but isn't/wasn't there an MH flight JNB to South America as well?
May 26, 2014 | 5:57 am
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 1999
Location: Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL
Programs: AA 4MM EXP; Starwood Lifetime Plt
Posts: 2,498
May 26, 2014 | 8:56 am
#5
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: PSM
Posts: 69,232