Advice requested: award travel IAD to SSH on *A
 

Hi All: hoping for some real *A-fu advice here.
I'm going to Sharm el Sheikh in November 18. I live in Washington DC. I'd like to go IAD-SSH, but I could be convinced to go JFK-SSH if the pricing delta was significant.

I have a ton of Amex MR that I can xsfer to ANA, so that's my starting point.

I've searched the United website, and I see plenty of award avail in business for my dates, mostly on Lufthansa, EgyptAir and Turkish
I've searched the ANA site, and it reports no avail in business, but avail in economy

Can someone advise on how to get the business award flights I see on the United site using ANA miles?
Or: is there a better way to do this using Amex MR?

Did you check the specific itineraries that you found on united.com for Business Class award travel, and verify that every segment on that itinerary was available in Business Class?

Watch out for hefty cash surcharges when redeeming miles for award travel.

In addition to ANA, U.S.-based Amex MR accounts also transfer to Aeroplan. Aeroplan has high surcharges on some partners, and no surcharges on others. (You can do a Google search for "Aeroplan no surcharge partners.")

Be sure to compare redemption rates and cash surcharges -- if any -- before deciding on a transfer partner. And make sure that the award flights you want are available before transferring MR points to any FFP.

You should also check the cash cost of a Business Class ticket, on the off chance that you'll catch a great sale fare.

I kind of wonder if the reason you're not getting anything from the ANA site is that you have a mixed class redemption in there somewhere? I don't think ANA will show them, while United will.

SSH is a pretty easy one to score, whether the TK or MS flight, so getting to IST or CAI is the key. TK is a lot more comfortable ride on the regional flight than LH, and arguably even on the long haul, that's typically the way I go to Egypt. Aside from that, you also have OS and LX flying into CAI. OS is usually pretty easy to get 2 seats for their Asia-VIE routes, LX though usually only opens up biz availability within 2 weeks of departure. Something else to consider if you end up using LX, OS, or LH is to use the MS flight from their hubs into CAI since MS has domestic first style seats in business instead of eurobusiness on the LH group.

I'm thinking I might just bite the bullet and buy a biz class flight on TK all the way thru....

You could also try to get an award to CAI and then buy a cheap ticket to SSH