I just booked a flight using UA miles for 2 people from NYC to JNB in the middle of September. I can still cancel it but 40k and 5$ per person seems like a good deal even if it is in economy. I am already dreading it but options seem slim here.

Now I need to get back. I would prefer Business class. End of September to very early October.

What I have now after booking the flight.

250k MR points
400K+ AA
80k avios
35k UA

I want to pay minimal Fuel Surcharges. A stopover somewhere nice would be good if possible.

Prefer leaving from Cape town but JNB will work.

I know I can use Qatar for DOH-NYC but seems like an annoying route.

Any Ideas?

Thanks for the info UpgradeMe. I did a fair bit of research but looking for different options.

Didn't look into Delta as it seems to have a bad rep. I guess i can transfer MR to them. Business through them is 80k +75$ not to bad but again not the best reputation for business class. Going through AMS could be good if I can get a decent layover.

Used up my united and it seems many of the *A partners if I transfer MR to them have fuel charges. What did you find in your 60 seconds?

*A = Star Alliance

Delta's business class is pretty good, so I'm not sure why you're against it. Agree that through AMS would be nice on KLM. Check for the segments separately (JNB-AMS then AMS-JFK) as Delta's search engine may not put everything together for you.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

If you use AA miles, you won't get a free stopover anywhere.

What's "annoying" about using QR via DOH from South Africa to the U.S.? Their Business Class is said to be very good; they serve several U.S. gateways; and at only 75K AA miles (with no surcharges) in Business from Africa to North America, that's a pretty good deal.

I was thinking of a 23 hours or less layover. Or arrive early morning leave nighttime. Good deal indeed but I have no interest in visiting and with no layover it is one long plane ride (well 2) . Annoying was probably not a good word to use.

As this is not specific to a particular program, we'll move this to TravelBuzz.

~beckoa, co-moderator Information Desk

Well, with AA miles your only options out of South Africa are BA or QR, and transferring your MR points to BA will stick you with BA's fuel fines. And transferring MR to Cathay Pacific will bump the number of miles needed for JNB-xHKG-JFK/EWR big time. So the Oneworld options are limited if you're trying to avoid fuel fines and don't want to switch planes in Doha.

I don't know which Star Alliance partners have fuel surcharges, but you could look at MR > AC (Aeroplan) > Turkish via IST, or SA straight back to the USA, or of course LH, but I seem to recall LH hits you with YQ.

I'd also just mention that - not knowing your travel plans/patterns/routes - South Africa is currently the cheapest origin point (in USD) for Oneworld business-class round-the-world tickets. A 4-continent DONE4 ticket (4 continents, up to 16 flights, good for a year, many rules) issued in SA has a base price of US$4278. You can easily harvest up to 100,000 AA miles with one of these, and almost certainly make or retain Platinum status with AA, or get a real head start on Executive Platinum. You'd have to end up back in Africa (anywhere, not just SA) within a year, and you have to cross both the Atlantic and the Pacific going in the same direction.

If you do a fair amount of domestic travel in North America or have a hankering to visit Australia, for example, you could use the RTW over the course of a year and maybe end up money ahead. You'd be using the UA flights to SA to "position" yourself for the RTW.

Details, if interested, on the Oneworld board.

Thanks for helping out. If I can get a direct flight to NYC or Montreal for that matter through Aeroplan I would love that.

I will look into that as well. Thanks