Elainee

I will also post on airline site but need help from all! Going business class over Christmas, not using points unless anyone knows how to use Amex points for this. So far, Air France seems to have best fares. Actually less to go from NYC rather than Paris?? Actual fares for Dec/Jan not yet available, but will book as soon as available. We will go to J'burg, return from Cape Town (Air France will make us go back to J'burg). Anybody else fly from NYC, any suggestions welcome. We can no longer do long flights in coach. But would fly to Europe coach and then next day do the long leg business if we could save.

thit_cho

You can move Amex points to Delta, which could then be redeemed for an Air France flight. You may also be able to move them to one of the Japanese carriers (I think its ANA), which permits transfers to SAA.

dmc555

That is correct. You can move AMEX to Delta. I didn't have enought Delta FF points for business class ATL to JNB so I moved some AMEX points. It was an codeshare SAA flight. On the flight over it went to Cape Town first. On the return it did not, and it was still considered a round trip. I think Delta also flies codeshare SAA from NYC to JNB. Business class on SAA was comfortable, but the zero gravity seats are just a little of shy of true zero gravity, so not quite as comfortable as I'd hoped. It was a 747, what version 747 I don't recall. Check out the plane configuration if comfort is more important than flight time.

Patty

Amex Membership Rewards points can be transferred to the following programs:

Delta Skymiles for redemption on Delta, Air France or KLM or any combination of these carriers. KLM offers AMS-CPT in addition to AMS-JNB. Air France is CDG-JNB only. Delta is ATL-JNB (with stop in Dakar).

Continental Onepass for redemption on the same list of carriers as Delta's program plus I believe the addition of Virgin Atlantic and Emirates.

Air Canada Aeroplan for redemption on South Africa Airways, Lufthansa or SWISS.

All Nippon Airways (ANA) Mileage Club for redemption on the same list of carriers as Air Canada's program plus the addition of Virgin Atlantic.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club for redemption on Virgin Atlantic and South Africa Airways.

Those are the options I can think of. I may have missed a few. Delta Skymiles requires 120K per ticket for a US-Africa business award. Check with the other programs for their mileage requirements. Make sure there's award availability before you transfer points from Amex.

Transfers to Delta, Continental or Air Canada are instantaneous. To my knowledge, transfers to ANA take a few days and they do not hold award reservations so there's a slight risk involved. Not sure about Virgin Atlantic.

There are lots of options but availability may be tight over the holidays. Good luck!

panecott

I would also consider the arrival time of the flights in JNB. Some int'l flights arrive in the morning, which leaves you a whole jet-lagged day to get through. After flying 18 or so hours from NY, this can be tough.

I like the idea that SAA arrives in the evening, which means you can go right to bed and wake up refreshed and on local time the next morning. That's what I did last year after a NYC/JNB/CPT flight. I had no jet lag at all.

Patty

Delta is no longer a partner with SAA which is now a Star Alliance member. To redeem on SAA, you'll need to go through one of the other programs I listed. Delta however did start their own service to JNB from ATL last month.

One more option... I believe you can now transfer Amex MR points to Air France/KLM Flying Blue. That would give you all of the redemption choices as Delta's program plus the addition of Kenya Airways.

Elainee

Thanks!! I tried getting some of these options, especially Air Canada but no available seats. I think the seats are not really open yet. Some carriers do not book more than 330 days in advance. I will also try Amex Platium 2 for 1. I have 250k Amex points but have wiped out my regular airline ff. I guess at some point one has to start paying but it is so much. What do you think if I wait a few weeks and try then?

Gardyloo

Virtually all airlines have a 330 day window for advance bookings, so yes the best bet is to keep looking.

If Amex draws from conventional award seat inventory (and I'm not sure that's the case) then good luck with getting business class seats to SA in December. Peak of peaks demand-wise.

Patty

Award reservations through Delta can be booked 331 days in advance. Not sure about the other carriers' programs. You can call and ask them the earliest date that you can reserve. It's probably too early to book for Christmas with most programs.

thit_cho

As others said, you will need to wait 330 days until you book your outbound, and then wait to book your return. I'm having the same difficulty booking my trip to NZ with Air New Zealand for Christmas, and they keep telling me to wait.

Elainee

Thanks !! Now also going to try Amex Platium. Worth the fee if I can get significant discount on the outrageous tickets . Do those 2 for 1 seats come from the same pool as the ff seats??
FYI..pricing tickets on Expedia I found the Air France tickets significantly cheaper..but..mispriced (one way fare rather than roundtrip. I tried to book them, but got "seats not available". When no seats available for any flight I went back to really look at what was going on.

Gardyloo

With any credit card 2-for-1 offer, I'd recommend that before you pay the fees for the card, you see exactly <i>which</i> airfares qualify for the twofer. Often it's only &quot;full fare&quot; business or first class fares that qualify for the &quot;paid&quot; ticket, and very often those prices are higher for one seat than you would pay for two in a discounted premium fare class.

Marija

The Amex 2 for 1 don't come from a special pool but they do require full fare business. It may be close to the same price as two discounted business but you have the flexibility of being fully refundable/changeable etc. Our BA 2 for 1's were somewhat less than two discounted business but since we knew we could cancel without any penalty we didn't worry about changing dates, etc.

Patty

While the fare you pay for the first ticket in the Amex 2 for 1 program is a full business fare, the seats aren't always booked in J (J is generally the full fare inventory bucket). On many carriers, a discounted fare class has to be available in order to book the 2 for 1. In that sense, yes it may have to come from special inventory. However it's still a revenue rather than award bucket so can be far less restrictive than trying to redeem ff seats. But if, for example, only J seats are available on particular flight, you may not be able to get the 2 for 1.

One problem that you may run into with the Amex 2 for 1 is that the contracts with the airlines run from Jan 1 to Dec 31 each year. If you're returning in Jan, it may be a while before any contracts are finalized for 2008.

santharamhari

Emirates is fantastic!!! Especially on the long haul flights. Their ICE entertainment system is SUPERB!!!


Hari

Gardyloo

Especially for people who have more extensive travel plans than just there-and-back trips, round-the-world tickets can be extremely cost effective in these cases, and because they're paid tickets (usually booking into D inventory in business class, A inventory in FC) you usually don't have to sweat seasonal availability issues as you do with award seats. RTWs in business class purchased in N. America start at around $6500, so somewhat more than most discount business round trips) but typically offer a lot more travel (including within N. America or Europe or Asia) than the straight round trip. Plus they're refundable and last a year.

Prices are lower if purchased in most other countries than the US or Canada, but one needs to factor in the &quot;positioning&quot; expense in those cases. For Africa visitors, some of the lowest &quot;origination&quot; prices in the world for business and/or first class travel are currently available for RTWs beginning in South Africa or Mauritius. So use award miles to get there, buy a RTW, take a year traveling on it, then come back home at the end using the return portion of your original ticket.

julienk

Last week I booked bus. class award travel from Seattle thru Atlanta-Senegal-JNB for late next Oct. The first time I tried booking ( i think for a Friday) I was told it was 200,000 per person/bus. class. I was able to check around and found that by flying on a Wed, it was only 120,000 miles per person...same route/flight. So we are leaving 2 days earlier than planned....oh.gee.darn. A longer vacation.
I have found that award travel is filling up so fast now that you have to be johnny on the spot, to get a decent itinerary.

Elainee

julienk
Which airline?/ Sounds great! Longer is better!

Patty

ATL-DKR-JNB would be on Delta.

Patty

I did a quick check on DL award availability for ATL-JNB. The farthest out that you can check currently is Dec 20th, and I had to go all the way back to Dec 5th to find 2 skysaver seats in business class. They may or may not release any award seats if it's a high demand period.