FF miles to South Africa
 

trying to plan a honeymoon and maybe, just maybe, either get free economy class tickets or pay for them and upgrade to business.

I have Virgin and Continental points... and Amex as well.

I assume this will be best done over the phone at an off peak time with hopefully a patient rep, but my questions - it seems our likeliest route would be JFK to JNB on SAA or JFK/EWR to LON then to JNB on Continental / Virgin...

Do you think it would be possible to use the Continental points to upgrade the US / LON bit and the the virgin points for the rest? or smarter to book 2 different tickets and have a layover in london so we could get cheap economy tickets to London and use all the Virgin / amex miles to JNB?

Also, would it be possible to fly to CPT on the way there and JNB on the way home?

<i>Do you think it would be possible to use the Continental points to upgrade the US / LON bit and the the virgin points for the rest? or smarter to book 2 different tickets and have a layover in london so we could get cheap economy tickets to London and use all the Virgin / amex miles to JNB?</i>

I'm not that familiar with Virgin's FFP, but it seems your options go like this -

1. Economy RT redemption between N. America and Africa - 90K miles per the Continental website. I don't see SAA listed as a partner anymore; however Delta is starting direct service to South Africa, so that would be a possibility, or else any Skyteam member airline to Europe, connecting to another Skyteam member to SA - NWA to Amsterdam, connecting to KLM to SA, etc; or Air France all the way...

2. Upgrade a paid ticket to Europe on CO, then a separate award (Skyteam, Virgin) to South Africa. In CO's FFP, it's 50K miles in coach or 80K in business from Europe to Africa. Note that not all economy tickets are upgradeable in CO's scheme; you may find the cost all in is not worth the upgrade miles.

3. Business award all the way - 120K from NA to Africa. That's a minimum; you need to find out when saver awards are available.

Note in (1) above it's probably allowable to lay over in Europe en route anyway.

We generally fly to Europe on our own dime then use a business award for Africa - more bang for the buck. Of course it also matters where in NA you're starting - if it's from the east coast the transatlantic flight to Europe is short enough that economy can be tolerated by most people. From the west coast it's another story.

One additional option with CO Onepass redemption is Skyteam to Europe and Kenya Airways to Nairobi (via LHR/AMS/CDG) to Johannesburg. It's a more convoluted routing, so I'd check the other options first and only use that if you can't find anything else. Kenya Airways seems to have very good availability. Air France usually does too between CDG and JNB.

I believe you can redeem on South African Airways through Virgin Flying Club.

And yes, it's possible to have a open jaw into CPT and out of JNB with a CO Onepass award. I believe your 2 options into CPT would be KL from AMS and VS from LHR.

At the Amex website it shows that an economy award on SAA would be 80,000 points. I don't know if the Amex program allows an open jaw (i.e. to CPT and from JNB). I expect it does, but would not assume so.

If the points are convertible to a Star Alliance carrier FF program then for 80,000 miles you could get the SAA award and it would allow the open jaw (or a European stopover if you chose to use Lufthansa).

My understanding (although I am not sure) is that booking one itinerary is better than booking two.

If you choose Virgin, they allow a stopover in London. You can check on their website about this choice.

We are taking Virgin (PE seats) in a few days from JFK to JNB. We are arriving in Heathrow in the AM, getting a day room, and then taking the night flight to JNB. But we could stay a few days if we had wanted to.

I tried every which way to get BC seats with AMEX, Delta, and USAir, but there simply were none available. ((*))

I'd avoid Heathrow if at all possible. I just got back from SA, and the one carry on rule would have been a royal pain (change of clothing, extra clothing in case luggage gets lots, camera equipment, etc.).

Can you purchase an upgradeable SAA Economy ticket and use Virgin miles to upgrade to business?

No. As a general rule (and there are a few exceptions) you can't use one airline's miles/points to obtain upgrades on another. You can use them to redeem business or first class tickets, but not upgrade add-ons to paid tickets.