Patty

AAFF,
Is there some advantage to gifting over buying? The cost looks to be the same either way.

Gardyloo

<i>DH might be a bit short on miles, but we are hoping to purchase the remaining few miles he'll need at that time (if possible).</i>

My read was that DH might not have 50K available by then. Since 40K is the max per calendar year (either gifting or buying - no difference) then it might need 2 calendar years' activity - at least for him if not Statia.

Statia

You guys are great! Sounds like this might be doable, after all. We just need to sit down and figure the difference in miles/costs to us between buying the miles or going with two AA credit cards. I'll report back!

BTW - Does anybody know how many legs the biz class seats would be good for on this trip? Would it be the whole way to and from SXM to NRT and back, or only the longest leg of the trip?

AAFrequentFlyer

You will be in business/domestic first(if applicable) all the way.

AAFrequentFlyer

oh, one more thing...

before you go out and spend over $2K for miles you may want to call AAdvantage and see if your dates are avilable. Since you will want a stopover you will need to call as here is no way of cecking this itn on lie.

Besides, you may get lucky and get JL business class a least one way. I would ask if it's available. Again, this can't be checked on line.

Good luck and happy travels!

Statia

Would they be able to tell me this early? We are looking at mid-November, 2008. I can't call from here (it never works for some reason), but I plan to call when I'm in the US next month. That will be exactly one year ahead.

AAFF, what is JL business class? That is great to know that we will be in business class all the way if we book on the 90k miles. Then, it almost seems cheap considering I pay nearly $1000 to fly coach from here to Houston a couple times a year.

I have applied for the AAdvantage card online now and we'll see what happens from there. I have tried to apply for the card a few times over the years and always get turned down because I have no US phone number matching my US mailing address. However, I could give one this time. If the application is approved, then I may try for another for me in order to each get the 40k miles for each of us. If that option doesn't work, then we will go the buying miles route.

Thanks again for everybody's help! I'll keep you posted.

Statia

With regards to my question about JL, is that Japan Airlines? Does AA use them for flights from DFW to NRT? I assumed it was an AA aircraft.

AAFrequentFlyer

330 days is the usual for airlines to open up inventory.

JL = Japan Airlines

AAFrequentFlyer

JL = JFK, ORD, SFO and LAX only and it's JL metal, although they codeshare with AA out of DFW but that's not what we are talking about.

You can always fly through any one of the cities mentioned but in some cases it may involve an extra connection.

AAFrequentFlyer

and don't ever forget - with award tickets you take what's available closest to your dates.

Unless you have unlimited free time then you can't really hope to fly any specific airline. Take whatever is available within your time frame.

Statia

I see. Well, we would be going thru DFW anyhow...we have to from here...so I guess we'll be on American.

Patty

You don't have to fly AA DFW-NRT both ways (only on the stopover way). You can take whatever's available going the other direction. At least, that's my understanding.

Statia

Thanks, Patty. I think from here the easiest route (and what comes up on aa.com) is SXM/SJU/DFW/NRT. We usually fly that route to IAH anyhow (via DFW), so it would be a good route for our return in order to have the stopover at DFW and go to Houston for several days.

I checked the biz ticket all the way for this November and it's nearly $12k!!! Sheesh. So, I guess $2k for the additional miles is an easy thing to swallow.

BlueSea

That's why I suggest you pay for coach and use the miles to upgrade to biz.

Statia

Bluefan, we don't have enough miles to upgrade if we purchase the tickets in coach. That's why our best route is going to be buying the additional miles in order to have the full 90k for biz class all the way.

Statia

Just posting back that we have our tickets and are all set. Thanks to everybody for your advice.

We purchased the additional miles needed for biz class (some in November, the small remainder on January 1) and were able to book our stopover in Dallas (to go on to Houston) on the return. We still came out cheaper overall than if we were to just purchase a regular coach fare between here and Houston, so we are very pleased and can't wait to see Japan!

Thanks again.