Adelaide to Austin in March 2017 (can i upgrade to business). 1 passenger

[cowtown]

I need to go to Austin, Texas - March 4 to ~March 14.

I'd prefer to go in business if i can upgrade with points.

I can see IWTF flights for ~$1500 , presumably in discount economy - so that probably won't work.

I have 120,000+ Velocity points (and SG) that i would like to upgrade to business if possible.

Otherwise i have 200k+ Amex points but i think time is against me now. Or is it?

Any suggestions on the best way to do this?

 

[MikeeB]

Just had a quick look this evening, beginning Adelaide and going to Austin makes it hard, neither are really well connected hubs (not if you are hoping for relatively direct routes AND available awards anyway). If Business the entire way was really important to you, one possible itinerary with current J availability I did find was;

02/03 - SYD-ICN-LAX Asiana
15/03 - LAX-AKL-SYD Air NZ

Obviously you would be making your own way to and from Sydney and LAX-AUS, but you have plenty of velocity points to do that with Virgin in J if that's what you wanted to do. First class domestic travel in the states is usually pretty affordable as well.

Now the slightly convoluted part. The above itinerary can be booked through ANA Mileage Club which you can join for free. Total itinerary is worth 120k ANA Miles + approx. $500AUD in taxes/surcharges. You would have to transfer your AMEX MR points out to SPG and then onwards to ANA yielding 125k points (MR->SPG @ 0.5 is 200k->100k and then SPG->ANA is 100k->125k).

It's not perfect, but if you were looking for an option for at least the longer haul parts of your journey you may find the above helpful. One thing to be aware of is lag times between points transfers and you would also have to split up the SPG->ANA transfers over two days. I strongly suggest having a good think before you start transferring points as we all know, award seats can disappear at the drop of a hat.

 

[support]

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