sydney to new york business class

[clare1]

I need some help from all the experienced frequent flyers on this forum. I have about 700000 westpac altitude points and would like two business class flights to new york for end of June 2011. Any ideas on best way to utilize the points. Am happy to pay for a ticket and use points to upgrade. Would obviously like to use the least amount of points as possible so can use rest for something else another time. Any help would be greatly appreciated .

 

[RB]

Hi Clare. As a starting point it would help if you could indicate if you are a member of any frequent flyer schemes already & if you hold any status with any airline. Are you only a social flyer like me or a regular?

 

[clare1]

I am only a social flyer. Am a member of enrich, krisflyer and virgin but do not have any status as have usually just bought tickets and used my points to upgrade.

 

[cove]

Can you get them moved into Kris Flyer and what is the conversion rate?
SQ run a direct flight to New York from Singapore I believe but I have not tried it.
I go to LAX from SIN ex PER and it costs 114750 points plus fees of 363.20 SIN dollars each way per person with great availability.
AA from LAX to NYC is 50,000 points in J or 75,000 points in First each way.Their fee is really modest so I would expect that would be a guide for the extra points cost to get to New York the way you want to do it.

 

[clare1]

Yes can move them to Krisflyer but 700000 altitude points converts to 350000 frequent flyer points. I have always used Enrich as they usually require less points for an upgrade. Only problem is Malaysia flys to New York ex Sydney via KL and then Taipei. Seems like a hell of a long way to get to NY. Will look into Air New Zealand and see what they can offer. Does anyone know what points they require ?
Any other suggestions or advise is very much welcome.

 

[cove]

We went PER-SIN-NRT-LAX and surprisingly the flights were shorter and it was lovely to get off an stretch and walk in Narita.We got SIN-NRT-LAX for 76500 KRIS points in SAVER First Class on their 747 but I am told they are pulling out of that one in a couple of months so it may be gone by June.
From Sydney I think Air New Zealand may be the go so you dont go backwards to go forwards so to speak.