Part 1:
Hi all,
I'd appreciate any insight that any of you may have with my potential trip planning.
Background:
We live in Israel, and next August time, I have a family wedding in LA to go to with my family of 5 (parents and 3 young children).
As of now, the date of the wedding is flexible based on when we can arrive.
Additionally, Hawaii may be part of the visit, either b/f or after the wedding, and we'll be spending time in Cleveland before coming back home to Israel.
So we need to figure out how to maximize our travel, preferably using miles.
Please note that the 3 options below are only for the outbound, not the inbound. If you have any good ideas as how to book them in a combined trip, I'd be glad to hear.
Option #1:
So, the simplest (and least comfortable) option would be to book a one way to Hawaii with a stopover in LAX using 45k AA miles p/p in economy (Y). We could fly (subject to availability) LY to LAX, and then either AA, AS, or HA to our ultimate island destination, either direct or with a stopover.
But this is no longer possible since AA no longer allows stopovers in the N. America gateway city.
Additionally, even if we did HNL before the wedding, they no longer allows a HA connection on a TATL booking (at least according to Ben at his blog). And I don't see AA space out of LA, so I'd have to fly AS with a stopover. This would mean that I'd be looking at a routing of something like this.
TLV - LAX - SEA - OGG
However, doing this w/o any real breaks w/ young kids sounds painful to me.
Plus, I'd need to book separate tickets to LAX, CLE, and back to TLV
Option #2:
Option 2 takes advantage of AA's amazing price from TLV to the Far East of only 30k in Biz (J). Additionally, LY often has 5+ seats on their flight to HKG, and from there, Cathay (CX) has many connecting options and that would allow us to choose a destination to spend a few days at.
Then, we could either continue directly to HNL from either Tokyo or ICN on direct flights operated by Star Alliance partners. For example, LifeMiles only charges 25k in Y (40k in J) for this route, and a tad bit more (I think) if it's connecting. And UA is as low as 27.5k I believe.
With the LM mileage sale, 25k would cost around $375 plus tax which is a pretty good deal IMO. However, this would only get me to HNL, not to any of the islands. I'd need to book that separately.
Another option would be to take advantage of AS which allows a stopover on a one way ticket. So if the wedding were before the Hawaii trip, we could fly from the Far East to LAX, stopover, continue to HNL. (However, I'm not sure if they allow a stopover in HNL on the way to LAX. Maybe calling would help)
A problem with AS miles is getting ahold of them. While this could be arranged, it would involve either more risk if I could borrow a friend's account, or more time if I had to use SPG points.
Option #3:
Somehow do New Zealand or Australia using AA's amazing pricing of 45k OW in J from TLV. But as was pointed out elsewhere, this might be going overboard with the kids.
So I'm looking for ppl's advice, and alternative options.
In Part #2, I'll query about possible destination cities.