any bright ideas

the problem- I have to return to the UK for 2/3 days early MAy to give evidence at a trial. after much wrangling I have managed to get the CPS to agree to let me book the flights so I can use Virgin.

I have a budget of £1000 plus 46000 miles of my own to use.
my priority is to fly as late as possible on a sunday and return late Tuesday. Then the best seat I can get. Routes arent an issue .the problem of not flying on the Saturday is making things expensive

my nearest US airports in order are RSW,SRQ,TPA and MCO.

I have looked at a full fare with upgrades, booking one trip as a return (with the flight bakc in Oct) and adding a one way reward trip and booking two split trips. so am looking for any bright ideas/novel ways around it.

currently the best I can find is
Sunday SRQ -JFK-LHR (PE on miles)
Tuesday Night LHR-EWR (PE Miles) then EWR-RSW early Weds am

thats working out at £825 including buying 9000 more miles leaving me a bit for a hotel at EWR if I want it (last time I slept in the airport as its only about 4 hours.

so can anyone think of any better way within that budget cos I think I am stuck

If you have 46k miles already why not buy more miles and have a totally miles round trip. That will not require a saturday stay.
GBP1000 will buy you a lot of miles. I know there is a limit but you can get a friend to give you some as a gift as well.
Your max therefore is 60k plus what you have. Should be more than enough for roundtrip UC

the 2 PE trips are total miles. to go up to UC would cost quite a bit more.and there isnt availability on the Tuesday.
But it seems that buying miles and booking am all-reward flight is the best option.

Include a Saturday night...!
PE Return is £967, you'll earn full miles and TP too.

Shockingly, and unsurprisingly, Miles & Money is higher!

Should be more than enough for roundtrip UC

The Daily Mail would love that!

"Cash-strapped CPS pays for witness to fly first class to give evidence at trial"

(Yes I know UC isn't F but why let the facts get in the way of a great story!)

oh god yea I dont want them getting hold of that. the thing is they said i could travel Sunday and return weds so it was always going to be expensive. the cheapest EC is £980.
so i traded and said i would go if they let me spend the same (or less) to travel as I chose.TBH its a bloody pain i will lose 2 nights in 3 days, its just i want to be away form home for as short a time as possible

I notice that you travel quite a bit. Could you not nest a return from MCO on VS with a return to say TPA on BA?

Who are the CPS going to book you with if it's not with VS?

At the end of the day, THEY need YOU to attend court and give evidence. You must be an important witness otherwise they wouldn't go to so much effort to get you there - so tell them to book themselves and pay for you (so you don't have to book and be reimbursed) but you'll only fly VS.

You can then sort out any upgrades yourself.

Just what I was thinking snickr... I take it the CPS is insisting you're physically present??? Is there no secure skype-type thing courts can use????

I believe it is possible to give evidence via video link from other countries but there's a huge cost. Not sure how that compares to the cost of you flying there though.

[Darren Wheeler]

I think you'll find a lot will depend on what the defence and the judge say.

All down to the right to face your accuser in court.

[Darren Wheeler]

Here gives a little insight but most of it is on legalese.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2011 ... rt/29/made

the CPS originally said they use the 'cheapest budget airline available' to which I replied that Easy Jet didnt make it that far !!! However I was worried i would end up cramped on the cheapest flight they could find with half a dozen stops, hence i rather dictated my own terms.Unfortunately I am the key witness for the prosecution in a fraud case so it appears I HAVE to be there.

i think I have settled on buying a few more miles and going

TPA-JFK on Jet Blue ELR for $304
JFK-LHR 27500 miles plus $221 in PE
LHR-EWR 27500 miles plus $465 again in PE
EWR-RSW early the next morning for $190 for ELR

so a total spend of $1180 plus whatever miles I buy.(9000 more is $268 so I will be under budget)
to be honest I can handle PE on the NY route as its a short one.
if i want to go to UC one way its an extra $400 so I might be able to do that,both ways adds $900 which just isnt worth it
for 7 hours

I'm sure this will work out for you but I always think it's a shame to have to use my own miles for business when I could be having my seat paid and collecting TP and miles. Also remember that if you book your connections yourself and not through VS on the same ticket—you are out of luck if you have a delayed connection...
PE is certainly quite do-able for 7 hours JFK but EC isn't so bad on outward—it's the slower flight back that seems endless.

i think I have settled on buying a few more miles and going

TPA-JFK on Jet Blue ELR for $304
JFK-LHR 27500 miles plus $221 in PE
LHR-EWR 27500 miles plus $465 again in PE
EWR-RSW early the next morning for $190 for ELR

I have just looked at the VS site and noticed the miles required for reward flights are higher than I thought they were ... New York now 35000, Sydney UC now 200000. Is that a recent change? I assume this will affect your calculations?

Sometimes doing a travel agent booking that included either a hotel or a car (that you use or don't) takes the sting out of not having a Saturday night stay. Of course you can't then use miles to upgrade but you would earn them.