branmin

Have a AE Platinum card with 500,000 miles on it. Hope this is the right board as I appear to be fairly useless at doing this on my own. Getting on a bit and computers and I just don't seem to relate. Anyway, would like to treat the wife and I to first class from Miami to Barcelona, perhaps go on to London and back as well. Do I have enough miles to start with? Went online and did a search but they said no planes went there..surely they do? Then I was told rightly or wrongly that I should not travel from Miami which is still 2 hours away from us as they didn't have the best first class service of planes being used, so getting mighty confused....
Any help and guidance appreciated......

mia

Let's begin with some specifics.

1. What website did you use?

2. Are you sure you want first class rather than business class? Many airlines no longer offer first class on transatlantic routes, specifying first class limits the options.

branmin

think I went on American airlines website by mistake thinking that as I had American Express they used American airlines then later realized that it was through AAdvantage card(about 233 thousand miles)and they use AA...

Just wanted a bit of luxury as opposed to economy.....

Thx.

SanDiego1K

If I were you, I'd pay a few hundred dollars and use an award booking service to sort this for you.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...e-reviews.html

It will be money well spent. If you don't live and breathe points and miles, it's confusing to figure out how best to use the points that you have. You've got several issues to sort. First is that the one currency you have is Membership Rewards points. (Perhaps you also have 233K of AA points?) An award booker will be very familiar with the airlines where these points can be transferred. Then there is the issue of award availability. A booker will know how to find that.

Here's to flying at the front end of the plane. Come back and tell us what you end up doing. Hope the trip is great!

mia

You can certainly fly non-stop between Miami and London. There are three carriers: American Airlines (AA), British Airways (BA) and Virgin Atlantic (VS). BA and VS are Membership Rewards transfer partners, AA is not, but flights can be arranged through other partner programs.

You can fly nonstop between Barcelona and Miami on American Airlines only.

There are many more possibilities if you are willing to make a connection.

Due to the tax structure at UK airports it would be more cost effective to structure the trip:

1. Miami - London
2. London - Barcelona (air -or- train)
3. Barcelona - Miami

You do not necessarily need to use the same airline or frequent flyer program for all three segments. You can look for availability on all three separately.

You need to learn how to search for AWARD seats on aa.com, ba.com and virginatlantic.com . All three airlines limit the number of award seats offered. There may be no award seats even if there are seats available for purchase. There will be fees in addition to miles or points. These can be trivial or expensive.

When were you hoping to travel? How many passengers?

branmin

Thx SD and MIA......just two people travelling and I can go anytime in the next few months or so. Think that's a great idea to pay for a service.....until I understand what I am doing.
Much appreciated.