US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - phl-bcn then fco-phl

Am planning a cruise originating in Barcelona and terminating in Rome and would appreciate advice on routing for 2 adults mid-September. Will be using SWUs if I purchase any coach fare, however current fare listings for any roundtrip US PHL-EU destination is at least $750 due to summer peak season , plus ? extra for EU connectors to port cities. Alternatively, could use 80,000 miles p/p for F award but that seems very steep, with no opportunity for mileage/bonus accrual. And I would still have to purchase at least one EU segment p/p due to the weekends we need to fly. (US partner had no award seats available)

Am hoping some of the more experienced flyers can offer some suggestions-Thanks!

US doesn't fly to Barcelona, which you probably already know, so you will need to fly to a US transatlantic city and connect to BCN. I'm guessing that Madrid might be your best bet because they'll probably have the most frequent service into BCN, but that's a 767 if you care. My uncle and his family is flying BCN-FCO-PHL in June. He got a great deal on Alitalia to FCO and the FCO-PHL flight is an A330 to boot. Just toy around with fares from various gateways to BCN and see what you get. Then look for US to that city. FCO-PHL you can nonstop on US Airways, Flight No 3.

You can buy an open jaw PHL-MAD-surface-FCO-PHL. If you want miles, buy coach and upgrade the class of service. The underlying ticket will probably be about $800. US is not the cheapest in that regard. A bought ticket on Iberia via a consolidator would be the cheapest, but those miles can only go into an AAdvantage account domestically (Iberia is in OneWorld). IB can give you the service points on one ticket/one carrier. If you do use US, you will need a one way domestic ticket from MAD- BCN. Unlike inter- European fares in general, these internal flights are cheap. Both Spanair and Iberia charge about $65 one way. If you decide to use a free ticket, take a partner award on Swissair or Sabena. Travel to and from these places is via either Zurich or Brussels. It's pretty direct on the way back from Rome, and only slightly out of the way going to Barcelona.

[This message has been edited by deelmakur (edited 04-13-2001).]

One possible option is segment passes on the europebyair.com (I think) partnership of smaller airlines. I am not sure how they cover MAD-BCN. The oneworld and *A options are not possible if you fly with US.

Another option for MAD-BCN would be Air Europa. I paid about $45 one way a few weeks ago. Air Europa has never been government run, so it is a much better experience than Iberia (although Iberia has the edge in frequency).

Originally posted by das:
Another option for MAD-BCN would be Air Europa. I paid about $45 one way a few weeks ago. Air Europa has never been government run, so it is a much better experience than Iberia (although Iberia has the edge in frequency).



Just to comment on Air Europa, my sister flew them last year from JFK to Spain (BCN/MAD I forget which) in coach. I thought this was interesting because at the time I'd never heard of them. She said the coach comfort and service was on par with every other transatlantic airline she has flown.

I did a very similar routing last year on 80,000 point award tix. PHL-FCO, then MAD-PHL. We actually flew FCO to BCN on Alitalia, and stayed there a few days before getting an Iberia flight to MAD. It was very cheap.

If you're buying coach tix and want to use SWU's, you're best to see if your intended dates even have upgrade availability before purchasing.

Thanks to all for the advice. After exploring several ideas and looking again at awards and purchases, it appears that my best routing is by buying two tix and routing as titled above but at the cost of approximately $900 pp. The Swissair award was definitly a contender, but it was not realistic due to 3 segment outbound and/or long layovers.