pattermj

So I posted asking about the subject a few months back and got some good points. Since then my wife and I have bounced the idea around, trying to determine if it is within our budget, our vacation time, and our family planning options. My wife has now agreed, and I think it is possible this year, to do a honeymoon to Europe, but now I am trying to work the budget on the flights. There are a number of factors involved so I will try to keep it concise in the hopes someone can help/recommend. In addition to the honeymoon, we have one know flight prior to the honeymoon to Seattle. I have been trying to work open jaws and such on united but haven't found any possibilities yet. Right now I am trying to determine what are our best options (if there are any).

Points so far:
AA (me)-150k (have card)
AA (wife)-108k
United (me)-90k
United (wife)-10k but can get CC bonus
Alaska (wife)-46k + companion pass

Flights and dates:
Other flight: 7/2 to 7/5 from IAD/DCA/CHO/SHD/RIC to SEA and return same airport (morning flight departing, afternoon flight returning)

Honeymoon flight: From 9/5or6or7 to 9/19 IAD/DCA/RIC to FCO/VEN and return IST to same airport

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Currently I am finding the honeymoon flight for roughly $850 RT pp for both tickets from DCA on Turkish. To me this is a fairly reasonable price, especially compared to to using 60k miles + taxes/fees. Flying AA I am unable to find an award flight which doesn't use BA and LHR to get to FCO making the points completely useless. United is better but we currently only have enough for 2 1-way tickets (considering getting her the 50k united to work around this). The flight to SEA is also rather harsh considering our desired times. From what I can tell our best bet is going with non-stop flights from DCA on Alaska and using the companion pass (roughly $450 RT pp). It is summer and a holiday weekend but I simply balk at paying that per ticket when I have flown RT for less than $280 on other dates. Prices may of course change but the quicker I get this handled the happier we both will be.
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The meat of the problem. From what I know AA does not allowed domestic stopovers/open jaws on award flights making it only useful for one series of flights or the other. I am unable to find any 30k tickets available which do not utilize BA and hit LHR making the flights completely useless (depart and return).
United does but I am unable to find a way to make these flights work effectively. The wife could potentially get to 60k miles easily but I want to know we have a way to use said miles before we get her the card. Can anyone suggest a way to utilize the open jaw/stop-over trick on these flights to make it useful to us?
I am trying to make this as cost effective as possible but I also cringe at using 60k miles each + $100 taxes when the tickets only cost $850. I agree with my wife that, at this point money is more important than miles to us, but I simply dislike such poor valuation of miles. I don't see any real option for the SEA flight other than Alaska companion pass but I posted it hoping someone could recommend a potential workaround. I know it may not be possible and I may be asking for a little much but I greatly appreciate any help FT can offer.

Thanks

JPG3392

I can help only with a few points. 1) AA no longer allows stopovers on award flights, but all its award tickets are now one-way so it's easy to construct the equivalent of an open jaw. 2) Award flights on IB using AA miles cannot be booked online; a phone call to AA is needed, even just to check availability of award seats. IB does impose a surcharge, but it's much lower than what BA changes. 3) Late last summer I used AA miles to book award travel MUC-DCA for July 2015. Apart from BA flights with high fees, the only flights available were on AB/US, with a need to change planes in Berlin and airports in NYC (JFK to LGA). Since that time I've been checking regularly to see if better routing would become available, and about a week ago I was able to switch at no change to MUC-PHL-DCA on US. Transatlantic flights at saver levels on US seem to have just become available for July, so perhaps such flights might soon become available for the dates and routes that you want. 4) Have you looked into flying AB via DUS or JFK to Italian cities other than Rome or Venice?

pattermj

Thanks JPG, trying to take in what you said, lets see if I understand it:

1) The lack of a stopover is sad and the reason I suspect combining our SEA flight into our Europe flight on AA is not possible. I was just hoping for confirmation as I have honestly never booked a flight with either an open jaw or a stopover. I am wondering though if it would be possible to somehow combine one direction or a SEA-IAD-FCO type one way ticket on united using the stopover rule I guess.
2) I am planning on giving them a call next week to see what IB has available. The main issue I am coming up with is the comparably cheap flight on turkish vs spending 60k + fees on award flights. Everything I have seen on FT is that would be nearly a 1cent per mile use which is rather poor. While I am always up for not spending money, I really wonder if saving the miles would be a better choice
3) Changing in Berlin really is no issue (and I would actually love a stopover of 16+ hours if possible) but JFK/LGA I have never done and not sure the wife would be up for rushing around the city trying to catch our next flight. She would probably simply prefer to pay more and not have the stress involved (can't say I disagree with her, when I travel solo I probably would but not for something like this)
Also good to know more saver awards may be opening in the near future thank you
4) I have not looked into other AB flights nor into other Italian cities. I have flown into both VEN and FCO but never into others (MIL, etc). If we get in on the 6th we would have a few days to make it to Rome for the cruise but that may be more logistics than the wife wants since I have no experience outside of Venice or Rome. If you have any recommendations though I will happily look into it as I may be able to convince her.

MSPeconomist

1. Remember that switching airports at NYC requires collecting your checked bags, taking them with you, and then checking in at the new airport, doing TSA security, etc. IIRC there's bus service but it isn't real frequent, so you might be forced to take a taxi, which of course adds to the cost.

2. Remember also that you should arrive at your cruise departure city at least one full day (and overnight) before the scheduled cruise departure date. Two days is better, to allow for any problems. Italy is known to be prone to airline, airport, ATC, railway, etc. strikes which can disrupt travel thoroughly for a day or two.

3. Overall, I'd purchase the TK tickets while that fare is available if the flights and schedules work for you. It's a better airline than UA or AB and also better than IB and IMO AA.

4. I'd also use the two for one or free companion cert for the SEA holiday weekend. To me, $450 is a good fare given your date constraints, although I live at a fortress hub with high fares so my standards might be different from those of some people here.

pattermj

1) Completely agree, one of the reasons I suspect this idea would not fly with the wife. Amazed that AA and such fly into one airport for domestic and the other is the primary international. Really not useful.

2) Also agree, our current plan is to get in the 6th while our cruise would depart the 10th giving plenty of time for layovers/delays is my hope. We would also be getting insurance.

3) Thanks for the update on quality. It is one factor I didn't know and is definitely something to consider. Since this is our honeymoon I would personally love to be able to go higher than economy but it isn't in our budget so quality in economy may be a big factor. Additionally, the paid for flight is a one stop there and direct flight back which is very nice.

4) This is pretty much what I suspected, I was simply hoping others with more experience and knowledge could point me towards something I had missed. We will see if any other ideas pop up but it is nice to know I am not completely incapable and can identify reasonable routes

thanks