Originally Posted by
frankiwa
I believe it is anywhere in Europe, not just the UK.
You are right. It is no Transatlantic flight on AA, in the case of BA program.
However in the case of AA program, it is no US-UK flight on BA only. You certainly can fly Canada or Mexica to UK on BA using AA miles.
In other words, BA rules are more restrictive than AA rules in this regard.
Originally Posted by
european28
So, if I understand this correctly, I could use Finn-air or Iberia to travel to places in Europe (other than UK), provided I can find reward availability on those airlines. Right?
Now, for the fun part, where can I find the reward availability for those airlines? BA.com is not showing them.
Yes.
You need to check the box of searching partner flights in order for BA website to show you the availability on partner flights. It is on the left sidebar on one of those screens.
Also, BA program has separated Europe into 2 zones - therefore IB to MAD is in Europe 2, costing a bit more miles to UK which is in Europe 1. However, you may want to check with BAEC if you can still fly, say JFK-MAD-CDG for example and still be in the Europe 1 level.
Finally if you only use LHR as a connection, you can avoid the notorious APD LHR charges. Check out
Steve in Olympia's posts on his SEA-LHR-GVA routing - only costed him $288 for a r/t award.
Originally Posted by
frankiwa
Right. you can find availability is you search hard enough. Iberia has quite a high amount in redemption fees too. FinAir is pretty cheap, but if my memory is correct, they only fly into Finland.
But you can then fly AY from HEL to other location in Europe, on the same award. You dont need to have HEL as your destination.