I feel sure this question has been asked 1000 times yet I haven't been able to find an answer I can interpret as a complete newbie to this site. Please re-post/re-direct or otherwise give me a clue.

I have 134K miles on United (transferrable to CO, presumably useable for other Star Alliance). Want to travel with friend from any NYC airport to just about anywhere in Europe, but I can only travel departing around Aug 5-6 returning Aug 13-14. Have called both airlines multiple times and keep getting disconnected while on hold; UA site keeps showing no availability whatever cities/dates I put in.

Is there anything that lets you plug in dates and shows award availability FROM a given point but flexible as to destination? If not, suggested course of action? I fear the KVS tool is too advanced for me.

Thank you