While you do need to plan ahead for a trip of this sort, you don't need to book reward tickets 11 months ahead. I have no experience using miles on USAirways, but summer 2013 award flights to Europe on UA and its European partners should be available for 60,000 miles during the Fall of 2012 and winter of 2013 as long as you have some flexibility. This year, I booked two such trips to Europe, one for June/July 2012 and the other for September 2012, about 7 months ahead in each case. Admittedly, finding three tickets for the same flight is more difficult, but award availability keeps changing and you should be able to allow yourself more time to acquire the miles needed for your trip.