Originally Posted by
purch
Something I don't think anybody mentioned is the duration of a potential Europe stopover. It usually entails an early morning arrival and long layover until another overnight flight. So from the east coast, I would always take the direct option.
From the west coast, it's a different story. It would take you basically 2 days no matter which way you go, so then I would say it's better to break it up into even parts by flying through Europe.
My gf and I came to the same conclusion this weekend. If we routed through Europe, that essentially makes it 2 days of traveling. With award availability dwindling, we booked biz class flights there on Ethiopian leaving from IAD, stopping in ADD. We'll be taking a United flight to get from Boston to DC. Waiting on some bonus miles to post and then we'll book the return flights. I know we missed out on the free stopover, but wanted to be sure we could still get there with only one day of travel.
Does SAA typically open up award space late, closer to the departure date? Currently we saw no award availability in biz class from either JFK or IAD.