Originally Posted by
kpconnolly
I have been surfing the posts here, but am a bit lost. New to actually using miles - I have 280K on Alaska and can use a combination of miles and cash. I am looking for two to Europe in October. Fly from Portland OR to Dublin Ireland around October 1, travel Dublin to Athens on Oct 11 and Athens back to Portland on October 23. Any suggestions where I should look here or elsewhere to best plan this out? I can do economy, but would consider business for a redeye (if it is real business)
For a trip to Europe - the Alaska website is your best bet.
Aer Lingus is the best partner to find on the outbound flight to Europe. Under normal circumstances, you could do your flight from PDX to DUB and from DUB to ATH without paying any extra miles - but Aer Lingus stops flying to Athens on September 30.
If I were you, I'd look for your flights one-way at a time in the Alaska search with "Use Miles" - but only for PDX-DUB on the 1st and ATH-PDX on the 23rd. The Alaska award chart doesn't have many partners for intra-Europe flights, and these are generally pretty cheap anyway to buy on their own.
In coach on Aer Lingus, you're looking for flights that are 30k miles to get the best deal each way.
In business, you're looking for flights that are 60k miles (didn't find any of these around your dates unfortunately). If you do happen to find Aer Lingus business class space, this would be in a proper lie-flat seat. I believe you only need to avoid IcelandAir Business Class to stay out of a recliner seat for the trans-Atlantic legs.
On the return, there looks to be coach space on American for 22.5k miles back. Again, business class isn't readily available yet in this direction either. Good luck!