Originally Posted by
prgboy
It IS possible to use DL miles and book an intra-Europe flight on non-DL metal. I have done it several times and it still shows me availability on routes I am considering now (like CPH-SVQ or PRG-CPH).
But an award ticket is not always available, it sometimes sends you on a more complicated route (2 transfers instead of one… as it uses AF metal instead of SAS metal, for example), it also costs more than using miles in the US (taxes are much higher in Europe, so in the end it might not be worth using the miles as opposed to paying for the ticket). And yes, it is not possible to use the AMEX 15% mile discount.
Still, sometimes using miles intra-Europe is a viable option: when I recently flew on SAS CPH-PRG, I used my miles because it was better than paying the very high cash price. I also earned much more MQDs by spending miles than paying cash, and I could use those MQDs towards my status for the next year.
Yes, intra-Europe standalone tends to be easier to find availability than when connecting to/from US (mostly due to married segment availability issues).
There are actually a couple outbound options to OPO on Sept 17th from MKE, but timings are not all that ideal (they are only offering availability on AF metal MSP flight on TATL sector). It is the return date when there is no availability back to MKE. There is some availability for return a week later on Oct 1st, but it involves an overnight connection at JFK (you are on the hook for the hotel costs at JFK).
Once you factor in taxes/fees on award booking, this is barely better than 1 CPM compared to revenue fares and you can better timings on the revenue fare options (no overnight connections).
