Welcome to FT!
Originally Posted by bpjacks
We're visiting friends in Belgium in April or May 07. We have enough miles on either AA (and soon will on United) for 2 coach FF tickets - we'll buy the other 2.
AA balance: 92000
United balance: 92,912 (58,300 Choices)
You could potentially use miles for all four tix (2x40 with AA--as long as travel is complete by May 15) and (2x50 with UA). In fact, until the end of this month, if you could get awards on Swiss (LX) you could even theoretically have all four tickets on the same flights. (Though LX doesn't fly from DC, so you'd have to either connect somewhere in the US--BOS, ORD, YUL, MIA, JFK, etc-- or leave from JFK.)
Availability on LX from JFK to Zurich (ZRH) seems to be pretty good. Also, I checked random dates in April/May on the AA website and found lots of availability BWI/DCA-JFK and back. On UA, there was availability on IAD-JFK and back.
Originally Posted by bpjacks
Exact travel dates are pretty flexible.
That's going to make finding award seats a lot easier.
Originally Posted by bpjacks
I don't care about Elite status
Well, you won't get miles on award tix, anyway.
Originally Posted by bpjacks
IAD or BWI-BRU nonstop is easiest but most expensive ($780-900) from what I can see.I can do EWR or JFK if I have to ($550-600). Because BWI-JFK or EWR is impossible to get for FF, I can drive to NJ/NY and stay with my brother or mom, but EWR only works if it's nonstop from there - connecting through ORD with the kids would be a nightmare and a total waste of time.)
Especially with miles, but also with paid tix, direct flights are going to limit your options. There is only one direct flight from WAS to BRU (on United).
Connecting somewhere else in Europe can be quite fun actually--a stopover is a great chance to take advantage of the value of an award ticket.
Why is ORD worse than through EWR or JFK? (I actually like ORD.)
Another possibility is nonstop to Amsterdam and then the Thalys express train to BRU.
Yep, but make sure to factor the cost into your calculations.
1) since this is a combo of FF and paid tix is it better to do it all at once or to book the FF first and see if the IAD prices drop (they are high for shoulder season)? For cash flow purposes I'd ratehr delay the paid tix if I can but don't want to risk a sell-out, either.
You should definitely book the awards when you find availability. On both UA and AA you can redeposit the tix for a $100 fee (on AA the second ticket refund would only be $25)
2) Do the kids pay full fare or a discounted rate and if discounted must they be accompanied by a paying adult? I'm thinking this would play into which names we tie to the FF tickets...
I think the kids are too old for most discounted rates.
3) Is there a way to easily see how much FF availability exists on various flights or do I have to call?
You can check AA availability on AA.com, UA availability on ual.com, OneWorld availability on qantas.com (create a free account), and Star Alliance availability on ANA Skyweb (create a free ANA account; the availability may not be 100% accurate, but it helps). LX availability is not available on ANA's website even though they are in Star; it is available on lufthansa.com, but you can't search for availability unless you have enough miles.
5) Anything I am missing? Anything I should have asked and didn't?
I would book one adult and one child on each pair of tickets.