alohatoall

We used miles for our last 6 or 7 trips to Europe in business class, and they're finally pretty much used up. I'd like to know when the best time to book flights to Europe is -- that is, when sales are likely. We'd like to go next April, if that's any help. Many thanks for your help, and aloha.

Calchas

Keep your eyes on Premium Fare Deals!

dll

Also check BA.com flight+hotel, AAVacations.com and Expedia/Orbitz/Travelocity vacation packages. I regularly find great fares to Europe plus a hotel that I often quite like. I have one such trip later this year to Europe and got a flight and 5 nights hotel for under $2600 r/t in business from LAX via LHR, booked on BA.com (flight+hotel, including free breakfast buffet). While not a screaming low fare it's doable for me, especially as it includes a hotel that runs about $150/night. IME Expedia often matches the package prices so check there too, and you can book it in a way that includes just one night's hotel if you're looking to make hotel reservations on your own.

Bonus of booking on BA.com is you can secure the package with a deposit (not having to pay the full amount until later). Bonus of booking on AAVacations.com is you can include their Predeparture Waiver which, in many/most cases, makes the package fully refundable minus the fee of the PDW. The only instance I'm aware of that prevents that from being true is when the hotel you choose is listed as nonrefundable.

gnggng

Do any of the vacation packages include one way air? Will be boarding a transatlantic cruise on the way back

Calchas

This is a lot harder to obtain as one way fares are generally not cheap across the Atlantic. Your cruise provider may have special access to cheap one way fares though, worth asking.

aaupgrade

No inexpensive OW fares on the majors. Check Norwegian Air Shuttle or Icelandair for inexpensive OW TATL premium/business. Bad news is going east to Europe neither of these have lie flat seats. Great to return OW flights, but not so great going over.

RT sales happen for Simmer (mid June - late August), Thanksgiving and Christmas.

rjw242

Can always book a flight+hotel vacation package with roundtrip air and not use the return flight. It might even be cheaper than even a roundtrip (or one-way) business class flight on its own.

AndyAA

A multi-city trip might work for AAVacations, though you have to call them up to book it. There might be some cheaper options to do with the throwaway return leg by changing the departure city and booking class.

mvoight

I like to go when the dollar is up.. However, the Euro has increase 10 percent against the dollar since the inauguration.
If you only want to fly one way, another carrier might give you better rates than flying AA.
I have flown a few low cost Finnair trips one way, on Finnair and via Travelocity.
I was able to get a last minute great fare on May 28 when BA had the computer problem and my DME(Moscow) to LHR flight was canceled.
I got a $466.69 one way to go SVO(Moscow) - HEL- ORD - LAS via Travelocity. My Finnair flight was late getting to Chicago, so I missed my flight to Vegas.
Finnair provided a hotel with meals, and 600 Euro compensation. (BA also gave me 600 Euro for their canceled flight. BA also gave me the fare difference between the 2 one way Finnair tickets I bought (1 to go back to Russia) and the roundtrip price I had paid BA for the roundtrip originating in Moscow, plus the cost of the Uber to get between DME and SVO in Moscow.

dll

One-way is not possible with vacation packages; however you could theoretically at least try to schedule your return flight many months later, giving yourself a future return flight from Europe. I'm not sure what limits are on trip length with these providers.

You can also try something like Tripmasters.com for open jaw trips or one-way.

gnggng

Thanks, I was afraid one way was going to be a problem.

MADPhil

I happened to hit a brief "discount for two" sale on BA in mid-July last year which extended into March. They can happen (or not) at any time, There is often word on FT if you are lucky.

JDiver

You might want to get miles quickly.

A one way transatlantic trip can cost much more than a round trip. Sometimes you can find cheaper fares ex-Europe, but I've had to work to find them. I've come close to booking round trip and discarding thevreturn to save money, but was able to find decently priced flights using codeshares and IB. AY is possible, possibly AB as well.

(What I do is as we usually book two transats we book a round trip from Europe, the "return" to catch our transatlantic back to the USA.)

gnggng

I intend to check for flights the first day they open the award space. We won't be flying until 09/18/2018. I have been checking to see what kind of availability they have for now, but I know the space may be different for my time period. Biggest problem seems to be lots of phantom space coming up in the search, or nothing but BA to LHR to connect.

I will be on top of it when it opens and hope for the best.

Thanks

JDiver

If you haven't done so, I suggest you read http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ssistance.html, particularly the Wikipost at the top of the page.