Best route from west coast to Munich in August
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: San Diego
Programs: Hyatt Diamond, US Air Gold
Posts: 121
Best route from west coast to Munich in August
I am flying from the west coast to Munich around August 20th for a wedding. Will be touring around Europe and not sure of my final plans so will only be booking one way for now. I live in San Diego, so I would prefer to leave from San Diego or LA. May use points if it makes sense, but otherwise going to use cash. If I want to use points, what is my best bet? I am platinum if that makes any difference
Last edited by mjh218; Feb 4, 2019 at 2:16 pm Reason: adding info
#2
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: DFW/DAL
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I am flying from the west coast to Munich around August 20th for a wedding. Will be touring around Europe and not sure of my final plans so will only be booking one way for now. I live in San Diego, so I would prefer to leave from San Diego or LA. May use points if it makes sense, but otherwise going to use cash. If I want to use points, what is my best bet? I am platinum if that makes any difference
What is "best" depends on a variety of factors. For example, some people want to have a long flights (for sleeping) and a short flight, or "best" might mean the chances of an upgrade if using an upgrade award.
For example LAX to London to Munich. Note: If flying via UK, beware of awards offering British Airways flights, especially on the Transatlantic segment due to high surcharges.
I do see MileSaaver Economy available for Aug 20 from SAN to Munich via DFW with connections from 1 hr 25 minutes (DON'T) to 3 hrs 38 minutes
You need to look at what is available for the days you want to travel and go from there.
#4
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I am flying from the west coast to Munich around August 20th for a wedding. Will be touring around Europe and not sure of my final plans so will only be booking one way for now. I live in San Diego, so I would prefer to leave from San Diego or LA. May use points if it makes sense, but otherwise going to use cash. If I want to use points, what is my best bet? I am platinum if that makes any difference
Have you priced one way cash fares?
#5
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: MEL CHC
Posts: 20,987
The one way prices may surprise the OP
USA Eu business class awards are hard to get
AA thread ---> Where exactly does AA fly to Europe? Which routes have good business seats?
There are many airlines that will get you from USA west coast to central Eu. AA/oneworld may not be best option
USA Eu business class awards are hard to get
AA thread ---> Where exactly does AA fly to Europe? Which routes have good business seats?
There are many airlines that will get you from USA west coast to central Eu. AA/oneworld may not be best option
#6
Join Date: Dec 2009
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Unless you don't care about cost one-ways are prohibitive. If you want to do two one-ways, you'll want to do mileage awards. Anytimes, by definition, are easily available. SAAver's (particularly business) are difficult. Would recommend an ExpertFlyer subscription if you are hunting for SAAver business.
#7
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: BOS, BWI, DCA, IAD
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Posts: 2,046
Depending on where you are going in Austria, you may wish to consider flying AA to LHR and BA to either Innsbruck or Salzburg. The flights to INN operate 3x weekly. As others have indicated, BA imposes prohibitive surcharges on its transatlantic award flights, but the surcharge on award flights to the European continent is much more modest.
#8
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Unless you don't care about cost one-ways are prohibitive. If you want to do two one-ways, you'll want to do mileage awards. Anytimes, by definition, are easily available. SAAver's (particularly business) are difficult. Would recommend an ExpertFlyer subscription if you are hunting for SAAver business.
#9
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I am flying from the west coast to Munich around August 20th for a wedding. Will be touring around Europe and not sure of my final plans so will only be booking one way for now. I live in San Diego, so I would prefer to leave from San Diego or LA. May use points if it makes sense, but otherwise going to use cash. If I want to use points, what is my best bet? I am platinum if that makes any difference
Business class becomes much tougher, don't see anything that doesn't involve BA on the longhaul segment which of course includes the ripoff $600+ in taxes and fuel surcharges. Stay away from that.
I've used a few sAAver business awards to get to Europe in August over the past few years, availability has actually opened up a bunch IF you can be flexible and wait until around 2 weeks before to book AND you can be flexible a bit on destinations. This means taking whatever sAAver business seat you can find to FRA/ZRH/MUC/MXP/MAD etc., and then just buying a cheap one-way to your final destination.
Given this is a wedding, and you'll probably want to have something nailed down, I'd book the economy award now and just keep an eye on if better business availability opens up. This is a free change.
And as mentioned above, unless you want to fly over on a LCC like Norweigan or WOW, one-way fares will be prohibitively expensive.
#10
Suspended
Join Date: Nov 1999
Posts: 24,153
I am flying from the west coast to Munich around August 20th for a wedding. Will be touring around Europe and not sure of my final plans so will only be booking one way for now. I live in San Diego, so I would prefer to leave from San Diego or LA. May use points if it makes sense, but otherwise going to use cash. If I want to use points, what is my best bet? I am platinum if that makes any difference
I had a similar situation, have an event in Zurich I have to be at in end of May and wanted to see Munich. wanted to go out of/ return to JFK to avoid having to park my car in alot for 7-8 days. AA was showing me lousy connections and in Y only, all I wanted in Biz as long as it was on BA and paying more in surcharges then what a coach tkt would cost.Was gonna give up with AA since I didnt want to fly on their 777s to LHR and then BA with 29" leg-room. Then my event in ZRH was moved up by 1 day and finally a JFK-CLT opened up w/o having to spend 8 hrs @ CLT. So Im flying JFK-CLT-MUC < 2 hrs @ CLT and the A330 from CLT
Getting back to JFK from ZRH was worse on AA thru PHL, so I used my UA miles for a LX non-stop in Y and flying MUC-ZRH using UA miles
If you dont have UA miles but do have Chase UR pts you can transfer them over @ 1:1
I wanted AA only to use up my larger then needed stash of AA miles but by far I find AA is LOUSY when it comes to Europe as only BA or IB are in OW and that means alot extra $$ and having to fly via those hubs to get somewhere
#11
Join Date: May 2006
Location: SAN
Programs: Lots of faux metal
Posts: 6,416
I am flying from the west coast to Munich around August 20th for a wedding. Will be touring around Europe and not sure of my final plans so will only be booking one way for now. I live in San Diego, so I would prefer to leave from San Diego or LA. May use points if it makes sense, but otherwise going to use cash. If I want to use points, what is my best bet? I am platinum if that makes any difference
Or, this could work:
Subbing in SAN for above is only a bit more.
Last edited by skunker; Feb 5, 2019 at 12:42 pm