khelvan

Hello, I apologize in advance if this question has been asked before; I am not fully familiar with the site yet!

I have around 230,000 Membership Reward points acquired by using, primarily, an Amex Platinum card. I have just gotten engaged and as a celebration I'd love to take an impromptu trip with my new fiancee using some of the benefits from my card.

My goal is to get to Iceland from March 2nd-7th, though we are flexible with time and would enjoy up to 2 weeks in Europe. We're also very flexible in terms of itinerary, and since flights to/from Reykjavik throughout Northern & Western Europe are very cheap we're happy to fly into a large hub and wander until we end up in Iceland. (We're the types to buy a one-way ticket and travel until we're done traveling, without booking anything in advance)

I would love to use either MR points or take advantage of the International Travel program to get us to Europe on business or first class. In this case I'm airline neutral; I do have some Krisflyer miles built up, but only about 15,000, and not much else to speak of.

We can fly out of Sacramento, San Francisco, or Oakland easily.

Any ideas of what the best option would be to get us to Europe in comfort? There are a number of cities we'd love to fly into, spend some time in, and then fly along to Reykjavik.

I haven't used the points transfer option yet, but it seems like the best option for non-coach seats to me, unless I can find a relatively cheap full-fare first class ticket in order to take advantage of the companion ticket option. I can't imagine that converting MR points to cash would be worth it in any way.

Thanks for helping out a newbie!

guv1976

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Welcome to FT!

I suggest looking for award flights at the "Saver" level on Star Alliance carriers at united.com out of SFO, and then report back to tell us what -- if anything -- you've found to Europe and back.

MR points can be transferred to a few different Star Alliance programs. The best transfer might depend on which carrier or carriers have award seats available.

khelvan

Thank you! I'll report back soon.

This is the link I found, but I'm only finding United flights with the search so far. Am I at the right place and simply picking United routes, or do I need to change some options/go to a different link to include other Star Alliance partners?

Is there any possibility that searching for round trip could get me a better ticket, or should I stick to looking for one-way awards each way?

Thanks again!

guv1976

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You're in the right place.

I would search for one-ways. What European destinations have you been searching for? Has "Saver" award availability come up on UA flights?

Make sure that you indicate that you are searching for an award flight, and be sure to indicate that you want to include partners. Do not limit your search to nonstops.

You can see a list of nonstop destinations in Europe from SFO on UA and other carriers by Googling "SFO airport wiki."

khelvan

Ok, so I've found a couple in the date range I'm looking for - a United MileagePlus saver trip to Amsterdam for 57.5K (including two layovers), and a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt for 57.5k, direct.

There are more, surely, but it seems like the longer I wait, the more of these disappear.

guv1976

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Have you found any suitable return flights?

Ignore the mileage-redemption rates, as you won't be redeeming UA miles.

The UA itinerary can be booked with no surcharges with both Aeroplan miles and ANA miles -- at each program's respective redemption rates. I believe that KrisFlyer would assess surcharges on UA TATL award flights.

The LH itinerary can be booked with Aeroplan, ANA, or KrisFlyer miles, but the surcharges for award travel on LH long-haul flights are likely to be hefty.

Check each program's redemption rates and surcharges.

khelvan

So in terms of flights there are plenty, given our flexibility. When you say pay no attention to mileage-redemption rates, you mean with respect to MR -> Mileageplus redemption?

Is there a central location I can go to in order to check the redemption rates & surcharges for each program, or do I need to search through to find each one?

guv1976

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MR points do not transfer to UA, so what UA charges for a particular redemption is irrelevant. You are just checking Star Alliance award-seat availability on united.com because it is easy to do so on that site.

For redemption on Star Alliance carriers, you really just need to look at the ANA, Aeroplan, and KrisFlyer redemption charts. I know that Aeroplan does not assess surcharges for travel on the following carriers:

Air China
Brussels
EVA Air
Egypt Air
Ethiopian
Scandanavian
Singapore
Swiss
Turkish
United

In addition, Aeroplan surcharges on LOT Polish are said to be low.

If ANA's redemption rates are lower than Aeroplan's, you'd have to check to see which partners ANA does and does not assess surcharges on for TATL flights.