My wife and I plan to go to Europe in the spring of next year. We both got the CSR when it provided a 100,000 point signing bonus. We also have the Freedom as well the United Mileage Plus card. In total we've accumulated around 235,000 UR points and another 30,000 united miles. When I evaluated the transfer options and the airline options I have available through Newark it seems like United makes the most sense. I came to this conclusion by looking at the transfer ratios I found online. All my options seems to be a 1:1 ratio and given United allows for a free stop over in London on our way to Paris it seems to make sense. Am I doing this right? We'd like to fly business or first, but it seems we only have enough points to fly economy which is fine. Also, how far out would you suggest I book the flights?

Finally, I just received an offer from Chase for 100,000 points if I were to get the Marriott card. Is this a good deal? We'd like to pay for as much as we can with points and I stay with Marriott for work multiple times a year, so it doesn't seem like a bad idea.

Thanks in advance for the help. I'm still somewhat new to this and I'm hoping to avoid any significant mistakes in using my points.

Welcome to FT, RTNJ12. The Biz seats will go from 57.5K to 70K and up in the saver category, one way. When are you looking to travel?

Here are just a few quick pointers: You can do a stop over and an open jaw on a UA award, so you might check award saver space into ARN (Stockholm), then to CDG and London. It's just as easy, or easier, to take the Eurostar from Paris to London as it is to fly, so that leg could be your open jaw. Also, transiting LHR can result in higher departure taxes than other places.

Check the hotel forums for Marriott redemption information. The 100K offer is a good one, but generally speaking, hotel points are not as valuable as airline miles. So 100K Marriott points are not equal to 100K UA or UR points. The exception to this are the SPG points, which are both hotel and transferable points.

For spring of next year, if you are looking for an economy saver award, I think you can get one as late as Nov/Dec of 2017. Now, if you want business or first, you may have to look 6 months out. JMO. That said, it seems that you have SOME flexibility where you fly from - the question is whether or not you'd find direct.

The other thing to consider is that the flight TO Europe will almost certainly be overnight, and therefore the flat bed in business class has more value then. So the best balance may be to try and find business class on the way over and pay more miles for that, and then economy on the way back for the daytime flight.

Not necessary.

1. UA frequently has fare sales for European cities. While it may be too early to book a revenue ticket for next year, the lowest fare I can see so far for EWR-LHR is $510 ai (or 51K UR if you don't want to pay cash) in November.

2. There is no nonstop *A flight operating between London and Paris. In other word, to have a stopover in London with the final destination as Paris, you will force to transit, at the minimum, in Germany. easyjet or Eurostar (for the experience) may be a better option.

3. EWR-LHR in Y is tolerable, as it is about 1 hour more than SFO/LAX-EWR.

Make a dummy booking and see how many nights that 100K can help.

Hotels in Europe are generally expensive unless you stay away from Central area. That 100K won't be much help.

+1

+1

Not true.

1. There is a day flight. However, it will be costly as you have to pay for 1 more night of hotel.

2. Again - EWR-LHR is only 1 hour more than SFO/LAX-EWR. Based on your same logic, the value will be much bigger for SFO/LAX-EWR.

So the best balance may be to try and find business class on the way over and pay more miles for that, and then economy on the way back for the daytime flight.[/QUOTE]

I agree you should use the stopover somewhere else -- see Copenhagen or Stockholm and take SAS to London... and do NOT fly out of London bc of the horrific departure taxes. Take Eurostar to Paris or use your UR points to transfer to BA Avios for a cheap one way from London to Paris. Then Fly back to EWR from there.
book whenever you are certain and there's availability. It can come and go all the time.

Agree completely with above poster(s) on fully taking advantage of United open jaw and stopover on rt award possibility. However, I am in the camp that think getting less than 2 cents/pt is a poor value for your UR points. If you transfer your UR points to United, you would have about 265000 United miles which is almost enough for 2 rt business class award on partner airline (70K miles each way). Or you can fly United business one way (57.5K) and partner airline J one way which you already have enough miles for. Including the open jaw and stopover, this award will be value at way over 1cents per mile. And you would get to fly J (make sure it is lie flat business seat) instead of Y which these days are cheap enough you can just pay out of pocket for.

Agree with MMdough. I'm also planning a trip to Europe on miles/pts. I wouldn't want to blow 2 CSR bonuses on Y class tickets - given how cheap they can be acquired on sale, Travelocity, etc. Instead look for United J Saver awards for 57.5K each way- I've even found some on partner airlines. If you sort on the Saver column low to high, you sometimes find options that don't show up on the flexible calendar.

Also, consider getting the Ink Preferred for the 80K bonus. But the Marriott card is also a good deal right now. You should be able to get the AF waived on either if you apply in branch.

Thank you all for the responses. If I'm understanding you all correctly, your advise would be to fly from EWR to either Stockholm or Copenhagen, take a cheap flight to LHR from there, the Eurostar from London to Paris and finally CDG to EWK? And that route will change the fees I pay into LHR?

The business class flight over at night sounds like a great idea to save on the costs and get a better value with J. I'll check out the hotel forums on redemption. We plan to stay for about two weeks and our goal is to pay for flights in points and hopefully at least five to seven days of hotel stays.

Thanks again for all the help. Still learning to navigate my way through all of this.

Hi, I'm looking to have a romantic getaway with my wife for 10 days either end of June or early Aug. We never travelled internationally and wanted to have fun since we're still in our early 30s.

We had a carnival cruise to Mexico and didn't really enjoy it. Lots of solicitors in touristy areas.

Does anyone have any recommendations? We have about 300k in rewards combined and wanted to use a portion for this trip. Any suggestions on how to best utilize those and trip ideas?

Flying out of LAX
10 days
late June or early Aug
international (safe)

Jeez, I hate to sound cheezy but the world is your oyster.

Do you prefer to sit on the beach?
Do you want to visit a city?
Do you want to have an active vacation where there's a lot of hiking, etc?
Europe?
South Pacific?

Literally could go anywhere. Need more info on likes/dislikes.

Bora Bora/Tahiti/Figi

Call it a day. 300000 points should cover all the flights and some of the hotel costs at least!

enjoy the outdoors, but avoid tourist traps/crowds and big city (like NYC)

we we were interested in Europe.

Review this recent thread. Don't be distracted by the fact that it's abour travelling from Newark rather than Los Angeles, much is the same.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chase...wr-europe.html

Summer is the peak time for North Americans to visit Europe because school is out. This consumes award seat inventory and it alters the experience.

If you like outdoors/hiking/mountains, the Lauterbrunnen valley in switzerland is perhaps my favorite single place I've ever been. Just type that into google image search and you'll see why. Not sure what the crowds are like in high season like that, I went in early Sept. It can be a little pricey.

It's extremely safe, although you might come across an angry cow up in the mountains while hiking, and there are plenty of places to fall off the mountain. But you won't be getting mugged or anything.