choff5507

Hi,

Im looking to use my UR points to travel to Europe in a premium cabin, I would be leaving from IAH so I assumed either Air France or KLM would be my best choice booked via Korean. Im just wondering if I am missing any First Class awards at all, I know with AF that you have to have status to book first class awards. Am I missing any other good programs or airlines to get to Europe in either business or First?

Also, I thought I had read somewhere that on an award ticket you could book an extra flight within europe and it's included? Can anyone elaborate on how this works? I would appreciate it.


Thanks!

guv1976

Financially, you would be better off stopping off in LON on your way to SKG, instead of on your way back. TATL Business Class flights departing from LON (or PAR) have very high departure taxes.

good_boy_1234

I am interested to hear about recommendations for vacation of 5 days in Greece (Especially Santorini) or Italy. I have over +230K ultimate reward points. I am also down to other good international destinations. Basically, I want to spend my reward points in a good destination! Timeframe: Late summer/early Fall. I am traveling from Chicago area

wco81

I'm looking for J TATL awards out of SFO for this fall (late August, early Sept). Looked at UA, which is the only airline with which I have status and they really don't have many J saver awards for that time period, other than really long travel times (20-30 hours or more) through Lot. I'm hopeful more awards will open up later in the calendar.

I checked VS and one possibility is to get an SFO-CDG round trip award on DL metal for 145k miles and about $150 in charges. Fewer miles than DL redemptions though.

Then I checked AF, which I'd been disregarding as the bloggers are really down on that program, particularly TPG. It won't get me to VRN, my ultimate destination, but they have awards to VCE, which is an hour train ride away. Not ideal but I think other airlines may not have better availability direct to VRN since it's a smaller market. They have some awards as low as 57k each way. Well too good to be true as there are charges of $250 each way and the TATL segment is on either an A388 without their lie-flat seats in J or a KLM 772 which is does have lie-flats in a 2-2-2 config.

So I could get one of those (one thing of note, if I fly into VIE, the lowest-price award goes up to 72k plus fees) AF awards or wait to see if UA gets more awards, which would most likely be on *A partners so it would be 140k. But I wouldn't have to pay $250 each way in fees either. Thus the options are 26k more UR points to transfer to UA vs. AF, assuming availability of awards materializes on UA MP in a couple of months, or pay $500 in fees but transfer 114k miles to AF vs. 140k to UA MP (where I already have a lot of miles too).

Has anyone transferred to AF and redeemed international J awards with AF FB recently?

roundtree

Out of Chicago, you could book via UA. 60k one-way on UA metal in business to MXP or FCO (or even VCE). Economy would stretch your points, but that's up to your discretion whether you can survive that long.

If you fly to Madrid, you can use IB via Avios for 37.5k to 50k one-way in business. That's my favorite redemption to maximize comfort and stretch my UR pts.

I would actually start here to get a sense of what's possible:

https://www.travelcodex.com/award-maximizer/

serpens

Not recently by my definition, but I did transfer UR points to Air France and redeemed the points for a flight to Europe in Delta One in late 2017. As I recall, it was a nerve-wracking experience (the Flying Blue web site wouldn't let me do something and I needed to call) but it worked out.

gfunkdave

I'm planning BOS-PAR in June. At this point it looks like the best option is to use the UR points for 1.5 cents each in travel to book two premium economy tickets (probably on Air Canada via Montreal...Air France nonstop is $3k each).

I have 290k UR points (= about $4k) and there are two of us traveling.

I haven't been able to find J award availability on any airlines for essentially 72k points per segment per person...mostly it's at least double that - hence the decision to just do the 1.5 cent redemption and do premium economy.

Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?

Thanks!

Yoshi212

Such a relatively short flight PE is adequate to enjoy yourself and get some rest on the plane. If you really do want business the J fares on La Compangne are about $1450. Not sure if that is bookable via the portal.

halamadrid

At least going there, I'm seeing space at 70K p/person in J (through UA) for 2 people on June 3 and 4 on LH (stop in FRA), and also space on 6/24 on EI (stop in Dublin with the segment from DUB to CDG in Y). On a side note, have you also considered using your UR points with Hyatt to stay at the Park Hyatt in Paris. It's 30K p/night, but that hotel normally runs over €1K p/night so perhaps trade luxury in the air for luxury on ground for at least 9 nights.

gfunkdave

The constraint is that my dates are pretty much set. Leave June 7 or 8 and return on the 16th.

The Park Hyatt is an excellent idea! Thanks!

I think I'm going to use UR points for Y on DL nonstop and then I'll have around 70-80k points left for the Hyatt if we decide to do that.

returnoftheyeti

pallhedge

Your reasoning is sound. Compare all options. If they're all convenient, then go with the cheapest. If the fare you see in the Chase portal is the published standard fare from UA, you can also earn MP miles on the flight if you book that way.

newimperium

Hi all! I'm new to the forum, and I was wondering if anyone had any good ideas about how to best use my miles to travel from Europe to the US. I'm heading to Paris this November, but I need a return ticket and would like to fly business class. I have 275k Chase Ultimate Rewards points, so the points aren't the issue, but finding availability is. I can pretty much go from any European city since I'll be traveling around, and ultimately going back to NC but am willing to just book the main leg into whatever hub works (New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas etc). Basically I'm looking for any good business class deal from Europe to the USA. The various sites I've tried (Flying Blue, United, Virgin Atlantic) are pretty tough to use. Any advice on the best place to look would be appreciate!

Diplomatico

I just did a dummy booking on United for a one way award ticket, 14 November, CDG-EWR in business class. Plenty of availability, 70K miles plus $120.

If you are looking to travel anywhere near the Thanksgiving holiday, that may prove difficult. If you are flexible, there appears to be availability, at least on some dates.

LosAngelesTraveler20

Hi Traveling Friends! I am new to FlyerTalk, Can you please advise on the best way values that I could find for a nice hotel where through travel partners I could utilize my 40,000 chase ultimate reward points? Also, how do I utilize my ultimate rewards travel points in order to get more than 1:1 value? (I liked for other previous threads but was unable to find anything recent for these two cities) Thanks in advance for your insights for a novice like me! :-)