Total Newbie, would like some advice
 

I've been reading this site as well as a few blogs for a few weeks. I'm not a frequent traveler however my wife and I and 3 couples have been talking about going to Europe but it keeps getting put on the back burner.

I'd really like us to get enough miles to get there and back and I think it's fairly easily attainable, I was going to have each person in each couple get a Chase Sapphire Preferred as well as the Chase United Mileage Plus card for the bonuses. That's about 75K points total and that gets us from our origin to destination (Minneapolis-Munich) and our return (Rome-Minneapolis) for 30k miles each way in economy on United. This is for several reasons: I think the booking is easiest, and everybody is familiar with and comfortable with United, and those cards have low min spends (3k/3 months and 1k/3months) and we have plenty of time to spread it out over the next year as we wouldn't be booking for probably a year anyway.

Am I missing something? It seems easier than I expected. If we get the bonuses and convert them to miles, could we cancel the cards before the first annual pay comes up and keep the miles? I thought it was separate accounts and not tied to the cards. United clearly lists the taxes and fees and it looks like they don't have fuel surcharges.

Sorry I feel like I'm asking dumb questions when it comes to the threads on this board but I literally have been looking at this for about a month and I just feel like I am missing something in fees I don't know about or other things.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Total Newbie, would like some advice
 

One of your concerns will be if you're all flying from the same airport and traveling the same time is finding that amount of award seats being available

You're absolutely correct. It's just that easy to sign up for a card and start flying. [comm. blog link removed].

And as you mentioned, United is one of those airlines which doesn't levy fuel surcharges on award flights (so it will be the most economical). However, if you have no status with them then change ($100) and redeposit ($200) fees can be expensive.

Even if we're scheduling about a year out? How many seats are there available on flights? We'd need 8 total.

It varies by airline, specific flight, time of year, class of service, etc.

You may need to prepare to go in two groups of four persons on different flights.

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You can go to united.com right now, and check current award-seat availability for next year, through mid-July. No log-in required.

Of course, if you were planning to travel during a different time of year, availability could well be different.

And if you were planning to travel between October 15 and May 15, you should consider getting AA miles instead. AA charges only 40K miles for the roundtrip during that time period, but you would need to avoid flights on BA and IB in order to escape surcharges (hefty on BA; moderate on IB).

You can check current award availability on aa.com -- no log-in required.

Since both AA and UA offer one-way redemptions, you could fly one way with AA miles, and the other way with UA miles. @:-)

Since this seems to be a one and done type of deal I be a bit more aggressive and get 1st class flights plus hotel rooms.

If you fly Delta or American and are located near Rochester, MN sometimes flights that originate out of RST ( even though they usually go through MSP) are sometimes cheaper and it can be much cheaper

I have an upcoming flight that I paid for RST/MSP/BDL that is $400 cheaper than the MSP/BDL flight, using miles will sometimes be cheaper also using RST

That is a LONG flight in coach

If each person gets a Hilton reserve card that is 4 free nights at basically any Hilton. Since you are going to be travelling 12 plus hours each way I'm guessing you will be staying a couple weeks so using the 4 free nights ( fri - sunday) won't be an issue

My first time on a plane ever was to Sydney so everything seems short in comparison. ;)

Thanks guys really appreciate the input especially the off peak AA info. Would aa allow an open jaw between two different locations for the round trip off peak?

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"Would aa allow an open jaw between two different locations for the round trip off peak?"

All AA awards are one-ways, and can be combined, as needed, to create roundtrip, open-jaw, or multi-city itineraries. And, as noted, you could fly one way with AA miles, and the other way with UA miles.

My Experience also from MSP
 

I just booked my family of 4 to Europe using AA and United miles June/July 2015 from MSP. What I found was award availability for MSP to ORD are very limited most of the year on both AA and United. I'm purchaing tickets for the MSP>ORD segment and using miles onward to Europe. You're ahead by using United, it seems they have more award seats available in the summer to Europe from ORD. I'm also somewhat of a newbie but have found these forums extremely helpful and I've been able to make trips that I never thought possible.

Not only would I get the Hilton card mentioned above, but also the IHG card for 80,000 points...one for each of you. There are hundreds of IHG properties throughout Europe and you could easily get 6 or 7 free nights (some with free breakfast) with the 160,000 points. They also offer "point break" 5,000 point rooms throughout the country on special every few months. The $49 fee is waived the first year, and then you get a free night at any IHG property each year you renew. My family is staying at a 300 EUR Intercontinental in the German Alps next summer for only the $49 annual fee.

I agree, it sounds like a special project, so just get business/first with Citi AA. Make it special. Won't be possible to be on the same flight for all of you, but, hey, you'll see a lot of each other on the ground. Just one personal and business Citi AA credit cards for each give you 100,000 miles, which is a free business or biz/first class ticket. Hey, push comes to shove (availability-wise), fly in couch and put wives in first. :)

And load up on hotel points as well. There are plenty of Hilton HHonors flying around. IHG too.