Jeremy Marks

2 adults and 3 kids residing in Greater Phoenix Arizona and looking to take the family to England and Europe next summer for 4-5 weeks. We need to go in early to mid July and be back by the second week of August. In an ideal world, would like to fly to London and fly back from Rome or a central European city. Could easily change our plan to reverse the order or even switch travel cities altogether.

I currently have 275,000 points on my Amex card, about 70,000 points on my US Airways card, lost 75,000 points on my Continental account (could reclaim them for like $400 I think) and about 150,000 points on my Southwest account. We've never traveled abroad together, so we've been stashing some miles on Amex Platinum but mainly earning on Southwest and USAirways. Amex allows me to move the miles into several different hotels and/or airlines...so I'm sure someone out there is super savvy with that and could lend some advice.

Any thoughts on when the airlines flights for next July will become available? Should I plan on grabbing the seats right when they become available this summer? How would I know when the airlines open up their schedule for summer of 2016? Also, thoughts for how to maximize our miles to pay for tickets. I'm okay with paying cash if it's not possible as I don't feel we have enough. I'm also okay buying regular fare and using points to upgrade to economy plus, or business class (or use points and upgrade using money).

I can also register for credit cards with bonus miles--I only have the Southwest card, US Airways Card and Amex Platinum.

Thoughts, guidance and/or suggestions would be great! Thanks!

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Welcome to FT!

Finding five low-tier trans-Atlantic award seats in July/August is going to be challenging, especially if you all want to be on the same flights. Can you split up into two groups?

Your best chance would probably be on Star Alliance carriers. If neither you nor your spouse has ever had the Amex PRG card, I would see if you qualify for the current bonus offer mentioned in the FT Amex forum. And I would also look at getting the Chase/UA credit card (and maybe the Chase Sapphire Preferred card too).

UA miles can be redeemed on UA and its Star Alliance partners with no surcharges; Amex MR points can be transferred to Aeroplan and also redeemed on Star Alliance carriers, but Aeroplan assesses surcharges for redemptions on some Star Alliance carriers.

The earliest that award seats can be made available is 331 days before departure for some programs, and 355 days for others. But not all carriers release award seats at the earliest possible dates.

If you plan to fly from LON to some other European city, transferring some Amex MR points to British Airways Executive Club can yield very good value if you redeem for "Reward Flight Saver" flights. Check the Sticky in the FT BA forum on "How to Use Avios."

Good luck!

Jeremy Marks

We can't split apart--but I can purchase some seats instead of using points. I"ll look into those suggested credit cards. Are there traditionally less expensive cities to fly to/from in Europe, or is London about the same price?

Stgermainparis

We have 3 kids, too, and so must always strategize to find 5 seats together. Sometimes I just let the flights/seats/availability determine where and when we will fly. I can tell you this: with careful planning you can do this and do it in a way that you're satisfied with. I've flown my family of 5 to Europe 3x and to South Africa. All on the same flights, sometimes all in Business Class. All with reward tickets. We always travel in July for approx 4 weeks and do open jaws and stopovers when possible (though these are increasingly limited on award tix). Here's my advice:

1) Zero in on your Amex points b/c that's your biggest collection. Delta has economy flights at 30k each way (i.e. ATL-LON and FCO-ATL), so you could easily do your open jaw itinerary. You will need another 25k points on Amex to get to the 300k you'll need for 5 economy award tix. In addition to Delta, you should look at Amex partner airlines and see what they have available. Air France is a transfer partner, too, for example (fees will be higher for ticketing though).

2) Use this site to determine 331 days before departure and also for before your return: http://www.timeanddate.com/date/dateadd.html
(this is where booking as one ways will be important b/c otherwise you can't ticket outbound until 331 days before inbound).

3) Beginning now, I'd start looking at awards on Delta and Amex partner airlines for next spring just so you get the hang of how the sites work and what award tix cost in points. I actually made a spreadsheet of awards, points required, zones/regions, etc. At 331 days out (Aug 5 2015 for a July 1 2016 outbound), you can "purchase" if you find something that works. Then do it again for return at 331 days out.

4) Southwest doesn't fly to Europe yet.

5) Consider training out of UK to avoid high flight departure fees. Maybe Chunnel. Fun for kids!

6) I would not use points for hotels. You've got 3 kids and in Europe that will often necessitate 2 rooms. Instead, you could use airbnb to find apartments, which might be easier for meals, etc. This is what I ALWAYS do.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions! Good luck!

Stgermainparis

I just posted a long list of suggestions but to answer these questions: for award tix LON would be the same as FCO or CDG or MXP or whatever (anywhere in Europe). Don't split apart; it's a pain with kids. I honestly think you can find space together with enough advance planning. We've done it many, many times. One last thing I thought of is that Al Nippon (ANA w/ Star Alliance) is a partner of Amex MR and I think their USA-Europe awards are 45k each (rather than 60k). But I'm not sure if they allow open jaws (fly in and out of different cities).

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

Fees TATL out of LON would likely be higher than fees out of most other European countries. So flying into LON and out of another country makes good sense.

ANA assesses surcharges on some of its partner carriers for TATL (but definitely not on UA metal). Not sure about ANA's new redemption rates.