NYC -> VIE/RTM/BCN and back
 

hi,

looking for some help. not sure how best to book a flight from nyc to vienna in october. was hoping to go from the 14th or 15th to the 23rd, or the 21st to the 30th. i have 52k miles with american and about 90k with british airways. did my first search on american and ended up with $750 in carrier fees. that's a no-go. i'm flexible on vienna, too. my friend and i were going to visit there, rotterdam, barcelona, and maybe another spot. could fly in to any of those, i suppose.

thanks in advance.

Vienna, Barcelona, and Rotterdam (plus someplace else) would be a lot of territory to cover in a nine day trip from the USA to Europe. You'd arrive into Vienna exhausted on the afternoon of day 2, spend perhaps days 3 and 4 in Vienna, fly to Barcelona on day 5, spend days 6 and 7 in Barcelona, fly to Rotterdam on day 8 and fly back to the USA in the morning of day 9? To me, that doesn't make sense, even without the fourth place.

ok, so we're discussing now. we're likely going to pare down considerably. BCN and RTM are potential side trips. for right now, we're just trying to get to vienna.

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Look for availability on AB's JFK-DUS/TXL nonstops. (No surcharges when redeeming either AA miles or BA Avios on AB.) Use Avios for AB flights from DUS/TXL to VIE, and for HG flights VIE-BCN.

thanks.

i checked ba's site but didn't see any airberlin flights. can i redeem aa miles or avios on airberlin's site? will i need to call aa or airberlin or ba?

If you can avoid using BA, you can avoid significant surcharges using AA miles. AA itself has no charges beyond government fees. The same is true of AB, though award flights on AB have recently become impossible to book far in advance. IB has lower surcharges on award flights via MAD, but award flights on IB cannot be booked online; a phone call to all is required.

Budapest and Bratislava can easily be visited from Vienna by train. An open-jaw flight returning from Munich should also be possible to arrange, though in all these cases you and your friend would be responsible for the train transportation..

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When you redeem AA miles on any carrier, you must do so via AA (either aa.com, or calling in). When you redeem BA Avios on any carrier, you must do so via BA (either ba.com, or calling in).

If there are partner award seats available on AB metal, they should show up at both aa.com and ba.com. If nothing shows up, then partner award seats on AB are likely unavailable.

Another option is to call BAEC and ask about availability for JFK-DUB-VIE on EI. Surcharges for award travel on EI are modest, but EI award seats cannot be displayed on ba.com.

thanks.

so i guess airberlin just doesn't have any award seats for those dates. i wonder if they'll open some up? do they have a schedule?

also, checked aer lingus and there're no flights to vienna whatsoever. am i trying to book too far in advance? it seems really weird to me there are no flights at all. and given the lack of flights on airberlin, maybe i'm just trying to do too much way too early.

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"also, checked aer lingus and there're no flights to vienna whatsoever."

How did you check for Aer Lingus award flights?

on aer lingus's web site. do they not display award seats on their own web site too?

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I don't know. But the only way to know for sure if there are EI award seats available for Avios redemption is to call BAEC.

Also, it looks like LCC Ryanair flies from DUB to BTS, which is fairly close to Vienna. If you can get to DUB with your Avios, then flying to BTS might be an option for you.

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If you want to begin at RTM, check aa.com for LGA/EWR-PHL-AMS availability on AA; or call AA and ask about availability for LGA/JFK-YYZ-AMS on AA/9W.

Yeah, if you really want to go to Rotterdam, fly to AMS and take the train.