MikailSJ

Looking for some input on what airlines I should look into/transfer my points to in order to book 2x flights to Europe next summer.

-Would like to fly a minimum of business class; ideally business one direction and first the other direction.
-Would like to avoid the BA fuel surcharges.

Current points:
~200,000 AA Miles
~360,000 Amex MR points
~100,000 points to freely transfer to any airline via SPG.
~80,000 Delta airline award miles.

Countries interested in visiting:
UK
Italy *would prefer to start or end here.
France
Portugal

Suggestions?

*Edit: flying out of SFO.

IncaTrails

Outbound: AmEx points to Singapore Krisflyer--enjoy Suites and the double bed on Jfk-Fra! This is an absolute must. From Fra you can take a cheap flight to the countries you refer to above.
Return: Use AA for either AA, BA, AB, or AY for Business on the return. OR, use AmEx plus SPG (not sure of the going rate or if Krisflyer is the best for this) for Lufthansa First on the return.

LondonElite

Getting SQSuites and LH First will prove extremely challenging, in the case of the latter at least pretty much impossible in advance.

JDiver

It often seems to me these kinds of posts are somewhat contradictory in purpose - luxury and low budget.

Today's Business class often offers lie flat seats within a solo pod with aisle access, far better than any First product just years ago. This is perhaps the reason many airlines have either eliminated or drastically reduced their First Class cabins.

My perspective: a good Business seat eastbound for the transatlantic redeye offers me the opportunity to get a good sleep so I can hit the ground running and avoid most jet lag. On the return daytime flight, a seat large enough to allow comfort, because I won't be sleeping much - again, minimize jet lag - and will likely read, use the IFE or my tablet, take a snooze or two. I won't worry about fine dining in ghe Sky, because I'll find far better dining on the ground - even if it's just a great pizza from the "forno a la legna" (wood fired oven) around the corner. So, maybe Business, or Premium Economy may suffice.

My job is to get there rapidly and in a modicum of comfort, not spend the maximum number of miles or points on one travel provider.

Once I'm there, miles or points might afford a splurge stay. But I also know the more I move around, the less I'll see and the more I'll spend. So the old "blitzkrieg through six countries".

Now if I were planning this trip I'd start in the UK and end in Italy, because returning from the U.K. (except for Inverness or Belfast) will incur the U. K. Air Passenger Duty, which will add significant cost to my travel (even on an award flight). I'd use rail to travel - LCCs may (or may not) be cheaper, but with rail there's no need to get airport transfers, deal with security queues and otherwise deal with inconveniences - downtown to downtown is just the ticket. And we've a forum for that.

Duke787

Aeroplan is a no brainer to me here especially out of SFO. AC gives you access to *A though they (AC) does pass along some fuel surcharges depending on carrier.

It will be 57.5k/person for TATL J and 70k/person for TATL F for the part of Europe you are headed. That comes out to 255k which is a good use of AMEX and you won't even have to touch anything else (including SPG which you could use instead for hotels). Just be on it like a hawk for the outbound since summer award travel will be snapped up at T-331. AMEX to AC does transfer instantaneously though in my own AMEX ---> Aeroplan transfer experiences.

One caveat, LH F will only potentially be available at T-15 so you'll have to book a RT J ticket in order to get the stopover (see below) but you can change for a $90 when LH F opens up close to departure date. Keep in mind LH F does have pretty big fuel surcharges, I would poke around the Aeroplan website to get a sense of that (check for a hypothetical booking of LH F on FRA - SFO departing say in 3 days) and it'll give you an accurate sense of the charges.

I believe AC does also allow stopovers on RTs so should let you knock out at least 2-3 of the countries and then just use LCC for other flights.

Here's one such thread about that: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-c...ver-rules.html

SQ would be great but coming from SFO it doesn't make much sense since it's such a short flight and you'll have to fly some sort of UA or AC domestic F/J which isn't worth it when you can fly a long haul TATL in/out of either SFO or LAX (with connection on UA).

farbster

I would look at using ANA to fly on *A. These can be obtained by transferring from Amex MR. Travelisfree has some great writeups on ANA.

Perhaps save SPG points for hotels...

if your dates are fairly set, you might have to be flexible on your itinerary.

MikailSJ

Yes, good point on entering Europe through LHR.

MikailSJ

I've looked through Aeroplan; the main airlines that don't have surcharges are United and Turkish airways - I'm not sure how desirable either are based on the reviews that I saw. Any other airlines from aeroplan that I should look at?

MikailSJ

Thankfully, the dates are somewhat flexible +/- 1.5 weeks. I will have to do some research on ANA.

Duke787

TK is arguably the best *A TATL J so I wouldn't discount them at all.

SK (SAS) just refurbed their planes and their J is in the top tier as well and they also have very low AC surcharges.

From the article below. I've bolded TATL J options that have low or no fuel surchrage

Article: http://thepointsguy.com/2015/09/book...nada-aeroplan/

merthin

It seems like, per some prior posters, TK has some questionable customer service. I can't recall the specific thread, but I remember reading about someone booking TK through Aeroplan, having their flight changed without notice and being given the run-around. Has any of this changed? The hard product and terminal in IST appear to be great through and through.

beachmouse

On routes where there is good competition from the LCC and ULCCS, you're often better paying cash for intra-Europe flights than using miles for those flights.