Biz class to Paris in August - options?
 

I'm trying to find two award tickets in biz class from the US to Paris, anytime in August for 5-6 days, but am not having much luck. So far I've been checking AA saver awards, but any other ideas based on my balances (don't want to burn tons of miles just to go)?

AA - 562K
UA - 82K
BA - 53K
Chase UR - 130K

Closest airports for me would be BDL, NYC, BOS, EWR, but could fly into PHL, CLT, etc. if needed. Direct would be nice but not necessary.

You may want to contact an award booking service since you're looking for something specific and so close to the current date.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...e-reviews.html

Don't use those services unless you have to. For August almost every day has either *A (mainly LH but some directs on UA) or OW (mainly BA which will carry fuel surcharges) J availability from NYC-Paris.

Here's an example of what you could do:

13th August EWR-CDG UA J - 115k for 2 (top up your UA account by transferring some extra points from chase)
19th August ORY-JFK BA(open skies) J - 100k BA or 115k UA + $300 tax each

I agree not to use the services if you don't have to, but don't use the Flyertalk information desk as a substitute.
When asking for people to do the work for you for free, you should first
(1) Look at award availability yourself on the major carriers
(2) Tell us where you have looked.

This is a pretty straightforward request you have- hard because you're 9 months late, but straightforward.

Take the time to input each of the origin cities to Paris on UA.com and BA.com. If that doesn't work, look at other cities in Europe that you could connect to Paris from. This is what anyone else would do.

+1 x 1000. If OP isn't able or willing to do the preliminary legwork then OP can pay someone to do it. If OP wanted to clarify if an award was of good value plenty of Fter's would gladly giving opinions but we're not travel agents.

Nowhere in my post did I ask anyone to do all the leg work for me for free. I'm asking for ideas on routes I can search based on people more knowledgeable than I am...not sure what the problem with that is.

I stated that I searched AA saver awards and wasn't able to find anything in business class, so I'm simply looking for some guidance on other options I might have given my balances.

For instance, the suggestion to break up the trip by topping off my UA miles with Chase and only paying $300 in fees for a one-way on BA is a helpful idea.

With your balances, I would imagine you want to use AA miles if possible. Here are a few thoughts:

• Airberlin (JFK-TXL-PAR or JFK-DUS-PAR)
• Iberia (JFK-MAD-PAR or BOS-MAD-PAR) - not searchable on aa.com, must use ba.com to search or call AA or use a paid search service like ExpertFlyer
• Finnair (JFK-HEL-PAR)
• If you're open to a long layover (overnight or all-day), search by segment. I.e., search JFK-HEL to find Finnair availability and then separately search for the HEL-CDG segment, making sure that the connection is < 24 hours so that it's all bookable as one award. AA.com sometimes does this for you when you search JFK-CDG, but for longer layovers (that are still < 24 hours), particularly with partners, searching separately sometimes yields more options.
• As has been mentioned, consider using AA miles one way and UA for the other (for purposes of availability)
• One advantage of AA miles is you can change your routing if something opens up. So, for example, if you book BA with the crazy fuel surcharges, keep an eye out for AA, Airberlin, Finnair, and Iberia alternatives as you can change date/routing without fee and get the fuel surcharges refunded.

AA doesn't show all partner awards. You will have to call to see Air Berlin, FinnAir & I also think Iberia. This late in the season for an August trip on Saver level & without BA's surcharge is going to be minimal. Star Alliance is a lot stronger since there are more airlines and no BA surcharge.

I'd take a look at the stickies for the Chase UR program, AA Advantage program and the UA MileagePlus program as there will be suggestions of how to maximize your redemption value.

Looking at one ways is how a lot of people built itineraries. Good to start there in the future.

AA.com shows Airberlin and Finnair. The only European oneworld airline it doesn't show availability for is Iberia.

When I search AA.com for saver awards (economy or business) JFK-PAR, the only results I get for the entire month of August are with AA or BA. Am I doing something wrong or is it just that Airberlin and Finnair don't have any available awards?

Air Berlin and Finnair probably don't have available awards. BUT, Iberia won't show up in AA.com at all, so you'd have to call anyways. So you should call AA to see if they have any availability on any partners on your dates.

Call AA and ask as they don't show any of IBs and I have had problems with them showing saver level awards on AB before.

Must be doing something wrong. A cursory search for 2 business award seats of one week in August (one way NYC-PAR between 8/3 and 8/9):

• 8/5 AA LGA-PHL-CDG
• 8/6 AB JFK-TXL-ORY or AA LGA-PHL-CDG
• 8/7 AA JFK-TXL-ORY

Note - I excluded all itineraries with BA flights, so I may have missed itineraries that are AA to London then BA to Paris. Still, solid availability for summer 2 months out.

I did the same search for 2 weeks later to ensure it wasn't a fluke (searching 8/17-8/23):

• 8/19 AY JFK-HEL-CDG
• 8/20 AY JFK-HEL-CDG

AA.com is showing me saver award space almost every single day in August in both J and F. Granted, it's on BA, so you're looking at fuel surcharges, but this is one of the easiest intercontinental routes in the world to redeem on.

Strange, I wonder why that won't show up for me. I'll keep trying, thanks.

Would like to avoid BA due to fuel surcharge so I've been excluding those too. Worst case I'll do it one way to lessen the cost, and book UA the other way.

OK, I can see the AY flight on the 19th/20th you found - that's a good option and has a return on the 27th. I also called AA and they show no Iberia space.

Any experience with AY J on A330? Looks like a decent business class from pictures, nothing over the top. Could also try to split it up and do this one way with UA 777 the other way if that product is exceptionally better, but maybe a good idea to keep some UA miles handy.