PaperGlider

Hello all, I appreciate the info on the forums.

I have banked enough miles on Alaska, American, British Airways, and United for round trip tickets.

I don't know how alliances work I booking travel. I want to get tickets from LAX to France next year for least cost. Gold level member on Alaska if that helps.

What is right place to look for advice?

Thank you,
PG

Repooc17

What cabin are you looking to travel? Economy, business, first?

What program do you have the most miles? You cannot combine them.

Mwenenzi

PaperGlider Welcome to FT

As above we need a lot more information, particularly on the ff balance.
You book flights on the web site of freq flyer programme (ffp) you have miles/avios with. For example the AA site may show BA flights, but you pay with AA ff miles (& cash for the taxes & the surcharges)

AS, AA & BA are all ff partners of each other, so your options of award flights are generally limited to Oneworld & United (Star).
AS used to have KLM/AF & DL as a ff partners, but sadly no more
Depending on how you earnt the AA, AS & BA ff miles/avios, you could have credited flights to 1 ffp. That may have helped, but too late now.

For AA there are several long threads on getting awards. As BA & AS are AA partners, generally the problems will be same, even if using AS ff miles or BA avios.

AA---> HELP DESK: MileSAAver / SAAver award questions, assistance

AA---> Oneworld and other airline Awards Rules, Information 2015 on

BA IB----> Help avoid YQ Surcharge: AA award on BA / British (& Iberia) (master thread)

+++++++++++++
BA forum ----> Your guide to spending Avios | 2018 edition

PaperGlider

Hi, have about the same miles on all those programs. I have over 200k on each. Looking for least cash cost but if best value use of the miles is towards business class, than that's OK.

On BA, avios.

Thanks for the quick replies.

Mwenenzi

OK. More details do help. 200K is a good start
A guide to cost in ff miles/points/avios
--> LAX to CDG Award Pricing Calculator | AwardAce
---> https://www.awardhacker.com/#f=LAX&t...=1&c=j&s=1&p=0

For next year you need to book now (330 days) as business class saver availability is hard to get.
Premium cabin award availability will be a problem with AA/AS/BA (to me they are all same for awards).

With BA & AA (using BA flights) you pay cash a surcharge in addition to real taxes.

The least cash will be UA & AA, if you can get an AA award flight on an AA aircraft. That is not easy with AA.

PaperGlider

Thank you. That helps a lot. I'll be checking UA and AA for award travel.

Mwenenzi

Try AS as well. Unsure if they have surcharges for BA flights. AS allow free stopovers, where most other ffp's do not.

guv1976

AA miles can be redeemed for award travel on Air Tahiti Nui, which offers LAX-CDG nonstop service. However, you can neither check award availability on those flights, nor book them, at aa.com; you must call AA to do so.

Mwenenzi

Very good point. As not on-line many will not realise awards may be avlaible

TN-----> AA Miles Award: TN / Air Tahiti Nui award redemptions (master thread)

roberto99

OP, how many pax?

What is your desired cabin?

PaperGlider

3 passengers. Desired cabin is coach or, if reasonable upcharge, business. We may value business up to $200 per person each way.

Mwenenzi

Getting 3 business class awards on the same flight will be very very hard, and then some.
Getting 3 economy class awards on the same flight less difficult.
You may have to split your party 2+1 and fly in different flights. Look for 1 business class award initially.
Or 1 or 2 people may need to buy a cash paid ticket on the same flight.

Repooc17

Just as a sample, Alaska redemption of BA or AA business class awards from US to Europe are set at 60K (BA) and 57.5K (AA) one way per passenger. Note. however, BA would have hefty surcharges - for example:

LAX -> LHR in business
LHR -> CDG in business
60K + $559 one way (you can reduce $559 to $216 if you take LHR -> CDG in economy since it's a short flight, and you don't get real business seats anyway; nevertheless, BA surcharges are high in either case; even higher on the way back from CDG via LHR).

Edit: For UA, business class saver rates may be hard to come by on UA metals; although you should be able to find its partners (e.g. LH, LX). I believe saver rates are 60K (one-way) on UA metals and 70K (one-way) when redeeming partner flights. Taxes and fees would be minimal. Everyday awards will set you back 155K (one-way)

Above are all based on redemption of 1 award seat. Every incremental redemption would become that much more difficult.

Good luck!

PaperGlider

Thank you. I am learning a lot and setting my expectations that redemption for flights will be difficult. I'll try.

JDiver

Be sure to read the AA MileSAAver thread. The AA award Booking engine shows few airline options.

Your best bet might be Air Tahiti Nui (TN) nonstop LAX-CDG with AAdvantage miles. I believe the aircraft will be a 787 by then. No extra charges. Not so many book TN on that route - the demand is to PPT / Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia. They might also partner with Alaska.