RandyNZ

I tried in vain searching on this Forum and looking at the stickies, so apologies in advance and am happy to get links:

Given StarNet blocking by UA, I booked my 2 Aunts on award tix for 27 Aug 2010 and return 10 Sep 2010 - LAX-MUC (via ORD) on UA metal, as UA MP won't let me have any LX/LH award seats.

I want to book the 3 of us to fly

MUC-FLR connection on 28 Aug 2010
FLR-ATH on about 4 Sep 2010
ATH-MUC to connect to UA on 10 Sep 2010

The Y fares are over $1,600 USD per person, and sites like Orbitz quote Air France at about $700pp (albeit with connections each trip).

My question is when is the best window timeframe to book these types of flights? I understand it's peak season, but those prices caught me off guard, given MUC-FLR is about 1h20m and ATH-MUC about 2h35m...ouch!

Jasper2009

I wouldn´t expect prices to change too much within the next months.
(LH often offers tickets for 99€ from Germany within Europe, but ATH is most often not included in this offer)

The best I can find is about $450-$500 a.i. all-together booking two seperate tickets:

28 Aug. 2010 - 04 Sept. 2010: MUC-FLR (LX)
04./05.Sept. 2010 - 09./10. Sept. 2010 : MUC-ATH (LX)

IMH

Two separate returns, as suggested by Jasper2009, is one good option. Another is to consider paying the change fee and adding MUC-FLR and ATH-MUC to the redemptions. I've no idea what the UA change fee structure is, but on many airlines it would be a good deal and give you some protection in the event of a misconnect. Then you'd just need FLR-xxx-ATH.

I found FLR-ZRH-ATH for 410 USD on LX (play with dates and buy a round trip), but you might well find something cheaper a little nearer the time.

If for some reason changing the award tickets isn't an option, consider an open jaw. I found the following on Kayak, for example: MUC-FLR outward / ATH-MUC return from 269 USD per person on LX (connecting in ZRH and/or GVA). Cheapest direct flights with LH were 463 USD per person, which might be worth it to you. Then add in FLR-ZRH-ATH as above.

I'm sure you can do much better -- I only had a brief look at the first couple of options to come into my head.

SmilingBoy

In many cases, fares that allow one-way travel are very expensive (often around €300-€500 for short flights) as only the fully flexible fare is available.

In these cases it is usually better to buy a return flight, and just use the outbound. There are sometimes some optimisations you can do; e.g. by using a double open jaw to find the cheapest return flight.

SmilingBoy

You could also buy one ticket as MUC-FLR//ATH-MUC (cost €300-€400 depending on departure times), and another ticket FLR-ZRH-ATH-ZRH-FLR where you only use the FLR-ZRH-ATH portion (cost €280).

SmilingBoy

And finally, you could wait until Aegean Airlines is part of *A (should be in May 2010), and hope that you can get your award changed so that at least the ATH-MUC portion is included on the award.

RandyNZ

Thanks for all the suggestions, will take a look and see what I can come up with!

weero

Changes to awards are USD 100 (should be 150 but one seems to get away with 100) but most UA awards allow for one stopover or an open jaw.
That would mean to use the open jaw option and return from ATH.

That still leaves the OP with two one-ways.

To the OP: is UA willing to offer you an European Airpass with your awards?

That would also solve the major issue wity the nonchangeable award structure UA has: should you buy the tickets yourself and misconnect on your return, you loose your entire returns. An AirPass would protect you there.

RandyNZ

Well, as I mentioned in my opening post, I am yet another victim of UA's tendency to filter and not release award seats on other *A carriers, so I figured my best option was to use their own metal and get confirmed seats, then tack on the intra-European flights. Periodically, I'll be checking with UA to see if they'll unblock *A carriers.

For example, Swiss has many biz seats open for my full itinerary, but I cannot access them through UA, where my miles are (one of many reasons why I'm avoiding UA MP these days and just trying to use up miles before they expire!). ANA's tool says nothing on LH around those dates, however.

I have not seen anything on the UA website about tacking on the European pass, will check into that - I wonder if I could buy some sort of pass for cheaper and use it?

I did find those cheaper flights on Kayak and found it cost less to buy 2 separate tickets, one MUC-FLR/ATH-MUC and one FLR-ATH round trip (and thus not use the return ATH-FLR leg) - about 250 USD cheaper than one itinerary with all the flights.

weero

How do you know that they have them? The ANA tools doesn't list LX seats.
That is indeed the plan. Read the above link then call UA and ask them if they issue passes on award tix. LH doesn't as flysurfer found out. but I used US airpasses on UA award tickets in the past, so there is a chance that they do it for you.

In the worst case: the passes must simply be linked to a TATL ticket. Any good TA can issue them attached to your UA award ticket number. I did this for South American air passes e.g. Works like a charm.

Another thing you could do: get awards on M&M miles: FLR-ATH-MUC that counts as a simple return. Take the train from MUC to FLR, it's easy.

RandyNZ

I have a subscription to ExpertFlyer - LX is on there.

I did check out the link you mentioned and looks like I might be able to use the Europe Airpass after all - the Terms & Conditions did mention something that *A airlines are supposed to allow award tickets. If I have any problem, will use a TA as suggested.

If we go the train option for MUC to FLR, which website is best to look at the timetable and costs?

And thanks for all your suggestions!

weero

^Go to the site of the German railway system, try to switch the bugger from Newspeak to English (upper right) and then enter your connection wish. It works better with German terms than English, so you'd like to go from 'Muenchen' to 'Florenz' and then pick date ... and go....

The journey requires only one change of train and takes 7-8 hours. It's reasonably scenic if memory serves right. Also the crossing of the Alps of course which is more spectacular in the train than on the bird. Unfortunately, the site can only give you the itin, iti is too dumb to compute the price. But in the past they always had fantastic deals on such runs. If you seriously contemplate it, I can try to dig out the offers.

awestphal

www.bahn.de accepts Munich / Florence as departure / arrival cities. Spectacular route, I might add. There very very decent deals on train travel to / from Italy starting at EUR 59 return in first / EUR 39 in coach. Available up to 93 days in advance - and they are listed only on the German version of the website.

The 2010 schedule will be published later this month, so the only available train showing for an August 2010 date would be the nonstop overnight MUC-FLR, a 9h trip.