Best use of miles for flight to Europe this summer
 

I have (or will soon have) roughly the following:
62K AA miles- will have 137K when 75K promotional miles arrive
will have 50K Delta miles when promo miles arrive
50K BA miles- will have 100K when balance of promo miles arrive
10K Starwood points

I've been looking into flights to Europe from Boston from mid-July through mid-August, and can buy a RT ticket (coach) for about $900-1300 (I have to be in Ireland, and possibly in London and France).

Given the complexities, restrictions and excessive miles required for summer travel to Europe from North America, I am close to concluding that I would be best off paying for my ticket in cash (ugh!), and saving my miles for other trips in the future, when they could be better spent.

Do members agree? And if not, does anybody have any good creative solutions?

Thanks in advance.

you're not likely to find many award seats for this summer at this late date (unless you want to pay double miles, which I wouldn't).

So, yeah, I think you will probably have to pay cash.

Try going through Manchester they have some openings on AA for 30k miles and it will save you from those hefty surcharges too by flying through CDG or LHR.

Depending on where you are going in Europe, we have been very happy with award availability on Iberia from Boston to Madrid, and using Madrid as a gateway city to other destinations in Europe. Admittedly, we use award travel for business class and have not explored coach offerings.

You can either call AA to find out about Iberia availability or check on the BA site (but if there is a BA offering on the same itinerary, you won't be able to see AA or IB). Best to call AA.

As always, you can compare the miles used to the cost to determine if it is worth it or not. My personal goal is to receive at least 3.5 cents in value for each mile used. Easier to do in business than in coach! :)

Good luck.

There are only a few days available out BOS-MAN on AA at 30K in July, and none back in August. Considering the hassle factor, and additional intra-Europe travel expense and lodging expense, it's not worth it.

Just a curious aside, the best cash fare I could find on Kayak ATL-CDG-ATL on the dates I was considering is $869 RT, on Air Canada, with a stop in either Montreal or Toronto. So I looked into booking from Montreal or Toronto RT to CDG nonstop on the same Air Canada flights (dropping ATL), figuring it had to be the same or cheaper, and the fare went up to over $1300! And the one-way fare CDG-ATL on the return leg using Air Canada (Aug. 9)? Over $4400!!!!! You figure. Wonder how they come up with these fares.....

that's been covered all over this site. fares are generally based on city pairs and the supply-demand between them. It doesn't make a whole lot of logical sense to most people since we tend to think based on distances traveled.

+1 for that. Plus any time you are flying through CDG or LHR they charge you crazy airport tax plus fee which in my point of view not worth it even for reward travel.

I am looking at the reward chart if you can leave from JFK they have plenty of availabilty for JFK-LHR leaving july 7th and coming back aug 7th for 60k miles.

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Call BA and see if there are award seats available on Aer Lingus from BOS to SNN or DUB. Although there are some fuel surcharges when you redeem BA miles on EI, they are considerable less than what BA normally charges on TATL travel. And with a BA redemption, you can "stop over" in Ireland, and then continue on to England or France on the same award.

Great tip, Guv!!

Got a flight BOS-DUB-BOS, lv 7/17, rt 7/29, nonstop on Aer Lingus....50K miles with just over $100 total fees! If I flew on BA I would have had to stopover in LON and it would have cost me another $500 or so, and dates were limited!

Thanks for the great suggestion!!

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Glad that it worked out for you!

I'll echo going through MAD. There's always a ton of availability on ORD-MAD on Iberia, and if you go mid-week only half the plane will be full, which is ideal for a Y redemption. I'm not a huge fan of the outbound (leaves 4pm, gets in 8am), but the return is especially nice: leaves around noon, gets you in at 2pm. Can't do much better than that.

Glad to hear you found a flight!