newbie needs direction
 

I feel sure this question has been asked 1000 times yet I haven't been able to find an answer I can interpret as a complete newbie to this site. Please re-post/re-direct or otherwise give me a clue.

I have 134K miles on United (transferrable to CO, presumably useable for other Star Alliance). Want to travel with friend from any NYC airport to just about anywhere in Europe, but I can only travel departing around Aug 5-6 returning Aug 13-14. Have called both airlines multiple times and keep getting disconnected while on hold; UA site keeps showing no availability whatever cities/dates I put in.

Is there anything that lets you plug in dates and shows award availability FROM a given point but flexible as to destination? If not, suggested course of action? I fear the KVS tool is too advanced for me.

Thank you

expert flyer can show available award buckets, but it may not have the flexability that you want....perhaps you & friend could look at the ua & co sites & if either sees 1, say eureka!...fare compare does something along this line....

some info is in the mi run discussion stickies...

good luck...

ps...i don't know what the fare code is for cheap awards...certainly you have seen 110k mi availability...

your frustration is wide spread....many people start looking for awards 11 months in advance...

I am not aware of anything with the flexibility you crave. However, you may want to employ the ANA tool which can give you most of the major destinations in Europe and you can play around with that. You also might want to check Continental's web site which also gives you access to *A carriers. Good Luck!

It seems you have enough miles for 2 award tix in economy.

Generally speaking, flexibility yields the best result w/r/t award redemption. However, you don't seem to give much room in this department.

Also bear in mind that you are aiming to fly to Europe this Aug and summer is a high season. You are essentially competing with those who have enough miles and are planning for a Europe visit/vacation/tour/getaway. Like others' said, savvy FTers start this planning process very early on, sometimes 330 days out. I would say you probably start too late this time.

Keep trying using different tools and calling airlines for possible options using partner redemption. You might be lucky even though it doesn't look good. Chances are you probably won't get to use your miles to Europe this Aug.

Good luck and welcome to FT!

Try using Continental's website and you should be able to get some availability on your desired dates. I just tested some random cities (Barcelona, London, Frankfurt, etc..) and there seem be a few options available either on CO metal or Star Alliance partners.

If you want to see a few locations, you might want to look into stopovers (not sure if this works the same with Star Alliance as it does with One World).

Good luck and happy flying!

Fear not -- you could have found these 2 Awards seats to BRU in far less time it had taken you to write that post :):

[KVS Availability Tool 6.1.5/Diamond - SNT: Awards/StarAlliance/JP-ANA-SP1]