Using Points/Miles to Get To Norway
 

I am planning a trip to Norway with 4 of my sisters for the summer of 2013. Coordinating our flights is a bit complicated and I would appreciate any help you FT experts might have. I also want to book the best flight experience possible (given we are flying coach), so which airline will provide it? Here are the particulars:

• 2 sisters (including myself) departing from MSP, using miles/points to “purchase” tickets
• 1 sister departing from TUL, purchasing ticket with $
• 2 sisters departing from PHX, purchasing tickets with $
• Flying coach
• We want to all be on the same plane for the TATL portion of the trip (preferably MSP and beyond)
• We have some flexibility of dates – we can go any 14 days between July 9 and July 28. Our ideal itinerary would be “meeting” at MSP, departing July 11 to OSL. Then departing (open jaw) from BGO to MSP (and three sisters continuing to TUL and PHX) on July 24.
• I will first book the two tickets departing from MSP with miles/points, and the sisters departing from TUL and PHX will then book their tickets (with $) to match the MSP itinerary.
• I have enough points/miles for the two coach tickets on DL, UA, AA and their alliances (even if I can't book low level seats)
• I plan to book the MSP tickets as close to 330 days out as possible. The sisters paying for their tickets from PHX and TUL will book shortly thereafter to match the MSP itinerary.
• Once all five tickets are booked, what happens if/when there are flight changes? How do I “keep us together” on the same flights? Any tips for getting seats together even though the five tickets will not be booked as one?

Thanks in advance to you FT experts for all your help! If not for what I have learned here and reading blogs over the past several months,this trip would not be possible!

You have many times more miles than required for two transatlantic economy class tickets. You definitely want to redeem through a USA based frequent flyer program, and probably fly on a USA based airline to avoid fuel surcharges, because econmy class fares are primarily fuel, fees and taxes. If you pay fuel surcharges on the award tickets there will be very little savings.

Please clarify what you mean by best flight experience possible. There is not much to choose between airlines in economy class seat pitch or width. What else would be important to you: nonstop flights, departure or arrival times, meals, in flight entertainment?

Thanks for your quick reply. Since for 3 of the sisters, this will be their first international flight, I want it to be as enjoyable as possible in coach. I have been hearing bad reviews lately of AA's TATL experience. Flying out of MSP my first choice, I think, would be DL, but not having flown myself TATL on any of the other airlines, I don't know if there are any "noticeable" differences. We are pretty low-maintenance women and are just so thankful and excited for this opportunity to travel together to the land of our ancestors! Good in-flight entertainment options would be nice. (It also helps that we are all under 5 ft 6 inches, so flying in coach is bearable!) Thanks again!

Flight availability is the key factor here. You'll have the easiest time finding availability on the alliance with the most flights to Norway, which is *A, although KL has quite a few flights as well.

All airlines essentially require the same miles. You can play around with the United website and check for availablity on random dates to test the waters.

You will probably find that trying to coordinate paid and award tix will cost those paying $ more than they should pay, although cash shouldn't be an issue when one travels to Norway :)

Thanks for your help. Yes, flight availability will likely be the main deciding factor. I've been noodling around both DL and UA websites to test the waters for when I actually book in late August.

Yes, it will likely cost more for those sisters paying $. I offered to teach them how to earn enough miles/points to get their tix, but they were uninterested!

Cash IS an issue specifically because we ARE traveling to Norway :eek: It would be much cheaper if our ancestors had been from most anywhere else in the world!

Not sure if you need this or not, but if you are planning on staying in hotels,this will save you money in Norway. Their hotels are everywhere.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hotel...ends-rate.html

We did a trip to TOS TRD and OSL in winter for leisure and
northern lights viewing. It was a lot more expensive than we imagined, and we used elite extra baggage for food. We booked the train tickets well in advance and they were unbelievably affordable.

KL flights to OSL are always 99E from AMS so if DL miles are the only option at least get to Schiphol. I think you will find SKs network to be easier for connections though.

Thanks, benzemalyonnais. I will definitely look into that promo code. I am also taking advantage of Club Carlson's current promo and will earn over 150k points to be used next summer in Norway. I hear rumors (on FT) that Club Carlson is coming out with its own cc late this year, so I'm hoping for a sign-up bonus that will earn me more points with that.

Sorry to say I do not know what your mean by:
Thanks again!

I think you still have to specify what you think would make your flights enjoyable.

Video-on-demand entertainment system? Power at the seat? Free alcohol? Extra legroom (already answered)? Better food? Nicer airports for connections? Fewer connections? Stopovers in interesting places?

That said your question might be hard to answer because everyone is familiar with their favourite airline and FF programme and not so familiar with the others.

i think your only options for a one-stop flight to OSL are UA, SK (both through EWR) and DL (through CDG or AMS). The first two would give your PHX and TUL sisters a one-stop trip there through EWR but require an extra connection for everyone from BGO. Whereas DL would require an extra connection on the way there from PHX and TUL but no extra connection to get to BGO.

I suspect SK is the most enjoyable of the three. I haven't flown in economy on them, just premium economy. But the service was pretty good. I think they may provide free alcohol for example. The planes can be a bit older though and you would have to check about the fuel surcharges.

Delta versus UA will presumably bring out the partisans for both sides... i would check which type of aircraft they each fly to TUL and PHX with. ERJs are ok but I would avoid long flights on CRJs and other smaller aircraft.

Icelandair also flies to MSP and OSL but I assume they're not partners with any of your programmes... They would make a very different stopover.

If you don't mind extra connections there's also AC with newer seats, power, entertainment, and alcohol. But imho it's pretty hard to justify extra connections.

For easy checking of flight availability, you might want to check out Awardtravelr. It's free, easy to use, and allows you to easily switch between each alliance to check availability.

I'd still always cross-reference this with the actual airlines site later, but seeing as it uses the airline's sites to find the availability, you should be fine. I've been using Awardtravelr for a few months (since it launced) as my go-to to start planning out trips just because its so easy and convenient for people who can fly on any alliance (like yourself).

I would eliminate using AA miles from the running, as it looks like you would need to connect through London on British Airways and their fuel surcharges are high.

If you use United miles, you can make one connection in Newark to get to Oslo. Other cities in Norway will require connecting in Europe, probably on Lufthansa in Frankfurt, adding another connection.

If you use Delta miles, you can fly direct to Amsterdam on Delta and connect on KLM to Norway. You can also connect on Air France out of Paris, but I don't see any direct flights from MSP to Paris. KLM also has flights to Bergen from Amsterdam, I didn't check any other flights in Norway.

I would start searching for flights using both the Delta and UA search engines, and see which schedules work best for you and your sisters. When you are going that far, minimum travel time and connections will be big factors.

Thanks zkzkz,
You either know those routes and airlines or you did a bit of research on my behalf and for that I am grateful. It helps as I think this through and plan.

Here's what would make our flight more enjoyable:
1. Video-on-demand entertainment system
2. Power at the seat
3. Extra legroom
The rest doesn't really matter too much.

Thanks civico,
I'll check out that website. P.S. I read your blog daily.

Yeah, awardtravelr is great because its all in one place. Just make sure you cross-reference it either with airline's site or by calling in and asking if the tickets are available. I've never had a problem though with finding stuff on Awardtravelr and then having it not be available.

Thanks for reading the blog. Let me know if you ever have specific questions you want answered.

I just had a look at the oneworld interactive map and actually you can use AA miles without connecting through London. You can go ORD to Oslo via Helsinki on Finnair (no fuel surcharges) or you can go JFK to Oslo via Berlin on Air Berlin or JFK to Oslo via Helsinki on Finnair.

These might not be better options than UA or Delta, but just as reference point, it is possible to use your AA miles and avoid routing through London on BA, thereby missing out on the fuel surcharges.

I forgot all about Finnair and Air Berlin as they do not work very well for me out of Seattle, and the AA website of course does not allow you to book them online. Sorry!

Do you do hotel stays in the US now? If so, after you do the 3 one-night stays required for maxing out the Club Carlson promo, look into using Choice hotels for cheap one-night stays during their current promo, which gets you 8000 points total for every 2 stays (which means every 2 nights if each night you change hotels), and many if not most Choice hotels in Norway (of which there are lots, including in some smaller towns among the fjords or elsewhere in the countryside where there are no Radissons) are only 16000 points a night. Meaning 4 cheap one-night stays in a Comfort, Quality, Sleep, or Clarion here (EconoLodge, Rodeway, and couple of the others count only on two-night-or-longer stays) translate into one free night in Norway, often costing $200++ cash!

Here's the thread on that promo:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/choic...gift-card.html

FYI: Choice Scandinavia is a kinda separate chain from Choice Hotels International (which includes Choice USA). Choice USA members can redeem for Choice Scandinavia, but can't earn there.

There is a Choice credit card (see the Choice forum for more on that), but it will only earn you one, maybe two, of those 16000-point nights. If you do have chance to do Choice stays in the USA while that promo is going on, that can be a much faster way to rack up those 16000-point multiples.

I'm not clear where within Norway you're going to travel. In the biggest cities (Oslo, Bergen, etc) Radisson will do fine. But beyond that, Choice will be much more prevalent and Radisson will thin away.

Do you have status at any airline? If not, the only ways to get extra legroom are to book business class (as opposed to coach) seats (but then that'll be prohibitive for your traveling companions who will pay cash), since it only takes 2x the miles typically, or to book coach on a flight that has Economy Plus on UA (most of them do) or Economy Comfort on DL (not that many of them do yet AFAIK). (AA has announced a Main Cabin Extra that's equivalent, but it won't likely be on the routes you'd most like in time for your trip.)

Power at the seat is tricky. All airlines tend to put power at the seat in business class, but in coach it various by airplane type and then is often only in certain rows. For example, in UA it may be mostly only in those Economy Plus rows on some planes. It's very hard to generalize. You have to look up the specific plane type (which you can do by flight number if you wish) at:

www.seatguru.com

and/or:

www.seatexpert.com

and it will tell you which seats are good and bad for various reasons (legroom, window alignment, etc) and will identify which seats have power at the seat and which don't. And will also explain what kind of video there is (that can vary by plane type too!).

Here's the thing: If you find a US airline which flies from the US to OSL itself, it may do that with smaller one-aisle planes that have very few amenities in coach. If you fly a US airline the long haul (DL from MSP or UA from ORD) to their European hub (presumably AMS for DL or FRA for UA), you'll be on a big two-aisle plane which is more likely to have amenities in coach, but of course you'll be connecting to a short-haul in Europe (and a short-haul in the US if using UA) on which there'll be few amenities in coach (but it'll only be a one-to-two-hour flight).

Keep in mind also that for east-bound, the longer the main flight, the easier it might be to sleep on it. Consider that if there are optoins to transfer in the midwest vs slightly cheap options to transfer on the east coast. You'll lose a couple hours of continuous sleep possibility by transferring to the TATL flight on the east coast compared to in the midwest.

Umm, all DL international aircraft have had Economy Comfort for a year now, and all two-cabin domestic aircraft had Economy Comfort implemented as of 7 June. The only aircraft without it are the 50-seat RJs, and DL is trying to retire a huge fraction of them anyway with the acquisition of the FL 717s and bringing more 70-ish seat 2-cabin RJs into the fleet.

Wow, you have all been so helpful. With each post I learn something not only for this trip but for all my future travels! That's the great thing about FT!

sdsearch, I started a thread in March that you kindly answered about Hotel Points for Norway. We do not typically stay in hotels in the U.S., but if we do in the next year, I will look into Choice Hotels. The one thing I don't like about their reward stays, however, is that you can book only 60 days in advance (for properties outside the U.S.) unless you have status. When not staying in a major Norwegian city, we're looking forward to staying in locally owned B&B's and inns.

I do not have status with any airline, but your information about options for extra legroom will help a lot. I have used seatguru in the past and will certainly use it for our flights to Norway. And I really appreciate your advice about flights to give us the most continuous hours for sleep.

I know that availability will be the biggest deciding factor, but my preference now for airlines is:
1. DL
2. UA
3. AA
And their respective alliances, of course.