BOS Eph

Hi all,

I appreciate your help in helping me accumulate miles and points and now I'm looking for advice to redeem them.

I'm looking for 2 tickets BOS-CDG departing the evening of Thursday 5/23/13 and returning Monday 5/27/13 and 2 tickets BOS-FCO departing the evening of Friday 8/9/13 and returning Sunday 8/18/13.

My priorities are to get tickets on those days, get saver awards if possible, book R/T to add a free one-way, avoid spending too much $ for additional taxes and fees (BA), and then get business or first class if possible (would prefer business or first for Paris than Rome because it's a shorter trip). I realize this will be complex and I'm willing to sacrifice and possibly pay more points to get the dates right.

Here are the points that my girlfriend and I have.
Me
United 60,000
AA 186,000
BA 107,000
Chase UR 90,00
AmEx MR 102,000
GF
United 90,000
Chase UR 50,000
AA 20,000
We also have $1000 in bump vouchers and gift certificates on United.

For the Paris trip, I'm not finding saver space on United across the pond, but am from FRA and MUC to CDG (thinking about LH when it opens availability). I'm also seeing Delta/AF nonstop availability in economy (for ~30,000 miles with ~$300 fees) or KLM through Amsterdam (for ~25,000 miles and $40 in fees--no return availability at the same price). I'm not seeing saver availability using AA miles to LHR or MAD as a stepping stone nor am I seeing AerLingus BOS-DUB. I think the best plan is to wait for LH to open up availability in a few weeks and try to get first class, but I'd like to see if you guys think I'm missing anything. That would be 250,000 miles for first class which we have between UR and United Miles. Should I be booking it in economy now and then trying to change it as it gets closer?

For Rome, I found AerLingus BOS-DUB but not onward to FCO. I didn't see anything on Alitalia. I've had trouble finding saver awards using AA miles looking through London, JFK, and Madrid. I'm willing to buy a revenue ticket out of DUB, but I wanted to see if you think I'm missing something. Also, I don't have Experflyer (or any other search tool) and haven't used it, but I'm thinking about getting one if that's the best chance to find the tickets I'm looking for.

Thanks for all of your help in advance.

deant

You might want to pay someone to help you make the reservations. There are numerous bloggers that provide such a service.

You have limited yourself significantly by needing specific dates (especially this close in). I think waiting for the LH flights to open is a possible disaster. There is no guarantee that LH will open up *A availability. Even IF they did open availability you have no assurance that the MUC or FRA to CDG would be available. Also, you will need to book as "one way" tickets because you could not wait for the return to POSSIBLY become available to book the outgoing flight.

For the Paris flight, have you looked at using AA or BA miles for the BA flight BOS-LHR and then paying for the flight from LHR-CDG? For the return, there is BA business class available LHR-BOS (yes you have high fees but at least it is a flight). Again, you would buy the CDG-LHR ticket.

One thing to think about is getting an award ticket to and from Europe and then paying for the flights within Europe. It is always very hard to get award flights into and out of FCO. Also, when looking at purchasing tickets, look at RT AND one way costs. It is often cheaper to toss the return than buy a one way ticket.

rrgg

I think you're travelling on Memorial Day weekend with 6 weeks notice, so it may be tough. ExpertFlyer will save time and is worth the $5 for this trip. If you really get stuck one thing you can check are odd overseas flights like ewz-zrh or mia-fra. Then later piece together the other segments you need or even buy some intra-Europe tickets as deant said.. You might want to research where some carriers fly to in the US such as LX.

Mountain Trader

There are several services which assist in putting together award trips for a reasonable fee. Some are run by folks who also blog, such as View from the Wing, One Mile at a Time and Mile Value.

Your best best is to contact one of these for the help you need. Going through that with an expert a time or two may give you the background to gather the skills to do it yourself in the future.

JPG3392

LX flies from Boston to Zurich, and is a partner of UA. Have you looked into flights on Swiss (BOS-ZRH-CDG and BOS-ZRH-FCO)?

As far as AA is concerned, flights on AB via DUS or TXL might be possible. So too might be IB via Madrid. IB flies from Logan, but award travel needs to be booked on the phone and won't show up if you look for award travel on www.aa.com.

BOS Eph

deant and Mountain Trader: Thanks for the advice. I used an award service last summer and I think I've learned a lot since then. I'd be willing to do it again if I can't work it out with help. I'm going to FTU next weekend so I'm hoping to learn some more then. I will probably have to buy a revenue ticket in Europe so thanks for the advice about the R/T cost vs. O/W.

rrg: I'm assuming you mean ewr-zrh. Thanks for that idea--I found some econ space there. Looking from there is a good idea. There's not much saver space BOS-EWR but I can definitely afford a BOS-EWR ticket and an intra-Europe ticket.

JPG3392: Thanks for the advice about AB and Swiss. I'll take a look for AB and IB on Quantas and then LX on United. I hadn't though of Swiss. Thanks.

flying_q

Sign up for EF and set an alert for BOS/JFK/ORD-DUB on EI. There is often a lot of availability. Doubtful you will find DUB CDG/FCO on EI, but maybe look into an LCC from DUB to some of the Paris / Rome airports.

BOS DUB is your best use of miles at 25k Avios r/t.

However, it is silly to expect availability on some of the most popular routes during peak season, this close in.

Mountain Trader

Good for you! A real interest in learning will benefit you greatly as you move down this road.

To that end, I suggest going back through Mole Value's posts over the past year. He lays out his award trip stategy very well, and I find that I may never want to book a trip to the places he is discussing, I can still use his apporach on trips I will book.

newbieflyer1

for bos to cdg try this on AA BOS To ORD to CDG and do the same for reverse
i did this on AA .