Getting to Prague
 

Hey All,

I am thinking about booking a trip to Prague next summer and am trying to figure out what the best way to get there would be. I have over 100K in the following programs US Airways, AA, Ultimate Rewards, and Membership rewards. I'd love to experience the Lufthansa F Terminal one way if possible as well. I think that transferring points to United and booking that way might be the best route to get into the F Terminal. Thoughts?

Thanks!

I would also like to go there next September so I have been checking availability in anticipation of the 330 day window opening soon for business class. I have found that United has good availability, with the best route involving US Airways for the earliest morning arrival. The all United/Lufthansa routing for my needs has a 50 minute connection in Frankfurt but there are multiple flights per day if the connection is missed. I have not found good availability on American or good routings not involving the BA surcharges. If the best routiings and availability includes US Airways I guess the worry is schedule changes after US Airways leaves Star Alliance.

United or AA is the way to go. You'll have to check both and the costs of their Biz or F class tickets and if they are discounted for your specific dates.

I haven't used any of my USairways miles yet but from quickly reading it doesn't seem like you get much value for international flights in which you rely on their alliance award charts.

So yes, xfer those UR points to United.

If you are lucky a 1way F on united would be 67,500 miles That is if you can find one. (I found 1 available during may 2014)
econ 30k
biz 50k more available vs F and cost a little less miles.


I did a quick search and 62.5k AA miles = F and seems to be a LOT more available vs. United F during may 2014 so you may want to go with AA.

If you book all of it using UA miles, you have one stopover and two open jaws to work with. Can provide a ton of flexibility in the award - such as creating a stopover at FRA so you can really experience the entire first class process.

(You can't officially book first class on LH using US miles, unless you really work the system. And even then, most mere mortals can't manage it.)

DadtoGO,

I'd do some perusing of Lucky's blog @ http://boardingarea.com/onemileatatime/. He's the king of LH F. Unfortunately, booking LH F seems to be virtually impossible more than a couple of weeks out. If you can be super flexible, you might be able to make it work. You might also want to look into transferring your MR points into Miles & More. I believe LH is more generous in allowing its own members to book F. Of course, you'll get socked with YQ (fuel surcharge) costs. Good luck!

Andyandy

I am just in the beginning stages of planning. I know we just want to go sometime next summer or fall. In looking at United's website it does look like there are a few flights with "F" available on Lufthansa going SFO-FRA. Just need to figure out where else we want to go besides Prague. Thinking Budapest and then up to Denmark to visit a friend. Guess the most important part is figuring out the flight there first and seeing if I can work the award "system" a bit with stopovers and open jaws.

Andyandy... thanks! I am a daily reader of Lucky's blog. Definitely an amazing resource for Lufthansa info.

You might want to try putting those Lufthansa F seats on hold for a few days while you figure out the rest of your trip!

It'd be nice to maximize stopovers and open jaws but like others have said, LH F can be tough so you should lock that down ASAP. If you have to pay retail for intra-Europe flights instead of using miles on a stopover, so be it.

Getting to Prague
 

I have used AA to get to Munich and Berlin through AirBerlin with just 40k miles (miles saver off peak)
From there, I would buy cheap flights to Prague

There are so many choices and ways to do it, it's almost silly to work it out so far in advance. Also you didn't say where you live.

On Star Alliance, you could fly any combination of United, Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, Lot and SAS. In fact if you use miles, you have to call United and ask about availability, but you'll probably get some combination of those airlines.

By next summer US Air will probably be tied with American, rather than with United (merger or no merger)

With so many people traveling to Europe during the summer, I don't think it's silly of him to work this out now; especially if he wants to fly First.

I would be flying out of LAX or SFO. As mentioned above since we are planning to fly in the late summer I wanted to get a jump on the planning. However, we do have the flexibility that we could go in September or October as well. Just trying to tie down what other cities my wife wants to go to besides Prague. So far it sounds like either Budapest or Barcelona (even though it's not as close).

I flew AirBerlin from Miami to Berlin, and back to Miami from Dusseldorf, using 40K AA points each. It was great, besides Miami Airport being a hellhole.

Forget flying to Prague, we took the train. It was about 3 hours, inexpensive, and fun. Plus, you get to see more of the country on the train.

I meant it was silly, because at least using United miles, you probably can't look on line and determine anything. You have to call.

With all United's possible partners, it can be a waste of time to do anything else but call.

You sometimes can do one thing, however.

Unless United has changed its system since I last used points to travel, United leans toward trying to get you to Europe on its own planes and then using its partners to get you where you want to go in Europe.

So if you can find space on a flight to Europe--anywhere in Europe, not Prague--you may be 90% towards accomplishing your goal.