When airlines mention that you need 50K miles to go to Europe for instance does that mean it has to be from their internation hub or can it be from anywhere in the US where that airlines flies.

As an example,if I want to go to Brussels, and I'm in Roanoke (that's in Virginia for you west coasters )would 50K miles be enough on United, or would United allow the 50K only from Dulles to Brussels.

from anywhere in N-America (includes Puerto Rico and Mexico) UA (includes Express and Shuttle) flies to anywhere UA flies in Europe.

but date restictions (blackout-dates in eco, not for business/first-class-award-trips) and seat-availability restrictions (for all classes) exist.

That 50k miles is from any airport serviced by that airline in the continental US to any airport serviced by that airline in the specified region (Western Europe in your case).

That means it cost me the same 50k miles to go to London from Seattle as it does for someone in Boston. Many airlines permit "open-jaw" tickets to Europe. That means you could fly ...oh..as an example Roanoke to Paris and return Madrid to Roanoke.

Of course, you want to read all the fine print in the manual provided with your freequent flyer material. If it is a year or more older, call the airline and ask them to mail you a new one. Many airlines have all their rules and regulations published at their websites.

------------------
Addicted to airline miles? Check out: The Airline Mileage Workshop

Assuming, of course, you can GET a ticket for the dates you want for those miles.

Of course, some airlines are more than happy to offer trips free of capacity controls, but be prepared to fork over twice the miles.


------------------
"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."

Among UA European destinations, Brussel is not the busiest, so UA often has availability for award travel to Brussel when nothing else is available. Summertime is usually busier, so, if you plan to travel in the summer, you might want to book well ahead of time. If UA reservation agents tell you that there is no availability for the dates you want, keep trying. Eventually some space may free up.
Another European city with decent award availability could be Paris (was last year anyway); from there, it's a relatively quick train ride to Brussels. Award travel to Italy seems to be the least available on UA (at least in the summer).

Good luck

honu

[This message has been edited by honu (edited 01-14-2000).]

A good number of the airlines will allow stopovers (typically 1) with your award travel, but that stopover is usually only outside of North American (if you are flying from the US or Canada). Thus, you could fly into Brussels (stop for a few days to acclimatize) and then continue on to Rome. Assuming you can get seats !!

Remember the good old days of two stopovers out and two in?? The airlines really reined in the stopovers in the last 10 years.

And if award travel isn't available for his particular travel dates on UA, does he have the option of trying DL, considering the relationship between the two FF programs? And what about DL's international partner(s), or would it just be a DL or DL code share flight?

International Gateways: Generally domestic travel to the gateway is included, but sometimes not - check your specific plan/award. For example, British Airways' Concorde awards are for travel from New York only; you'd have to get yourself to New York.

Stopovers: If you use an "open jaws" ticket, that generally counts as your allowed stopover.

United vs. Delta: I believe that United and Delta only allow cross-airline mileage accrual, not cash-in (anybody confirm?). And I'm pretty certain you can't combine miles from UA and DL towards a single award. That makes this alliance less useful than the AA/US one.

johna, you can cross accrue and cash in miles for the United/Delta parnership, but only on domestic routes. And you are correct that you can not combine miles from both programs to redeem one award.

Not that this is the question you asked ... I would always compare what fare you would pay before forking over 50,000 miles. For example I just booked Chicago to Brussels over spring break on AA for $393 (actually $355 in travel vouchers which waive some of the tax). there is also a 7500 bonus mile offer to Brussels during that time frame - when that is the comparison - getting from 15,000 to 19,000 miles for a trip for $393 compared to spending 50,000, I'll pay. Also if you sign up for the gold challenge with AA (which I will do for my husband)traveling 8000 miles within 90 days (1 trip to Europe) you would get gold elite status if you don't already have that.

------------------
DtG