USA to Sofia in May/June, any award availability?
 

I'm trying to go to Sofia Bulgaria to trek around eastern europe with a friend for a bit this summer. I'd like to go out May 10th at the very earliest and June 1st at the latest and return before June 30th. I'd prever to depart AVL but CLT and GSP are alright as well. I have 60,000 miles on AA and UA so I can fly Oneworld or StarAlliance airlines. The trick is finding any availability to the trans-atlantic segments. Does anybody have any advice? Thanks

EDIT: Although tempted, I haven't cross-posted this in the StarAlliance forum.

It may be easier getting a flight to Paris, London, Frankfurt and then buying an onward ticket, which can be quite cheap if bought in advance. BA have a morning flight at 8am direct to SOF from LHR which connects nicely for transatlantic traffic arriving at 6am ish. You should be able to get an economy ticket for £150 ish and a business ticket for £400 (non flexible of course) - best to buy if on aa.com and get AA to link the bookings, rather than use BA.com or a travel agent.

PM me if you like - I live out there and can give other advice.

Getting to London, Paris, Frankfurt is the hard part. It's the trans-atlantic availability that's tricky. Connecting from a European hub to Sofia doesn't sound very difficult. I might PM you with some question in the future as things develop, thanks.

I just travelled on an airmiles flight on BA - not sure if AA redemption allows that transatlectic though. Availability in premium economy and business is usually OK.

Also, try Rome, Milan, Prague, Warsaw as they have daily flights to SOF. Warsaw with LOT could be interesting - last time I did that there was only 1 other person in the business cabin from JFK and they have beds also.

If you google sofia airport you can see who flies there daily from europe.

The return is the problem. Depart CLT, connect through NYC changing airports between LGA and JFK. Overnight in NYC on the way home if you have to which allows you to take the last LHR-JFK flight which usually has more availability (June 30th for example).

Also, RDU-LGW is wide open for coach awards during your outbound dates.

Although it is not Bulgaria, one can go on Finnair to Bucharest via Helsinki. That gets you very close to Sophia especially if you plan to travel around Eastern Europe. One could also use Turkish airlines to get to Sophia via Istanbul.

Is there a tool I can use to see award seat inventory on various airlines? I'll be able to tell the agent where to look when I'm on the phone with them that way.

I tend to use Expedia and Opodo to look at availability and prices.

The Hungary idea is not bad - Malev have daily flights to Sofia.

Create a QFF account and use the online award booking tool (you don't need miles in the account to do this). Note that you are limited to the destinations loaded for online award booking, which may or may not be the ones you want.