A5Globetrotter

Hi All!

So I'm planning a trip for early next year to Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Moscow, St Petersburg, and Ukraine (starting and ending in NY) and want to use miles. What's the best way to do this with Skyteam? Since there are several legs, is there a way to leverage a round-the-world? Stopovers? Are there other miles I should be using that would be better? I also have ~150k Avios and can transfer into UA/CO.

Looking to fly economy and maximize my value.

Thanks so much!

A5

MSPeconomist

Your program affiliation and location suggest that for SkyTeam you would be using DL miles. Do you want business class of coach? A low business class award RT ticket to Europe (including Russia, or at least Moscow and St Petersburg--I'm not sure if DL puts VVO in Asia, but I would assume so) is 100,000. If you use partner flights, they must be at the low award level. You are allowed an open jaw and a stopover along the way. Avoid RTWs as they cost many more miles and would require for example a stop in Asia.

If you use SU, their hub is SVO so Moscow could be your stopover on the way to almost anyplace on your list. Maybe take St Petersburg as your destination and use boat travel to Helsinki, so make this the open jaw.

Then look at purchasing some cheap flights, using Avios for short one way flights (good value for those miles) or perhaps adding on an intraEurope award ticket. Unfortunately DL charges the same number of miles for one way as for RT award tickets, so using your UA miles could also make more sense. For these cities,SkyTeam routings will be inefficient, with mostly connections through AMS or CDG.

A5Globetrotter

You're right! I accidentally left that out. I would be flying Delta and looking for economy tickets (and clearly don't want to get killed in taxes/fees).

Can you clarify what SU is (assuming Skyteam partner) and how I would book/search for availability? Also, what should the low-level price be?

That's an awesome idea about making St Petersburg the destination and taking the boat from there to Helsinki (and then hopping around Scandanvia with Avios). Any suggestions as to where I could make the other side (exit point) for the open jaw?

Thanks so much!

mtkeller

SU=Aeroflot. Their inventory can be checked on the Wandering Aramean tool. A r/t (with stopover and open jaw) in economy from the US to Europe is 60K SkyMiles.

Avios will be good for a flight out of (and possibly into, if you don't choose MSPeconomist's suggestion) of Helsinki since it's the Finnair hub (oneworld member). DME is also a oneworld hub for S7, so see if you could get to/from the Ukraine from there cheaply on Avios on a stopover there.

A5Globetrotter

So ultimately, they couldn't find inventory for Aeroflot for the dates I wanted (although I did see inventory in the tool). BUT I did get an open jaw, NYC-KBP and OSL-NYC with the larger leg of the second flight (AMS-NYC) in business. Not 60k, but not bad either. Also, booked KBP-DME using Avios (also not bad) - stopover wasn't possible to build in from what I saw with stopping in Kiev first on the date I wanted. Ultimately, the tool seems to have had a mismatch with DLs inventory. If you have any recos though to get to the 60k, let me know.

Thanks again for your guys' help!

MSPeconomist

There's also supposedly good train service between Moscow and St Petersburg.