I need some help as I have never used europass before.

I will purchase a revenue ticket YGK-YYZ-LHR and return FRA-YYZ-YGK on AC on 2 March return 9 March 2006. I need to visit LIS for three days and NCE for two days.

It looks that I could get LHR - LIS on TP and then LIS-FRA-NCE on LH and then NCE-FRA on LH again.

I have some questions:

1. Can I book all the flights in advance so to secure the itinerary I need?
2. How many stopovers I am allowed (I need to leave LIS quite late and may have to have a night in FRA)?
3. How many flight coupons I need (LIS-FRA-NCE is it one or two)?
4 What is the cost of that pass?
5. Do I accumulate status miles?

Any other suggestions, thoughts and opinions will be greatly appreciated

Thanks in advance
Drumbo

Drumbo, are you still working on the air pass?
As long as the Canada-Europe flight is on a*A carrier you can use the air pass with the folowing issues to bear in mind:
1. Minimim 3 sectors.
2. All confirmble in advance.
3. All collect status miles on your FF plan.
4. Prices are based on distance-starting at 75USD for 400 miles ( if I remember correctly)
5. A connection as in your example will mean 2 coupons.
6. Prcing can be obtained by your airline or TA
7. Flights are changeable without penalty.

Do call the TA and have them give you the prices. Still confused? send me a PM--although I am out of the country--will try answer it.

Don't forget the fares/tickets for such *A flights must be of the restricted sort or RTW type.

Yes, but LH only pays 50% mileage for intra-Europe and OS only pays 70%. Reduces the options somewhat.

0-150 miles = USD65
151-500 miles = USD100
501-1000 miles = USD125
1001-1250 miles = USD150
Given the O.P's itinerary, he'd be up for 1 x USD125 (LHR-LIS) 1 x USD150 (LIS-FRA) and 2 x USD100 (FRA-NCE-FRA) for a total of USD475.00. He may well find a return fare on TAP/AC as far as LIS, then using Portugalia or similar to do the LIS-NCE-LIS portion seperately. More so when you take into consideration all the backtracking the LH/Europass option requires will only gain 50% mileage for the effort.

Cheers.

All europasses book into H, which are full status and bonus miles earning fare classes on LH and OS. In M&M they have generous 750 miles for intra europe and 500 for domestic connections. This means your will earn 750 miles for FRA-LHR alothough it is much less. Other *A programmes may credit LH/OS miles differently.

Not only does he get full status miles, he get's the extra 25% on LH ( non-status) provided he chooses wisely when he gets his SE package. All RTW fares accumulate full mileage including COS where applicable.

The OP has "AC Super Elite" tag to his nick so I presume he is accruing to Aeroplan. LH has only paid 50% into Aeroplan accounts, for intra-Europe LH flights in the Y cabin since Sept 2004. As the O.P. is flying AC trans-Atlantic as per his post, the LH flights relate purely to his planned Europass segments.
The OP won't be earning full miles on LH intra-Europe if he credits to Aeroplan, on any sort of Economy cabin fare, including RTW's & Airpasses, if he uses LH intra-Europe. Type of ticket does not determine mileage paid/earned - the class of travel does.
As per Aeroplan's LH earnings chart on https://www.aeroplan.com/en/collect/air_lufthansa.jsp :
"Intra-European Flights - Y, B, M, H, Q, V, W, S, G 50% of miles flown with a minimum of 500 miles"

Indeed some do, as per the above.
My original "warning" came as I saw the O.P. was an Aeroplan member.

Thanks everyone, this is very helpful!
I intend to buy the tickets mid-January after I finalize my program

Happy holigays to all!

AC777, see you in YYZ end of Jan, are you coming to Mel in February?

drumbo

Has anyone bought a Europass via US?

I've contacted them a few times (even the CP desk) and it seems they are a little confused (insert pun here). While everyone I've spoken to has been US based, I don't think they know the system too well for this. They suggested (honestly) that I try contacting LH or another *A carrier.

My preference would be to cross the pond on US or UA for double miles, which is almost a free domestic ticket. This would be in May, so the fares quote now are still on the high side. I"m leaning towards flying into AMS since the fares are low and it looks like other carriers are trying to punish NW/KLM for their lower fares to Europe (our of BOS at least).

I might also go LCC intra Europe since one destination is AGP (Malaga) which seems a bit remote for some *A unless you want to pay extra to go through BCN or MAD.

Thoughts or comments, particularily on US purchase of the Europass. Second choice is UN.

Alphaguy

You don't have to buy the pass from the same place as you buy your transatlantic ticket. For example, you can buy the transatlantic flights with US and then buy the pass from United, Lufthansa or even a travel agent.

One agent in the US who I know has experience of issuing these is STA Travel (www.statravel.com). They are primarily an agency for students but they will deal with anyone. They also have an office in Cambridge (65 Mt Auburn St Cambridge, MA 02138 617-576-4623 )
. All they or anyone else needs to issue the pass is the ticket number(s) for your transatlantic flights. They will then cross-reference the bookings so that the carriers you fly with can verify you have a transatlantic *A flight. If you encounter any confusion just make clear to them that the fare you're looking for is the Star Alliance European Airpass (I have found that bringing a printout from the Star Alliance website can be helpful to staff in isolating the precise fare you want). Alternatively just tell them what you want to do and see what suggestions they come up with.

Caveat: I have never used their call center but have made quite complicated bookings in person at their offices in DC and New York. I've had universally good experiences (though the more junior staff seem to refer to higher authority on a lot of things).

Edited to add: you only need 3 flights on *A to get the pass fares. You could always add on AGP as a side trip using a low cost carrier from Germany, France or Spain. I would book the LCC flights (or make sure they're available at a good price) before finalizing the pass.

I will be doing a trip in spring probably into FRA or VIE from YVR on AC/LH. From there to Ljubljana, Slovenia and to Yerevan, Armenia.
Does anyone know if Yerevan would still fall into the boundaries of the EUROPASS? If so how much would it be per sector?
Thank you very much.

Armenia is permitted on the Europass. Not a lot of :-: choices at EVN though - OS fly daily to/from VIE and LH fly twice weekly from MUC.
You need a minimum of 2 stopovers per airpass, so best option means you'd probably be looking at USD530.00 for 4 coupons - VIE-LJU 164 miles each way @ USD100.00 per coupon and VIE-EVN 1480 miles each way @ USD165.00 per coupon.
If you decide to use LH via MUC to get to/from EVN, that's 1,700 miles each way so the 2 coupons for that would be USD180.00 per coupon.
Cheers.

Thanks AI B. That's good news. I did check fares on OS and that would work just fine. Also fare you quoted about US $ 530.00 is not bad at all. Lowest I could get through buying regular tickets on OS was CAN $ 1,100.00 for all four flights. With this fare I am not even sure if I would be able to collect miles. From what I have been reading in this post with the EUROPASS I would definetly be able to collect miles and status miles on AC's Aeroplan which is a big plus .

The airpass books into H class on Austrian and Adria. You'll only get 50% mileage into Aeroplan for the Adria segments and 70% mileage into Aeroplan for H on the Austrian segments. Better than a kick in the teeth though!
Cheers.

Actually the proper procedure is to buy from the transatlantic issuing carrier. LH refuse to sell me a ticket if I fly UA across the pond. However, I have been able to get them from SAS as long as I fly them on the pass. The reason that I avoid UA is that I inevitably wind up with a paper ticket with UA issued passes.

US is probably clueless because their agents are new to *A and a specific agent may never have done such a transaction.

A nice thing about this ticket is that you change your flights as long as H class is open.

I need to fly from CPH to PRG and then PRG to BRU
I can have 2 stop overs, PRG & BRU but I dont need or have time for a 3rd leg, can I just throw the 3rd coupon away?

I am flying across the pond into CPH and out of BRU on UA.

I have looked at LCC between CPH & PRG and can get my flight on Sterling for about $42 (dont cae about miles for that price) but cant find a LCC between PRG & BRU

Czech Air is $ 686
and
SN is $ 650

for this leg - so any thoughts greatfully accepted