Hi,
I need to get to HAV for 14 days between march, 8th an April, 6th. (so I have to catch a flight on one of the days between 03/08 and 03/23 and a return that allows me 2 weeks of stay in hav).

I need to do it with miles, because I already spend all my money for spanish lessons and salsa lessons in HAV + Hotel + Food.

LH hotline wasn't able to find any flight and I tried expertflyer, but couldn't find any flught to HAV from FRA, MUC, ZRH, LHR, MAD or AMS (maybe I'm doing something wrong?)

Is it possible to get to HAV from Germany via *A-flights and max. 3 segments for the inbound/outbound each so I can do it with miles? I would take any routing thats allowed, no matter if I have to go through LAX, YYZ, LHR or anywhere else...

Thank you very much - it's very important for me to be able to go there but I just can't afford a full fare rigth now (maybe eco if there is no other option...).
Best regards,
zap!

There's only one *A flight in or out of HAV, and it's a daily service on AC from YYZ that departs 09:05, so you'd have overnight on the outbound.

The return flight arrives in YYZ at 17:20, so an easy connection to a transatlantic the same evening.

No offense - but maybe you should have spent a little on reading up on the country rather than salsa lessons in lieu of wanting to route through the US to get to HAV - considering the history of those two countries have had...

Cheers

Thomas

Condor (DE) flies every Monday from FRA to HAV and v.v.
from what I've heard here, DE's availability for awards isn't the best, in particular in C. And the C is old style.

, I agree!

Anyway if you end up paying for the flight check condor.de and all charter airlines. Cuba is a charter destination from Europe and you can find packages, which I believe you don't need, and flights only.

I'd look for a *A award to MEX.

From there, I'd take a Mexicana flight to HAV (RT tix for as low as EUR 274).

Wait! Mexicana is a M&L partner nowadays!!

So, worst case, you could book two separate awards.

But note that going via Canada requires either a 3-region award, or two separate awards.

That's right, I forgot about MX. rorschi booked a similar award (Europe-MEX on LH, then MEX-Caribbean on MX). They included the MX part in the ticket, so no extra cost besides taxes.

See here for rorschi's post: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...2&postcount=13

Please note that because of the flight timings, you will have to overnight in MEX on the way to HAV.

But one other thing - zap7 do you already speak some Spanish or are you starting from more or less nothing? The reason I ask is that Cuban Spanish has a pronounced accent and if you learn to speak Spanish like that from the beginning, you will never lose the accent again.

Going to Cuba to learn Spanish is like going to Alabama or Scotland to learn English. Certainly possible, probably a lot of fun, but not really advisable from a linguistic standpoint.

I learned Spanish in Cuernavaca, Mexico (about 90 minutes south of MEX) and can wholeheartedly recommend that. La Antigua, Guatemala is also a very popular and very effective choice for learning Spanish (both the Mexican and the Guatemalan accent are a bit more "neutral" - definitely identifiable as "New World" Spanish, but not as far removed from the Iberian original), and they're also very reasonable in terms of cost. Of course, purists say that there is only one place to learn Spanish, and that place is Salamanca, but it just doesn't begin to compare in terms of cost if you're looking at several weeks or even months of instruction.

Thank you all for your advice so far!

I just spend much more than one hour on the phone with a LH-FTL-service-agent asking for the routings you suggested, checking expertflyer myself in the backgorund, and here's the result:

Possible routing via the US: (I know they and cuba don't like each other and don't have direct flights except American Eagle's charter flights from five Cuban airports to Miami)
a.) WAS-MEX, using MX for MEX to HAV
b.) BOS-YYZ, using AC for YYZ to HAV

both options are 3 regions from Germany, meaning 100.000 miles.
Sad thing: Even with a time window of mroe than two weeks for the days I want to flight, there's no outbound award avaible on MX and no inbound or outbound on AC.

So I considered going to YYZ in Business for 90.000 miles and paying 420 Euros for a 3 and a half hour flight YYZ-HAV and return, adding a 4 day vacation in Canada. The other option would be going with Condor, nearly six hours, 820 Euros, all eco.
I don't know if I'd survive that... I still have to think it all over again, if it's not too much trouble nd too expensive in the end...

Interesting: If you want to take NZ for the looooong flight, you could go FRA-LHR-LAX-YYZ to have their lie-flat-beds for 90.000 miles. Also LAX is more far away than YYZ it's ok if you don't stop for 24h anywhere

Thanks for that valuable info, too! I'm just going to cuba for learning salsa ( the story is much longer and I've been a salsa dancer for a longer time now but really need this special lessons for reasons too long to explain...). While staying there for two weeks, I can add 4 hours each day of 1-on-1 Spanish lessons for 300 Euros - I like Spanish and I just want to learn it for fun and so I thinks it's a good oppurtunity. I'm glad you mentioned it - just imagine I would have wanted to learn it for business use

I still haven't figured out which is the best option (lowest price without arriving there totally exhausted)...

Best regards,
zap!

Here's my suggestion:

12MAR FRA-MEX LH498 13:50-19:00
Overnight at MEX (I recommend the Hilton at the airport)
13MAR MEX-HAV MX321 12:30-17:05

31MAR HAV-MEX MX322 12:05-13:05
31MAR MEX-FRA LH499 19:55-14:40+1

The LH flights are available in C for 105K miles plus ~230€ in for taxes and surcharges.

The MX flights are 583USD all-in in Economy, bookable on www.mexicana.com.

The Hilton at the airport is 140EUR on that night, but there are cheaper hotels available at the airport. The Hilton has the advantage of having a direct connection to the terminal though, which means it may be worth the extra if you're not familiar with MEX.

That sounds like the easiest option to me.

I thought US-based airlines are not allowed to have their flights on the same ticket as a flight to Cuba? So WAS-MEX could not include UA or US, and BOS-YYZ similarly.

As SmilingBoy already mentioned, it's not necessary to buy a second ticket for MEX-HAV. This segment can be included into the award FRA-MEX and even flown in Biz. MEX and HAV are within the same zone for M&M.

I'll fly ZRH-FRA-MEX-SJO and back (LH, MEX-SJO with MX), and have one ticket which costs (finally...) 105'000 miles plus about 280 EUR.

At the other hand, Condor could be an alternative, but the award-seats in biz are sometimes difficult to obtain. For avoiding any troubles, I disadvise for flying via the US.

The pre-requisite for this is, of course, that the MEX-HAV-MEX segments have award seats available. But I would try it again with a new call center agent, and this time ask for specific flights and dates.

100% correct. I actually doubt that there are charter flights between Cuba and Miami. As far as I know there is no commercial transportation between the two countries and no US company is allowed to do business with Cuba. So you will always have to leave the US, go into a third country in order to get to Cuba. Unless you buy a boat in Miami.