wildviper

Hello All,

I am now a parent and we are looking to travel to Vienna in Sep/Oct of this year. Flexible on dates.

I would like to travel on biz class if at all possible, especially with a baby (she will turn 1 on Oct 8th).

I think babies travel for free on international until 1year of age. Correct if I am wrong...and especially if rules are different under mileage award travel.

I have noticed that UA biz class now is 120K in miles for return. I would need 2 adult tickets and I am short of UA miles by about 40,000 (chase + wife ua).

So what option do I have?

Currently I have:

• Amex - 100K
• Southwest 100k
• My Chase 192K
• Wife's UA 8K
• My AA 135K
• Wife's AA 190K

Any way I can make this happen? I can't get a new CC since I have had pretty much everything. I had UA Chase card also...but that has been closed. I doubt I would get the new 50K promo applied to me because of that. Wife has current UA card.

Appreciate any guidance.

aacharya

If we ignore availability (LAX to NYC is the tougher part), you could fly:

LAX-EWR-VIE (All UA)

LAX-JFK-VIE (UA p.s., OS)

I'd fly the latter - p.s. is lie-flat guaranteed. But it will cost you more miles since the Saver Award sale for partners ended recently.

But with your miles, unless you can get enough posts/time or find a friend to trade with you on AA, you can't fly both ways on UA.

What you could do is fly one-way with UA/OS with your miles, and fly back with AA or its OW partners.

sinoflyer

Infants under the age of 2 require a passport and a ticket, and it's priced at 10% of the lowest available fare in the ticketed cabin. If you plan to travel in C, be prepared for the fare even though the infant will not get a seat.

MatthewLAX

Check out LAX-CDG or CDG-LAX using your AA miles on Air Tahiti Nui. Direct flight to Europe and no fuel surcharge.

Fly Austrian Airlines the other direction or try Air Canada via YYZ (potentially with lie-flat seats the entire journey -- better chance of finding space too).

emcampbe

Lap infants (up to 2) travel free domestically. Mexico/Canada you pay taxes only. International is 10% of fare at the time of purchase. Believe this applies for award as well - you would pay award for yourself and 10% of lowest fare available in that cabin.

MBS MillionMiler

Yes, and note that you can't use 10% of the miles...It's real $$$ based on the fare available. So if a business class ticket is $5000.00, then it's a $500-ish fare, plus appropriate taxes.

DHalltheway

Off topic I know, but 100K AA is enough for round trip business US to Europe last I checked.

Try looking there.

UA-NYC

OP can fly through other cities OS serves (ORD, IAD, others); can also go LAX to FRA/MUC/ZRH/IST/LHR and connect in Europe.

JPG3392

As noted in various posts, both UA and AA offer one-way award tickets for half the cost in miles of a RT, so it's possible to use UA award miles in one direction and AA miles in the other. But before obtaining any award tickets you would do well to check very carefully the price of the ticket for your one-year old child. One-way transatlantic flights purchased with cash are typically much more expensive than RT transatlantic flights, so 10% of two one-way flights in business class could cost you quite a bit.

wildviper

That's an interesting idea - to fly one-ways.

The cost of an infant is 10%...so do I have to have availability also? Jeez, now I know when they said that kids are expensive. This could derail my plans just cause of the one-way being more expensive. Hmmmm...

I am living in some other world..no more saver awards?? What?

I like the suggestions so far..will have to start the search..especially flying to CDG on Air Tahiti Nui

sinoflyer

No. The infant ticket, even if it turns out to be quite expensive, does not provide for a seat.

exerda

There are saver awards still; however, when partner metal is included, the cost of a saver award is (in some cases significantly) higher than when it's all UA metal. UA recently had a "sale" reducing the award cost when partners were on the itin.

azepine00

Check MR to AC option - they charge flat fee (rather than $ - see below) and if you use UA YQ is minimal.
RT to eu is 90k so 100k should be just enough.

Infant Flight Rewards

Redeem your miles or pay a flat fee for an infant flight reward. Whatever you choose, your mileage redemption or flat fee will be the same across infant ticket travel zones:

Economy Class - $50 or 5,000 Aeroplan Miles
Premium Economy Class - $75 or 7,500 Aeroplan Miles
Business Class - $100 or 10,000 Aeroplan Miles
First Class - $125 or 12,500 Aeroplan Miles
btw lap child is allowed till kid turns 2.

EmailKid

Just checked a random date and EWR-VIE is a codeshare:

Flight: UA9841
Operated by Austrian Airlines.

PVDProf

Let me at least put out the possibility that you might not want to do this: I think you would be much happier getting three Y+ seats and putting Jr. in the car seat. About one year is the start of the toddler years, and this is when she is going to want to get down and explore things, especially new things (like everything on a plane) and yet also be unable to understand/control herself when she cannot. There will not be enough room in the biz suite for everyone to be comfortable or enjoy the amenities that come with biz. You will be better off with less space, but where some of it is familiar to her.

There are a lot of threads on this, and some reach different conclusions, but here's a recent one:
How does lapchild in UA lie flat seats work out?