Best use of miles to Italy
May 1, 2011, 2:08 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2009
Programs: United Mileage Pluse
Posts: 11
Best use of miles to Italy
I thought I would see if some of you experts could give me some guidance on the best use of my UA miles.
3 of us are going to Italy in October. We lost our elite status this year so we are regular members. I have 150K miles and flying out of SFO. We would love to fly one leg (sfo to say fra) in business. The problem is I can't figured out the best way to do that, if it is even possible. The saver awards look really tough to find.
It looks like with * A, I can maybe fly LH in business for 50k each. How hard is this to do? I can't seem to find anything on UA so I don't see why that would be easier?
Given the price of tickets right now, is it worth using them on economy tickets?
Thanks!
3 of us are going to Italy in October. We lost our elite status this year so we are regular members. I have 150K miles and flying out of SFO. We would love to fly one leg (sfo to say fra) in business. The problem is I can't figured out the best way to do that, if it is even possible. The saver awards look really tough to find.
It looks like with * A, I can maybe fly LH in business for 50k each. How hard is this to do? I can't seem to find anything on UA so I don't see why that would be easier?
Given the price of tickets right now, is it worth using them on economy tickets?
Thanks!
May 1, 2011, 2:37 pm
#2
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Washington, D.C.
Programs: AA, but I play the field
Posts: 1,446
I am not an award ticket expert -- hopefully the *A gurus will check in with some good routing/alternative carrier suggestions -- but as someone who has recently planned (what has turned out to be a quite expensive 
) trip to Italy later this month, here are a couple of very basic thoughts. First, have you checked out the discount business fares that are on sale for that period? They were looking pretty good for the fall a couple of weeks ago. If nothing else, you should have these in mind as a baseline when thinking about how to use your miles. Second -- and also as a baseline -- use the website to see how much mileage + copay awards will cost for the dates you want to travel. I'm not sure if this is the standard algorithm or not, but in my case, miles + copay would have equaled 55,000 miles (i.e. a OW standard award) plus half the normal RT airfare. It's not necessarily the way to get the biggest bang out of your miles, but when you have a relatively limited pool (in relation to the number of tickets you are trying to get), and a particular trip you want to use them for, it's not altogether a bad deal imho. Good luck, I'll be following along to see what advice the true experts have to offer.
) trip to Italy later this month, here are a couple of very basic thoughts. First, have you checked out the discount business fares that are on sale for that period? They were looking pretty good for the fall a couple of weeks ago. If nothing else, you should have these in mind as a baseline when thinking about how to use your miles. Second -- and also as a baseline -- use the website to see how much mileage + copay awards will cost for the dates you want to travel. I'm not sure if this is the standard algorithm or not, but in my case, miles + copay would have equaled 55,000 miles (i.e. a OW standard award) plus half the normal RT airfare. It's not necessarily the way to get the biggest bang out of your miles, but when you have a relatively limited pool (in relation to the number of tickets you are trying to get), and a particular trip you want to use them for, it's not altogether a bad deal imho. Good luck, I'll be following along to see what advice the true experts have to offer.
May 1, 2011, 3:11 pm
#3
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: LAX/SAN/CRQ
Programs: AS mvp gold UA 1K HH Gold
Posts: 85
Might want to try SFO-IAD-FCO. I was able to book a saver FC award to FCO earlier this year using LAX-IAD on UAL metal. The C saver seats are very hard to come by on UA, but you may want to try AC through Toronto. Good luck!
May 1, 2011, 3:15 pm
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2009
Programs: United Mileage Pluse
Posts: 11
Thanks. I should have posted this bit of info..I don't know why I didn't. The current plan is to go from SFO to Venice and then return FCO to SFO.
Most of the flight plans look like they take you through FRA to get to Venice.
Most of the flight plans look like they take you through FRA to get to Venice.
May 1, 2011, 3:22 pm
#5
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: PSM
Posts: 69,232
If you're willing to buy one direction in cash AND wait until June 15 to book then you have enough miles to book 3x one-way tickets in business class. I'd recommend LX over LH and either CO or UA's new product over LH as well, though LH generally has more seats available.
Other than that you don't really have enough points for 3 awards. The coach award is 55K now going up to 60K in June so you could also book one-way in Y but not enough for a return trip at all. If you and your friends can get the 50K CCs then you've got a chance of putting together C in both directions; but you're going to need more points.
Other than that you don't really have enough points for 3 awards. The coach award is 55K now going up to 60K in June so you could also book one-way in Y but not enough for a return trip at all. If you and your friends can get the 50K CCs then you've got a chance of putting together C in both directions; but you're going to need more points.
May 1, 2011, 4:23 pm
#6
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: SFO, LON
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, Bonvoy Tit, Hilton Dia etc etc
Posts: 2,354
V. tricky in summer, LH is your only hope for a C award, occasionally there is availability from SFO to FRA via DFW, DEN or IAH. I've been kibitzing this to change a flight I have booked for the wife over Christmas to summer, and pay for the christmas flight, and it's tough. Availability is spotty, comes and goes, and getting it for three people is going to be really tough.
While fares for C are good with the current offer, awards will have sold very early, when available at all (there's a separate thread on the hopelessness of the SFO-FRA directs). I dunno that you really have much of a chance of doing it in advance. I would guess that a week or two before travel you might find some more availability on LH C, but three seats on the same flight? Very, very dicey. Don't want to be overly negative, but having spent a fair bit of time looking for this at the moment, it's not going to be easy at all.
While fares for C are good with the current offer, awards will have sold very early, when available at all (there's a separate thread on the hopelessness of the SFO-FRA directs). I dunno that you really have much of a chance of doing it in advance. I would guess that a week or two before travel you might find some more availability on LH C, but three seats on the same flight? Very, very dicey. Don't want to be overly negative, but having spent a fair bit of time looking for this at the moment, it's not going to be easy at all.