Business class awards to Europe during peak season have been tough. It’s especially hard from the West Coast. And harder still when you’re looking for more than two seats. Fortunately right now United has 4 or more business class saver awards available flying Los Angeles – London Heathrow nearly every day this spring and summer. This award space – which will not last – was first spotted by Thrifty Traveler‘s premium airfare deal alert service.
At United.com you’ll see an award calendar showing availability at 60,000 miles one-way when this space is available. You can use the space to connect onward using Star Alliance partners to fly somewhere else in Europe or in many cases even Asia.
To be sure, United doesn’t have my favorite business class product but it’s fully flat with direct aisle access and the bedding is outstanding.
How to book:
- ANA Mileage Club: has the lowest cost awards at 88,000 miles roundtrip and no fuel surcharges on United redemptions. American Express points transfer to ANA but the transfers aren’t instant (usually 2 days) and the space could easily be gone by the time the points show up.
- Avianca LifeMiles: which sells miles cheap and is an Amex, Capital One and Citi points transfer partner, charges 63,000 miles each way without fuel surcharges.
- Air Canada Aeroplan: charges 70,000 points each way and offers stopovers for an extra 5000 miles. Points transfer from Amex, Chase, Capital One, and Bilt. Aeroplan adds a CA$39 partner award fee (but no fuel surcharges).
- United MileagePlus: 60,000 miles each way with no fuel surcharges. Chase and Bilt points transfer to United. There are no cancel/redeposit fees.
Thrifty Traveler for the win! That was $59 well spent.
Thank you Gary!!!
@nsx that was $59 wasted as you only get business and points deals with the $129 subscription
Same award seats can be booked through Turkish Miles & Smiles for 45k miles each way, transferrable from CIti thankyou points at 1:1, no added fuel surcharge for United metal flights.
@Chris: I grabbed the $59 grandfathererd deal posted by Gary a few weeks back. You are correct that the current price is much higher. We need another site to monitor flash sales conducted by Thrifty Traveler. 🙂
Thoughts on which partner would offer the best total cost if starting in Hawaii? United jumps from 60k miles to 137500 miles KOA-LAX-LHR. But I know some international airlines don’t consider Hawaii separately in their award charts.
Looks like all interconnecting flights in the US kick it to 137500 miles. I’ll start trying the partners.