MileCards pointed out that there’s strong, or at least reasonable, business class award space flying United from Washington Dulles and Chicago to Europe this summer for four passengers.
I thought I’d highlight a couple of routes, and add that while Star Alliance miles (United, LifeMiles, Aeroplan, etc) may be strong for Europe this summer oneworld (such as American) could be your family’s ticket to Europe over the holidays.
United has availability Washington Dulles – Paris, green dates have at least 4 business class awards. United charges 115,000 miles roundtrip when flying their own aircraft in business class. Aeroplan – an American Express transfer partner — charges 55,000 each way (110,000 roundtrip) for US – Nearer Europe and with no fuel surcharges flying United.
Here’s Dulles – Rome for four passengers over the summer.
Here’s (4) passengers, business class, flying American New York – Paris. Note that even after American’s devaluation business class remains 115,000 miles roundtrip and there are no fuel surcharges flying American.
Chicago – Paris is available for four passengers in December as well.
So is Los Angeles – London, which is operated by Boeing 777-300ERs which is my favorite American business class.
Right now it looks like United, Aeroplan or LifeMiles for summer trips and American AAdvantage for Winter if you’ve got your eye on bringing (or sending) the family to Europe.
You said “even after American’s devaluation business class remains 115,000 miles roundtrip” but wasn’t it 100,000 RT before the devaluation?
@John correct, what i meant to communicate is that even after the devaluation business class to europe remains reasonable
@GaryLeff, thanks for clearing that up. Indeed, still a great value. Glad I didn’t burn all my miles pre devaluation on CX First.
Gary,
Do you see any imminent increase of premium cabin award availability in the Caribbean/Central America on AA? It has been dreadfully bad.
… as long as you’re going to DC. Tried looking for Frankfurt-Seattle for one, there was a grand total of one day with business class availability. PAR-LAX and Frankfurt-SFO is similar (not much until late August).
My guess is the lack of domestic segments on United + no availability on Lufthansa to the West Coast of the US is killing it. The only availability I’m seeing is on Air Canada plus some very limited Lufthansa seats to the East Coast plus spotty United transcons (and the UA segment’s in coach, hardly ideal).
Fortunately, I booked my travel for this summer out of Germany on American months ago, when they were pretty wide-open for Europe (originally ZRH-JFK-LAX-SEA, now DUS-ORD-MCI-SEA). The one thing that works in your favor on that is AA out of ORD and AS out of their midcon flights (MKE/OMA/STL/MCI) have decent F availability. It would be nicer if it was just ORD-SEA, but we do what we can…
How does one contact your miles booking service?
@Leslie http://www.bookyouraward.com
@Ric I wouldn’t bet on it
Gary, I booked a one-way United flight (ZRH-IAD) using Aeroplan miles in economy, because there was no business class award availability at the time. I just saw that business class awards have now become available; do you know if I can use miles to upgrade? I want to be sure before I dump more Amex miles into my Aeroplan account.
Done! They let you change class of service for a $90 CAD fee, completely worth it.
Why can’t I find any AA flights, only BA flights, for LAX to anywhere in Europe in Business?
The BA flights all want $2K+ for two people with 230,000 miles.
Is the winter AA availability from the west coast on AA metal to avoid BA surcharges?
@Damon, yes the BA surcharges are ridiculous and I cannot find any AA flights to Europe or even LHR so they must be hidden?
@jimravello; I don’t think they are hidden, just not available. In my experience playing this points game AA doesn’t release much award space on their own metal west coast to western europe, or it’s snatched up immediately. Gary would know much better though.
@Damon; thanks for you help