See our Advertiser Disclosure here.
As I mentioned last week, I’m on the verge of booking award flights for another trip to Europe in 2023. Our home airport is DFW, and we are open to visiting a few different destinations in Europe. The return flight will be from Rome after our cruise. I would love to book us in lie-flat business class seats at least one direction, and I prefer no more than one stopover. There are five people in my family, which makes finding award availability more challenging.
Booking award flights can be intimidating for newbies. Heck, it’s even intimidating for non-newbies. There are so many possibilities, and finding the best option is like solving a puzzle.
In the past, I’ve booked relatively easy award flights (like using AA miles for AA flights) as well as slightly more complicated combinations (like using Avianca LifeMiles to book United flights). For this trip, I plan to explore some repeat methods as well as some new (to me) strategies.
What I’m working with:
~600,000 flexible miles/points from Chase and Capital One
~110,000 Air Canada Aeroplan miles
~65,000 Air France Flying Blue miles
<30,000 United and AA miles
And yes, the vast majority of these miles and points are from credit card bonuses.
Air France Flying Blue
Air France has a nonstop flight from DFW to Paris. In fact, my family used miles to book this exact flight for our trip next month! One-way business class seats run 56,000 miles plus around $200 in fees. Award availability seems to be plentiful, as we actually have 6 business class award seats booked on the same flight this year.
We could likely easily repeat this scenario for our flight to Europe next year. We already have enough Flying Blue miles for one one-way business class ticket. For the remaining, I could transfer Capital One miles and/or Chase Ultimate Rewards points. After landing in Paris, we’d simply hop on a low-cost carrier to our final destination in Europe.
I also see some business class awards from Rome back to the U.S. on partner airlines for 55,000 miles.
Etihad Guest Miles for AA Flight
American Airlines is the only carrier that has nonstop flights between DFW and Rome. However, I don’t have nearly enough AA miles for tickets for my family.
However, since I do have Capital One miles, I can transfer those to Etihad (AA airline partner based out of Abu Dhabi). With Etihad Guest miles, I can book this nonstop flight from Rome to DFW for 30k miles in economy or 50k miles in business class. See this post for more details on using Etihad for AA flights.
Of course, there are a few catches. The first is that AA must have MileSAAver award space. Also, I cannot book these awards online. I must do it over the phone. Before I transfer Capital One miles, I would first call Etihad and put award seats on hold, and then transfer my miles to Etihad for the redemption.
I would love for this flight to be available on miles. Flying nonstop on our trip home after the cruise would be so convenient!
Turkish Airlines Miles and Smiles
Miles and Smiles was the “it” program of the last few years, it seems. Everyone was talking about the super cheap award redemptions to Hawaii. But, it also has a great deal on business class flights to Europe for 45,000 miles each way. I can transfer miles from Capital One to Turkish program.
Turkish Airlines has a nonstop flight from DFW to Istanbul, and then it connects to many cities in Europe. I see plentiful award space, even five seats in business class on the same flights. The initial flight is 11.5 hours, which is enough time to sleep. Frequent travelers give Turkish Airlines seats rave reviews. This looks very promising.
However, the Turkish Airlines website is a piece of work. Just creating my Miles and Smiles membership was a big PITA, and I’ve had many issues logging in. I downloaded the app and have had better luck with that.
Iberia Plus
Iberia (the flagship airline of Spain) is popular with hobbyists flying to Europe in business class. Since Iberia uses a distance-based award chart, you can fly from Chicago or New York to Madrid for 34,000 Avios each way during “off-peak” times. Most of May and June are still considered off-peak. If you transfer points from Chase or Amex to Iberia during a transfer bonus promotion, the net cost is even lower. What a steal!
I’m not really interested in flying from Chicago to Madrid. Why not? My family would have to book a separate flight to Chicago, plus a separate flight from Madrid to our final destination. I’m not a big fan of that many stops. But, adding a leg from Madrid to Venice brings the cost up to 49,000 Avios, which is still a great deal.
However, Iberia has a nonstop flight from Dallas to Madrid in the late spring and summer months. Business class seats run 42,500 miles. It’s hard to get a good picture of award availability for this year, but it does appear that there are frequently only two seats available. I’m ok with splitting my family up into 3 and 2, but not 2+2+1.
I plan to keep my eye on Iberia to see how things shake out.
Aeroplan
Since I was recently approved for the Air Canada Aeroplan card, I have 110,000 miles coming my way. Plus, I can always transfer more over from Chase Ultimate Rewards or Capital One.
Air Canada has direct flights from Rome to Canada with connections to DFW. I can also use Aeroplan miles on partner airlines like United and Lufthansa. So many possibilities!
Final Thoughts
These are just a few of the ways I can book award flights for our Europe trip. I plan to subscribe to ExpertFlyer shortly so that I can get a better view of award availability. Keep in mind that some international airlines open up award availability sooner than U.S. airlines do.
Who am I kidding, I actually love chasing down award flights! I find the chase exciting. I can’t be the only one who feels that way.
Have you booked award flights through one of these methods? What is your go-to way for booking flights to Europe on miles and points?
CLICK HERE TO VIEW VARIOUS CREDIT CARDS AND AVAILABLE SIGN-UP BONUSES
Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
it is very interesting one.also it will make our mind full of questions about travels. Fore more such intersting contents follow me on kollamheavenly.epizy.com
Hi Nancy,
Have you used the $300 flight credit from the Venture X yet? I’m trying to think outside the box and check cheap cash fares to be covered by Cap One points.
@Chris Yes, we used the credit on both cards already.
For me, traveling is for fun, so I want to reduce the stress of it by minimizing connections. Better to fly economy with less stress than business with lots of connecting stress. For example: I’m going to Amsterdam. Flying in to LHR and then taking the train to Amsterdam the next day instead of flying to LHR and then taking a connecting flight to AMS the same day. Once in Europe I try to avoid flying if possible and use the train instead – so much more relaxing. I’ve been reading about lots of airport horror stories in Europe due to shortages of trained staff (who were laid off during the pandemic).
@jakebrown11 That’s a good suggestion with using trains to connect instead of another flight.
I agree that Turkish site is a pain. I didn’t end up transferring the miles, but just dealing with it gave me a headache. Personally, I would avoid booking Turkish business class unless you actually plan on spending time in Turkey. It’s an extra few hours of flying if your final destination is Europe. For me nonstop options (with the least flying time) in economy are more valuable than business class with connections and crazy routing.
Totally agree with flying direct. I did that once: SFO-ORD-MAN- LHR on AA Business Class. A very cheap flight but never again. The experience of connecting flights was too stressful and not worth it at all. I’d rather fly economy SFO-LHR and pay for the the flight rather than flying Business Class using points with stop overs – Absolutely Not worth it.
@Leana Yes, I definitely don’t want to do any crazy routing just for a nicer seat. 🙂
I’m with you about stops. I don’t want more than 1 on the way to Europe especially with kids and when you are limited on vacation time! You’re not the only one who gets excited about awesome redemptions and I love figuring out how to put a trip together, but it would make my husband so crazy trying to sort through it all lol
We went to Europe a few years ago (2019) and I booked nonstop lie flat seats on delta using virgin Atlantic miles SLC-AMS for 50k each and $5.60 per ticket. I felt like that was a great deal especially since I could book 3 tickets plus a lap child for only 5k points. Unfortunately Delta seems to be stingy on partner award space in first class (particularly with direct flights) now so it doesn’t look like an option for us going forward (major bummer). Return flights were also booked on delta with virgin Atlantic for me and baby (50k + 5k miles plus $200 in taxes) and then 2 tickets on the same flight booked through Flying Blue for 55k miles plus the taxes. But this ticket was Dublin-JFK and then I booked separate tickets home to SLC for 17k miles through Delta. Not a great redemption but it was cheaper than paying the one way fares on a specific return date! If I did that again, I would book preferred economy for the daytime return trip since none of us slept anyway…although the extra space is nice 🙂
Are you going to write about the cruise you are doing? I’ve never really considered it for Europe. It it sounds like an interesting option.
@Tammie I love hearing about how others put together award bookings, especially families because it’s much more complicated than booking for one or two individuals. Sounds like you got a great deal on those Delta flights! I wouldn’t mind booking premium economy, but it’s not available on some of the airlines I’m looking at unfortunately. I’ll definitely write about our cruise itinerary. 🙂