Just booked next summer’s Europe flights on miles

Next summer, my daughter and I are going on a cruise through the Norwegian Fjords. We plan to visit a few places on land before our cruise. My window to book award flights is open for some airlines (mostly international airlines who open up schedules ~12 months in advance). For this trip, it was easy to decide which award seat to book.

Iberia for the win

I booked us in business class seats on Iberia from DFW to Madrid. The date I picked is considered off-peak for Iberia, which has unbeatable award prices from DFW: (even cheaper from Chicago)

I was thinking about booking Premium Economy or even Economy, since this Iberia flight has a 2-4-2 layout and we could have a row of 2 to ourselves. But then, after just arriving home from Europe last month and realizing just how long the flight is, I decided to splurge on Business. So, each ticket cost 42,500 Avios + $129.40 in taxes.

My husband and son are booked on this same Iberia flight for Spring Break. When I booked their award flights, I booked through British Airways, which in theory has easier/better customer service than Iberia. However, since Iberia released their flights a few days before British Airways, I opted to book directly through Iberia this time. Since it’s for summer travel, I didn’t want to risk these 2 award seats disappearing by the time they became available on British Airways. And, historically, Iberia only releases two Business class award seats per flight.

I transferred miles from my Capital One Venture X card and points from my Chase Sapphire Preferred card to British Airways Avios/Iberia Avios.

Are we staying in Madrid? No, probably not. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m considering a few pre-cruise cities. But still, these flights to Madrid made the most sense. We can fly on cash to many destinations for less than $100 from Madrid.

Are you booking award flights for next summer yet?