Honk! If you are flying to Europe this summer with Frequent Flyer awards

Using AA miles to go to London for 2 people next week.

Using Delta miles to go to Italia and Croatia for 2 people in August.

Using AA FF miles to fly to Istanbul September 5, returning from Dubrovnik October 5.

We just returned from a trip funded by frequent flier miles. We flew on Delta and Air France from Atlanta to Athens, and returning Istanbul to Atlanta.

Buy everything with my Avion Visa. Change the Avion points to BA miles (1.5 for 1).
Two business class tickets Toronto to Paris for September.
Sleeper seats - yes Wally - but we also get access to the BA lounge in Toronto and Heathrow and Paris.

Flying from SFO to Berlin and then Nice and then back to SFO using 90k Delta SkyMiles. This will be the first couple of weeks in July.

Flights are on Air France.

Wouldn't I also get access to the lounge since I'm flying Business Class?

Keep the replies coming. Most people say American and United have the best U.S. programs. Continental wants 100,000 miles for economy for the early season (off season) of March.

We have four tickets from Montreal to Nice this June, courtesy of Air Canada Aeroplan. But, I had to book them last December, and the routing home is long and slow (Nice/overnight in Frankfurt/Heathrow/Montreal!).

No honking here... just pouting. Paid for our 4 tickets to Paris, Jo'burg and Rome... have tons of miles/amex rewards and could not make it happen. :::outing:::::

We've got two business class tickets on Air Canada at Christmas, Halifax to Paris via Montreal. (Classic Awards, for those who pay attention to Aeroplan. We got the routes we wanted and only had to go one day early to get business class on all legs. Bonus: we get an extra day in Paris.)

The fees were stiffish, about $320 Cdn each, but I have a short memory for that kind of pain.

Anselm

Poutine, that return trip is brutal. Aeroplan offered us Halifax, London, Munich, Paris outbound, so I asked what would happen if we went the day before ... all of a sudden the sun came out from behind the clouds.

Anselm

AnselmAdorne - yes, with two kids in tow, brutal. But there were no other options, supposedly. Since Aeroplan changed their online reservations system last fall, finding four tickets online requiring partner airlines just won't work. I had to rely on the skills of the aeroplan phone agent......

However, they were 60,000 points each, and not the worst Aeroplan routing I've had to live with (try Montreal/ Chicago/LA with a two night layover/Auckland/Sydney/Cairns with two kids...).

Toronto-Amsterdam-Paris and then Rome-Amsterdam-Toronto with AirMiles. Booked the tickets last November.

Wally - yews that "we" included you, too. That is a real bonus in my book. Worth as much as the business class.

Anselm - greetings
<<Halifax to Paris via Montreal>>

You are staring out by going backwards... is that to get more miles? LOL

Delta from Atlanta to Milan (via Copenhagen for three of us, direct for one), direct Milan to Atlanta return, second half of June. A total of 250,000 skymiles: 50,000 skymiles each for three of us, 100,000 skymiles for the last ticket.

No honking here. You can receive FF tickets on CO for 50K roundtrip. You sometimes need to be flexible and book far enough out. Start looking at 330 days and continue to look if you do not see what you are after.

Couldn't get Delta/AF RT nonstop Boston/Paris flights I wanted in September-- they told me the award seats on these flights must usually be reserved 11 months in advance. I never had that problem before. On American, I can still do this, but have spent so many miles on upgrades in previous years, that I haven't enough left. The fare has gone down about $70 in the last 2 weeks, but I think it will stick. Also it's about 60 bucks cheaper if I don't fly on the weekend. All-in, it's still over $1200!

Family of 4 flying direct on Air France (Continental miles) from Houston to Paris next week! Hilton Hotel points for Paris accommodations, and Amex points for a 2-week rental car!

Family of 6 leaving in 11 days (!!)using 5 FF 50K mile tickets to fly Delta from ATL to Paris. However, we do have to travel thru Prague to get there -- got our tickets December 31st for May 30th travel-- pretty good, eh? Delta's Prague service had just been announced and opened the week before..we also have to fly back from Milan to ATL via Prague.. but I'm not complaining..wouldn't be going otherwise!

Aeroplan miles: Business class Toronto-Frankfurt-Venice late Sept, and Paris-Frankfurt- Toronto late Oct, on Lufthansa. Yippee!!

Jess , keep trying I booked Delta/AF Orlando/Paris last June for an October flight last year. Helps if you can be flexible.

Wally , yes you can use the BA lounges at Miami ..check if they have one in Barcelona.

And I have a BA flight, to London for October , in BC, $1300.00 plus 25,000 miles..not summer but close enough.

Honk!!

US Airways, Phoenix to Venice in September, can't wait!!!

Using Delta FF miles to fly DCA-AMS on May 25 and ATH-DCA on June 12. There are 2 of us flying and I think it cost us 200K miles.

The trip is not until October but I am flying Delta to Frankfurt and return from Rome on 50,000 FF points + maybe $100 in fees. This required speaking to a person rather than online booking.

I paid $1200 for NW tickets and 30,000 mile upgrade to lst class from MSP to Detroit to Paris in September. It is on the plane that has the flat bed seats that are like pods. A330 I believe. I'm excited.

I'll be in Business STT-JFK-LHR-MIA-STT in June. Paid the cheapest coach fare on AA & was given an Executive VIP upgrade. This also entitles me to Admiral's Club Access on the day of travel.

2 tickets, BHM to BUD in July; return AMS to BHM. No flights are direct--took 50,000 Delta FF miles for each ticket. I am currently waitlisted on some later returns and hope that one clears. I pricelined my hotel in BUD and used Marriott points for my hotel in London.

Just got back from a Miami/Paris/Miami trip using American FF miles. I've been able to book many Paris and London flights using miles - never had any trouble. I book about 7 or 8 months ahead and usually go in May or October, using less miles than in high season. I might not be able to get the exact dates I want, but close. But I always want (and get) the one direct flight that American has to those cities. I love my Citibank AAdvantage card!

Just to add, on both the flights this time, I had the 3 middle seats all to myself- that makes a huge difference.
The economy seats on American international flights have more legroom than some other airlines I've flown.

Two of us using 90,000 AA miles each. We're in New York now where we flew first class from Miami for a one month "stopover" before going Business Class to London for 10 days, then BA business class to Rome. Two months plus after we left we return Business on AA from Paris to Miami.

Using US Air FF miles from Raleigh, NC, to Lisbon, Portugal for three on June 19th, returning June 29th. Had enough miles for three business class seats. We always book with FF for international travel. Delta has been great to work with, too.

Flying Austin-Chicago on American; Chicago-Dublin-Glasgow on Aer Lingus for 60,000 miles. Leave 31 May and return 15 July. I only got this flight by calling American direct and dealing with their agent. On the computer they wanted 100,000 miles for these dates (and didn't give the Aer Lingus link as an option).

Also flying Austin-Chicago-CDG and return on American miles, leaving 7 September and returning 12 October. 60,000 miles for this trip.

Jinx Hoover

Delta business class-90K miles.June 21- Orlando/Atlanta-Milan/Pisa (alitalia). return July 1 Milan/atlanta/Orlando. I booked the tickets in November.I just checked my E-ticket and noticed seats are not assigned on the milan to Pisa leg of the trip. Should I be concerned about this?

I am using money for our Europe trip this summer but I have to brag about the fall trip. Toronto-Santiago, Chile non-stop in November (spring in Chile) first class with Aeroplan on Air Canada. Total fees just under C$300 for two.

Before someone else says it I know Chile is in South America but this isn't the first time the Europe board has been "tainted" with other continents.

USAir FF to Paris from Richmond, VA business class. Actually couldn't get to Paris so flew into Amsterdam and spent a lovely day and night and took a train to Paris. And this was booking 9 months in advance.

Question: Going to Italy next year and don't have enough for 2 for First. Wondered about paying for coach and using FF on upgrade to First. Can you do that with discount tickets?

And how far out can you start using your FF.

thanks

Used FF miles twice this year: Zurich to Guadalajara round-trip and then Zurich to Atlanta, round-trip, both of Continental.

bashamj- you can call your FF program and explain to them that you don't have enough miles to get the award you want. I have done with with NW in the past. They will allow you to buy a coach class ticket and use the miles to upgrade to Business/First. There is a minimum class of service (i.e. the letter code) that the ticket would have to be booked in. When I flew to Taiwan it was about $300 more than the cheapest available fare for that route. Once I purchased that "minimum fare" ticket, they processed the mileage upgrade.

bashamj- missed your last part. You can generally book FF rewards 330 days out- that's the farthest out that airlines will display their flight schedules. Make sure to take into account- the 330day rule for the return dates of your travel.

Two economy tickets SFO - MAD for 90000 Delta miles, flying on Air France.

Interesting that no one seems to be flying United. We got one free ticket on United from our Capitol One Visa (65,000 miles). You don't have to look for FF, you just buy your ticket and Capitol One reimburses you, if you have the miles.

One ticket PIT - CDG for September on US Airways. I booked it in January for 50,000 miles round tip (coach, of course).

There were actually quite a few dates available at that time. I was surprised as it is almost impossible to get a flight to Rome -- no matter how far out you try to book.

Aeroplan miles for 2 x Business Class YYZ to Budapest via Franfurt in June. Return via 6 hr layover in Warsaw. We'll buzz into town for lunch.

Also used Aeroplan for one flight to Beijing in Feb.

We'll be using Hilton Honors points for hotels in Budapest & Vienna. That plus some stays with relatives, will make it a pretty cheap 2 week trip since we'll only have to pay for 2 nights in Eger.

Ian

Two FF tickets on American, Ft. Myers - Miami - Madrid (nonstop) on June 2, return June 21. AA has never disappointed us - we plan early, are flexible and an AAdvantage agent can always find us an acceptable routing. Miles are from charging everything (even insurance)on our Citibank Advantage card.

Newark to Cologne for 25,000 miles on Continental this summer. 4 people for only 100,000 miles

There were a lot of promotions on this route a few months ago.

We had enough miles for two economy RTs on Delta (50K each) so we're flying IAH - CDG - FCO and the return is MUC - CDG - IAH. We bought my daughter's ticket.

Only trouble is, we live in OKC! When trying to book it (about 315 days out) we couldn't get the leg out OKC. The agent actually said "OKC never has anything available. People seem to snap them up. Everybody seems to want to get out of there!"
H

We have 2 Business Class Tickets from Tampa to Nairobi via Amsterdam on Northwest, KLM and Kenya Airways. Stopping in Amsterdam for a week on the way back.

Booked almost a year in advance but only had to use 120,000 miles each. This is Perk Saver I think it's called.

Duane

Wife is open-jawing an business award SEA-YYC-LHR-IST//CDG-JFK-SEA on Alaska, BA AA and BA. From IST she's flying on Turkish to Tel Aviv, then on Ethiopian to Joburg, where she'll pick up a new round-the-world ticket (actually in Mauritius) and come home via Sydney. She'll use the Paris-Seattle portion of the award when she's finished with the RTW next year.

Arrgh... please please Fodors - put in an edit option...

I don't fly in the summer, but my mother is using AAdvantage miles for a business class flight JFK-DUB and SNN-JFK in July. Booked in December. Just came back from Croatia. Flew on AA and BA using AAdavantage miles - and got the off-peak fare of 40,000 miles each! Booked in November. Last year used AAdvantage miles for business MAD-CPT and JNB-MAD (paid for the fare for JFK-MAD). Booked a year in advance. If you want AAdvantage miles, don't forget to use aadvantageeshopping.com for your online shopping!! My miles really add up. Delta and United have a similar service.

Used FF miles for two seats on United! Leaving FRIDAY for Venice and flying home from Rome!!!

can i brag here then?
first, i had united miles and used them to get a trip in june, which is crazy from the west coast. but finally found one-leaving 3rd from sfo to frankfurt (direct), returning 24th from london through canada (aircanada). returns had nothing available.
but singapore was great. they don't fly (other than jfk to fra), but they didn't tell me i was too late (which united and all the american airlines said-i booked in feb), but in fact told me i was pretty early. and asked exactly what i wanted (instead of all these other airlines in which you just beg, hoping to get a bone). so, lax-muc, then muc-ath. i got my own flight to otp (bucharest), and otp-muc-lax. on lufthansa. and it's 50k miles (the united one was also)

Honk Honk -United 2 Business Class SFO to Lisbon, return Barcelona

Honk Honk Last two years flew first class to London and Paris using AA frequent flyer miles. This year had to wait until October to use our miles as we only had enough for regular class to Milan. We love frequent flier miles.

I'm hoping to use frequent flyer miles to fly to Rome on Delta in June of next year for two weeks. Would it be wise to get a one-way ticket to Rome as soon as the 330 days arrives and then get a one-way return from Venice 14 days later? Or is it better to wait and get a multi-leg trip? Thanks!

Going in September and obsessed with using all miles/points possible.

Flying San Diego to Prague (via San Fran and Frankfurt). First class domestic, business International.

Using Marriott points for hotel in Prague & Budapest.

Flying local carrier Budapest to Dubrovnik. Charging on Diners Club, which means I can apply points for credit. Same for car and hotel in Hvar/Zagreb. Flying home via UK first/business.

Needless to say, I travel too much for work. The good news is that I can use the perks. I'll probably save money by taking a vacation!

Should mention that the above is on United and their Star Alliance partners.

I am on United Airlines Mileage Plus award tickets this weekend. Business Class.

Newark>Chicago>Munich (trans-atlantic on Lufthansa A340-600)

Munich>Istanbul (Lufthnasa)

Istanbul>Munich>Newark (trans-con on Lufthansa Privatair 737 All Business jet)

Just got back from Venice on Monday. I bought our tickets last August for $400, had to pay an extra $100 to upgrade on US AIR. 30,000 miles each way per person to upgrade to envoy class on US AIR 767. Can't beat that. Philly to Venice non-stop both ways.
honk honk

2 for 1 tix on Swiss Air from LAX to Milan! (30,000 Amex points) Wonder if I can still try to upgrade us? Honeymooners need some kindness!!

Three of us are flying to and from Venice late July/early August. We had only enough miles left on Delta for one passenger; enough miles left on AmEx for another, and we paid $1,100 and change outright for the other person to fly on Delta. Didn't want to waste miles by upgrading; we'll zonk out and suffer.

I have been lucky enough to use Am Ex miles to Delta for the following trips, all Business Class:
Jan 2004 1 to Miami/Cairo 90,000 Alitalia, March 2004 Miami/Puerto Rico 2 90,000 (1st Class), Aug-Sept 2005 2 Miami/Milan/Rome 180,000 Alitalia,
Nov 2006 2 Miami/Rome 180,000 Air France, and am going in Sept or Oct 2007 Miami/Munich 180,000. So far I have not had a problem using them the dates I have requested, you just have to book early.

Too many responses to read through them right now so forgive me if this has been mentioned already. I finally got my AAdvangage miles traded in on a ticket to Europe, but as I'd feared, AA made it as difficult as they could. They balked at my fist 10 dates--yes, 10. I persisted, and we finally compromised. They allowed me to use my earned miles to upgrade to Business on a coach ticket I purchased, but (1) I have to go a month later than I'd hoped--late Oct instead of mid-Sept--and stay two days longer than I'd planned; and (2) I had to pay a $300 surcharge EACH WAY in addition to the cost of my coach ticket for the privilege of using my earned miles.

As soon as I work the rest of these AA miles off, I am switching credit cards to another airline.

London in October....using Continental air miles to upgrade to business/first. Sweet........

I think the key to reward travel is to book early, and be flexible. You can't wait to book a few months ahead. I've never had any luck doing that. Mostly, I buy the cheapest seat, and use the miles to upgrade. Even that has to be booked well in advance.

Before you use double miles with the airlines for business class, check out the First Class options. It will save you miles, and some people say First Class isn't that bad.

The last time I flew Continental, every time the Fasten Seatbelt sign came on, a very loud recorded message came on saying, "The captain has turned on the Fasten Seatbelt sign . . ." Good luck sleeping through that one.

We booked two 1st class to Rome through Continental. It took several calls and we ended up flying Virgin Air and AirItalia. Continental wanted 250,000 miles per ticket to fly in late September, booking 10 months in advance.

Yep! Two coach tickets Portland - Bilbao, Spain, returning from Dubrovnik, Croatia. June 3-26 on United/Lufthansa. 50,000 miles each, but I had to book them last September!! This trip is a loooonnngg time coming!

Well, September, anyway. I'm leaving and returning 2 days later than I'd planned, but the apt. I rent is still available.Picked up some extra miles by paying for another upcoming trip and bought 3000 miles for about $100 (all in). I'll have to start accumulating miles all over again on AA, but otherwise a nonstop RT coach ticket (Logan/CDG)would have been over $1200.

I got 4 first class tickets to London on Virgin Atlantic with AmEx miles. Our final destination is Amsterdam but I thought going through London on Virgin made the trip worth it. It took weeks of searching and stress just to get those tickets, I tried 100 other airlines. We have to leave a day later than I wanted but I'm not complaining.

Honk Honk, just returned from Spain on my Delta - my frequent flyer miles. And the flight from NYC to Madrid was overbooked, so we were bumped to First Class. SWEET

Honk! I used 100,000 for 2 economy tickets to Rome on United. Leaving this Saturday!

Finally cashed in our mother lode of miles--4 Continental BusinessFirst tickets to Rome!

Neil, that must may take a prize. One of the hardest things when cashing miles is getting multi-tickets, so getting four deserves a hand.

Heading to Germany First Class on AA in June.

Heading to Egypt First Class on AA and BA in November.

No problems with either. Gonna be fun!

Question on the long layovers mentioned twice. Each time I've used either my Delta or AA miles we could only stay an overnight not a month like one of the post.

How can we do a week delay with either of the above or their partners. We want a trip Las Vegas, Rochester, NY spend a week, then on to London and return to LAS for next June.

Honk! Two July economy tickets on Delta
Raleigh-Copenhagen, Dublin-Raleigh.
Originally had double connection on
Air France, then flight times changed
giving only 45 minutes to clear customs
at JFK, so phoned and given much better
flights via ATL. Go Delta customer service!!!

wwwmarge, were you using miles for FREE business class tickets (90,000 on AA)? That's what I do when I get those one week to one month "layovers". No, you can't get them if you are buying a coach ticket and using miles to upgrade, nor can you do it if you are using miles for free coach tickets.

And I think there's no way you can do a Rochester, New York stopover with a European ticket. You can only do a long stopover within the US at one of their gateway cities -- and I doubt any airline has direct flights to London from Rochester!

wwwmarge,
You can have one stopover for any length on time on a Delta coach or business class award. There are routing restrictions though as to what's allowed as a stopover as well as a maximum number of total segments allowed in each direction. Beyond that, they'll charge you additional mileage over the standard 50K economy/90K business for US-Europe awards. You could try for Rochester as a stopover. If that doesn't work, you could make JFK your stopover and purchase a separate ticket to Rochester rather than spend additional miles.

While I'm here, I might as well say we're flying to South Africa in September using Delta Skymiles in business class (120K x 2) on a combination of Delta, KLM and Air France.

...nor can you do it if you are using miles for free coach tickets.

Are you referring to AA awards? If so, wrong-o.

Five economy-class tickets, Phoenix AZ, to Paris and back, leaving this July 4, at a cost of 250,000 USAir reward miles. I made the same trip en famille via reward miles last year.

I charge everything that I can on my rewards card, and I buy a lot of my business inventory on plastic. That practice pumps up my miles considerably, and I make a point to book as early as possible. What a great resource...and it's even tax-free, at least for now.

<looking around for IRS infiltrators, not wanting to give the game away>

Garyloo, I'm no expert on coach awards, but are you saying that you CAN do a week long (or so) stopover in Rochester between Las Vegas and London on an AA free coach award???

Taking my daughter to Barcelona as high school graduation present next week. But oops - some money I saved on flights goes to Passport expeditor - dumb mom forgot to check on expiration date of daughter's passport, which was January 07.

We just returned from Paris-Rome FF Delta miles! Glad they are still in business!

HOnk honk, 2 tickets to Paris at the end of October on UA. I'm so excited!!!!

delta - 4 tix 50 k each
july - august
dca-atl-dub (delta)
1 week stop
dub-cdg (af)
24 hour stop
cdg-naples (af)
4 weeks
nap-cdg-iad (af)

very happy with delta
booked the tix exactly 330 days out

Flying Sept. 2nd Cleveland/Chicago/Shannon using 60,000 AA miles. Booked online March 15 and only had to change our date one day. Only had enough miles for 1 economy milesAAver ticket but other ticket was only a total of $704 including tax.

I have lots of Continental miles (they are the major carrier in Cleveland) but I seem to have a lot more trouble redeeming them.

We're flying Miami to London with AMEX membership miles...our son is flying out sooner. He's going on a post high-school backpacking trip through Europe! He needed to fly on AA in order to be with his friends. I was actually able to get him a ticket with miles by contacting AMEX. They had me book with Mexicana who happens to partner with AA. It was odd, but successful! Off we go!

<<I'll have a flat bed upstairs on the 747.
I still haven't decided whether I will sleep or pass out on the flights.>>

Don't forget to get off the plane.

Flying Atl to Venice, upgraded with miles to BE, but on Delta, no flatbed for me -- darn!

Honk honk! 5 tics to Athens r/t 50k each - Delta FF. Paid tax only. Divine intervention baby!

Honk! Honk!

Two tickets from Dallas to London, flying back from Edinburgh to Dallas, on American. Taking BA for the Edinburgh-London leg of the return trip, but it's part of oneworld, so it counts.

Got to love getting FF miles for paying for stuff you'd buy anyway.

~Elizabeth

Honk! Just got back from using Delta miles for ATL-AMS, CDG-ATL. SkySaver with 50K, so here's a shout-out to the helpful Delta agent who worked with me for a half hour to find flights for me.

My future bride and I have the following on hold:


AMERICAN AIRLINES 307

LGA New York

Sep 06, 2007
01:30 PM

ORD Chicago

Sep 06, 2007
03:10 PM

First Z 3E, 3F

AMERICAN AIRLINES 54

ORD Chicago

Sep 06, 2007
05:35 PM

MAN Manchester

Sep 07, 2007
07:15 AM

Business U 3A, 3B

BRITISH AIRWAYS 1389

MAN Manchester

Sep 10, 2007
10:00 AM

LHR London

Sep 10, 2007
11:00 AM

Economy X unassigned

BRITISH AIRWAYS 856

LHR London

Sep 10, 2007
02:45 PM

PRG Prague

Sep 10, 2007
05:40 PM

Business U unassigned

MALEV HUNGARIAN 821

PRG Prague

Sep 14, 2007
10:10 AM

BUD Budapest

Sep 14, 2007
11:15 AM

Economy R unassigned

MALEV HUNGARIAN 402

BUD Budapest

Sep 14, 2007
06:00 PM

FCO Rome

Sep 14, 2007
07:40 PM

Economy R unassigned

IBERIA 3609

FCO Rome

Sep 20, 2007
08:00 AM

MAD Madrid

Sep 20, 2007
10:20 AM

Business U 1C, 1A

IBERIA 6251

MAD Madrid

Sep 20, 2007
01:05 PM

JFK New York

Sep 20, 2007
04:35 PM

Business U 2C, 2A


All that for 80K AA miles each.


Some people here are confusing AA's OneWorld awards with AA's All Partner awards. Different awards all together.

The above would cost a great deal more AA miles if it was an AAdvantage All Partner award. The above is a OneWorld award. Limits airlines to OneWorld airlines only but saves miles. All Partner awards open the possibility of ALL AA's AAdvantage partners but in many cases cost more miles.

Not all AAdvantage partners are OneWorld partners.

One World partners:

AA
BA and some affiliatesa)
Iberia
FinnAir
Malev Hungarian
Cathay Pacific
Qantas
Royal Jordanian
Japan Airlines
LAN Chile (and some affiliates)

Only the above can be used with OneWorld award.

There are many AAdvantage partners which can not be used with OneWorld awards, only All Partner awards. Some of the AAdvantage partners are:

Alaska Air
TAM
Hawaiian Airlines
Gulf Air
Isreal Airlines
Brussels Airlines
Air Tahiti Nui
Turkish Airlines
Air Sahara
Air Pacific
Aer Lingus

AAFrequent Flyer, I'm following all that except why isn't it 90,000 miles? How did you get the extra 10,000 mile reduction, or was that a special?

Because it's an AA OneWorld award, NOT the AA All Partner award. It's based on mileage between stopover points only. The following is:

8939 miles total.

LGA-ord-MAN-lhr-PRG-bud-FCO-mad-JFK.

The connections don't count for the mileage total, so only the straight line between LGA-MAN counts even though we're flying through ORD and the same is true for the rest of the trip. Straight line mileage between MAN-PRG, PRG-FCO and finally FCO-JFK.

and according to AA OneWorld page:

any trip from 4001 to 9000 miles is

80K AA miles for business class

Distance Zone 3
Total Trip Miles = 4,001 - 9,000 Award Code
Economy Class OW60Y
Business Class OW80C
First Class OW100F

Honk

We used Continental miles to get 4 First Class tickets from Austin to Venice on 5/4/07 returning from Rome on 5/17/07. Each ticket was 100,000 miles.

Startin in early November I used the internet to search for available reward tickets and quickly found that Venice/Rome had almost no availability. I would also call and speak with the agents, who were helpful but couldn't get 4 to/from Italy without going through another European city first so:

In mid-December I booked 4 tickets Austin/Newark/Frankfurt/Milan/Venice and Rome/London/Newark/Austin return.

In mid-January I was able to get 2 tickets from Rome therby cutting out the London leg, but I was not able to get 2 more tickets prior to our leaving on our trip.

For the Austin to Venice, we flew from Austin to Newark to Frankfurt arriving 9am. We had FF tickets from Frankfurt to Milan to Venice departing 6pm, but instead of taking that flight we took a noon Lufthansa flight, which got us into Venice at 2pm instead of 9pm.

While on our trip we went to an internet cafe twice and checked on First Class reward ticket availability and we were able to get 2 more tickets on the Rome/Newark/Austin flight. It cost $50 to change the tickets but we actually got money back because the airport fees are higher for London than Rome!

2 more important rules for AA's OneWorld award ticket:

At least 2 OW partners must</B be used and AA does not count nor is it needed.

A connection over 6 hours may be considered a stopover unless the next available flight is not possible within that time period, but no more than 24 hours is allowed for connections under any circumstances.

Flying SFO to Venice and back from Rome on Delta next week, using miles to upgrade from Coach to Business. I've used mileage to upgrade 5 similar trips in the last four years. The TA books 330 days ahead.

AAFF -- that's amazing. I didn't know there was a partner/one world distinction -- is that specification on the award chart? This is different from an RTW ticket, isn't it?

congratulations on your engagement.

The mileage charts are at the bottom of this page:

http://tinyurl.com/2evlqk


btw, Thanks...

Using miles for two tickets to Italy (in to Rome, Out from Venice). I also had to purchase two additonal tickets at a cost of ~$1500 each.

Honk! Honk!

Family of three just completed Knoxville-Atlanta-Frankfurt outbound, Munich-Paris-Detroit-Knoxville return. Used Delta Skymiles. Flights were on Delta (outbound) and Air France & Northwest (return). Booked all reservations last summer (11 months in advance).

Just got back two days ago!
Los Angeles - Washington D.C. - Rome
Zurich - Washington D.C. - Los Angeles
Used 50K United FF miles and got Economy Plus seats. Purchased ticket on January.
Honk! Honk!

Beep beep! My husband and I used AA miles for our tickets to Italy/France in August. Can't wait!

(We go DFW-Zurich-Rome and return direct Paris-DFW. 60K miles each plus some fees I've already forgotten about. We booked last September!)

In Sept flying from Newark to Frankfurt on
Continental and out of Frankfurt to
Atlanta on Delta-business class tickets
both flights. What a treat!

2 first class tickets to Vienna from LAX using my United Plus awards in August. We fly Lufthansa to Munich, change planes and fly to Vienna. Return is on Austria Air (two class flight) to London, change to United. The only fees we paid are airport taxes.

Whoops, forgot to add that I had to "buy" these tickets the minute they became avaiaible, last October, and I am not traveling until this August. I had to stay on the phone with United airlines until 3:00 a.m. when the seats were released and I could book my flights. It was still hard to get the seats since there are not many first class seats for mileage point users.

We just got back - four 50K tix on Air Canada, PHL-YYZ-LHR

AAFF miles from San Diego to Milan this October. Used 40,000 because I left after Oct.14th. Otherwise, it was 60,000. Last two times to London used AAFF for first class but not enough miles to do that again. Ugh, but I am always so excited I will get over that pain promptly.

karens, I saw your post on the Air Canada forum on FlyerTalk. Nicely done.

Anselm

Round trip tickets on United Airlines, Washington Dulles to Paris, mid-August, for a family of 4! 50,000 miles per ticket. Booked in October.

Just booked a trip in coach with Delta using 50,000 skymiles from NY to Paris via Copenhagen on the outbound and direct from Paris to NY on the return. I am a woman traveling solo leaving on August 31 and returning on September 9. I decided to spend 2 nights in Copenhagen before flying on to Paris. Pickings are slim but I was flexible. Not bad for last minute travel given the crazy fares that are out there right now and Copenhagen was one of the cites I've always wanted to visit.

I just booked 5 tickets to Rome for next May, 2 business and 3 coach on American/Iberia/Brussels Air.

Chgo-Madrid-Rome and then Venice-Brussels-Chgo.

I am so excited to be able to get these seats. We are pumped and now starting to look into hotels.

ttt

Hello all, My ticket is not until Oct. also. Delta FF miles. Booked in Jan. Atlanta to Paris, return Florence, Paris, Newark/Atl. I only decided to add Tuscany and extended for another week a couple of months ago. The Delta agent worked hard to get me back from Florence. I go Florence to CDG Air France late evening..will book CDG hotel for cheap on Hotwire or Priceline and leave Paris to Newark early morning with a decent layover in Newark to Atl on Continental. This will save doing the entire long trip in one day and paying for transport to CDG from Paris. I was impressed at how hard she worked to get me the change I wanted to make. Very creative using partners. I used 50,000 miles and about $75.00. I had no problem at all with the original booking in Jan. for a direct flight ATl-Paris on Delta. It was originally Oct. 15 to 25, extended to Oct. 31.

My next project is getting a FF mile trip to Nairobi from Atl. next yr with hopefully a nice layover in Paris or London. I will begin 330 days out.

One of my better deals is to Maui for this Christmas. I had 28,000 miles on United, bought miles for $250 reaching 35,000; then scored a flight to visit my son for a week before Christmas. I go out on Dec. 17 and return Dec 25 at 11:59 pm. Christmas will be officially over 1 minute after I leave. I can deal with that. I have found Maui FF deals much harder ro book than Europe, especially Holidays. It will be our first Christmas together since he moved 6 yrs. ago. Hooray!! Honk! Honk!

Happy travels.

gg

Used 80,000 miles to go to Prague from Boston in Business Class on United.

I have never been in business class when traveling outside of the States. It was wonderful!!! Great food and I loved that my chair turned into a bed. I got a REAL pillow and blanket too!

AA miles for trip to France. We decided in June to go to Provence this summer. Our dates were flexible, so I was patient, looked each day and found 2 tickets at 90,000 miles per person for business class. We fly San Diego to London, then I got cheap tickets to Nice and out of Montpellier. We leave on Thursday!!!

How is anyone doing with using miles for next year to Europe?

With all the trouble I had this year, I'm afraid FF availability to Europe might increasingly be a thing of the past.

Just booked a pair Continental Newark to Amsterdam for April 9, returning on Delta Gatwick to JFK May 10, using 200,000 Delta FF miles to fly business/first. In between it will be a brief river cruise through tulip country from Amsterdam to Antwerp, a few days discovering Antwerp, then Eurostar from Brussels to London for three weeks. Fortunately, we were able to be quite flexible with our dates. Our first few choices were unavailable.

I am flying on business to London, but my daughter is flying with me on AA using my miles and my sister is meeting us flying on Virgin using my USAir miles. Honk! Honk! Virgin had no blackout dates although USAir did. This is the best way to dispose of USAir!

Next April - departing on a Weds night Air France LAX-MAD, then returning on a Thursday CDG-LAX, 50K AF points. I had to shuffle the dates around a little bit, since I just now booked. Wasn't sure if I should wait to see if a weekend day came available...but decided to just go ahead and do it. I don't want to lose out! and am assuming that the other dates are gone (from the sounds of it, probably one of you guys got 'em

I was able to get 4 Envoy class tickets on Us Airways to Rome and back in October of this year. I started 330 days out and kept calling back for weeks-- US Airways is getting increasingly stingy with premium cabin awards. Also, I had to leave and return in the middle of the week, which was not my first choice. However, the flights are booked and I was glad to get them!

HONK HONK!!!!
I Got an AAdvantage ticket regular, 60,000 miles

American LAX-JFK-Zurich

Free stopover in Zurich

Zurich-Rome, Swiss Air, non-stop

Cruising the Med on Emerald Princess

Venice-Zurich-JFK-LAX, Swiss Air up to JFK, American last leg, JFK-LAX

I must have booked it 11 months ago and it took over a week calling at midnight to get it all together. And I am so glad I am not going through Heathrow

I booked 2 tix on Delta business class for April 29 2008 from JFK to Venice and business class home from Rome on Alitalia (hope it's still in business), all non-stop for 90,000 per ticket (sky saver). I'm waitlisted to return home on Delta but I'm not too hopeful. Still, I think I did well but I had to work hard to make it happen!

Last Sept, first class Luftansa LAX to Munich, Munich to Rome, then Venice to LAX! This October LAX to Zurich, then Paris to LAX first class again on Luftansa & United home from Paris via Chicago. Fantastic!

We just returned from St. John, USVI via two Aadvantage award flights to STT.

I booked two Aadvantage award flights immediately when they became available for May 3-11, 2008: MSY-DFW-CDG (and CDG-MIA-MSY on the return).

We have the CitiAadvantage card and use it for all purchases and bills that can be paid with cc, and pay it off every month. We also buy goods from the Aadvantage Shopping mall (especially things like flower orders where we got 1 0 miles per dollar this Mother's Day).

Question for AAfrequentflyer about the One World partnership: I am confused. We've used Aadvantage miles only for AA flights and after France next year am interested in visiting European destinations in 2009 that would require flying on One World airlines. Do these flights need to be booked on the phone with an AA representative, can it be done online on aa.com, or does it need to be done on the One World partner's website/customer service number?

We just booked "dividend mile" flights from Indianapolis to Venice and return to Indianapolis from Frankfurt for June 2008. I believe we got the first seats assignments on the flights! We had been saving for a long time, expecting to use 50,000 points for each round trip. Found those seats were very infrequently offered. Were able to get the return flight at that rate and the departing flight to Venice at higher rate. Spent 150,000 for two of us! Lucky we had 170,000.

Anyone else using US Air?

Using 250,000 Continental miles for first class Boston-Brussels; Czech-Air Brussels to Prague, then Zurich back to Boston. Was able to get all flights first class on the dates I requested! I was amazed, too. (Doing a bit of driving between Prague and Zurich).

Booked in July for late Sept/early Oct travel. Out only $79 cash for fees.

Today I got FF tickets from Hartford, CT to Amsterdam direct on NWA.

This is an unexpected trip from October 29 - November 5, 2007. Our first time visitng the Netherlands.

mah1980,

thete are 2 different awards when using AA miles.


1. It's an all partner award. You can use any and all partners, but it's limited to zone to zone award. You are allowed a stopover on the outbound or inbound gateway. For example: JFK-LAstop)-NRT(stop)-DFW-JFK, or JFK-LAX-NRT(stop)-DFW(stop)-JFK.

2. Oneworld Award is based on mileage and it's more open for stopovers. You can only use the OW memebrs, not all AAdvantage partners. It's based on mileage between stopovers ONLY. For example, if you were to fly from LAX to SYD through HKG, the mileage would be counted only as LAX-SYD, straight line. As long as you didn't stop in HKG, 24 hours or less, depending on what flight is available, you will only be charged for LAX-SYD straight line mileage, as long as you use Japan, AA, Cathay, or Qantas. And actually you can use BA, IB or FINNAir if you don't mind flying the long way around.

Next summer we are going PHL-YYZ-Zurich and then Munich-YYZ-PHL. Four seats for only 200,000 miles.

I am SO HAPPY Air Canada is in the Star Alliance!!

Using USAIR & United miles for 2 free tix on Austrian Air for Christmas. All garnered with credit cards and other misc freebies.

Hi All,
Used 90,000 skymiles for Delta business elite from Jax to Dub this October. Not a flat bed, I know, but certainly better than coach...
Does anyone know whether they are still using 762"s on this route? Discrepency on website.

We had an easier time this year with our reservation (for summer 2008.) will fly united to barcelona via frankfurt, then return from milan with same frankfurt stop. 50,000 miles each. we love to use our miles for open-jaw travel, as it's so expensive for paid flights-- and saves us time when we don't have to double-back to our arrival point. love the miles!!!
kawh

We just got back from Edinbourgh, skysaver business elite for 90,000 each, going to Spain next April on skysaver business elite, lay down seats on last Delta flight. Also used our AMEX points for a weeks stay at Parrot Cay which was very nice.

Last year used 150,000 miles for two coach tickets LAX- Nairobi for a ten day safari through Kenya and Tanzania! Amazing!!
This year, used 75,000 miles for SFO-Delhi, India. Leave Dec. 2-18! Can't wait. Also stopping in Nepal for three days.