usernameistaken

Hi! I have 77K miles on American. My husband and I are planning to go see the Bruins play in Prague in October and were thinking of doing a short but sweet trip in Prague and Vienna for six days.

I also have about 100K miles on capitalone (so up to a $1000 tkt would be free).

Currently, I have reserved the following itinerary on American/BA.
Leave BOS at 10 PM Fri Oct 8; arrive PRG 2 PM on Oct 9.
Leave Vienna at 2 PM on Thu Oct 14; arrive BOS 9 PM Oct 14.

One ticket costs 60K miles + 112 in taxes in fees. The other ticket costs $1008 (but will eventually be free using Capitalone), Total out-of-pocket would be about $560 pp.

I am concerned, however, about flying on British Airways, given all the striking they do.

I understand that frequent flyer miles are "cheaper" after Oct 15 but unfortunately that does not work for us; we hope to see the Boston Bruins play in Prague on Oct 10 and we also need to take advantage of the Columbus Day Holiday to make this trip happen.

Another option would be to buy tickets on other airlines (and avoid BA) - and just redeem one ticket from Capitalone, pay out of pocket for the other ticket, and save the AA miles for another trip (perhaps to Asia). We have miles on Delta and Continental in addition to AA.

Thanks in advance.

I know there are a lot of FF experts on here - I would LOVE to hear your advice.

DonTopaz

Congratulations on scoring the awards reservations on acceptable dates -- that's not always easy.

If I were you, I'd go ahead and get the tickets. In my view, there's little chance that the BA labor issues will still be around in October. And, at least among the carriers who are affiliated with one of the major alliances, none of the airlines are really immune from potential labor issues.

It is true that you increase your risk by having separate itineraries: one ticket through an airline FF program and the second ticket through Capital One reimbursement. But I don't see any way around that given the way that you want to buy the tickets.

The fundamental problem with your trip is that you would miss the Boston GTG. Cancel your trip, save a few thousand $$, go to the Boston GTG, and see the Bruins @ the Garden. Prague is way better in the springtime, anyway.

usernameistaken

Thanks R! Actually, we won't be having separate itineraries -we would book BOTH tickets through AA and pay with our capitalone card. Then, Capitalone just issues us a statement credit in the amount of the credit. The nifty thing is that my husband will be earning miles on a "free" ticket.

The weird thing is that not only are the dates perfect but the timing is perfect too. I know I shouldn't expect the timing to last five months but we can always hope.

usernameistaken

I should add, there is a "slight" mistake in my original post. If we don't redeem our capitalone miles, the pp cost will be $560. If we do redeem the capitalone miles, the total cost will be $112.

Gardyloo

It's worth noting that AA's flight attendants are also threatening to strike this summer; talks between APFA and AA broke off this weekend with the flight attendants' union asking the National Mediation Board to release the union from further mediation talks with the airline. Last week the FAs voted to strike by a 96% vote. Not saying they will strike, but can't rule it out either.

You could get to Prague with the same number of miles and (probably) around the same out of pocket cost for the Capitol 1 ticket by asking AA to put you on Iberia Airlines to Prague via Madrid instead of AA over the pond connecting to BA at Heathrow. AA's mileage program allows the use of any/all partners on award itineraries, so the mileage "cost" would be the same; of course you'd need to pick available dates. Iberia flies to Madrid from New York, Chicago, Miami, Washington, <b>Boston</b> and San Juan. Most of their transatlantic flights connect to Prague with a short layover at MAD (which is a very easy airport to navigate compared to LHR.) If interested, phone AA and ask about availability on your dates.

usernameistaken

Good advice. I agree that Madrid is a great airport.

Gardyloo

Also meant to mention a second non-AA/BA alternative would be Finnair from JFK to Helsinki, connecting to Prague. It helps to know of these possibilities when talking with AA; often the agents won't work that hard looking for alternative routes, so it helps if you ask the right questions.

usernameistaken

Rats - there is no availability on our dates (or nearby)from Bos-Madrid!

Iberia offers a good itinerary for $1100. Might be worth buying both tickets and then just redeeming the capitalone miles for one. That way, we will earn more AA miles and can redeem them for a ticket to Asia (preferably one we can book online so we can avoid the $20 phone fee and all the other fees that just keep piling up).

And I would LOVE to avoid London if possible,

usernameistaken

AirFrance offers a good route with good times for $977, all taxes etc included. Maybe it would be better to just book that and then save the AA miles for later. Total cost would be just 460 pp and we earn miles on Continental and/or Delta (forget which partners ate which)

I just hate paying all those extra taxes and fees to use the AA miles by going to Europe!

Gardyloo

If you fly on an Iberia code (flight no.) in economy you only earn 30% of the miles on AA accounts.

A couple of thoughts...

First, just for the fun of it, check out business class fares. Depending on your dates (what are they?) Iberia sometimes has surprisingly cheap business fares over the water. Those would earn full AA miles plus a 25% "class of service" bonus. IB's business class is very nice.

Second, just IMO, 60,000 miles for an economy seat that retails for $1000 means your miles are worth roughly 1.7 cents/mile. A very common rule of thumb is that any redemption worth less than 2c per mile is a poor use of miles; in fact there are "studies" (believe what you will) that directly or indirectly through credit card annual fees, merchant markups etc., you actually "paid" something like 1.5c per mile accumulating them, thus a redemption in the same neck of the woods is a "money-losing" venture. Now, you can choose to believe that if you want, but you might look down the road a little and think about what you could spend those 60,000 miles for later and see if this is the best use. For instance, 50K miles on AA gives you a round trip in first class from, say, Boston to Anchorage, or San Francisco, LA or Vancouver; 60K gives you first/business class RT to Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean or northern South America. Those tickets would cost a *lot* more than the Europe tickets, hence would be a better "yield" for your miles. Just some thoughts.

DonTopaz

If I were concerned about strikes that might happen 4 months from now, I'm not sure that I'd route myself through France - the country that more or less invented "le droit de grève" -- the right to strike. In France, it's considered to be an inalienable human right, and it's part of both French culture and its Constitution.

usernameistaken

Gardyloo - you are awesome and are hitting on exactly the issue that is in my mind about redeeming the AA miles for this trip. It's not *too* hard to redeem AA miles (as compared to Delta, I believe), so it might be best to bank those miles and look into other options

Rizzuto - the strikes are one issue but also an issue is going through Heaththrow and using BA. I am of Asian Indian descent and find them really racist to us.

usernameistaken

So, I see a flight on Lufthansa that meets our needs for $965 per person (which would work out to $480 pp because one ticket is "free.")

Lv Boston Oct 6 at 8:40 PM. Arrive Vienna at 12:35 PM Oct 7.
Spend Oct 7&8 in Vienna then head to Prague on the train

Oct 9 Prague
Oct 10 Prague
Oct 11 Prague

Oct 12 Leave Prague at 1:45 PM on Lufthansa. Arive in Boston (via Frankfurt) around 8 PM.

Although the timing isn't *as* good as AA's, this itinerary works a little better for a few reasons:

1. One stop plus our first port of entry in the US is home (Boston), which is preferable to having to sweat customs elsewhere.

2. Leaves after 7 PM (which is vital because that way my husband doesn't lose a day at work - he CANNOT leave work before 5 without losing a whole day).

3. We get to Vienna first - since it is the more expensive city, we can save $$ by arriving, exploring for a day and a half and then heading to Prague and basing ourselves there.

4. We can go to the game on the 9th or 10th without having to worry about missing a connection anywhere.

DonTopaz

I've taken that LH flight to Boston many times. A side benefit: I don't recall ever having a crowd of people in the immigration hall when we arrived. The LH flight arrives after all the other Euro flights, except for the two late London flights that arrive after 9.

usernameistaken

To update, here is what we did.

We found some special unadvertised fares on Lufthansa.com and booked a student ticket for my husband at $865 and a "we fly home" fare for me at $900. The $900 ticket will be free thanks to capitalone. So, total will be $865 for the two of us to go to Prague in early $800.

The AA miles are going to be used for another purpose - perhaps Mexico in November, but I have started another thread.

Thanks for your help!