Using AA awards within Europe - AirBerlin
 

I have award miles on American that I’d like to use for my husband and myself within Europe in Spring 2016. (We have a transatlantic cruise from Miami to Rome.) The first flight is Rome-Berlin and next is Berlin- Krakow. I am finding AirBerlin flights at 10K miles each.

I am a novice when it comes to redeeming miles, so despite hours of scouring websites, I still have the following questions, and am hoping someone can help…

1. Traveling on an award ticket, will I have to pay AirBerlin to check bags? If so, what is the charge? I have studied AB’s website and just cannot figure it out. We will each have one checked bag and will keep it under their 20 or 23 kg limit.

2. Our other stops will be Warsaw and Riga. I was thinking we’d train from Krakow-Warsaw and likely pay to fly from there to Riga, but am open to any better way to string together these 4 cities.

3. There is one option at the moment to use AA miles to get home one-way business class from Riga avoiding British Airways to avoid their fees. However it has 4 legs and some tight connections: Riga-Helsinki-JFK-Charlotte-Tampa. I can buy affordable seats via Celebrity for a 2-leg return home and I think we will just do that.

I really appreciate any tips -- thanks!

1. If you have to pay to check bags, you have to pay regardless of whether or not you are using a rewards ticket. I don't know the specific rules on Air Berlin, however I suspect you will have to pay as is the case on most intra-European flights on budget airlines. It's pretty much the same deal as in the U.S. (You don't have to pay for a checked bag from the US to Berlin on Air Berlin, though.)
2. Definitely train from Krakow to Warsaw. You might be able to fly from Warsaw to Riga for as little as $100. Seems a pretty easy choice to me. Any other way takes a full day and does not seem worth it to me.
3. I'd never do a flight with so many connections even if it's for miles. I'd buy a flight.

One comment is that AA allows you to change the routing on award tickets without a fee, provided the origin and destination (end points) are the same. So for example if sometime between now and the spring business class seats opened on, say, Riga - Berlin - Miami - Tampa, you could swap the the JFK-CLT legs for the faster trip. (Airberlin is a budget carrier within Europe, but their intercontinental business class product is actually quite good.)

As it is, Helsinki is a very easy airport to transit so I wouldn't be too concerned about a short connection time there. It's the JFK-CLT-TPA scrum that will be the back-breaker, unless you're willing to schlep to La Guardia for the nonstop AA flights from there to TPA.

A huge risk with getting award tickets now for an 8-months-off Riga-Helsinki-JFK-Charlotte-Tampa trip is that the schedules are absolutely certain to change between now and then. When that happens, AA will be able to help you rebook the flights that are on AA metal (even if no award seats are available), but you could be out of luck if you need to rebook either the Riga-Helsinki or Helsinki-JFK flights.

Thanks, everyone, for your replies.

Don -- OUCH! I was not aware of this, so thanks for the heads up. I have decided to not book the 4-leg award ticket from Riga.

I'm now looking at switching around the order to be able to use award tickets to US from Berlin. So I'd start Riga instead; there's a Rome to Riga nonstop on Air Baltic for a $144 'premium' ticket which includes a checked bag and seat assignment.

Any thoughts on Air Baltic?

Also, is it worth my calling AA to see if they can find award flights that I cannot using AA.com?

<i>Also, is it worth my calling AA to see if they can find award flights that I cannot using AA.com?</i>

Yes, AA can see award space on Iberia that you can't see online. It's probably not important, but it is an alternative routing option.

I would not be alarmed by Don's discussion of a flight schedule change. If you book a multi-flight award ticket and one or more of the flights have a schedule change, you'll be "re-accommodated" at no cost. Any separate flights - ones not included in the award booking - might need to be changed to meet the revised schedule of course, but most short intra-Europe flights don't need to be booked too far ahead, so any schedule change that came along probably wouldn't have big consequences.

But like I said, AA will allow you to change the itinerary on award tickets provided the start and end points remain the same.

What dates are you looking at for the return?

Return date to US would be roughly May 17.

After living within 20 miles of DFW airport for 20 years, DW and I have many AA miles to burn off in retirement. While I usually will check websites for availability and schedules, I almost always will call AA for anything other than a point to point trip.

But, sometimes, when I call AA I am connected with someone who is less than helpful. It may the agent is new and relatively unskilled or just not having a good day. When that happens, I thank the agent, hang up, and redial. When I ask the same question or try the same booking with a different agent, I usually find someone who is very helpful and willing to work the system until they can find what we need. I think I have only once had to call back twice, and that was for a very complex booking from DFW to Capetown and returning from Nairobi. For that, we ended up with round the world tickets for less than a round trip.

Have flown Air Berlin with no issues. (Well, passenger behind me who talked the ENTIRE flight, but that wasn't the airline's fault.)

Gardyloo, thanks for the reassuring clarification on schedule changes to an award ticket. I thought the prevailing wisdom was to book an award ticket as soon as the vacation plans were definite, so your explanation fits with that.

I will call AA and see what they can offer.

Jeff, You make a good point about keeping at it until I find someone knowledgeable and helpful.

I'm now thinking that if we start in Riga, we may take the bus to Vilnius -- we will never be so close again. Then fly to Krakow, train to Warsaw, train to Berlin then on home. Even though we have 3 weeks, it sounds a lot of moving around.