Should I buy Italy/France flight with Award Miles?!
 

Hello all,

I am planning a trip for my family (me, my husband, and our 9-year-old twins) to Italy and France for 3 weeks next summer (June 2016). See prior posts for itinerary. We want to fly into Venice and out of Nice. I figured we would have to pay between $1,600 and $1,100 per ticket if I did my homework. I've started checking fares, and have some United miles to use.

I just found an acceptable itinerary on the United website that would enable me to book two tickets using miles, and pay for two more. Total, this would cost me $3,786. That is comprised of a service charge, but is mostly to pay for the two extra tickets. Although that is a lot for the two individual tickets, it only works out to $946 per person. This seems like a really good deal to me, but I am wondering if there is any reason I should NOT do this.

I don't use my miles for anything else, and have no other airplane trips planned for the near future. So, I would like to use the miles I have for this trip, especially if it saves me money.

Is there a disadvantage to booking so far ahead? For example, if they change the flight times? Will it be hard to deal with that when two of our tickets were purchased with miles, and two with cash?

Thank you for your help!

Daria

There are often limitations on how many FF seats are assigned for each flight. And since you need four seats, it might be good to book early.

There is of course always the possibility of schedule change. This happens frequently on all flights. We once had AA flights booked to Stanstead from JFK and the entire route was cancelled. AA was only mildly helpful. Such is modern travel.

We often book for one of us with FF and the other with a credit card. We just do it quickly and sequentially, booking the FF first.

Disadvantage of booking ahead is always the risk of not able to take the trip for various reasons. You have to weigh this against advantage of securing seats during the peak travel time. Also, airlines seem to cheapen the value of accumulated miles frequently, so using the miles while you can is to your advantage.
If you cannot book all four seats using one booking code, the six digit PNR confirmation code, then they are "supposed" to be able to link multiple PNR codes, however, just how much the airline cares to honor the "link" when there is a need to rebook flight is always in doubt.

... A possible risk exists when they rebook you. They can split your two different bookings across two different planes. They might be "considerate", if such quality still exists in this profit-and-profit-only environment, and rebook all of you on the same flight. Or they can do by the terms which allow them to split you. I have not have to deal with this, but one way might be to book one adult and one child on one reservation and another adult with another child with other. I have traveled with another member of family on different PNR. The airline's response to a possibility of being split was "Oh, we can't guarantee you would be flying together."

You don't indicate which airlines miles you're dealing with.

For instance, American doesn't show all of their partners online. So if you look up a trip from somewhere in the U.S. to somewhere in Europe, their site may show flights by American and British Airways and not show any by Iberia.

I know people who've booked tickets online without calling to save the extra few dollars charge only to later find out they could have gotten much better flights and cheaper as well (BA charges exorbitant service charges and taxes).

I used to be a great accumulator of frequent flier miles but in the last couple of years I've changed my tune to what they call "earn and burn". It's hard these days to have a compelling reason to hold onto miles because FF miles are a currency that has devalued dramatically over the last few years. My advice is to use them before the devalue again.

You don't mention how many miles you are using, can you get a saver ticket or are you looking at a standard award which takes double mileage. A saver ticket in high season is generally well worth booking, the calculation more mileage runners use is how many cents are you getting per mile?

You shouldn't have too large a service charge if you are booking far in advance, i.e. no late booking fee. I think a component of the $3,786 cost is probably the tax on the frequent flier tickets, after all they are not entirely free and on airlines like BA there are very high "fees". One thing I would look into is how to build in the greatest value with the mileage tickets. It's a bit hard to say without knowing which airline you're on but for example some airlines will let you have a stopover and an open jaw e.g.: SFO-VCE and then NCE-SFO (stopover) SFO-Hawaii In other words people add an additional American leg on to get the most value, it could be anywhere. You'll only get a one way but it can up the value of the ticket.

Hope this makes some sense!

OP says she's flying into Venice and out of Nice on United miles -- American Airlines isn't part of this picture. It's likely that OP is on a combination of United and Lufthansa flights. (AFAIK, United doesn't fly into either Venice or Nice.)

I'd suggest to OP that she get the tickets now while they're available. That said, if at all possible, avoid United flights as much as possible, especially for the international flights. This summer, United has had an abyssmal record in having international flights cancelled and delayed due to mechanical problems. They might get this fixed by next summer -- or they might not.

It is often very hard to get even 2 FF tickets together - so if this is the trip you ant I would grab the tickets before they are gone - as long as you are wiling to risk the potential issues.

If they are flying business, then yes, it CAN be difficult to get 2 FF tickets together but that's not true for economy. There are lots of FF economy seats available especially if they are flexible in their dates.

That said, what Don said is true regarding United cancelled flights. This summer flight from Zurich to Washington Dulles was cancelled because of mechanical issues. Add to that injury, Swiss (partner airline) lost my luggage from Nice to Zurich.

<i>Is there a disadvantage to booking so far ahead?</i>

For the mileage booking? Not really. Mileage awards on most airlines (including United) are changeable and cancelable. You will likely have to pay a fee (prob. $150) but you have good flexibility with the award tickets.

The only question, for me, is whether you should wait to buy the cash tickets or not. I gather they are running around $1750 or so? If so, that seems pretty darn high. I'd personally book the awards and wait to see if the cash price comes down before booking those.

<i>For example, if they change the flight times? Will it be hard to deal with that when two of our tickets were purchased with miles, and two with cash?</i>

Most US airlines are pretty flexible with changes to tickets if it is a schedule change driving it.

United flies a 767 seasonally from Newark to Venice but the return from Nice would involve a connection via a Star Alliance partner.

>>I'd personally book the awards and wait to see if the cash price comes down before booking those.<<

This is what my sister and I do when we travel together. The award mile flights are the most challenging to coordinate and secure. To get the best options, you have to book those flights almost a year in advance. Once we are sure of our dates and the in and out itinerary, we book the free tickets first. Then we wait for a sale fare before we purchase the other tickets. It's too early to expect sale fares for next summer. My sister and I won't travel if we have to pay much more than a $1000 to fly to Europe. We rarely pay more than $800, but you have to catch the sale fares when they first appear. We're also flying out of competitive airports.

I have a general rule about FF miles: If I have an opportunity to use them, I do, if it makes sense. You never know what limits and obstacles you'll face in the future.

<i>I have a general rule about FF miles: If I have an opportunity to use them, I do, if it makes sense. You never know what limits and obstacles you'll face in the future.</i>

Agreed. Don't use them carelessly, but they don't earn interest and are only likely to decline in value given the direction of the industry.

Thank you so much everyone. As some mentioned, yes, I am using United Airlines miles. The two tickets cost 260,000 miles, which I have. That is using a standard awards ticket, not a saver. I will double check to see if there is a saver, but I do not believe there was an itinerary I wanted. There is a booking fee of $177, and the two cash tickets are $3,608. That is for the two cash tickets, but we want to all be together.

I think I will book the award travel for one adult and one kid, and then wait a bit to see if the cash price for the same flight goes down. But, I am a bit nervous about that as I want us all on the same flight. Not sure how long I can wait?? I looked at the seating chart, however, and at the moment there are a lot of available seats.

Also, fyi, the flights are from SFO to EWR to VCE and then the return flight is fro NCE to FRA to SFO. All legs are operated by United except for the left from NCE to FRA, which is Lufthansa.

Any other advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

I would call United and pick their brain about your options. They might come up with a fight option that you haven't found yourself on line, or give you information you haven't already discovered (or reassurance about what you believe you know). If the person you get on the line doesn't seem helpful, thank them, hang up and call back. Some of them are very understanding and helpful.

Additionally, you also could post for advice in Fodor's Air Travel forum.

Daria,
I don't know that my advice applies to standard awards, these are VERY expensive in terms of miles, check if they have a business saver award as this will cost about the same as your standard award in economy. I'd also check for flights on partner airlines especially on the way home, I'd much rather be on Lufthansa than on UA.

Hi,

I just wanted to add that we recently flew Lufthansa from Europe (Marseille -Munich-Montreal) and thought it was quite good (better than United). They even had a little toys/puzzles for our kids (and a treat). So I would second the suggestion to see if you could fly a Lufthansa code share back to SFO from Frankfurt (I personally prefer Munich airport to Frankfurt).

You are getting a lot of good advice. I don't use United but usually, when I check for award tickets, there is a box to check for just that airline or one for all partner airlines. You might get more options by checking the partner box.

I'm with all the others: earn and burn. Your tickets do seem to require an awful lot of miles for standard economy. Keep checking as advised, but since you have no other plans for these miles, I would burn them without worries.

We also have purchased one ticket with miles and one ticket with dollars. Like you, I add up all the costs and divide by the number of flyers to see if it is worth my time, costs, etc.