Flying to Europe- business class

[AZjohn]

I'm glad Hawaiidan keeps posting options for business class flights.

 

I have been a United mile hound for most of my life because I felt they offered the best savor inventory. But, like all good things in life, it will be gone very soon and United will follow Delta's lead (like always) and obsolete decent value for mileage.

 

One thing I wanted to add is those booking from US to Europe, don't get stuck on a specific airport to fly in to in Europe. Intra-Europe flights are plentiful and mostly inexpensive. So look at flying to any Europe city with a decent price (either miles or $) and then book separate ticket to where you need to be or leave from.

 

Cheers,

John 

[Hawaiidan]

1 hour ago, AZjohn said:

I'm glad Hawaiidan keeps posting options for business class flights.

 

I have been a United mile hound for most of my life because I felt they offered the best savor inventory. But, like all good things in life, it will be gone very soon and United will follow Delta's lead (like always) and obsolete decent value for mileage.

 

One thing I wanted to add is those booking from US to Europe, don't get stuck on a specific airport to fly in to in Europe. Intra-Europe flights are plentiful and mostly inexpensive. So look at flying to any Europe city with a decent price (either miles or $) and then book separate ticket to where you need to be or leave from.

 

Cheers,

John 

Thanks  John.....

Well I  pulled the pin...   figured enough time on games and stress....    SO   I can book a cruise the exact reverse of my October one,  Get F seats domestic and in 30 days get Bus class back from FCO.     I am not going to  wait till Ual and AA drop the hammer . 

 Today my miles are worth my butt in a lie-flat.    After Oct 30  ( hey that's  trick or treat??    but in this case all trick) ,......... there are going to be a lot of sad faces and hand wringing....  " Oh God... look what happened  were screwed..." 

     

  In a few weeks I will be a  mileage pauper,  ( brother, can you spare an up grade)  and entering  "FF Rehab" 

 

It was a fun ride for 30+ years... and a few million miles later....  Like  in Up  In  THe Air   , Ryan  Bingham, was asked  by a seat mate  on a flight,"  Where  are you from"?   

Ryan paused and looked around the plane...and replies  "  HERE"!

Edited April 23, 2019 by Hawaiidan

[FlyerTalker]

For those who are/were United-holics, remember that you have options.  Your flights on UA can be credited to any of the other Star Alliance carriers.  And you can use other credit cards for earning points, preferably transferable points that have greater value.

 

Now, the trade-off is that by crediting to other programs, it won't count toward UA elite status.  Are those benefits "worth it" compared to earning status in a parter carrier?  Only your particular situation can answer that question, but no one is totally captive to any program.  Both Asiana and ANA have some attractive redemption options for their miles.

 

Same with those who fly DL - you can credit to AirFrance, AeroMexico, or other SkyTeam programs.  Ditto with AA flights crediting to Cathay or JAL or Finnair.

 

Crunch your individual numbers, compare to your aspirational goals and see what may be a better deal.

[buggins0402]

1 hour ago, FlyerTalker said:

For those who are/were United-holics, remember that you have options.  Your flights on UA can be credited to any of the other Star Alliance carriers.  And you can use other credit cards for earning points, preferably transferable points that have greater value.

 

Now, the trade-off is that by crediting to other programs, it won't count toward UA elite status.  Are those benefits "worth it" compared to earning status in a parter carrier?  Only your particular situation can answer that question, but no one is totally captive to any program.  Both Asiana and ANA have some attractive redemption options for their miles.

 

Same with those who fly DL - you can credit to AirFrance, AeroMexico, or other SkyTeam programs.  Ditto with AA flights crediting to Cathay or JAL or Finnair.

 

Crunch your individual numbers, compare to your aspirational goals and see what may be a better deal.

FlyerTalk, a while back you recommended a subscription website for searching FF flight availability.  Do you still recommend and could you refresh my memory on the name of it?

[Hawaiidan]

3 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

For those who are/were United-holics, remember that you have options.  Your flights on UA can be credited to any of the other Star Alliance carriers.  And you can use other credit cards for earning points, preferably transferable points that have greater value.

 

Now, the trade-off is that by crediting to other programs, it won't count toward UA elite status.  Are those benefits "worth it" compared to earning status in a parter carrier?  Only your particular situation can answer that question, but no one is totally captive to any program.  Both Asiana and ANA have some attractive redemption options for their miles.

 

Same with those who fly DL - you can credit to AirFrance, AeroMexico, or other SkyTeam programs.  Ditto with AA flights crediting to Cathay or JAL or Finnair.

 

Crunch your individual numbers, compare to your aspirational goals and see what may be a better deal.

The bad part is for some of us who have ALL UAL miles for the past decades... quite sizeable banks  We pretty much have to book through UAL,       Too...In this climate, just how long do you think it will take ALL other airlines to follow suit?

Me thinks it will be pretty darn quick when they get indated by DL, AA and UAl  refugees.   Ciao

[FlyerTalker]

6 hours ago, buggins0402 said:

FlyerTalk, a while back you recommended a subscription website for searching FF flight availability.  Do you still recommend and could you refresh my memory on the name of it?

 

Both ExpertFlyer and KVS can help in searching for award space.  KVS costs more and is a standalone program - EF is web browser based. Both require paid subscriptions to use, with EF having a short trial available.  I personally get better award info with KVS, but EF is quite good for other things, including alerts.  I think it's worth the money to have both tools - of course, YMMV.

[FlyerTalker]

4 hours ago, Hawaiidan said:

The bad part is for some of us who have ALL UAL miles for the past decades... quite sizeable banks  We pretty much have to book through UAL,       Too...In this climate, just how long do you think it will take ALL other airlines to follow suit?

Me thinks it will be pretty darn quick when they get indated by DL, AA and UAl  refugees.   Ciao

 

Yes...your current balances need to be redeemed through Mileage Plus.  But I was talking about going forward.

 

I don't think that there will be many people switching from, say M+ to ANA, if only because it is so easy just to stay with what you have.  To wit - would you (and others) have been thinking about moving to a different Star program without someone suggesting it?  Probably not - you fly UA so you naturally think to credit to M+.

 

One more little benefit of being in another program -- if you become a Star elite with another program than M+, you may be able to use that for United Club access while on USA itineraries.  Same with OneWorld.

[Paulchili]

12 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

I think it's worth the money to have both tools -

So do I and I have them both. They have come to my rescue in the past many times.

[Hawaiidan]

9 hours ago, Paulchili said:

So do I and I have them both. They have come to my rescue in the past many times.

Well amigo, its going to be a whole "new" world for many of us.      Thankful that I have been able to use the program  ( TWA-AA-UA) for my  gross benefit. for almost 40 years    I have gotten more F and Bus  flights around the world   that I can count.

Upset that change is coming  but nevertheless grateful for the experiences.  No more week end trips to Lyon for dinner.  Darn !

[Hawaiidan]

Edited April 24, 2019 by Hawaiidan

[susiesan]

On 4/23/2019 at 11:39 AM, pinotlover said:

Susie;

 

We haven’t a clue as to your meaning of “ right now “ since you can’t book your flight for three months! You will find that getting saver awards for flying to Stockholm in April ( if that is right now) will be significantly different than finding them for June! 

Right now means doing dummy bookings for the time frame available today, which is March 2020. I will be monitoring the UA award calendar for the next few months until my booking window opens.

If I can't get business class award seats I will just cancel the cruise and go somewhere else for vacation. There's a whole big world out there to explore, and for me it does not have to be on a cruise.

[Hawaiidan]

15 minutes ago, susiesan said:

Right now means doing dummy bookings for the time frame available today, which is March 2020. I will be monitoring the UA award calendar for the next few months until my booking window opens.

If I can't get business class award seats I will just cancel the cruise and go somewhere else for vacation. There's a whole big world out there to explore, and for me it does not have to be on a cruise.

Kiddo..... you a day late and a dollar short....  FF bookings for March 2020 opened 3 weeks ago !!!   I just booked a march 20 flight.     in 7 more days april will open.     

I just burned through my last  600,000. grabbing paris, rome, sydney and tokyo   .    Try buying a Y class  and up grade to Bus from PE

 

Edited April 24, 2019 by Hawaiidan

[Hawaiidan]

 handy hint..... your flying  on ff to a destination  and it shows a composite of 2 or 3 flights.    Try going to the last full segment   us- euro  destination   Like EWR, IAD, BOS, ORD and try  for you business class from that point !    Then use or buy cheap coach to get there    Like STL- ORD, MCI- EWR  MEM-IAD         Likewise  in a hub like ZRH  FRA MUC go for a cheap internal flight   I tried to get a FF  to Malta. from LAX.      So I bought a ticket LAX-SFO       got a SFO -FRA  bus. for 56K   took a train to Zurich and got a ZRH to Malta  business for 15K       Many paths to choose      Like  Yogie said   " when you get to a fork in the road...take one"

[susiesan]

3 minutes ago, Hawaiidan said:

Kiddo..... you a day late and a dollar short....  FF bookings for March 2020 opened 3 weeks ago !!!   I just booked a march 20 flight.     in 7 more days april will open.     

I just burned through my last  600,000. grabbing paris, rome, sydney and tokyo   .    Try buying a Y class  and up grade to Bus from PE

 

You misunderstood what I was saying. My cruise is June 26, 2020, from Copenhagen. If flying in a few days before, those award seats will open around July 30, 2019.

 

The vast majority of my banked miles are Chase UR points, transferable to UA. Except for the recent 75K bonus points I just got for a new MP credit card, I keep my UA account balance very low and transfer in when needed. I find award seats more readily available on partner airlines and not UA. Hopefully that will be the case with SAS but I have never flown them before.

[Hawaiidan]

4 minutes ago, susiesan said:

You misunderstood what I was saying. My cruise is June 26, 2020, from Copenhagen. If flying in a few days before, those award seats will open around July 30, 2019.

 

The vast majority of my banked miles are Chase UR points, transferable to UA. Except for the recent 75K bonus points I just got for a new MP credit card, I keep my UA account balance very low and transfer in when needed. I find award seats more readily available on partner airlines and not UA. Hopefully that will be the case with SAS but I have never flown them before.

SAS  is partner with UAL...    June in Denmark is major high season....   Good luck  I think the deck is stacked and not in your favor  Your post says a March 2020 time line.....  very confusing

 

Edited April 24, 2019 by Hawaiidan

[FlyerTalker]

1 hour ago, susiesan said:

The vast majority of my banked miles are Chase UR points, transferable to UA. Except for the recent 75K bonus points I just got for a new MP credit card, I keep my UA account balance very low and transfer in when needed. I find award seats more readily available on partner airlines and not UA. Hopefully that will be the case with SAS but I have never flown them before.

 

And is there some reason why you are focusing on UA Mileage Plus??  Seems like you are limiting your searches and options.

 

You can transfer Chase points to:

 

British Airways and Iberia for OneWorld awards

Air France for SkyTeam awards

United and Singapore for Star awards

Virgin Atlantic for VS and DL awards

 

And remember...different programs have different redemption rates and different availabilities open to them. So you need to shop around.

 

You can also transfer to Aer Lingus, JetBlue, and Southwest, but the latter two won't get you to Scandanavia.

[susiesan]

Flyertalker: I too am an active FT member and I know about the transfer partners for Chase UR points. Problem is the transfer ratio is lousy for most of them other than UA. I will have to research the redemption rates on those other Chase airline partners but I don't think they are as good as on UA  as it is now. When UA goes to dynamic pricing the situation could change.

 

As I want to go on a safari in Namibia next year I may arrange that while I can get to Windhoek on ET for 70K miles each way in  J and do a Scandinavian cruise some other time. Who knows how many miles it could take to Namibia after UA's dynamic prices kick in in November. Best time for a Namibia trip is between June and October.

[PaulMCO]

I had little problems getting saver awards on UA from Stockholm to MCO for this July.  You just have to watch the inventory.

Same for this December from MCO to Cairo on UA and Egyptair.  Issue now is the return so finally broke down and purchased one way Cairo to MCO for $1300 and will try to upgrade using GPUs. (From FRA home).  Many ways to skin a cat. 

 

Next challenge is for my May 2020 cruise from HKG.  Have lots of Amex 5x points so could use Delta or go via London on Virgin. I still have 300k points in Delta from Pan Am  🙂

[buggins0402]

1 hour ago, PaulMCO said:

 

Next challenge is for my May 2020 cruise from HKG.  Have lots of Amex 5x points so could use Delta or go via London on Virgin. I still have 300k points in Delta from Pan Am  🙂

 

Well they may be considered Sky Pesos, but you are proof positive that DL miles never expire. 😀

[Hawaiidan]

1 minute ago, buggins0402 said:

 

Well they may be considered Sky Pesos, but you are proof positive that DL miles never expire. 😀

Sort of like a Virus.....      Me  I am quitting and going revenue. lord knows  I have saved enough.... after 20 years   I went through my  7 figures and got  6 figure$ worth of flights..... I am not unhappy... I made out for a long long time

[Paulchili]

39 minutes ago, buggins0402 said:

 

Well they may be considered Sky Pesos, but you are proof positive that DL miles never expire. 😀

They may not expire but are they worth anything? 😀

 

See this quote from from post #31 (Dan quoting Woody Allen):

I am reminded of Woody Allen in sleeper  asks his broker after a 80 year sleep what his  stock is worth........

The agent says ",your  ATT  is worth 20, million   Your GE  is worth  5 million   your GM is 13 million...."   Woody gasps,  then the telephone operator comes on and says "  Your 3 min are up...please deposit 1 million dollars"

[GeezerCouple]

4 hours ago, Hawaiidan said:

SAS  is partner with UAL...    June in Denmark is major high season....   Good luck  I think the deck is stacked and not in your favor  Your post says a March 2020 time line.....  very confusing

 

 

Not confusing at all, IF you read it properly.

 

The wording was: "Right now means doing dummy bookings for the time frame available today, which is March 2020"  Those were her DUMMY bookings, so she could get a sense of availability, realizing it wouldn't be the same for June - but obviously, she couldn't check June, 2020 *now*.

 

You don't need to pounce on everyone, even if they *do* make an error, which was NOT the case here.

 

Calm down.  There is no need to react the way you so often do (and the way you no doubt will do to this post...!).

 

GC

[buggins0402]

51 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

They may not expire but are they worth anything? 😀

 

See this quote from from post #31 (Dan quoting Woody Allen):

I am reminded of Woody Allen in sleeper  asks his broker after a 80 year sleep what his  stock is worth........

The agent says ",your  ATT  is worth 20, million   Your GE  is worth  5 million   your GM is 13 million...."   Woody gasps,  then the telephone operator comes on and says "  Your 3 min are up...please deposit 1 million dollars"

LOL in chart form

 

https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=ARS&to=USD&view=10Y

 

I couldn’t find a good 10 year on Zimbabwe dollar to USD Circa 2008 that worked.

[FlyerTalker]

[susiesan]

Here's an example of why transferring UR points to BA Avios doesn't make sense for me.

 

One way ORD-CPH via LHR on BA in J is 57,750 avios plus $595.61 tax pp. Plus I would have to pay for a ticket to Chicago as flights from MCI-ORD on AA do not show up as being available to book with avios.

 

One way MCI-ORD-CPH on UA/SAS in J is 70K miles plus $5.60 tax