Questions and Answers

Would like to redeem some miles/points for a biz class ticket to HAM/BER/AMS/BCN (Originating Atlanta) some time this summer. I have points/miles in several programs:

70K – AA
175K – DL
131K – Starwood
11K – Iberia
11K – BA
110K – Chase Sapphire Reserve

Flexible on which city in Europe (see above) and can even do an open jaw.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Hi – so are you asking where there is award space? What the best products are? Suggestions on which airports to fly into?

It’s going to be tricky, as award space for summer is pretty limited at this point. How many people do you have traveling?

Thank you both for your reply. Just one person traveling; and pretty flexible for dates. I know summer is most difficult, so I can push to post-Labor Day if necessary. I guess my overall question is in which program would I get the best “value” to redeem my miles? I was looking at KE and they have a very good published rate for biz to Europe. Also, EI and IB seem to have good redemption value. (Of course, finding availability can be a problem.) All three airlines also have the benefit of a US alliance partner. I’m pretty sure I can transfer Starwood or Chase points (either BA or directly) to provide enough miles for my redemption. I’d have to blow my entire DL balance to use them, so I’d prefer to avoid that. Not locked into any one airline, though, so open to suggestions.

Well, as Tiffany said, you may need to forego “best value” in favor of “where space is available”. Booking this close in your options will be limited. August is vacation month for a lot of Europeans so pushing to September might open things up a little.

Scott from Travel Codex built an Award Maximizer tool that can show you not only how many miles it takes on different airlines but also indicates which transferable programs can be used to fund those miles. Note that it does not take routing into consideration, so if, for example, you were using BA Avios, which prices by segment, it would not consider any connecting flights, which would increase your cost. You can find the Award Maximizer here: [URL]https://www.travelcodex.com/award-maximizer/[/URL]

[QUOTE=”MidSouth Skier, post: 32714, member: 184″]Well, as Tiffany said, you may need to forego “best value” in favor of “where space is available”. Booking this close in your options will be limited. August is vacation month for a lot of Europeans so pushing to September might open things up a little.

Scott from Travel Codex built an Award Maximizer tool that can show you not only how many miles it takes on different airlines but also indicates which transferable programs can be used to fund those miles. Note that it does not take routing into consideration, so if, for example, you were using BA Avios, which prices by segment, it would not consider any connecting flights, which would increase your cost. You can find the Award Maximizer here: [URL]https://www.travelcodex.com/award-maximizer/[/URL][/QUOTE]
Thank you!