Questions and Answers

Lucky:

Given that you used to live in Seattle was hoping that you might know quickly best options for SEA to Venice returning to SEA via Athen . . I have about 2M membership rewards points so I’m figuring my options should be pretty decent for booking 1st class space. Any help you could provide would be appreciated as always, thanks for the advice.

D

Hello Darin.

While there are many airlines that offer business class cabins US-EU, there are far fewer that offer F cabins.

Out of of SEA to EU your only direct option would be British Airways, the only other EU carrier would be Lufthansa requiring 2 stops on the way. Other options included AA, Singapore Airlines from JFK to FRA, and I think United all of which would be 2 stops on the way.

Swiss and Air France F can only be booked by elite members of their own FF programs so is not an option on miles.

Then we come to where you miles can be used, for this the Transfer Partner Master list by Frequentmiler come in handy.

The blog post is old, but it links to an updated Google spreadsheet.
[URL]http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/2014/06/24/transfer-partner-master-list/[/URL]

Since your choices are either Oneworld or Star Alliance carriers these are the transfer partners you should be looking for.

For Star Alliance Aeroplan/AirCanada and Krisflyer would seem to be the best options, do keep in mind that Lufthansa only release award space to partner FF programs 14 days out.

For Oneworld the most logical choice would be BA or Iberia, problem with both of these are the BA fuel surcharges and high taxes that comes from flying true London. And they are distance based so mileage cost will be high. Cathay is also listed as a transfer partner, but I don’t know much about them.

There is also FF programs of ME airlines like Emirates and Etihad, but these would only get you part of the way or requires transiting the ME.

Your best choice for F would probably be Aeroplan/AirCanada on Lufthansa starting 14 days out, otherwise I would suggest to start looking at the better business class cabins out there.