Questions and Answers

I’m having an absolutely brutal experience trying to find flights that don’t route through LHR on 12/26/2016 booking on Aadvantage miles–it’s the only result AA is giving me no matter what modifications I put in. Long story short, I’m trying to do a one-way award redemption from ORD to CPH without going through LHR–any suggestions/words of wisdom? I have a decent stock of TYP and SPG but wanted to try and burn some AA if at all possible…thanks!

Nearly impossible without LHR on AA. You could go ORD-CDG on an award ticket and then buy a nonstop flight on SAS or Easy Jet (for around $65-$75) from CDG-CPH.

*A has direct ORD-CPH on SAS which is a great ride. Also through Stockholm, Air Canada through Toronto as well as Austrian through Vienna. All business class. AA has economy to CDG. Nothing on Air Berlin or Iberia.

You could transfer to Singapore and pay 65k, problem is all 3 have YQ fees of around $400. Eva air is a TYP transfer as well, 65k and no surcharge or go SPG and aeroplan for 55k and no surcharge. That’s a great deal. SAS or Austrian are top carriers to Europe.

I thought about Iberia but I don’t see any availability there or on Qatar via Doha either.

As you know that’s a prime travel day and I’d assume you’d have to book 300+ days out to find award availability, especially in business (though you didn’t say you required business class). It’s also possible they don’t release as much award availability on a heavy travel day like that.

It’s Christmas, so that’s going to make this all very difficult.

If you want to use AA miles, look for flights on Finnair, airberlin, or Iberia. All serve CPH, but it’s a less intuitive routing and won’t always display organically on aa.com. Iberia has direct space from Chicago to Madrid in business on the 27th, so wouldn’t be a bad option if you can delay a day.