Questions and Answers

Hello!

My parents live in Seattle and we are looking ahead to next summer’s travel plans. I have two goals:

1) fly them business or first class from Seattle to Europe in as few connections as possible (non stop would be great)
2) Fly them on a cool/good product

We are looking to go somewhere very late summer or early September, but I’m doing some homework now on routes/etc. I’m flying from NYC so I am not worried about my flight.

This is what I am seeing:

1) AA/partner: non stop to LHR. I’m sure the business class product is great, but the fees are $600 per person or so
2) LH (booking on united using CSR): non stop to FRA and take a connecting flight. The connection is fine, but my concern is that it seems like these plans are very old – they still have the 2-3-2 business class. God forbid I would let the people who gave me life fly on that configuration! 😛 (that is a joke in case you can’t tell)
3) Delta: Could go to AMS or CDG. I’ve been pleased with the delta one flights I’ve taken so I’d be happy flying them on this option. The one issue is delta’s weird pricing for seats (e.g. some b-class seats might be 220,000 points, others are 82,000)
4) Air France: Could get to CDG. Since I have both CSR and Amex miles, I could transfer points to Air France to book the non stop they just started from SEA to CDG, but I’m worried about phantom awards space – I’ve never booked anything on air france or KLM flying blue. I believe that AF does not let you book La Premiere (nor is there a route from Seattle on La premiere) unless you are a flying blue elite – so business is the ‘only’ option. Fees are a little high but not as outrageous as AA/one world partner

Any other options I’m missing? I was hoping Swiss airlines might have a flight, but I didn’t see anything originating from SEA. Any other hacks/tips? I also did a search on expert flyer and these are the options that came up (plus another flight to Iceland – but that is not one of the destinations we want to cross off next year).

Thank You!

[QUOTE=”Jyoti, post: 58699, member: 2117″]Hello!

My parents live in Seattle and we are looking ahead to next summer’s travel plans. I have two goals:

1) fly them business or first class from Seattle to Europe in as few connections as possible (non stop would be great)
2) Fly them on a cool/good product

We are looking to go somewhere very late summer or early September, but I’m doing some homework now on routes/etc. I’m flying from NYC so I am not worried about my flight.

This is what I am seeing:

1) AA/partner: non stop to LHR. I’m sure the business class product is great, but the fees are $600 per person or so
2) LH (booking on united using CSR): non stop to FRA and take a connecting flight. The connection is fine, but my concern is that it seems like these plans are very old – they still have the 2-3-2 business class. God forbid I would let the people who gave me life fly on that configuration! :p (that is a joke in case you can’t tell)
3) Delta: Could go to AMS or CDG. I’ve been pleased with the delta one flights I’ve taken so I’d be happy flying them on this option. The one issue is delta’s weird pricing for seats (e.g. some b-class seats might be 220,000 points, others are 82,000)
4) Air France: Could get to CDG. Since I have both CSR and Amex miles, I could transfer points to Air France to book the non stop they just started from SEA to CDG, but I’m worried about phantom awards space – I’ve never booked anything on air france or KLM flying blue. I believe that AF does not let you book La Premiere (nor is there a route from Seattle on La premiere) unless you are a flying blue elite – so business is the ‘only’ option. Fees are a little high but not as outrageous as AA/one world partner

Any other options I’m missing? I was hoping Swiss airlines might have a flight, but I didn’t see anything originating from SEA. Any other hacks/tips? I also did a search on expert flyer and these are the options that came up (plus another flight to Iceland – but that is not one of the destinations we want to cross off next year).

Thank You![/QUOTE]

It includes a connection, but we flew Austrian to Vienna from Chicago and loved it. Food and service was awesome! Think they also fly out of SFO and LAX.

AA doesn’t actually fly the nonstop SEA – LHR route. Its codeshares are operated by BA and at 8 across in business class, I doubt you’d want to gift that experience to your parents, although first class is fine if you don’t mind the pricey surcharges. The DL nonstop flights from SEA to CDG and AMS have very low surcharges going to Europe but higher, variable prices returning to the US. There’s also their partner flight from SEA to LHR on VS. The A330’s DL usually flies on these routes are comfortable. In order to get level 1 pricing for Delta One, it helps to start looking at their website multiple times a day once the award space for the days you want to travel opens up. DL doesn’t release level 1 award space for every day of the week– during my last search it had MTW space to Europe and WRF space back to the US. Perhaps consider flying DL to Europe and then another carrier back to the US. It helps to have miles with both DL and AK (or AA). AF business class would be less comfortable than Delta One or BA first class. Being willing to connect in the US might also open up some AA and UA possibilities but summer premium award availability can be challenging to find. Also consider connecting from SEA to LAX and flying Austrian Airlines business class from LAX to VIE if your parents might enjoy visiting central Europe– it’s 6 across seating in business class, but the catering might surpass the other options discussed.