Solo to Europe - Airline Choices?

The only choice that stands out in terms of service, food, and overall quality experience is Emirates (codeshare with Jet Blue) to Milan with a connection in NY. I view American airlines as a commodity experience with uniformly bland food and service, so a 5-Star airline like Emirates or a European Airline (Lufthansa etc.) is preferable. I'm not loyal to any American airline - I simply use price and convenience as the filtering criteria.

Jim, here's what I would do:
New Orleans is a Delta hub. Delta flies from N.O., LA direct to AMS (Amsterdam). Then fly to Italy. Look at the 'operated by' carrier - you should get a choice of flights from N.O. including KLM (or Air France) which are part of the Delta Sky Team. I prefer KLM, Air France, and Delta in that order.
If you want to stick with United, you'll have to fly to New York first (yuck - crowded, more frequent delays), but may still be able to choose a flight by United Star Alliance operator Lufthansa - my choice WAY over United (I wish they had not acquired Continental, a very service-friendly airline before the merger).
I do the same as I've suggested to you when I fly to Europe from Texas.

If you go via Amsterdam (AMS) you'll have to go through 2 layovers because I don't think there is a non stop from New Orleans (MSY) to AMS.
If I were you, I'd look at www.Kayak.com and look into a multi city option. Click on Multi-City end enter:

Date going: from MSY to MXP (or VCE).
Date return: from FCO to MSY

(MXP is Milan Malpensa, VCE is Venice, FCO is Rome Fiumicino)

Then look what comes up. If MSY is a Delta hub, chances are many options will be with Delta via ATL or via JFK.

My suggestion, if you want to save money, is join the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan. I use miles on them every year to fly from Portland to Europe, on partner airlines. These days, you'd probably fly AA on a partner award. Alaska's program is flexible, and I think you'll find good availability next spring to Italy. (No cost to make seat assignments on award tickets. Also, free changes/cancellation up to 60 days before departure.) Try it yourself: you can search for flights using miles on Alaska's website and see what's available now for April-May. I just did and found a bunch of flights for 20K miles each way with one connection (Miami, Charlotte or Philadelphia) between MSY and Milan or Rome. You can book an open jaw: into Rome, out of Milan or vice-versa.

OK - but how to get miles by next spring, you ask? Credit card miles. Alaska has a good partnership with Bank of America. You can get 30,000 miles just for signing up for a card and spending $1,000 in the first three months. The card normally comes with a $75 annual fee (not waived the first year)...BUT, there's a trick to get a $100 credit after you spend that $1,000, in addition to the 30,000 miles. (Easy to find the $100 sign-up link by Googling.)

That's 31,000 miles. If you happen to spend a lot on credit cards, you can get $1 per mile and get the rest of the miles you need pretty quickly. Sometimes Alaska puts their miles "on sale" if you need to buy enough to get the amount you need for the next ticket.

OR, believe it or not, they will let you get more than one of these credit cards at a time! I think you have to wait 90 days - but I have done it. They don't seem to care. (When I called to cancel one of them recently, the agent said, "Oh, you don't need the other companion pass anymore huh?" I guess people get two cards at once - and get the bonus for each - so they can get companion passes for their families - not something I need.) And, you can cancel before the year is up (to avoid the next annual fee) and sign up for a new card - and get the bonus again. Again, they seem to allow it.

Yes, if you get too many credit cards, you may affect your credit rating. And I'm assuming you would pay off your balance every month and not run up big finance charges. Not sure if that maters to you or not. But I've appreciated getting a round-trip ticket to Europe for almost free (about $100 in airport fees/service fees per ticket) the last several years in a row.

Maybe it's too late for you for spring of 2018 to get enough miles for a round-trip ticket; the 20K one-ways may be gone by the time you get enough miles to book. But if you want to go again in 2019, best to start now. If you have United miles too, you can sort of combine them: Alaska lets you book one-way tickets for half the miles. Maybe United does too? If you can manage to find a good one-way United award flight, at least, you could book the other way's flight with Alaska miles.

Have you looked at Norwegian Air? They have very reasonable rates for flights from LA to Rome. A couple of days a week. They are a no frills airline, but I've read decent comments about them. I know their premium rate has larger seats and more legroom and typically runs less than $1000.

I think you go with schedule and price. Personally think that all of the US and most of the European airlines are close to the same. Use to like Lufthansa and BA but they are all cutting the service level to compete at the lowest level - price.

Jim, I've flown from New Orleans roundtrip to Europe at least annually for years. Usually, I fly United because I rack up points on the United Chase VISA (putting credit cards, on-line shopping, and everything else possible on it) and book far enough ahead to get roundtrip for 60,000 miles. The Economy Plus (as you know) then adds approximately $120 each way for just the transatlantic parts of the flights. However, last November (thanks to posts on this forum) I got a fabulous $405 Delta roundtrip fare for this autumn and will be flying Delta leaving MSY at noon, through ATL (2 hour connection), arriving Rome 8:00 am then returning from Venice, leaving 1:15 pm, 2'45" in JFK, home at 9:55 pm. "Delta Comfort" adds $119 on each transatlantic flight section. I prefer to do my connecting in the States, so that I can get a chance at some sleep before landing at my destination. Also, very recent research (if I read my notes correctly) would me a United fare of 40,000 miles one way between MSY and Rome on a Tuesday in May 2018, with one change on the east coast. Total flight times: leave 2:45 pm - arrive 10:55 am. One thought: Are you trying mostly for weekend flights, or are you able to take midweek flights? Good luck! Do consider flying home from Venice; I've found both United and Delta have flights leaving Venice in late morning that change in the US (ATL for Delta; JFK for United) and arrive back in New Orleans by early evening.

Another vote for Air France. Primarily for having decent food and distribution of warmed steamed towels, which I never knew I needed until my first Air France flight. :)

Jim,

I can't help you with any comments on the airlines suggested so far, as I've never used them. However I was going to add that some people on the forum have found good flights on Canadian airlines, and of course with that option your dollar goes further.

For example, I believe Air Canada has a direct flight from New Orleans to Toronto, where you could use one of their direct flights to either Milan or Rome. You'd probably have to spend one night in Toronto in either direction. While AC has a bit of a "reputation" here, I've used them for many years for flights to Europe and have no complaints. I've always found the service to be good, and their Premium Economy is very comfortable (Business Class is even better!). As they're a Star Alliance member, they can generally get me to any airport in Europe with one of their partner airlines.

Delta also has steamed towels and a packet with eyeshades, earbuds, toothpaste (smallest tube ever), and toothbrush (also a mini). Don't know if this is only for economy comfort passengers only(that's what I fly whenever possible).

Thank you all. Great information that I will digest and check out. My biggest fear about changing from United has been the "unknown" with other airlines. You have given me hope that it might not be such a big deal as I thought. I have the Chase Southwest and United Plus credit cards and use them quite a bit. The main reason I've stuck with those two airlines for so long is that if I use too many airlines it spreads around the miles and there aren't enough on any one airline to use for flights. For anyone who is interested, I recently acquired the Chase Sapphire Preferred card on which, in addition to 50,000 points after spending $4,000 in three months, the points are transferrable 1:1 to a number of airline and hotel rewards programs including United, American, Delta and Alaskan, which I'd never considered until it was mentioned here. I've seen Lufthansa in combination with United on flights to both Milan and Rome, but while I can chose my seats on United it tells me I will get my seat assignment on Lufthansa when I get to the airport. Ken, the same thing applies to Air Canada flights in conjunction with United on those same routes. For that reason I've never used those routes and stuck with United on all flights. I appreciate all the comments.

As I said, then, if you can dig up possible award flights on Alaska and partners that would work for 40K miles total (or even 50K if you could transfer that many miles), you'd be good to go. Once you've made your reservation, f you check between now and 60 days before departure, sometimes you'll find even better flights (a better connection or something) and you can change your Alaska ticket for free up to that point - I've done it many times. I do the Southwest Chase thing too for domestic flights and love the flexibility with Southwest RR points - Alaska's program isn't quite that flexible but more flexible than United's, it appears.

And if you can get one round-trip flight for next spring for 40K points on Alaska (10K left over from your 50K), you could get the Alaska BofA card for another 30K points and have enough points to go again next year!