Redeeming Frequent Flyer Miles

Bob, have you asked about using your Alaska miles on British Airways? We have made two trips that way in recent years, one in summer (June, as soon as cool let out) and one in April, on spring break. That is also a time you could consider for Italy, going on spring break, although you would be limited to nine days.

I'm just wondering if, in planning for the future, we would be more apt to get award tickets if we have our miles invested DIRECTLY with American, British, Air France, or any other airline's plan that flies to Europe instead of relying on Alaska INDIRECTLY finding us a ticket through one of their partner airlines. Is the inventory any different if you deal direct?? If so, we could use an American Airlines (or British, or whatever) credit card for our purchases so the miles build up in their account.

Bob, We booked our trip next summer on American using American miles. I kept watch to see what the first day was we would be able to book, and booked the tickets that day. From playing around with the numbers before hand it looked to me like they had about 6 seats available on most flights. (we're flying into Brussels and out of Zurich). It also looked like they were selling out within a day or two of being available. I would think you should be able to call on the first day they were avaiable and be able to book them with your Alaska miles.

I asked a friend of mine that worked in the Delta corporate office about the same thing and he said that all the partner airlines pool all of their flights together and sort it out at the end of each quarter. So I don't think there's a disadvantage going through Alaska Airlines. At least for the Skyteam Alliance, it seems to be pretty accurate for me as I have as good a chance of being on Air France, Alitalia, or KLM as I do Delta. The best luck I have using miles is waiting until a few weeks out. I know that's tough for the summer, but if you ever can do that any other time of year, I have had great luck finding the lowest milage requirements. Another thing I do especially for first class tickets is randomly check destinations and dates until I hit something then base my trip around that destination. I ended up in Provence last spring because I found 2 low milage tickets to Nice. There always seems to be flights available to Frankfurt from Atlanta. I needed to get to Paris last fall and used it as a hub and bought a cheap ticket from Frankfurt to Paris and miles from Atlanta to Frankfurt. Cost me 120 euros in all for 1st class (for the tough part anyway). Good luck!

We got British Airways cards last year when they were offering a large bonus of miles to sign up. If you like to fly BA ( we do) and don't mind the fuel surcharges they add, this might be worth considering. We have only used the miles for upgrades, not for the ticket itself, but when I have looked for award tickets out of curiosity, they seemed pretty available. The nice thing is you can do it yourself on the website. Also, the card itself, a Chase card, has mo foreign transaction fees.

I've used my Alaska miles to fly to Europe a number of times. It's tricky, though. What I do is call as soon as their desk opens on a weekend morning. I explain I'm trying to do a "special" trip and ask if they have the time to work with me. I keep options open for days of travel and departure airports (because the award will fly you to the departure airport.) Just being patient and winning the Alaska staff over to your side can work wonders. That's how I once got three round trip tickets through Phoenix, of all places.

I would say switch your credit card to a different airline. Decide where you want to use your miles and who flies there most often and go with them. Don't get a new card without reading flyertalk for the best offers tho, as according to an article in today's paper the carriers have some great offers now for those with the best credit ratings. We use our miles on Delta and Continental with good success rates. That said, I have not found any seats to Rome except odd times, but have found seats to/from Milan and Venice for Italy. Where are you going, and is there an alternative a few hours away, such as Munich or Nice for for northern Italy? That's stretching how far you might want to travel to the airports, but we've done it for longer trips of 2-3 weeks. I am obsessive about checking for seats online however. key word ....online...and Delta and Continental have pretty good calendars for the 2 levels of redemption. I realize when it is Alaskan partners you may not be able to see it, but you get some ability with DL and CO.
There is also a couple of services that charge about $250 to handle the redemption that I read about on the flytertalk forum and the points guy website. Pricey, but cheaper than a ticket.

Something to consider - do your searching (going to be cumbersome and time consuming) on their partner airlines to see what is available. For example, you can just go to AA's website and search for free tickets. Not sure about the other partners. I think BA needs you to have a login. If you find something, then call Alaska and try to put it on hold. Most US airlines will give you 3 or 7 days to keep the ticket on hold while you try and find better routings. This way you do not have to rely on the agents and how diligent they are with searching.

I'm a little confused. How do I search online for "free" tickets from AA? Especially if I'm not a mileage member with them?

I am facing the same situation as Bob. My credit card is linked to United. Next year I want to fly to London about two days before the start of the Olympic Games and return two days before they end. United's standard cost for flying round trip is 60,000 points, and they will break this into to two separate flights at 30,000 points apiece. Getting a ticket to London was no problem: I called 330 days before the flight date and was able to book a flight for 30,000 points. UA is using an alliance airline Air Canada. Coming back has been the problem. Starting 330 days before the return trip I have been calling two to four times a day with no luck getting a Saver Economy flight. I am always told that United and its alliance lines "have not released seats". I don't know if this means: (a) they have not yet become available, or (b) a limited number of seats were available but other people got them. It would sure help me decide if I knew what the true situation is. United will gladly sell me a Standard Economy seat for 55,000 points plus about $160 in taxes and other fees. At that price I am seriously considering flying Icelandic Air back to Seattle for about $750 with a stop over in Reykjavek of several days. Unfortunately, Icelandic Air doesn't get good reviews and their penalties for changing a reservatio are onerous. I have looked at flying from Amsterdam and Paris and the only thing available are the 55,000 point seats. I think this like like buying a Barbie doll or GI Joe: the basic figurine is cheap but the add on outfits (ie return flight) is where they get you.

Simple - Go to their website and on the main booking page, where it says round trip, one-way, there is a check box for 'Redeem AAdvantage Miles' - click on this, enter your dates, and see what comes up. You do not need to have an AA account to search for available free tickets. First start with the transatlantic portion using the main hubs of AA and its partners. For example, I was able to find at least 2 seats on a number of days from Chicago to London for next June (the return was much more limited). If you can at least get this portion - you can then play see what is available to get you from say SEA to ORD and on the other end from say LHR to where you want to go. Doing it this way, you may not get the best routing, but you increase the possibility of getting to Europe. The key here is being flexible. Also consider an overnight in Chicago or Dallas if it helps you get the free ticket - this will add to the cost but sometimes enables you to get a ticket to where you want to go. PM me if you have more questions.

Since we had lots and lots of Alaskan miles, I started calling them trying to get ff tickets from SEA to anywhere in Europe on specific dates in Aug and Sept. I know the odds of getting those but nothing ventured nothing gained. I started call them 320 days out and kept calling for several months every other day. After a lot of "no way" responses, one Alaskan fellow said he would try to put an itinerary together if we did not mind not getting a non-stop flight out of SEA. I agreed and after some period of time, he came up with SEA-Dallas- Amsterdam-Berlin / Vienna - AMS - Houston - SEA!! Well, that was two very long flights and coming home took 27 hours. But, for free tickets in the summer, what the heck.
Would I do it again? Probably not. Would rather purchase a non-stop ticket that is upgradeable with miles. Good luck.

www.flyertalk.com Great for these types of questions.

@Geor, that many miles really doesn't sound bad for such a prime event as the Olympics. Have you seen that you can transfer United miles to Continental now- perhaps they have seats? I know that you could go roundtrip for almost the same number of miles as the one way this time; I can justify using miles faster than using money. Wasn't it just 2 years ago that Delta's levels went up significantly?
We're spending the most miles ever for flying into Athens in business class and home from Rome in coach, but the price of 100,000 miles each and $69. each is OK with me.