Using Miles to get to Europe

Did you have a question?

No question - just information about the methodology, and notification about a sub-$500 fare from Boston to Paris. There is also a basic economy fare for $331 for the same dates. I believe that the so-called Norwegian Airlines Effect is in play here, given that Norwegian offers a cheap non-stop from Boston to Paris. The low fares appear to be available for mid-week travel.

By the time you pay for checked luggage for the Basic Economy ticket it will cost a lot more. There is no carry on allowed with basic

Miles valued at 1/2 cent is a poor deal.

The miles in this case are valued at 1 cent per mile. This was the only way I could use these miles for a trip to Europe for two.

I don't use miles unless they'll be worth about 2 cents each. If I can't get that, I'd be better off with a cash-back card.

I found a $536 multi-city flight into Nice and out of London last year. No way I was going to spend 60,000 (?) miles on that. Next year's fares are looking pretty ugly; I hope to use miles for that trip.

We have decided that we don't like airline miles cards. The AMEX card included a 60,000 sign-up bonus, in addition to other bonuses totaling 40,000 miles. The miles were handy when we were flying to Florida frequently.

We will soon be cancelling the AMEX and relying on regular cash back cards, and were really looking for a way to use up the remaining Delta miles.

If it works for you, great.

You say you can easily fly between Paris and Italy to make the tour, just curious, how much time are you leaving between arrival in Paris and start of the tour, and for after the tour until your flight back?

We leave Boston on Wednesday 4/17/19 and the tour starts on Monday 4/22. The tour ends on Sunday 5/5 and our return flight from Paris to Boston leaves on Tuesday 5/7.

I wish i could find fares like that out of my local airports. But there's a general lack of competition and I love the miles cards and miles collecting because I'm frequently getting better than 2 cents a mile on even economy flights.

I wish I had used this forum earlier in my travel research. I have been saving Alaska airmiles for years in hopes of first class fights to Italy to celebrate retirement. I began looking for fights 10 months outand was shocked to learn No Way could I use my miles first class Seattle to Rome. Even if I accepted several very long layover connections, first class was not available on all legs. Very irritating to have a zillion miles and no way to use them. Alaska recently did offer hotel stays using milesso I took advantage of that for my trip. I did not even try to calculate the value per mile vs hotel room cost but it’s very over priced for sure. I just need to use up miles somehow. I dropped the miles card and now using cash back card. I still have plenty of miles and will start looking for Europe flights a full year out for my next trip.

Life is short and economy class air traval is cheap. Why take convoluted routings at odd times and long (or super short) layovers to save a few dollars.

The one time I did use milage benefits to travel to Europe, we booked some 10 or so months in advance to get the capacity limited seats and got reasonable layovers. But having booked early and not knowing any better, we had the flights changed with a very long layover at DFW.

Re "not knowing any better". Recently flew a milage domestic trip booking early. Airlines changed flights and assigned me a new flight returning a day early. I would have missed the last event of my trip. Now knowing better, it just took a long call and knowing options to rebook to my original day of departure.

Lesson learned is be prepared for schedule changes when booking so far in advance and be firm about your travel needs when changes happen.

I've flown to Europe every year since 2014 using airline miles: Alaska and AA, without need to pay extra (other than taxes/fees) for the tickets. You do have to book them a ways in advance, but I've managed to find some decent flights almost every year.

I also fly Southwest a few times a year using SW points.

I've received most of these miles and points through credit card sign-up bonuses. They have saved me a ton of money over the last few years. One other benefit hard to monetize is that the points offer some flexibility, especially the SW points, for changes and cancellations. The Alaska program (until this year) also offered free changes and cancellations up to 60 days before departure. So the points/miles have been much more valuable than you might guess compared to cash-back credit cards.

I don't really find the airline credit cards worth keeping for more than a year; better to cancel and sign up again for a new bonus in a year or two. Many of the cards allow this. (Amex Delta now has a "once in a lifetime" rule though.)

Selkie's a good example of someone who can really benefit from a mileage card. Those miles are worth a lot more if you don't live in one of the cheap gateway cities (like Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, Washington DC)--assuming you can find mileage-seat availability on the connections you need out of and back to your more obscure home airport.

Miles are also more valuable if you're trying to fly into places other than the cheap western European gateways (Dublin, London, Amsterdam, Paris, plus perhaps others depending on your point of origin).

Using miles back from London will probably never make any sense for me because the taxes on departures from Heathrow are so high.

If you ‘play the game’ of opening/closing accounts to collect sign up miles, you can fly for free quite a bit. frugaltravelguy.com and thepointsguy.com are two websites that explain this.

I share the frustration trying to fly first class with Alaska partners. The transatlantic leg always seems to be economy, but you are using the first class mileage to do so.

In 2016 I was able to use American miles to fly first/business DEN-FRA. Those miles were valued at a fantastic 7 cents each.

The reason I asked about the dates is all too often people break up legs of a trip using different tickets...and then wonder if 2 hours are enough to get through immigration and catch the unlinked flight. Just by your earlier dates and the length of the tour I figured you were OK, looks like a couple days to recover in Paris and then on to Italy maybe.

@Bob (op)
One way we’ve made a dent in using up our Delta/Amex Miles is for hotel rooms. The restrictions on using the miles for flights or upgrades, plus the high number of miles required, have made it pretty difficult to use them. On the other hand, there are a large number of hotels listed where you can use the miles. If we have a late arrival time or early morning departure we just sleep at a hotel near or in the airport.

I use Delta Miles, which come from AMEX points. I guess I am saying the obvious, but book your flight as soon as possible, which is 11 months out. The options quickly become limited and the point levels quickly climb. I booked two weeks ago a May flight. Doing online was not working, and I was on the phone with Delta for 75 minutes.