have you used frequent flyer miles for tickets to Europe or Asia?

[Anonymous]

Have you used frequent flyer miles for tickets to Europe or Asia?
Any tips?

Is there a price point at which you think it's worth it to cash in miles vs. paying the fare price?

We're a family of 5 and we have a lot of miles (earned by blood, sweat and tears for business travel) but my husband is always loathe to use the miles (so we don't).
The 3 times we've taken the kids overseas we've spent a ton of time searching for cheap flights.

Thx for any thoughts!

[Anonymous]

What type of miles do you have?

[Anonymous]

american

[Anonymous]

Yes, but we have encountered an issue using American miles to Europe, which is that depending on your itinerary and which partner airlines you are taking, you can wind up with a massive tax bill on top of the points you're expending for the trip. In theory it's most efficient to use points for international travel, but not if you wind up having to pay thousands on top for taxes and fees. Last time we went to Europe we just paid in cash for that reason.

[Anonymous]

We always use miles. Why not? DH travels 100+ miles a year (which can mean like 300k miles you can use) and we don't use them all. We like to get tickets to Europe for under 75k miles.

[Anonymous]

I would call the FF desk at AA and ask them to help you put an itinerary together for your trip. You will pay $5 extra a ticket but it is worth it because they will find better ways to use your miles for flights than you could find on their website.

[Anonymous]

We've used miles to go to Europe (family of 4) when the cost of each ticket is about $1500.

[Anonymous]

I used miles to fly back and forth from Istanbul. Worked out great. I didn't have the cash to pay for tickets at the time; this was the only way I was going. I think I ended up spending another $100 or so to upgrade to premium seats for my return flight after flying there on regular coach, which was not super fun.

[Anonymous]

Yes, we used frequent flyer miles for our family of four. We flew into London and out of Paris. We booked the flights at the earliest time we could. United- so it was almost a full year ahead. Then we filled in the middle. We used Home Away to find a flat near Kings Cross and also found an apartment in Paris to rent for a week.

[Anonymous]

I've found it to be a nightmare to try to get multiple tickets on the same flight with points.

[Anonymous]

Yes. With kids it's especially worth it for the flexibility alone. When you book to Europe, look for AA specific flights (no codeshare with BA, etc, or where BA is the secondary vs AA is the secondary) and you can minimize the fees. If BA is the carrier, the fees went to like $700/ticket!! - which makes using points stupid.

[Anonymous]

Yeah AA partner award flights have steep taxes, so watch out for that. It really depends on where you want to go in Europe. For Asia, unless you get some ridiculous $700 fare it's generally always worth if it you can get the lower award points tickets.

What is your husband waiting to use the points on?

[Anonymous]

Yes! That's the whole reason we accumulate points. I've done Asia once and Europe numerous times. I've only used United and Delta, but had no problem searching and booking online. The key is searching early to get good fares. What is your DH saving the points for?

[Anonymous]

Yes, we've done London and Rome for our family of 4 using miles on United. We got saver fares (60,000 points r/t). Looking to do something similar for Spring Break this year.

[Anonymous]

American miles are really hard to use at saver rates IMO. They don't have any nonstops to Europe from DC and if you fly British Airways there are really high fees.

I only like to book tickets to Europe on saver fares (60k) and have only been able to do so on United or Delta (Air France). They have nonstop flights to several destinations but you must be flexible with dates and book in advance.

On American you can sometimes find saver first class flights to Hawaii. Also Alaska Air nonstops from DCA to LA are good.

If you don't care how many points you use you can get to Europe or Asia but you have to connect.