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There’s a large amount of United Business Class available from the United States to Europe for the coming summer months of July and August. We’re talking up to eight seats available some days and up to four on many days. Award space flying United Business Class costs just 57,500 United miles versus the 70,000 it would cost you to fly another Star Alliance partner like Austrian or Turkish. If you have Aeroplan miles, the United space would only cost you 55k.
It’s true United’s partners tend to have a better Business Class product than they do, but United still offers what people tend to value the most–a fully flat bed. And if you book a roundtrip with United miles you can add a free stopover (the Excursionist Perk).
European cities with United Business Class award space include Amsterdam, Dublin, Paris, and Brussels.
Searching Tips
You’ll want to specify your award searching on united.com if you want the results to show only the 57,500 mile award space flying United flights direct to Europe.
First, click “All Search Options” on the United homepage…
…and then in the Locations and dates section of the next screen uncheck the boxes that would show connections so only direct flight results show up, and click United and Untied Express only.
If you’re not based in one of the gateway cities that the award space mentioned in this post flies out of, then filter appropriately–you won’t want to search for just the nonstop flights since you’ll need to connect from your hometown.
Beware that while the United search engine does filter out non-United flights from the actual flight results listed under the award space calendars, it isn’t always filtering out non-United flights from the award space calendar results, so to double check you’ll need to click on a specific day to see if it has actual United Business Class.
I tried many different city pairs and the calendars for the ones below have mostly accurate calendars that show majority United Business (and not Star Alliance) award space.
The Award Space
The following calendars are for direct flights.
Chicago > Brussels, four travelers
Chicago > Dublin, four travelers
Newark > Paris, four travelers
Washington, D.C. > Amsterdam
Return options from Europe to the United States in United Business Class aren’t as prevelant as the outbound, but there is a decent amount. Here’s the calendar for four travelers between Brussels and Chicago in August and September.
Connections
It shouldn’t be too difficult to connect on United flights from your home airport to Chicago, Newark, or Washington D.C. All three airports are huge United hubs with flights from all over the country. Connecting flights within the continental United States and Canada will add nothing to the mileage price of the award.
If you’re not interested in Brussels, Amsterdam, Dublin, or Paris you can connect in their airports instead and fly onward on a Star Alliance carrier.
To see your options, check each airport’s wikipedia and it will show you a list of airlines that fly out of it and where they fly to. For example, Brussels Airlines has a big route network in Europe and Africa. From Brussels, they serve all these destinations:
Don’t feel like figuring it out yourself? No sweat. Hire our Award Booking Service to plan your Eurotrip for you.
The Product
United Business Class on the Boeing 777-200 features a comfortable flat bed, but it isn’t up to the standards of the absolute best products in the world because there are as many as eight narrow beds per row.
Here are trip reports flying United Business Class, so you know what to expect:
How to Get the Miles to Book This Kind of Space in the Future
When responding to emails requests I receive for our Free Credit Card Consultations, one of the most common travel goals people state is a trip to Europe in Business Class.
United miles and Ultimate Rewards (which transfer to United miles) are some of the best reward currencies to collect for that purpose as United and Star Alliance generally have the most premium cabin award space to Europe. There are many credit cards that earn United miles or Ultimate Rewards.
Some of the top offers right include:
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
- Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
- Chase Sapphire Reserve®
- United℠ Business Card
- United℠ Explorer Card
Bottom Line
There are four business class seats available on a ton of days in July and August between United gateway cities in the United States to European cities such as Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam, and Dublin with connections onward. You don’t often see this many Business award seats open on the same flight during peak travel time. United has a 24 hour free cancellation policy so if this interests you, book it now!
Hat tip Frequent Miler
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With a bonus of 60,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first 3 months, 5x points on travel booked through the Chase Travel Portal and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!
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