Until late last year, getting to Europe in business class was much easier than it has been lately, especially for traveling parties of three or more. In December of last year, Austrian Airlines stopped releasing business class award space until about three months before departure. This made advance business class award redemptions for larger parties much more difficult.

In the past I've booked families of four to Europe and even to the Middle East on Austrian Airlines, and it is a very solid and comfortable flat bed business class product.

Lufthansa First Class is no longer bookable using LifeMiles.

For the past few years, Lufthansa has only released first class award space to its Star Alliance partners 15 days before flight departure.

A few days ago, LifeMiles joined United and Delta in announcing an award chart devaluation, which will take place on October 15, 2014.

Bookings made until October 14, for travel until mid-2015 will cost the current mileage prices.

Don't ignore the Hawaiian Miles program. Hawaiian Miles are easy to earn, and there are sweet spots on the chart that offer solid value.

Hawaiian Airlines miles have never been easier to acquire. Anyone can get 71,000 Hawaiian miles by opening just two credit cards.

The Hawaiian Airlines® World Elite MasterCard® comes with a 35,000 mile sign-up bonus after spending $1,000 in 90 days. The Hawaiian Airlines® Business MasterCard® comes with a 35,000 mile sign-up bonus after the first purchase.

Recently, I posted about how we can get amazing value from the fact that the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer program considers Hawaii to be part of the same region as Central America. We can also use this sweet spot for great value on travel to South America too!

On the Singapore Airline's award chart, it costs fewer miles to fly between Hawaii and South America, routing through the continental United States, than it does to fly directly between the continental United States and South America.

Adding Honolulu to Houston lowers the price of Houston to Buenos Aires

US Airways charges only 60,000 miles roundtrip in economy to North Asia.

US Airways miles can get you to the Middle East and Indian Subcontinent on Qatar Airways flights in Business Class.

British Airways has a unique, distance-based award chart that can provide fantastic value for short-haul flights.

Both Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards transfer 1:1 to British Airways Avios.

British Airways has access to all American Airlines "MileSAAver" award space. Furthermore, on some routes British Airways actually charges fewer miles for the same flight than American Airlines.

Unfortunately, using ba.com is not as straightforward as using aa.com.

US Airways Dividend Miles are extremely valuable for award flights to Europe because they can be redeemed for awards on all oneworld airlines as well as a number of Star Alliance airlines.

All together, that's nine airlines you can use to cross the Atlantic, and you can even add in a stopover or an open jaw for free.