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.

Last year I wrote "How to Book Multiple Awards from Different Accounts on the Same Flights."

The idea is that you can never transfer miles from one airline to another, even if they are airline partners, but you can book two seats on the exact same flights with two different types of miles.

Last week I used 30,000 Singapore miles and 35,000 Lufthansa miles to book myself and a friend one way First Class flights on United from Honolulu to San Francisco.

United flies one flight a day from Honolulu to San Francisco on a 767-400ER with fully

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 generous Cave Dweller has donated a pair of United Club passes that expire December 31, 2015 to one MileValue reader. (Congrats to Kim who won last week's pair of passes.)

Here are the United Club locations to check whether you’ll be able to use a pass on your next trip.

If you can use the passes by December 31, 2015, there are two ways to enter to win them!

Comment on this post.

Generous email subscriber Donn donated a pair of United Club passes that expire October 31, 2015 to one MileValue reader.

Here are the United Club locations to check whether you’ll be able to use a pass on your next trip.

If you can use the passes by October 31, 2015, there are two ways to enter to win them!

Comment on this post.

This is the fourteenth post in a monthlong series that started here. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete. I am writing this for an audience of people who know nothing about frequent flyer miles, and my goal is that by the end, you know enough to fly for free anywhere you want to go.

I've covered how to earn miles and the redemption options for miles.

Singapore Airlines' award chart has some phenomenal sweet spots, which I've covered extensively:

United States to Central America with free one ways to Hawaii
United States to South America with free one ways to Hawaii
Continental United States to Hawaii

Yesterday I published comparison tables of United's award chart for United flights versus Singapore's award chart for United flights.

While compiling those charts, I saw that Singapore has an incredible sweet spot from the United States to the Middle East.

Skip this 1 vs 1 comparison and see this post that compares eight Star Alliance award charts side by side.

I've created comparison charts of how many mile a certain award costs with United MileagePlus miles versus the same award with Singapore KrisFlyer miles. Why?

Singapore Airlines miles can be used to book all the same Saver award space that United releases to its non-elite members without any fuel surcharges. That makes it a relevant comparison.
For many routes, the Singapore KrisFlyer program charges fewer miles to book a United flight than United charges to book the same flight.

Air India has joined the Star Alliance.

Award space is still available on several Star Alliance flights to Europe this summer!

Tons of space is bookable with United miles, Lufthansa miles, or miles from any other Star Alliance carrier.

A lot of people are contacting the MileValue Award Booking Service saying they'd love to head to Europe this summer but are resigned to waiting until next summer if there's no space.