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Because you can use any type of Star Alliance miles to book any Star Alliance flight, I’ve put the eight best Star Alliance award charts into one spreadsheet. Check out why I chose these eight award charts and how Americans can get these miles here. Check out the cheapest awards within the mainland USA, to Canada, to Hawaii, and to Alaska and the cheapest awards to Latin America and the Caribbean.
Today let’s look at the cheapest Star Alliance Awards to Europe.
Remember, the spread sheet in this post only captures one part of an award: its mileage price. The routing rules and fuel surcharges matter too. Where relevant, I will note those as we go through the regions, but here are a two big things that apply to all charts:
- United, Copa, and LifeMiles never collect fuel surcharges. All the others collect fuel surcharges on most awards.
- All programs allow one way redemptions for the prices listed on the charts except ANA. It only allows roundtrip redemptions for double the price on the chart. I used its fictitious “one way price” that you can’t actually book just to more easily compare to the programs that do allow one way bookings.
Cheapest Awards to Europe
For awards starting in the mainland United States and flying to Europe, these are the prices:
Let me explain a few things:
- United has two award charts. The cheaper one for flying United (or mostly United if you follow these rules) and the more expensive one is to fly its partners.
- Aeroplan divides Europe into two regions. The cheaper region is for Western Europe and the more expensive region is Eastern Europe. You can see the complete region definitions here.
- LifeMiles blocks Lufthansa First Class awards.
Fuel Surcharges
United, Copa, and LifeMiles don’t collect fuel surcharges on award tickets.
Asiana, ANA, and Singapore don’t collect fuel surcharges on awards on United-operated flights. They do collect fuel surcharges on all other flights that have fuel surcharges as part of a normal cash ticket.
Lufthansa collects fuel surcharges on all flights that have fuel surcharges as part of a normal cash ticket.
Aeroplan collects fuel surcharges on Air Canada, Lufthansa, Austrian, TAP, and LOT flights to Europe. Aeroplan does not collect fuel surcharges on Air New Zealand, Brussels, Ethiopian, SAS, Singapore, Swiss, Turkish, and United flights to Europe. (And yes all those airlines fly from the United States to Europe.)
You can figure out the fuel surcharges by calling the airline whose miles you want to use or just looking on ITA Matrix. Take fuel surcharges into account when determining which miles to use.
Best Deals
If you want to fly United, the cheapest way to book it (and with no fuel surcharges) is with Asiana miles. Paying 40k miles one way in flat bed Business Class or 50k in First Class is outrageously cheap. If you don’t want to burn SPG points/Asiana miles, you can book a cheap roundtrip with ANA miles in United economy or Business Class and pay no fuel surcharges. Singapore miles are a good option for a one way in United economy.
If you want to fly Lufthansa First Class to enjoy the First Class terminal, use Asiana miles. You’ll pay 50,000 miles and around $300 one way. Your backup plan is to use 62,500 Aeroplan miles plus the same fuel surcharges. United would not collect the fuel surcharges, but it would charge 110,000 miles one way, so I wouldn’t use United miles.
If you want to fly to Western Europe, Aeroplan miles offer a great deal at 45,000 miles each way, and several partners are surcharge-free. If you book a roundtrip, you can even enjoy two stopovers other than your destination.
My rich friends, who want to fly Business Class to Europe but don’t already have miles, use LifeMiles to buy a ticket each way in Business Class for about $1,000.
Searching and Booking the Awards
A truism of miles is that–with few exceptions–award space is equally available to all partners. One corollary is that you can search any award search engine that displays an airline’s award space, and if space is there, you can book it with any partner.
All Star Alliance partner award space is searchable on aeroplan.com. Here’s how to search for award space on aeroplan.com. All the award space you find there is bookable with all the miles discussed in this post. Ignore the price quoted on aeroplan.com. You will pay the price on the award chart of the miles you’re using.
To book, call the airline whose miles you’re using (or go to their website to book online if you can.) Feed the agent the award space you found on aeroplan.com.
Getting the Miles
Asiana miles, ANA miles, Singapore miles, Aeroplan miles, and LifeMiles are the best to Europe.
Asiana miles are a 1:1 transfer partner of SPG Starpoints, which means you can transfer 20,000 Starpoints to 25,000 Asiana miles.
ANA miles are a 1:1 transfer partner of SPG Starpoints (or 20k Starpoints to 25k ANA miles), and a 1:1 transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards.
Singapore miles are a 1:1 transfer partner of Ultimate Rewards, Membership Rewards, ThankYou Points, and Starpoints.
- Citi ThankYou® Premier Card: 40,000 bonus ThankYou Points after $3,000 in purchases made with your card in the first 3 months the account is open. The card also earns 3x points on travel and gas and 2x points on dining and entertainment
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Aeroplan miles area 1:1 transfer partner of SPG Starpoints (or 20k Starpoints to 25k ANA miles), and a 1:1 transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards.
LifeMiles can be purchased for as little as 1.35 cents each through September 15, 2015.
Bottom Line
There are much better options to fly Star Alliance flights to Euorope than using United miles.
For the most part, all Star Alliance partners have access to the same award space on all airlines. There are differences in routing rules and fuel surcharges, so pay attention to more than just the mileage price when deciding which miles to use to book your award.
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Editorial Disclaimer: The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of the credit card issuers, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuers.
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Very informative, thanks a million!
If you book a flight on united using ANA or Asiana miles, will you be allowed the same stop over/open jaw rules as booking with United miles?
No. Every set of miles has its own routing rules.
I’m a newbie. If I have a few Asiana miles, can I book through them and use my United miles for travel to Europe, but get the lower miles required by Asiana? I would love to go Business Class for 40K miles. I just have a few in Asiana and much more in United.
No. Asiana miles book awards in accordance with the Asiana chart and Asiana award rules. United miles book awards in accordance with the United chart and United award rules. You can’t combine the miles or share between accounts.
If expert flyer is showing Business class seats available, but both Aeroplan and United dont show them is that phantom award space?
I’m searching for business awards to Rome for November 19th. On the 18th, aeroplan.com shows space available from ORD-IST-FCO one way, but none on the 19th. However, on expertflyer, it shows 4 business seats for both days. Is this an aeroplan problem? Could I call and there actually be space? This is on Turkish Airline.
I’ve never used Expert Flyer for Turkish award space. That might just be for elite members. I would just double check on united.com. If it isn’t there, you probably can’t book it with any miles (except maybe Turkish’s which you probably don’t have.)
[…] Check this recent post comparing which Star Alliance miles are best for booking Business Class awards to …. Hint: it’s not United miles! […]
Hi Scott, I found Lufthansa flights in united.com. , am I able to use my miles and more points by calling Lufthansa to book the flights? or do I have to search in miles and more website?
Sorry bit confused.
Thanks!
[…] cheapest awards to Europe […]
[…] Any Turkish award space you see on united.com is equally bookable with any Star Alliance miles. Here are the cheapest Star Alliance miles to Europe: […]
Want to fly Turkish, the seats are avail, what’s the best bang for my buck? Move SPG to Aeroplan and get the promo? book thru another airline? I’ve gobs of miles with the usual – SPG/Amex/Chase/AA etc. Who has the lowest redemption requirement? Thx,
This post answers your question.
[…] on united.com, and the Saver award space can be booked with any Star Alliance miles. A check on Comprehensive Spread Sheet of 8 Star Alliance Award Charts: Cheapest Awards to Europe shows that the best options […]
[…] There are a few United awards for which you’ll get more than 2.15 cents of value per mile, but even in those cases, you’d probably be better off buying LifeMiles for 1.4 cents each and redeeming them for the exact same award. […]
[…] to Canada, to Hawaii, and to Alaska, the cheapest awards to Latin America and the Caribbean, the cheapest awards to Europe, the cheapest awards to Africa and the Middle East, and the cheapest awards to North […]
[…] I also love Asiana as a transfer partner, since it has the best award chart to get into Lufthansa First Class. […]
Hi Scott,
I found saver award space on United.com for a flight from DFW to MRS. The flight is operated by Lufthansa. Can I use Singapore miles to book a Lufthansa flight that shows up as saver award space on United.com? Wanna make sure before I transfer from Amex MR to Singapore miles. Thanks.
Yes, with big fuel surcharges.
[…] Any Turkish award space you see on united.com is equally bookable with any Star Alliance miles. Here are the cheapest Star Alliance miles to Europe: […]
In the last year, I have collected 130,000 aeroplan points. I live in Canada and would like to redeem the points for business class. There are great deals on the ANA and united websites, but when I look on on the aeroplan plan site, the points required are significantly higher. Can I just call any star alliance partner and take the best deal?
Yes, I would love me to understand this too. I have tons of united miles – enough to take 8 people to Italy. UAL Award Saver appears best, but if there was better deal I could take more cousins and friends for the teenagers.
[…] and ANA have some of the cheapest Star Alliance award prices to Europe (40k and 44k respectively), but you’ll pay fuel surcharges redeeming either type of mile since […]