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There’s an idea that you have to book your award tickets exactly 11 months in advance or there will be no award space. Having booked tons of awards for myself and clients of the MileValue Award Booking Service at all times from 11 months to 11 hours in advance, I can tell you that that idea is a myth.
While it is an advantage to know where you want to go 11 months out and start looking, the award space on your route might open up at any time before departure as airlines adjust their award space based on how many seats they’re selling.
Case in point: there’s tons of award space to Europe for this Summer right now.
You want to use United miles because United and its partners have the most award space. As a refresher, between the United States and Europe, United charges:
- 30,000 miles each way in economy
- 57,500 miles each in United Business
- 70,000 miles each way in partner Business
- 80,000 miles each way in United First
- 110,000 miles each way in partner First Class
Here are some selected routes with fantastic award space for two people in July and August 2015. There’s nothing special about them; they’re literally the first three I searched. Remember that yellow dates have economy award space, blue dates have Business or First (but overwhelmingly Business) Class award space, and green dates have both economy and premium cabin award space.
Houston to Munich
Business Class award space is available for many early week departures. Economy award space is available nearly every day.
Some dates have space on the direct United flight.
Some have a connection. Don’t be afraid of a London connection. It only adds $38 to the award price.
Los Angeles to Paris
West Coast to Europe is a lot harder than East Coast to Europe, but there is still plenty of economy award space, and premium award space sneaks in at about 21 days before departure if seats are unsold.
From the West Coast, you have a higher chance of a “Mixed Cabin” award that could mean hours in economy even when paying the Buiness Class price.
New York to Split, Croatia
Even awards to Eastern Europe into smaller airports have award space on plenty of dates.
Connection times are often less convenient to smaller cities because there are fewer flights per day, but you will get to hang out in the Austrian Airlines lounge for the five hours of this layover.
Awards may have two stops, but you’ll arrive rested from flying Business Class.
Other Airlines
United miles are far and away the best to Europe. Collect them for your trip there next summer, since you have time. See my Blueprint for a Free European Summer Vacation for the simple steps.
But that doesn’t do you much good for Summer 2015. If all you have are Delta or American Airlines miles, your options are much more limited, but there are possibilities.
For instance, American has great award space New York to Paris for two people in economy in July and August.
There’s good space from Boston to Paris.
Bottom Line
You don’t always need to book 11 months in advance to use your miles.
There is great award space from the United States to Europe for this summer, especially with United miles. The space gets even better, especially in First Class, in the last week or two before departure.
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Nice one. Thanks.
Nice one. Thanks.
Is United the optimal choice for Thailand? I want to fly to Bangkok from NJ with at least 1 business/first class way in October.
Right now I’m planning to transfer 60k UR pts in to my 60k united miles account to have 120k miles. Enough for saver award of 1 way economy plus 1 way business class via asiana airlines.
Is there a better way for me to utilize my chase UR pts and get a business flight to Bangkok?
Optimal is AA miles –> https://milevalu.wpengine.com/redeem-american-airlines-miles-east-southeast-asia/
Is United the optimal choice for Thailand? I want to fly to Bangkok from NJ with at least 1 business/first class way in October.
Right now I’m planning to transfer 60k UR pts in to my 60k united miles account to have 120k miles. Enough for saver award of 1 way economy plus 1 way business class via asiana airlines.
Is there a better way for me to utilize my chase UR pts and get a business flight to Bangkok?
Optimal is AA miles –> https://milevalu.wpengine.com/redeem-american-airlines-miles-east-southeast-asia/
Some award space going to Europe might still (or now) be available, but the award space returning home from Europe is virtually non-existent. That means that you either have to use an exorbitant number of miles for the return portion of the trip or pay for a one-way fare, which can often be more than the round-trip price would have been in the first place. I think these posts are misleading in that respect.
Not my experience. I see basically the same in both directions.
I did ORD>HNL in Jan. SIX days before and better then what I had ..IF you can change the Route of your trip to the EU they may help I did my normal trip in reverse and it worked for award space. Remember they open up award space at different times I got Delta(junk) after checking FOUR days in a row.
I don’t think Scott is being intentionally misleading. I had the same problem as you while hunting for space for some family on Delta a little over a month ago. If you wanted Virgin transatlantic, space was great. Anything else was impossibly bad. I literally looked for all of Western Europe except outside of Scandinavia, and came up with nothing else. I’ve run into similar problems on American. The reason that I think Scott is not misleading us is that he’s checking United. United may suck terribly as a premium airline, but they release an awful lot of coach seats at saver level. In about a month, I’ll be trying to get 4 coach award seats to Europe for next Summer on American. I doubt it’ll be fun, but it sure should be interesting.
Some award space going to Europe might still (or now) be available, but the award space returning home from Europe is virtually non-existent. That means that you either have to use an exorbitant number of miles for the return portion of the trip or pay for a one-way fare, which can often be more than the round-trip price would have been in the first place. I think these posts are misleading in that respect.
Not my experience. I see basically the same in both directions.
I did ORD>HNL in Jan. SIX days before and better then what I had ..IF you can change the Route of your trip to the EU they may help I did my normal trip in reverse and it worked for award space. Remember they open up award space at different times I got Delta(junk) after checking FOUR days in a row.
I don’t think Scott is being intentionally misleading. I had the same problem as you while hunting for space for some family on Delta a little over a month ago. If you wanted Virgin transatlantic, space was great. Anything else was impossibly bad. I literally looked for all of Western Europe except outside of Scandinavia, and came up with nothing else. I’ve run into similar problems on American. The reason that I think Scott is not misleading us is that he’s checking United. United may suck terribly as a premium airline, but they release an awful lot of coach seats at saver level. In about a month, I’ll be trying to get 4 coach award seats to Europe for next Summer on American. I doubt it’ll be fun, but it sure should be interesting.
Scott, maybe I am doing something wrong in searching, but i don’t see a single date with saver award availability returning from Paris to LAX between July 16 and August 19th. For most people, who are limited to one-to-two weeks or so for a vacation, that makes any of the outgoing availability from July 10th through August 12th pretty useless. I understand why this occurs, but I wouldn’t call this “tons of availability.”
Scott, maybe I am doing something wrong in searching, but i don’t see a single date with saver award availability returning from Paris to LAX between July 16 and August 19th. For most people, who are limited to one-to-two weeks or so for a vacation, that makes any of the outgoing availability from July 10th through August 12th pretty useless. I understand why this occurs, but I wouldn’t call this “tons of availability.”