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Your secret weapon for Business Class award space to Europe this summer is United’s daily seasonal flight from Newark to Hamburg. It has two Business Class award seats most days from now through the middle of August. You can get to Newark in United First Class for zero extra miles and connect in Europe via plane or train to your final destination.
You can book this flat bed for 55,000 Aeroplan miles, 57,500 United miles, or 63,000 LifeMiles. None of those programs collect fuel surcharges on United awards, and all allow connecting United flights free of charge.
The Product
United flies a 767 with 2-2-2 configuration in Business Class on its Hamburg route.
Frankly, this is far from the best Business Class in the world because you’ll be getting United flight attendants and not every seat has direct aisle access. (Choose a middle seat for direct aisle access; I can’t help you with the flight attendants.) But it is a fully flat bed, and you should easily get a comfortable night sleep. Here is a recent review of United Business Class.
Searching
You can search for United award space on united.com. Any United Saver space you find there is bookable with United, Aeroplan, or LifeMiles.
The Award Space
I searched for award space for two passengers. Here were the calendars for Newark to Hamburg for this summer. Days with dots have Business Class award space for two.
Unfortunately united.com is broken, so I couldn’t get the calendars to isolate direct award space. I had to click on every day one at a time. Doing that I found that award space is excellent in Business Class now through August 14.
During that period most of the days with dots have direct Business Class award space (although 6/14; 7/2, 5, 9, 14, 15, 22, 28; and 8/3, 4 don’t.) That means 40 days in the next two months do have award space for two people in Business Class direct from Newark to Hamburg.
From August 15 on, most of the days with dots do not have direct award space.
Connections
All Star Alliance programs will allow free domestic connections in United First Class and free intra-Europe connections on Star Alliance partners on Swiss Business Class awards.
It shouldn’t be too difficult to connect on United flights from your home airport to Newark, since it is a major United hub.
If you’re not interested in Hamburg as a destination, you can can connect to Vienna, Brussels, Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Lisbon, Istanbul, and four other Turkish cities for zero extra miles on Star Alliance partners.
Or you can buy a flight on Ryanair or Eurowings, which have huge presences in Hamburg, or you can take a train.
Booking
The three best options…
- 55,000 Aeroplan miles
- 57,500 United miles
- 63,000 LifeMiles
…are bookable on the website of the associated miles. (Always book with the airline whose miles you’re using, not whose planes you’re flying.)
Getting the Miles
The easiest miles to get are United miles via Ultimate Rewards. The top offers for Ultimate Rewards:
- Chase Sapphire Preferred (50k Ultimate Rewards for spending $4,000 in three months)
- Chase Ink Business Preferred (80k Ultimate Rewards for spending $5,000 in three months)
- Chase Sapphire Reserve® (50k Ultimate Rewards for spending $4,000 in three months)
Bottom Line
If you want to fly to Europe in a flat bed this Summer, United is begging you to do it from Newark to Hamburg. Redeem your Star Alliance miles most days until the middle of June for an adequate flat bed across the Atlantic.
Just getting started in the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card for you to start with.
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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Hi Scott – Welcome back! The onward connection cities you listed, are they the only ones that came up in the united.com search engine (and therefore the only “legal” awards)? I ask because I notice London is absent from the list, and I’d guess routing from London to the US via Hamburg would incur lower departure taxes than flying directly from London to the US (especially in a premium cabin).
No, they are the only ones with direct Star Alliance flights (according to Wikipedia.) You should be able to connect to London via Hamburg although it would take two intra-European flights, for example LHR-FRA-HAM-EWR. And anyway that would still incur the UK’s departure taxes.
To add on connections – do you search as multicity? I tried this oneway (SEA-EWR-HAM-ZUR) and it adds mileage for each additional leg. For 2 people, the total miles is 215,000, so an additional 50K miles for the extra 2 legs. How are you getting the free connections?
I should add I’m using United’s website to try and find the flights.
No, just search SEA-ZUR
What about asiana they charge only 40k or Ana that charges 88k round trip
Yep Asiana and ANA are great if you have their harder-to-get miles.
[…] Your secret weapon for Business Class award space to Europe this summer is United’s daily seasonal flight from Newark to Hamburg. It has two Business Class award seats most days from now through the middle of August. You can get to Newark in United First Class for zero extra miles and connect in Europe via plane or train to your final destination. LEARN MORE! […]
Per Seans question –probably should be stated if you’re assuming United’s wonky engine. It would seem other airlines would gladly permit more routes, e.g., Lufthansa miles on EWR-HAM-WAW (UA/LO).