Europe is one of the most popular destinations for those of us in the United States. From the food in Italy to the iconic sites and museums in Paris or the beautiful beaches in Greece, there’s plenty of reasons to visit. Regardless of your interest, you’ll almost certainly find something that appealing to you.
There are quite a few airlines with service to the hordes of European cities and the prices are even becoming more favorable. The trade-off, however, is that the service offered at those discounted rates is often abysmal and require you to pay additional fees to check a bag or even select a seat. Not to mention, being crammed into a tiny 17-inch-wide seat for 8 to 10 hours with three degrees of recline certainly doesn’t feel comfortable or glamorous.
The best way to beat this very mediocre experience is to use points/miles to fly in a premium cabin or at least cover the cost of your economy ticket so you can save that cash for your time on the ground for your hotel or tours. If you’re ready to plan a great trip that takes place on the other side of the Atlantic, then you’re in the right place.
Here are the best ways to get to Europe on points or miles:
Air France
Air France ranks at the top of my list as the best site to use points/miles to get to various European cities. In addition to their great network overseas, this French airline is also a flight partner of Delta and KLM airlines which means you can get from almost any US city to your desired destination in Europe. Additionally, Flying Blue (the loyalty program of Air France) is a travel partner of Amex, Citi, Chase, and Capital One – that means that it is incredibly easy to earn points for flights.
Flights across the pond on Air France usually start at around 26k for 1-way economy flights and 53k for 1-way business class flights but can sometimes include higher taxes and fees than other loyalty programs. It’s not uncommon to see fees in the $200 range on a business class ticket. Typically, this can be a big detractor for most, but Air France does have one saving grace – monthly promo awards.
These promo awards change every month and offer significant discounts of up to 50% on point bookings from select cities in the US to Europe. As a matter of fact, I just booked a stellar fare from Chicago to Milan for only 26,500 points and $225 in fees each way in business class! That’s a $4000 round-trip ticket for just under $1000 worth of points and fees.
According to the Flying Blue website, this month features deals from Houston and Minneapolis. Looks like economy bookings are going as low as 14,500 points and there’s a ton of availability.
Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Atlantic is an airline based out of the UK and is usually my second go-to choice when I’m looking for a good deal to Europe. Virgin has a partnership with Delta and allows the booking of Delta-operated flights at a deep discount. Actually, you can usually book a Delta flight cheaper on points through Virgin than on Delta’s own site. Just look at these screen shots below:
The same direct flight from Orlando to Amsterdam in Economy is 58k points if booked through Delta, but only 30k points through Virgin. That’s an 18k point savings!
Most non-stop economy flights start around 20k points each way and business class flights start at 50k. The best part is that the taxes and fees are usually very low unless you are flying on Virgin’s own planes in/out of the UK. So, I recommend only booking Delta flights through them to get the best value. Also, since Virgin Atlantic is a travel partner of Amex, Chase, Citi, and Capital One, it’s quite easy to acquire and move points there.
Iberia
Iberia Airlines is a Spanish airline based out of Madrid that offers some stellar point booking options. In addition to having a partnership with American Airlines and British Airways, which are useful for traveling in the domestic US, you can also transfer your points from some of the big credit card issuers. Since Iberia uses the same currency as British Airways which are called “avios”, you can transfer them from back and forth seamlessly. This is important because British Airways is a travel partner of both Amex and Chase.
Iberia is unique in that it offers “peak” and “off-peak” pricing for their point bookings, but one-way economy flights to Spain can be had for as low as 15k with business class tickets starting at 34k one-way. You can see which dates are on or off peak here.
You may be thinking “but what if I want to go somewhere other than Spain?” Great question. The good news is that intra-European flights are incredibly cheap. So, if you have another destination in mind, you can book a connecting flight to another city for around $100-150.
That still not a bad deal considering you could spend your long-haul flight in a lie-flat bed like the one pictured below.
Conclusion
Getting to Europe and seeing the many amazing cities is truly a fun and exciting experience. Traditionally, these vacations can be expensive but by booking with points and using the loyalty programs above, you can save money and travel in style.
