With Europe back on the travel map, you may be wondering how you can hop across the pond with all of those points and miles you’ve been accumulating. If you spend your miles right, you can avoid the claustrophobic rows of coach and reward yourself with sweet dreams in a lie-flat First or Business Class seat on the red-eye flight over to Europe.
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There are several ways to fly over to Europe using points and miles, some better than others. Since everyone has a different style of travel and timeline, your destination and the type of trip you’re planning will ultimately dictate which redemption is best for your particular needs. To help you plan out the possibilities, here’s our top 11 picks for points redemptions on flights to Europe.
The cheapest way to fly over to Europe in a premium cabin is to redeem 34,000 Iberia Plus Avios for a Business Class seat on Iberia during the low season. The exact dates for Iberia’s low season will vary slightly each year, but think off-peak shoulder season flights in the fall, winter, and spring. Late September/October travel is usually considered off-peak and is also a great time to visit Basque Country.
The lowest points price of 34k one-way in Business Class is for departures from New York or Boston to Madrid, while it will require 42.5k points for departures from Miami and Chicago, and 51k from Los Angeles. For peak season travel, the number of points required jumps up to 50k, 62.5k, and 75k respectively, which is still a pretty sweet deal.
Iberia Plus partners with the following credit card programs:
As for finding availability, it will be best to search American’s website first, to find the inventory, and then double check on Iberia’s site to see if the flights can be booked with Avios.
First Class seats to Europe are becoming pretty hard to come by these days with many airlines discontinuing the cabin or making it extremely difficult to book using points and miles. If you’d like to fly First Class to Europe, your best bet would be to fly on British Airways as it still flies the service on several of its U.S. routes. The catch is that there will be fuel surcharges imposed, but you’ll pay lower overall points + taxes/fees if you book with Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles than using any other program to book the same flights.
Alaska charges a standard 70,000 points one-way for First Class seats on British Airways between North America and Europe. When using other programs, mileage requirements may vary depending on distance traveled. Taxes/fees charged by Alaska Airlines when departing from the U.S. to London are only $238 one-way or $792 round-trip.
Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles program also charges lower taxes/fees for British Airways flights, sometimes even slightly less than what Alaska charges, although it will require more miles. And you’ll be hit with the highest fuel surcharges when redeeming British Airways Avios or American Airlines miles for long-haul flights operated by British Airways — up to $1,778 round-trip.
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan partners with the following credit card programs:
Since Alaska doesn’t partner with any of the major credit card programs that offer a 1:1 exchange, you’ll likely only want to make an Alaska Airlines redemption if you already have a decent balance of Alaska miles. Transferring Marriott points or buying miles can be a good way to top-up a balance if you need a small number of miles to meet the redemption requirements. Sometimes, there are decent bonus promotions to buy miles, which may even make it worthwhile to buy the miles outright if you have an impending redemption with availability.
To find availability, first search on British Airways’ website and then double check on Alaska’s website to see if the same flights are bookable with Alaska miles. Note, you’ll only be able to book flights with Alaska miles 330 days in advance, whereas British Airways Executive Club and Cathay Pacific Asia Miles allow you to book these seats 355 days in advance.
You’re also able to transfer Amex, Chase, or Capital One points to British Airways miles and Amex, Citibank, or Capital One points to Asia Miles, so those programs may be useful to book First Class seats on British Airways depending on your situation.
One of the many sweet spots on the Turkish Airlines award chart is its excellent redemption for one-way flights between North America and Europe. It’s just 45,000 miles each way to fly between the continents in Business Class. The catch is you’ll want to avoid flying on Lufthansa Group airlines (Austrian, Brussels, Lufthansa, Swiss) as you’ll be required to pay some hefty fuel surcharges that get passed along when booking these flights with Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles.
Instead, the best way to take advantage of the Turkish mileage pricing is to book flights operated by United, Air Canada, or TAP Air Portugal, which don’t levy fuel surcharges. You’ll get hit with some fuel surcharges when flying LOT Polish or Turkish Airlines itself, but these will be significantly lower than what is charged when flying Lufthansa Group airlines.
Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles partners with the following credit card programs:
One big advantage of Citibank points is its partnership with Turkish at an even 1:1 exchange. Recently, Capital One added Turkish as a partner so there are now more ways to take advantage of its award chart.
Finding availability can be a challenge. You can check the United website for possible saver space and then double check on the Turkish website. You’ll need to use a separate search tool depending on whether you’re looking for flights operated by Turkish or operated by Star Alliance partners. And you won’t see all options available through Turkish than you do with other programs. If you don’t see the flights you’re looking for online, try calling the call center to check, but be prepared for an ordeal when working with Turkish agents over the phone.
If you’re flying round-trip on certain Star Alliance airlines, using ANA Mileage Club miles for Business Class flights to Europe is one of the best deals out there. It’s just 88,000 miles round-trip — and that includes a free stopover and/or open-jaw itinerary. For instance, you can fly to London, stop for a few days, then continue to Rome for a week, and fly back from Lisbon a week after that, all for 88k points total. In this case, you’d need to make your own way from Rome to Lisbon with a separate ticket, or you could skip Lisbon and simply fly back from Rome on the award ticket.
The caveat with ANA awards is that they do pass on fuel surcharges. This means you’ll want to avoid long-haul segments on Lufthansa Group airlines. It’s worth noting that these surcharges are negligible for flights within Europe, so as long as the transatlantic segments are on airlines like Air Canada, LOT Polish Airlines, TAP Air Portugal, SAS, and United, you’ll be able to avoid the high fuel surcharges some other airlines impose.
ANA Mileage Club partners with the following credit card programs:
While ANA has an excellent rewards program, you’ll need to have Amex points to transfer credit card rewards at an even exchange. To book, search for saver space on United’s website and then search the same dates on ANA’s website. You’ll need to log in to use ANA’s site and you’ll need to use the multi-city search function for any complex bookings such as stopovers or mixed-cabin itineraries.
If you want to fly Delta’s Business Class product across the Atlantic, you’ll want to book the flight through its partner airline Virgin Atlantic. Using SkyMiles often costs over 100k miles each way, but you can sometimes book the same Delta One seats with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club for only 50,000 points each way. If you need to add on a short connecting Delta flight within the U.S., it will usually be 67,500 points each way, which is still an incredible deal compared to using SkyMiles.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club partners with the following credit card programs:
You can search for availability directly on Virgin Atlantic’s website. It is strikingly similar to Delta’s search engine, but may be a bit more cumbersome to use. Sometimes the airport you want to search may not populate and you’ll need to go through the menu to select certain airports.
While American Airlines AAdvantage program offers decent rates to Europe, as low as 57,500 miles one-way for Business Class, you can sometimes book the same exact flights with Etihad Guest Miles for only 50,000 miles each way. Add to the fact that Etihad Guest partners with a few of the major credit card programs, whereas American does not, and you may find Etihad Guest to be a solid choice for redeeming points and miles to fly on American. Note that Etihad charges per segment, so the rate of 50k miles will only work for nonstop AA flights between the U.S. and Europe.
Etihad Guest partners with the following credit card programs:
To search for availability, check American’s website to find possible saver award seats. Then, note down the flight numbers and call the Etihad call center to complete the booking. Etihad may not have access to what you can find available through American, so this may take a bit of trial and error.
Possibly the best perk of United’s MileagePlus frequent flyer program is the excursionist perk. This is essentially a free stopover on a round-trip flight, but it is more flexible than other stopover programs. For instance, you could fly into Paris and return from Frankfurt, with a flight from London to Berlin added to the itinerary for no extra mileage. All of these flights could be had for as little as 120,000 United miles in Business Class. You would just need to find separate transportation from Paris to London and Berlin to Frankfurt, which is easy to do with Europe’s extensive train network.
United is also a great program to use if you want to avoid fuel surcharges when flying on Lufthansa Group airlines (Austrian, Brussels, Lufthansa, Swiss) or Turkish Airlines. Since United doesn’t pass along any fuel surcharges, you can fly these airlines and only pay the normal taxes/fees, which is a huge advantage over other programs, such as ANA and Turkish, where fuel surcharges can end up being well over $1,000 for round-trip Business Class flights when flying Lufthansa Group.
Lastly, United also has many unique partnerships outside of Star Alliance, which makes it much easier to find an ideal schedule when booking an award flight. You can combine flights on airlines like Aer Lingus, Air Dolomiti, Edelweiss, Eurowings, and Olympic Air, while other Star Alliance programs may not be able to book flights operated by these carriers.
United MileagePlus partners with the following credit card programs:
Booking is fairly straightforward on United’s website. Though, it can take some tricks to find the best rates when using the excursionist perk. You’ll need to use a multi-city search to do so and it can take some trial and error to find the lowest price points.
If you want to experience Emirates First Class, you can do so on its fifth freedom flights between New York and Europe for as little as 135,000 Emirates miles round-trip, while Business Class seats go for just 90,000 miles round-trip. These saver level award redemptions require a round-trip purchase so you’ll need to plan on flying Emirates both ways to get these low rates. The two routes that apply include Newark to Athens and New York-JFK to Milan.
Emirates Skywards partners with the following credit card programs:
Search on the Emirates website and make sure you choose a round-trip search and flexible travel dates to find saver award space. It can be tricky to locate the lowest rates, but you’ll have an easier time finding First Class available on these routes than you will on flights to Dubai. You can also call Emirates to put flights on hold for up to 72 hours while your points are being transferred.
Air Canada’s Aeroplan offers the best opportunity to make multiple stopovers on a flight to Europe and it even allows you to make a stopover on a one-way flight. This means you could, for instance, fly to Greece via Istanbul and stopover in Turkey for up to 30 days on the way. You’re allowed one stopover on a one-way flight and two stopovers on round-trip bookings.
Due to Aeroplan’s distance-based award chart, there are some instances where it would make more sense to just book the shorter transatlantic flight with points and purchase a separate cash ticket onward. Therefore, it’s best to compare all options when considering adding a stopover. Business Class flights between North America and Europe range between 60,000 – 85,000 miles one-way depending on total distance flown. Adding a stopover requires an additional 5,000 miles per stopover.
Like United, Aeroplan also doesn’t pass on fuel surcharges so it is one of the preferred programs to use if you plan to fly on airlines like Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss, or Turkish Airlines.
Air Canada Aeroplan partners with the following credit card programs:
It will be easiest to find availability using United’s search tool and looking for saver award space. Then, double check the availability on Air Canada’s booking tool. To book a stopover trip, you’ll need to note down the flight numbers and call Air Canada to complete the booking.
Air France/KLM Flying Blue may have devalued its program in recent years by switching to a variable pricing model, but the lowest-priced redemption rates for flights between North America and Europe are still an amazing deal. Award rates for Business Class seats start from 53,000 miles one-way to fly on airlines such as Air France, KLM, Delta, and Virgin Atlantic.
It can sometimes be difficult to find the lowest rate available, but lately we’ve seen great availability for reasonable rates in several markets. You’ll pay slightly higher taxes/fees when booking through Flying Blue than you will through some other programs, but it’s not nearly as bad as the exorbitant fuel surcharges you’re hit with when flying British Airways or Lufthansa. The lower points pricing and availability of better flight schedules may make booking with Flying Blue worthwhile.
One of the best ways to use Flying Blue is to book Virgin Atlantic’s Upper Class Suites, which usually cost between 56,000 – 72,000 miles one-way, when available. Where you’ll really save is with lower taxes/fees. One-way flights departing from the U.S. to London come to around $230 in taxes/fees when booked with Flying Blue compared to $725 when booked through Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club. And round-trip taxes/fees are around $787 with Flying Blue compared to $1,780 with Virgin. Delta SkyMiles charges even lower taxes/fees for Virgin flights, but you’ll pay double the number of points.
Air France/KLM Flying Blue partners with the following credit card programs:
A great perk of booking with Air France/KLM is that you can transfer all major credit card points to Flying Blue miles. To search for availability and pricing, you’ll need to create an account with Flying Blue and search directly on the Air France or KLM website.
Last but not least, take advantage of Avianca LifeMiles’ excellent redemptions for flights between North America and Europe. It’s just 87,000 miles one-way for First Class and 63,000 miles for Business Class. Best of all, no fuel surcharges are passed along so you can book Lufthansa’s First Class and not worry about outrageous fees. The catch is you’ll have to be a spontaneous traveler as Lufthansa doesn’t release any First Class seats to partner airlines more than 14 days in advance.
However, you’ll have plenty of options to book Business Class seats in advance. And there are even a few tricks to lower the points prices by booking mixed-cabin itineraries. Say you only want Business Class for the long-haul flight. If you choose Economy for the shorter flight within Europe or within North America, Avianca will proportionally charge for each segment rather than charge the higher class amount for the entire journey.
Avianca LifeMiles partners with the following credit card programs:
One of the best things about Avianca’s LifeMiles program is the frequent transfer bonuses and sales when buying miles. The promotions come and go, but it’s often possible to receive a 15-75% bonus when either transferring points from a specific credit card or when buying miles outright from LifeMiles.
To book, you can search for availability using United’s search tool and then double check on Avianca’s site where you’ll need to be logged in. Avianca doesn’t always have the same availability as what you find on United so you may have to do some trial and error. You can also try to call or email an agent to ask about specific flights or combining certain segments, but expect this to be a long, drawn-out process that may require you to send screenshots via email in order to complete the booking.
Need help deciding which option is best for you? Contact one of our award travel experts at any time and we'll take the hassle out of booking your flights to Europe. Simply send a text and we'll handle the rest.
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