I have used SW companion pass multiple times and I'm a Hyatt ***** for hotel points.

I usually semi-churn through the Chase business cards and keep a decent amount of UR in my back pocket.

What's the best way to get a flight to European destinations using points?

I think the easiest would be to search award flights through United. Hold out for super saver awards. Look to fly from and to hubs. Then convert your Chase points 1:1 to united miles and book.

Our best use of miles has come from converting Amex points into FlyingBlue miles when they're running a 20%-25% bonus and flying KLM/Delta/Air France.

Look at using aeroplan points even if flying on United.

Great advice. Thanks!

Very cool. I'll look into that.

If united, connect in Europe thru Frankfurt, Amsterdam, or London. Buy separate reservations for the local connectors, relatively cheap.

Depends on destination. FinnAir has added more routes. I recently used Alaska Airline Miles (from my BoA cards) to book flights to Europe for 30k points one way. Business redemption is great as well but the Saturday I needed didn't have availability. I'm going to try to pay for the upgrade if its offered.

I'm not going to say get an Alaska Airlines credit card since it would not be useful for most people. Something closer to Chase would be better due to flexibility.

Thanks for all the responses!

dummble said:

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I think the easiest would be to search award flights through United. Hold out for super saver awards. Look to fly from and to hubs. Then convert your Chase points 1:1 to united miles and book.

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I think this is the best option, especially if flying out of IAH (United hub).

Kurt Gowdy said:

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Our best use of miles has come from converting Amex points into FlyingBlue miles when they're running a 20%-25% bonus and flying KLM/Delta/Air France.

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This worked well for us to go to Scotland next year. Also look at flying out of Austin, they have direct to Amsterdam a few days a week.

And be flexible about entry and exit airports. We're flying into Edinburgh and out of Inverness because those were much cheaper for the dates we picked.

Couple of tips that might be of value here.

1. When flying on points to Europe on United you can actually do a free additional leg in EU without any cost. I recently flew from IAH to FRA, stayed in FRA for a few days, then had a second leg from FRA to Innsbruck at no additional cost. To take advantage of this perk, you have to setup a multi leg flight.

2. Travel internationally on USA holidays as there are less people traveling for business... I took the previously mentioned flight on Thanksgiving and was able to snag Polaris seats for only 60k miles. Sure you might have to adjust the celebration of thanksgiving around a bit, but if you want to find a deal on international flights, I have found flying on Thanksgiving usually works. Fourth of July is another day that I have found discounted Polaris seats