If you want to use American Airlines’ miles to fly business class to Europe, then this post isn’t for you. AA’s award pricing for its own flights is a mysterious game. One search may result in terrible pricing whereas an identical search an hour later may result in awesome awards. Additionally, it seems that you’re more likely to find great pricing when booking multi-leg awards, especially to/from AA’s less well served airports. In other words, flying to/from AA’s hub airports often results in poor pricing.
This post is about finding award space accessible to partner miles like Alaska miles, British Airways Avios, and others.
American Airlines is known to be extremely stingy with their international business class award space, especially for non-stop routes. That’s a shame because they have a decent route network to Europe, and unlike British Airways, they don’t impose fuel surcharges on their flights. Luckily AA’s “no soup for you” policy appears to have thawed a bit. I’m not going to pretend that there’s great award availability, but it is out there. In this post I’ll show you where to look…
Overview
I used the Explore Alaska Mileage Plan page within Seats.Aero to find AA business class award space to Europe that is bookable with partner miles. With a Pro membership, I was able to set it to view flights to Europe over a full year, restrict results to those featuring American Airlines, with a minimum of 2 seats available, and nonstop only. I then tallied up all of the destinations where there were more than 20 dates with AA business class award space available.
I also checked AA award space to Asia and Oceana, but there wasn’t enough there to bother with.
Best US to Europe routes for finding AA award space with partner miles
The following list shows the number of days over the coming year in which I found nonstop business class award space for two to Europe flying American Airlines. This list is limited to routes where I found at least 20 dates available.
New York (JFK) to London (LHR): 74 days
Chicago (ORD) to London (LHR): 58 days
Charlotte (CLT) to Munich (MUC): 42 days
New York (JFK) to Barcelona (BCN): 39 days
Charlotte (CLT) to Frankfurt (FRA): 37 days
Dallas (DFW) to Rome (FCO): 32 days
New York (JFK) to Paris (CDG): 31 days
New York (JFK) to Rome (FCO): 31 days
Charlotte (CLT) to Rome (FCO): 28 days
Raleigh Durham (RDU) to London (LHR): 29 days
Boston (BOS) to London (LHR): 28 days
Philadelphia (PHL) to London (LHR): 25 days
Best Europe to US routes for finding AA award space with partner miles
The following list shows the number of days over the coming year in which I found nonstop business class award space for two from Europe to the United States flying American Airlines. This list is limited to routes where I found at least 20 dates available.
London (LHR) to New York (JFK): 189
London (LHR) to Raleigh Durham (RDU): 75
Rome (FCO) to New York (JFK): 71
Madrid (BCN) to New York (JFK): 69
Frankfurt (FRA) to Charlotte (CLT): 69
London (LHR) to Los Angeles (LAX): 68
London (LHR) to Chicago (ORD): 63
Barcelona (BCN) to New York (JFK): 49
Amsterdam (AMS) to Philadelphia (PHL): 45
Madrid (MAD) to New York (JFK): 44
London (LHR) to Boston (BOS): 43
Zurich (ZRH) to Philadelphia (PHL): 38
London (LHR) to Philadelphia (PHL): 37
London (LHR) to Dallas (DFW): 29
Frankfurt (FRA) to Dallas (DFW): 24
Dublin (DUB) to Philadelphia (PHL): 22
Award Booking
In many cases, American Airlines‘ own miles are best for booking AA award flights. However, AA doesn’t have an award chart for its own flights, so its unpredictable whether AA or a partner airline is best. If you have AA miles it will always make sense to check AA’s own prices before booking through a partner airline.
As to partners…
From the east coast, Alaska awards start at only 45K one-way to western Europe. That’s an awesome deal! Prices increase with longer distance flights.
If you want to use Avios, booking through Qatar is probably your best bet. As with Alaska, you can expect to pay more for longer distance flights.
Another good option may be to book with Cathay Pacific Asia Miles. Unfortunately, when booking AA flights this needs to be done by calling or messaging Cathay Pacific.
Check out the prices charged by different Avios currencies for business class from JFK to London on American Airlines:
British Airways Avios: 62,000 + $1,002.30
Iberia Avios: 62,000 + $232.80
Qatar Avios: 62,000 + $237.30
Even though Iberia is a tiny bit cheaper than Qatar, Iberia’s partner awards are non-changeable and non-cancelable. With Qatar you can change or cancel for only $25 per person up to 24 hours before departure.