Flights Tips for finding business class flights on points

[Gerry&Joy]

We want to fly to Europe next year on points. Since this trip will take us 10 hours or more, we want to fly business class. We are Alaska Airlines members of the One World Alliance so our choices are British Airways, KLM/AirFrance, American, Iceland Air and Condor. I can start looking 330 days out but I'm hoping for some tips and suggestions to find business class seats. I'm not fussy about where the flight(s) end as we can always get to our desired destination (Amsterdam) by train or discount airline. It's the long haul overseas flight that needs to be business class. The Alaska Airlines web site allows me to search for flight on points but I can't specify business class only so the process becomes rather tedious. Does any one have any strategies or a process by which I can do this efficently? Thanks for your help. Gerry

 

[Andrew]

You may have seen that the Alaska site lets you call up an Award Calendar, where you can then specify Business, but the results include "mixed cabin" trips where the transatlantic segment is Economy and, say, the London-Amsterdam segment is BA Business, which has the legroom of a low-cost carrier and just keeps the middle seat open. If you see the flights that don't show Mixed cabin, they're typically on BA with total fees over $500 one-way, not nice to consider as a "free" trip.

Some people recommend a paid membership in expertflyer.com (you can do a free trial at the start), where you can be notified when seats become available in the award fare bucket for the trip you want. Also Gary Leff, whose blog I follow, has the operation http://bookyouraward.com/ where, for a fee once they find a trip meeting your parameters, can find award availability.

 

[Pauline]

I like doing everything online, but if their website doesn't make it easy, maybe you should phone them. I have our miles with British Airways and they let you select class of service. They also have a calendar showing days with flights with award tickets.

 

[Andrew]

I'm not sure where you're starting from, which might influence it, but I'd say American rather than the European partners is least likely to gouge you with high fees. Check American's availability on its own flights at aa.com .

 

[Gerry&Joy]

Thanks for the ideas, Andrew. I did not know about the Award Calendar where I can specify Business Class. I have looked at this and it seems to be a better place to start than what I have been doing. In order to avoid the mixed cabin flights, I have selected my arrival city as one of the major airports in Europe with departure as SEA or YVR. Eg., if I choose LHR, then I can get the direct British Airways business class flights. If I select a European city, the BA flights will be mostly mixed cabin. I usually go to the partner airline site to find where they fly direct from SEA or YVR.

One of the partners is an airline called Condor based out of Frankfurt. Does anyone have experience with them? I think Lufthansa may have started them but they are now owned by Thomas Cook. I'm still playing around with different approaches but the searching will start in earnest in September. I may try expertflyer.com then.

 

[GailS]

AirFrance's web site allows you to select class (for FlyingBlue members) when looking for rewards tickets. Since Alaska is a partner maybe if you created a FlyingBlue account you could do your searches and then call either Alaska or AirFrance to book the tickets once you find the flights online?

 

[aap519]

Since it was mentioned and maybe I am wrong, but I don't think KLM/Air France are associated with One World Alliance.

 

[GailS]

You may be correct. I think at least as of a couple of years ago Alaska was affiliated with KLM/AirFrance somehow - I've received FlyingBlue miles for my Alaska flights. I don't know what the relationship is or if it's changed recently.

 

[Andrew]

Indeed, Alaska itself doesn't show the oneworld logo; their partnerships are separate from the alliance, and they include Air France/KLM. The partners show at https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mileage-plan/use-miles/award-charts

 

[Gerry&Joy]

I've been testing strategies on the Alaska Airlines rewards site and I can confirm that AirFrance/KLM is a partner requiring 62,000 points for a business class flight to Europe. Others are American Airlines (50,000), British Airways (60,000), Condor (55,000), Emirates (105,000) and Iceland Air (55,000). BA has a much higher surcharge than the others. Iceland Air appears a lot when searching for available seats but always stops over in Iceland so one can't be assured of a business class seat all the way. I was a member of KLM Flying Blue from a flights many years ago so if I can reactivate that I'll try what GailS suggests.

 

[Gerry&Joy]

I spoke with a rep from KLM Flying Blue and my account was cancelled due to inactivity. The rep also told me that even if I had a valid account at KLM I would still need to book a reward flight through Alaska as each airline releases a certain number of award flights to each partner so it depends on what they have available to their members.