Great Availability for AA Business Saver Awards to Europe This Summer
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
It's a great time to plan a trip to Europe for next summer. Right now, there are cheap business-class tickets to Europe, and an opportunity to save even more when you add Avios to the equation.. This week, there's also fantastic availability on American saver award tickets in business class on a number of routes between the US and Europe.
You'll often have to redeem 110,000 AAdvantage miles for a one-way business-class award ticket — at least during peak travel times when award availability is quite tough to come by. However, right now, you can get flights at 50,000 miles each way, or 100,000 miles round-trip in business for many AA-operated flights next summer. When booking award tickets, keep in mind that some destinations have much more award availability than others.
With all of the different deals to Europe right now, an AA award ticket might not sound like the best choice (depending on your airline program), but there are still some fantastic opportunities on busy routes.
Here are some examples of redemptions we found (all of the below are for two seats, though more may be available):
Chicago (ORD) to London (LHR) in business class for 50k AA miles each way in July and August:
There are plenty of seats available on this route between Chicago and London. The business cabin appears to be wide open across the summer, so you should have no issue finding availability.
New York (JFK) to London (LHR) in business class for 50k AA miles each way in June and July:
There are plenty of award seats available on AA's flagship JFK to London route, some of which are operated by the new 777-300ER. There's plenty of availability in the economy cabin as well.
Boston (BOS) to Dublin (DUB) in business class for 50k AA miles each way in June and July:
There are also quite a few saver award tickets available between Boston and Europe. For many of these flights you'll have to connect elsewhere in the US, but there was availability for flights connecting through New York-JFK.
Is it worth it?
There are some fantastic deals to be had here. Summer travel to Europe can get expensive if you're paying cash for the tickets, so these redemptions are quite valuable, especially if you're getting a saver ticket. If you're ready to book now, however, you'll get a better deal with the two BA fare sale options listed up top.
While not all of the routes have perfect availability in terms of travel dates, you can certainly get some fantastic deals on award travel depending on the route and travel dates. Keep in mind that you can earn American miles by using the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express — when you transfer 20,000 points from Starwood, you'll earn 25,000 AAdvantage miles. You can also earn miles directly with cards like the Citi / AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard.
H/T: BoardingArea