Today we’ll look at an example trip a lot of young’uns out
there might want to take after college. But we’re going to do it nearly for
free (at least the flight piece anyway). First, a look at our itinerary:
Chicago to London
London to Amsterdam
Amsterdam to Helsinki
Helsinki to Berlin
Berlin to Paris
Paris to Chicago
Now here are the credit cards we’re going to sign up for:
United MileagePlus Exporer (Chase)
30,000 miles after $1,000 spend in 3 months
No annual fee first year
American AAdvantage (Citi)
50,000 miles after $3,000 spend in 4 months
No annual fee first year
British Airways Avios (Chase)
50,000 miles after $1,000 spend in 3 months
$95 annual fee
Total Miles Earned: 130,000
Total Cost: $95
Assuming you can meet the minimum spend on these cards
without having to pay extra money (I’ll do a later post on how to meet minimum spends
without doing any out-of-pocket spending), so far all you’ve paid for with
these three credit cards is the British Airways annual fee, which is charged
immediately when you activate the card.
Chicago to London
American Airlines
Europe in the summer is an expensive place to visit. A
roundtrip fare could easily cost you $1,000. Fortunately, we’ve got a better
option. To get there, we’re going to use our American miles we just earned.
American’s cheapest flights to Europe are 30,000 miles each
way. From Chicago to London the availability looks fantastic:
Look at all that green!
Unfortunately a lot of these flights are on British Airways. Why is that a bad
thing? Because British Airways charges exorbitant
fuel surcharges. This route would cost something like $250, and that’s on top
of the 30,000 miles you used! But there are some options on American, which
will cost you all of $5. Here’s how you can spot American flights:
See how some of the options
say “BA” for the second flight? Those are British Airways flights. See those
two middle ones on flight 106? Those are American flights. So let’s pick one of
those.
Not bad!
Total Dollar Cost so far: $100
Total Miles Cost so far: 30,000
London to Amsterdam
British Airways
Okay you’ve seen Big Ben. Time to get to the mainland.
Flying within Europe on miles is cheapest on British Airways because of their
distance-based miles chart. Instead of paying 10,000-12,000 miles per flight on
another airline, you could pay as little as 4,500 or 7,500 on British Airways.
It just so happens British Airways has direct flights from London to Amsterdam:
Look at all that
availability! I chose June 17th randomly, and it gave me two flight
options:
Either one works for me. Here’s how much it is going to
cost:
Since I’m low on cash and
high on points, I’m going to choose the 4,500 miles option.
Total Dollar Cost so far: $122.50
Total Miles Cost so far: 34,500
Amsterdam to Helsinki
Finnair on American Airlines or British Airways miles
The oneworld alliance has a few carriers within Europe. Of
course there is British Airways, but there is also Finnair, Iberia, and Air Berlin.
Since they’re all in the same alliance, I can use my British Airways miles on any of the other airlines. Finnair has a
base in Helsinki, and it just so happens they have direct flights from
Amsterdam:
What?! Uh oh! It looks like
there are no available flights. Well this isn’t quite true. Because Finnair is
a partner, British Airways’ website isn’t very good at displaying a whole
calendar of its availability. But if we search an individual day, flights do
show up:
Unfortunately it costs a ton
of money in addition to the miles:
Definitely not worth spending $100 when an actual ticket
costs only a little more. Lucky American Airlines miles can also be used on
this flight, and the fees are way cheaper:
Problem solved!
Total Dollar Cost so far: $161.90
Total Miles Cost so far: 44,500
Helsinki to Berlin
Air Berlin on British Airways miles or American Airlines miles
Again we have a choice here. Let’s see the costs of each:
4 cents difference, but 2,500 miles difference. Let’s use our Avios.
Total Dollar Cost so far: $178.54
Total Miles Cost so far: 52,000
Berlin to Paris
Air Berlin on British Airways miles or American Airlines miles
Again a very small fee
difference, but this time the mileage difference is way greater. Winner:
British Airways.
Total Dollar Cost so far: $213.25
Total Miles Cost so far: 56,500
Paris to Chicago
United miles, but which airline?
So we’ve had our amazing trip all over Europe, but it’s time
to go home. We don’t have 30,000 miles left on American to finish the journey,
and British Airways, with its miles being distance-based, would be way too
expensive. Luckily we signed up for the United credit card, which gives us
30,000 miles to work with.
Any day with a green or dark
green box definitely has Saver (30,000 mile) availability. Sometimes the blue
boxes do too, and even once in awhile you’ll find a white day with Saver
availability. I chose July 8:
There’s one flight available!
It’s on Lufthansa, a fantastic airline, going through Dusseldorf. Unfortunately
there are some fees for this set of flights, but nothing astronomical.
Total Dollar Cost: $286.75
Total Miles Cost: 86,500
$300 to fly 5 places in Europe and back? I’ll take that.
For questions please comment below or visit our site, www.wennetravel.com.
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