Redeem American Airlines Miles: Part 12 — Europe

The Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite™ MasterCard® 60,000 mile offer has expired. Check out the current best credit card offers here.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Let’s talk about how to use American Airlines miles for awards to Europe. This is not the best use of American Airlines miles because award space isn't great, and American collects fuel surcharges on two partners to Europe.

Very Good Flat Bed Space to Europe on Three New Routes

Airberlin is adding three new routes to its Dusseldorf hub starting next Spring. All three routes currently have very good award space for two passengers during Summer 2016 in flat bed Business Class.

Very Good Flat Bed Space to Europe on Three New Routes

Airberlin is adding three new routes to its Dusseldorf hub starting next Spring. All three routes currently have very good award space for two passengers during Summer 2016 in flat bed Business Class.

Gold Mine Award Space to Europe in Summer 2014 on airberlin

Update at 5:49 PM ET on 12/20/13: Many commenters are saying they've had problems with aa.com showing "phantom award space" on airberlin flights. I have never had that experience, so I was surprised by the reports, but I'm sure they're accurate. My advice changes in light of this info.

Book Now to Europe for Next Summer: Economy

I started this series of posts about booking your trip to Europe for summer 2013 with a post about booking business class. This post will focus on booking an economy class award.

If you want to fly economy class this summer, I recommend getting some American Airlines miles. There are two main reasons:

All the legacy carriers--American, Delta, United, US Airways--charge 60k miles roundtrip to Europe in economy class. But I've outlined a trick that I'll repeat here to get your AA award for 50k miles.

What AA.com Adding Finnair and airberlin Means for You

American Airlines has added the ability to search Finnair and airberlin award space on aa.com! If you follow thepointsguy, View From the Wing, or One Mile at a Time, they all beat me to the story, so I'll try to add some valuable information if you want to book one of these airlines.

It's always great news when an airline adds the functionality to its award-booking engine. American Airlines has made big strides this year, so you can now book American, Alaska, Hawaiian, British, Qantas, Finnair, and airberlin online with your AA miles.