To BCN (Barcelona) from STL or some repositioned place

[stlcole]

Would like to leave on or around 6/28/17 and return on or around 7/9. We can reposition very comfortably on SWA. There will be 2 adults and a 12-year old. Would like to either get business class tickets or upgrade tickets to business class.

What are the top frequent flier currencies to use for this flight?

I ask because I have 100,000 points on Diners Club which can be transferred to Delta, Aeroplan, BA and several others, and I have 40,000 points on American Express. I also have 90,000 points on American. I can probably generate another 60k of points by Christmas, and my wife and I both might be willing to take on a credit card for the sign up bonus.

Anyone care to lay out a plan so I can start accumulating the necessary miles? Thanks

 

[thepaul500]

My wife and I fly out of MCI all the time on awards to Europe. Delta will (generally) run you 125k each, AA will be I think 115k now each. Compared to a lot of what I read, I've had a ton of luck the past few years finding low level Delta awards, including 1 booked this year for 105k each.

So...you'll need 375k Delta, or 335k AA. You've got quite a ways to go to generate those kind of balances, so put your MS cap on and sign up for a bunch of Amex MR and DL cards. A couple SPG cards each could also help, as well as open up other places to transfer.

Or.....there have been some awesome BA sales over the past few years when coupled with AARP and the Chase BA Visa. $1250/pp is reasonable, though you will need to reposition to make it work as STL isn't a valid departure point I don't think.

 

[dukerau]

My wife and I fly out of MCI all the time on awards to Europe. Delta will (generally) run you 125k each, AA will be I think 115k now each. Compared to a lot of what I read, I've had a ton of luck the past few years finding low level Delta awards, including 1 booked this year for 105k each.

So...you'll need 375k Delta, or 335k AA. You've got quite a ways to go to generate those kind of balances, so put your MS cap on and sign up for a bunch of Amex MR and DL cards. A couple SPG cards each could also help, as well as open up other places to transfer.

Or.....there have been some awesome BA sales over the past few years when coupled with AARP and the Chase BA Visa. $1250/pp is reasonable, though you will need to reposition to make it work as STL isn't a valid departure point I don't think.

Important to note - the AARP deal currently says outbound travel must begin by 3/31/17. There's speculation that it won't be extended. That said, there have been some fantastic J prices to Europe recently even without that discount.

OP, frankly you're far short of 3x RT J tickets to Europe, especially without splitting up (I assume you wouldn't want to). While your current stash of 230k total points/miles sounds close to the requisite mileage needed for your stated goal, they aren't in the right programs to be able to book a flight together. AA can book oneworld, as can BA, but fuel surcharges make BA pretty useless. So the Diners and Amex points would be better in Aeroplan or Delta, which have no overlapping partners with AA. And that means you have 140k miles towards your goal, which is a notch more than 1 J RT ticket.

You want to go in the height of summer, so not being ready to book when the calendar opens up (which is right about now) isn't going to help. If you see a fare sale that's palatable, that's going to be tough to beat. One thing you could try is - if you can find 3 seats available on BA - book (cash) premium economy fares and use BA Avios to upgrade the overwater leg to business. While you can use AA miles to upgrade BA Premium Economy to Business, that requires you paying for a W fare. BA Avios allow you to upgrade any Premium Economy fare to Business (assuming there is Business award availability) by simply paying the # of miles between a Y+ and J award. For example, ORD-LHR would cost 20k Avios to upgrade one way. I would certainly confirm the upgrade is possible with BA before booking premium economy.

 

[stlcole]

What I have done so far: I got two business class trips from ORD to MAD for 57.5k AA miles each (on Iberia metal). And 1 ORD to MAD on the same Iberia flight for 35k AVIOS from AMEX and some cash. If I can get my Diners Club points to BA and then over to Iberia, I can manage the return flights pretty easily with 2 on Iberia and one on AA. Anyone know how to move BA Avios to Iberia Avios with brand new frequent flier accounts?

 

[Ttitle]

Interested to see how this works out. We are planning a Barcelona trip the summer after next from SFO for two. I found two 55,000 tickets business class tickets with Air Berlin through Aeroplan that looked good so far.

 

[stlcole]

I think can also look at Aeroplan / Air Berlin because I believe AA might have some award availability there too.

 

[stlcole]

What I learned talking with Iberia. They can book a flight using my BA Avios so I can transfer 100,000 DC into BA Avios and use that to book the return flights. I can combine Iberia Avios with cash if I want. I can use the BA website to transfer the Avios only after my accounts are 3 months old