Best airlines and flight options for SC's in Europe

[kody]

Hi Guys, Im traveling to europe in August and will hopefully post my first trip report as I have finally managed to snag a FASA on the A380!!!! however I did have to sacrafice and booked retrun CLASSIC :shock: Awrard seats to DXB so very upset on missing out on all the SC's and points. So I need to try and maximise my SC's with my inter Europe flights however as this is a holiday dont really want to waset too much time flying all over the place, especilly in economy (usually dont mind not going direct) membership year ends 31 December and I need 255 to requalify. dont really have any points left for any domestic ASA's when I get home plus i need to pay back family memebers as i needed to borrow points for the classic awards!! but i do have the double SC promo until june 30 wish it was end of membership year as then the FASA would get me over the line!!

At the moment I have flighs to DXB and looking to use AMEX points to get from Abu Dhabi to Turkey around 28/29th of July. The only other flight I have booked is the trip home from London on 20th August. Bascially only need to get to Palma Mallorca and then across to Spain was thinking of Malaga and then driving up to Bilbao over 2 weeks and flying out from Bilbao (unless any wise members have some other suggestions for driving around spain and or great B&B's to stop at along the way) the rough iteneray I came up with was IST-MUC (Airberlin operated by Pegaus does this still earn SC's?) MUC-PMI Airberlin PMI-AGP airberlin BIO-LHR Iberia operated by Vueiling that gets me 50sc plus the 150 from the FASA means i need anothe 55. I was thinking should I try and do one of the legs in business and which one as it appears you pay for business but most of them dont really offfer business class so im basically just paying for the extra sc's and extra luggage benifits i guess which could come in handy.

Dont need to go to munich was the only option i could really come up with out of IST on oneworld and that was under a 4hr flight....happy to consider other options like i said only need to go to mallorca and somewhere on the mainland of spain anywhere else is much of a muchness.

Well hopefully someone on here has some ideas as im stuck

 

[wandersen]

Have a look at routes from LGW on BA:

British Airways - Upgrade to Club Europe#

Upgrades to J are only 59 pounds each way. And club europe is business class - though only kind of.

 

[shearsense]

I like to use Airline Route Mapper and query to subset the routes that just reach into the next SC earning category (e.g slightly more the 600 miles, or 1200 miles) to get the shortest routes and likely maximum value for SCs in that earning bracket. The results will tell you all the single sector options you have that are most likely (not certainly) to be cheapest and where the originate from. Then I focus on these by using ITA matrix. You can calculate cost per mile automatically with Matrix as well, I am told

 

[kody]

Thanks for the quick replies guys i will check out lgw. with airline route mapper is that a download? i need to lear about this matrix software a bit more i think.

 

[A330]

...the rough iteneray I came up with was IST-MUC (Airberlin operated by Pegaus does this still earn SC's?) MUC-PMI Airberlin PMI-AGP airberlin BIO-LHR Iberia operated by Vueiling that gets me 50sc...

You won't earn SC's or points for the Airberlin codeshare on the Pegasus flight as it's not a oneworld airline. IST is pretty light on oneworld airlines, your only option is BA IST-LHR. It's just over 4 hours flight time.
You also won't earn SC's on the BIO-LHR Vueling flight with Iberia codeshare, Vueling also isn't a oneworld airline. You could fly BIO-MAD-LHR on IB to earn SC's, or drive for 3 hours up to Bordeaux to fly BOD-LGW on BA.

Dont need to go to munich was the only option i could really come up with out of IST on oneworld and that was under a 4hr flight....happy to consider other options like i said only need to go to mallorca and somewhere on the mainland of spain anywhere else is much of a muchness.

May I suggest you fly PMI-BIO on AB then drive down to AGP instead? You can then fly AGP-LGW on BA.

 

[shearsense]

Thanks for the quick replies guys i will check out lgw. with airline route mapper is that a download? i need to lear about this matrix software a bit more i think.

Airline Route Mapper (invaluable volunteer project)


Matrix - ITA Software (not always correct in showing lowest prices, but great at seeing all combinations and filtering)

 

[kody]

You won't earn SC's or points for the Airberlin codeshare on the Pegasus flight as it's not a oneworld airline. IST is pretty light on oneworld airlines, your only option is BA IST-LHR. It's just over 4 hours flight time.
You also won't earn SC's on the BIO-LHR Vueling flight with Iberia codeshare, Vueling also isn't a oneworld airline. You could fly BIO-MAD-LHR on IB to earn SC's, or drive for 3 hours up to Bordeaux to fly BOD-LGW on BA.

May I suggest you fly PMI-BIO on AB then drive down to AGP instead? You can then fly AGP-LGW on BA.

Thanks A330, I was worried about that. I have now found the flight IST to LHR on BA and then transfer to LGW. Then return LGW - BOD (J) Train down to BIO fly to PMI and then from PMI fly to AGP then drive back up to Bilbao and train back to BOD to fly back to LGW. all flights are on BA or Air berlin (and operated by airberlin) should nett me 270sc and all up cost $750 AUD which I thought was pretty reasonable