Know the Partner Airlines when Searching for Award Travel to Europe

We’re continuing a series on “Everything you need to know to get to Europe this summer.” Take a look at some of the previous articles to lower your costs and maximize your comfort while you plan your trip!

• Status (Kind of) Matters: Consider a Status Match before Going to Europe
• Visit Europe with One-Way Awards on Different Alliances
• Travel Within Europe by Train, Road, and Air

Know the Three Big Alliances and Their Members

In booking my summer trip to Berlin and Greece, it also was extremely useful to know ALL of the partner carriers that fly transatlantic. Most Americans have heard of British Airways and Air France, so demand for those seats is much higher, but how many have heard of LOT, TAP, Air Berlin or Aeroflot?

Star Alliance Member Airlines

SkyTeam Member Airlines

oneworld Member Airlines

How to Use This Information

Take a quick look at the partner list of the mileage program you hold miles in. Some of the names might surprise you. Many airlines have additional partners that aren’t in the alliance (e.g., Alaska is a non-alliance partner of both Delta Air Lines and American Airlines).

I’ve also created a tool that sorts all transatlantic flights into each of the alliances and documents non-alliance carrier flights and the relative quality of each carrier’s business class. Check it out and feel free to add or edit the information if you see discrepancies.

All Transatlantic Routes By Alliance

Some carriers are not prominently featured on the main award search engines.

In particular, Brussels Air, Are Lingus, LOT, Aeroflot, TAP, Iberia, and Finnair tend to be less prominently featured on the US carrier’s sites or sometimes aren’t indexed at all. Even if they are, most people have not heard of them and they are based out of much smaller markets than Lufthansa, British Airways, or the US carriers, so there’s less competition. Virgin Atlantic is very much a partner of Delta (which owns a 49% stake in the airline) yet most Americans have no idea they can use their Delta miles to fly their famed Upper Class to Europe. (I am this summer!)

Pro Tip: Look up all the partner airlines and whether they fly across the Atlantic. If they aren’t indexed by the airline’s search engine, use ExpertFlyer, or another carrier’s site to check award space – then feed segments with space to the airline agent.

Remember carriers who fly “fifth freedom” routes to Europe.

Beyond some carriers not showing up in search results, a handful of airlines fly transatlantic routes even though they aren’t based in North America or Europe.

Here are key carriers and routes:

• Singapore: Houston IAH – Moscow DME
• Singapore: New York JFK – Frankfurt FRA
• Ethiopian: Los Angeles LAX – Dublin DUB
• Air New Zealand: Los Angeles LAX – London LHR
• Jet Airways: Newark EWR – Brussels BRU
• Jet Airways: Toronto YYZ – Brussels BRU
• Emirates: New York JFK – Milan MXP

Fifth freedom routes are great because they tend to have lower demand than flights to or from a carrier’s hub, which means they are often easier to get on award seats. This might be particularly good for these carriers, because many are quite stingy with releasing space in the first place.

Pro Tip: Consider looking for the handful of fifth freedom routes flown transatlantic to avoid competition for award seats or to make your trip more interesting.

Conclusion

At the core of this post, remember that you aren’t limited to flying the carrier that issued the miles you plan to redeem. You aren’t even limited to flying their most prominently marketed or closely aligned alliance partners. Check out options that most people overlook, including those that aren’t listed on the search engines or fifth freedom routes!