Strictly Travel

Introduction

Award Travel brings numerous opportunities to convert hard earned miles and points into luxurious flights.  One of the best opportunities to use your hard-earned points is flying business class from the U.S. to Europe.  With a plethora of options, Roame’s innovative search tool is here to help you find the best award flight.  Here’s the complete guide!

Picture from American Airlines but Will Change it into something more personal if published.

Calvin’s Top Picks Credit Card Picks

• Chase Sapphire Preferred
• Chase Business Ink Cards
• American Express Platinum Card

Searching for Right Flight

To jumpstart your search, plug in your travel dates into the Roame Travel search engine.  Additionally, I would also suggest updating the fees filter to a max of $200.  This removes flights with insane fees such as British Airways which could charge upwards of $700 on a one-way award ticket.

Filtering Via Programs/Cards

Not everyone will have access to all programs and cards.  You may have a nice stash of United Miles or Chase Ultimate Rewards points.  Other’s might be on the American Airlines and Capital One pairing.  Select the programs and cards you have points to return a list of flights that fit your point’s wallet. 

You can only select either Cards or Programs at a time.  I recommend searching by program first then by card as Airline Miles are typically less valuable than transferable points due to their limit flexibility.

Pick Your Flight

I found a pair of flights that fit my budget.  Click into the flight to learn how to book.  For those booking with Airlines Miles with no transfer needed, simply enter the same search criteria on the airline’s website.  In this example, I will head to American Airlines and search for November 14, 2024 business class award from SFO-LHR.

Here is the flight on American’s Website

Double Check the Seats (Optional)

Most Flights to Europe in Business Class will be in a 1-2-1 seat configuration with direct aisle access for all passengers.  Just to be sure you have a great seat configuration, you can always double check the seat configuration when possible.  This is entirely optional.

This seating chart confirms that the DFW(Dallas) to LHR(London) route on American Airlines has lie-flat seats in a 1-2-1 arrangement in business class.

Complete the booking

If everything checks out, complete the booking.  Select your seats and enter all the required information.  If you are booking with United, American, Delta, or Alaska, award flight cancellations and changes can be done free of charge.  For Programs outside the U.S., there could be change fees attached.

Enjoy the Trip

Viola, I just booked First Class/Business Class from San Francisco to London via 62,000 American Miles and $5.6 in taxes and fees.  This is for a trip that includes 9 hours in lie flat business class along with the opportunity to visit American Airlines Flagship Lounge in DFW.   The same flight is currently on Google Flights for $4,137 for a one-way and roughly $4,800 round trip.  Let’s meet in the middle and say this flight cost somewhere around $2600.  This is exceptional value and I’m getting over 4 cents per American with this Redemption.

Bottom Line:

Award Travel doesn’t have to be difficult.  Roame is here to help you get the most out of your hard-earned points and book that dream vacation.  Whether it’s to London, Paris, Tokyo, The Maldives, or Hawaii, Roame’s innovative search engine and alerts feature can help you save money and travel in luxury.  This was just one example how the platform can help users find the optimal award flight in just minutes.  Pro Members also have access to Sky Pro which provides a comprehensive 360 day search for those who don’t have set travel dates.  Roame has something for everyone!