Points and miles people on the West Coast probably look at their peers in the Midwest and on the East Coast with a little jealousy … OK, a lot of jealousy … when it comes to finding ways to use their points and miles on business class flights to Europe.
It’s the cruelest conundrum, because on those long, long journeys – first across the continent and then across the pond – a lie-flat seat is just what the doctor ordered. But it’s often prohibitively expensive to book those seats … and way, way harder to redeem points and miles.
But I’m happy to announce that seems to be changing!
While East Coasters still get a much better pick of the litter for business class award space to Europe, travelers on the West Coast have been treated to some solid availability from Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), Portland (PDX), and Seattle (SEA) of late. It’s still no slam dunk, but it is a noticeable shift, and surely welcome news to many.
Here’s what we’ve found for our Thrifty Traveler Premium flight deal alert subscribers in the past two weeks:
Delta One
Delta One … ever heard of it? The famously elusive business class product from Delta has become incredibly bookable over the past two years, with Delta routinely running big SkyMiles Flash Sales and discounting their fanciest business class seats to Europe to just 106,000 SkyMiles each way.
Nearly every destination Delta flies to on the European continent usually gets included in these sales, giving you a shot at a lie-flat seat everywhere from Stockholm (ARN) to Sardinia (OLB), but that’s not the best part.
The best part is you can fly from nearly every single Delta-served city in the U.S. when these deals pop up, flying in First Class to a Delta hub and then in Delta One the rest of the way (including Delta One Lounge access)!
Of course, that includes cities like Las Vegas (LAS), Los Angeles (LAX), Long Beach (LGB), Burbank (BUR), and many, many more West Coast outposts for the exact same rate.
If you’re on the West Coast and want to fly business class to Europe, you can do a lot worse than loading up on SkyMiles.
United Polaris
For years now, United Polaris has been almost impossible to book. We used to be able to snag these seats with partner miles from airlines like Air Canada or Avianca for a fraction of the cost, but United closed that loophole. But that’s not the whole story anymore.
Now, United is offering more availability at better rates to its credit cardholders, including those in or near its West Coast hub of San Francisco (SFO).
In fact, SFO flyers can book United’s brand-new suites (pictured above) from SFO to London (LHR) for just 72,000 United miles each way if they have a United credit card.
Plus, if you live in a city that easily connects to any of these hubs, there was one-stop availability at the same rates, too!
American Business Class
Not to be left out, American Airlines also ran a sweet business class award sale last week, and it was so good we gave it our special Unicorn Alert designation for rare deals that came with a text message alert for our members, too.
This deal was remarkably widespread, including several West Coast cities that may have never seen an AA business class deal to Europe before. Cities like Sacramento (SMF), Portland (PDX), San Luis Obispo (SBP), and Santa Barbara (SBA) don’t typically see rates like this!
Plus, if you book the nonstop from Los Angeles (LAX), you can use Japan Airlines miles to book it, too … and you’ll only need 60,000 of them each way and $5.60 in taxes and fees on the way to London.
Air France/KLM Business Class
Speaking of 60,000-mile rates, Air France/KLM’s Flying Blue rewards program has set its business class awards at this rate for years now. While those lowest 60,000-mile rates are less inclusive than they used to be, it’s still a stellar deal to get across the Atlantic … especially all the way from LAS, LAX, PDX, San Diego (SAN), SFO, or Vancouver (YVR)!
This deal was also a Unicorn Alert with an accompanying text message because we rarely see nationwide availability this like flying to Europe.
Bottom Line
Fear not, West Coasters, business class award space is back and better than ever for Californians, Oregonians, Washingtonians, and British Columbians thanks to some stellar deals from American, Delta, United, and Flying Blue over the past few weeks.
