We've all been there: Dreaming of flying business class across the Atlantic only to start searching and see sky-high rates of 200,000 miles, 300,000 miles each way per person … if you find any flights at all.
It doesn't have to be that way.
Just ask our Thrifty Traveler Premium members: We're sending them deals with the best ways to get to Europe and back in business class – often for the mileage rates you're used to seeing for a cramped economy seat. That includes a surefire way to fly business class to Spain from just 34,000 miles each way, roundtrip flights to Italy or Greece for just over 100,000 miles,
Don't believe us? We brought receipts. Take a look at some of the best ways to book business class flights over to Europe.
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Lie-Flat to Spain from 34K Points
Let's start with one of the best deals in the world of points and miles. Getting to Europe in a lie-flat seat doesn't get cheaper than this.
While most airlines charge at least 60,000 miles (if not double that) for a one-way business class ticket to Europe, you can fly Iberia business class for as low as 34,000 miles each way! It's not too good to be true: In fact, there are only a few hoops to jump through to make it happen:
- You have to fly nonstop between Madrid (MAD) and select U.S. cities like Boston (BOS), New York City (JFK), Washington, D.C.-Dulles (IAD), and Chicago-O'Hare (ORD) to get this low rate – other cities like Miami (MIA) and Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) will cost you more miles.
- You have to fly at the right time: These low, 34,000-mile rates are only available during off-peak periods – with rates of at least 50,000 miles, peak summer trips are pricier
- Your searches might still turn up blank, as you need to find the award availability to actually book these flights with your miles.
We've got you covered. We do all the legwork for our Thrifty Traveler Premium members: Finding availability, in-depth booking instructions, and guiding you to the best credit card points to use to book what's typically a $4,000-plus fare. If there's a transfer bonus to Iberia (or British Airways), it can get even cheaper: Just 27,000 points!
Only Thrifty Traveler Premium members get award alerts like these to use their points and miles!
This is one of our favorite ways to cross the pond in style using points. Cheap? Yep. Easy to book? Check. Easy to earn the points you need to do it? Definitely.
How to Do It
Iberia miles couldn't be easier to earn, and you don't even have to step foot on an Iberia flight to get them.
Iberia Avios are one of the many Chase transfer partners, Citi transfer partners, and Amex transfer partners. That means you can easily earn the miles you need with cards like the *chase sapphire preferred* or the *amex gold card*, among other options. And since British Airways is a Capital One transfer partner, you can also send miles from a *venture x* to British Airways, then combine them with your Iberia account. Otherwise, you can just book directly through British Airways!
Read our full walkthrough on how to book Iberia business class!
Book Air France & KLM for 50K Points
The hardest part of booking a business class seat isn't piling up miles – it's finding the award availability to actually book that lie-flat seat. Some airlines make that a pain, almost next to impossible.
Air France and KLM are an exception, making their Flying Blue miles easily one of the best (and most reliable) ways to book business class to Europe. And unbelievably, this redemption has gotten even better recently after Air France/KLM lowered award rates.
Whether you want to get to Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG), Amsterdam (AMS), or connect almost anywhere flying business class to Europe, it'll run you as few as 50,000 miles each way. Better yet, Flying Blue unleashes a monthly set of discounted routes it calls Promo Rewards, with occasionally discounted business class rates to Europe from a handful of U.S. cities. To top it all off, regular transfer bonuses (including occasional 25% bonuses if you've got Chase or Amex points), can make these already-cheap redemptions even cheaper.
Helping Thrifty Traveler Premium members get the best deal on business class flights with their points is what we're all about. And that's just what this alert did: Nonstop business class flights to Paris using as few as just 50,000 points … over this summer, no less … even including the 2024 Olympics!
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Let's be real: Any business class seat is a treat compared to economy. But some are better than others, so all our deals also help steer Thrifty Traveler Premium members toward how to get the best experience on the right routes (like the ones with new Air France business class suites) as well as the best points to use and a walkthrough on how to book it.
How to Do It
Earning miles with Air France/KLM Flying Blue is almost too easy.
Air France and KLM are transfer partners of all the major credit card companies. So whether you're racking up points on the *chase sapphire preferred*, an *amex gold card*, your *venture x*, or even by putting monthly rent payments on a *Bilt Mastercard*, you've got plenty of ways to get the points you need.
Read our full guide on redeeming Flying Blue miles!
Europe & Back for 100K Points Total
ANA Mileage Club is the frequent flyer program of Japan's All Nippon Airways. Yet it's also one of the best ways to fly business class to Europe – not on ANA, but on one of its many partner airlines. Go figure.
For just 100,000 miles roundtrip, you can fly business class on almost any Star Alliance carrier from North America to Europe and back. That's almost unbeatable, so be sure to read our full walkthrough on how to book business class flights to Europe using ANA miles.
While your options for airlines are long, you'll want to focus on a handful of carriers for which ANA won't pass on hefty cash fees and surcharges. Your best bets are United Airlines, Air Canada, LOT Polish, SAS, and TAP Air Portugal. Those airlines could get you almost anywhere in Europe and back in business class for 100,000 miles and $100 in fees – or less.
For example, we recently sent our Thrifty Traveler Premium subscribers an award alert to use just 100,000 ANA miles to fly TAP Air Portugal to Lisbon (LIS) or Porto (OPO) … or connect out to the Azores, Canary Islands, and Madeira … or head to almost any major city in Europe.
Get this: United would charge 88,000 miles for a one-way flight from San Francisco (SFO) to Lisbon (LIS) in TAP Air Portugal business class. With ANA, you can book those seats roundtrip for – you guessed it – 100,000 miles and just $63 or so.
Check out some of the other best business class award deals to Europe we've found recently!
The only big hitch with booking through ANA is that you have to book roundtrip – one-way awards are not allowed. You can, however, book a multi-city trip to fly into Rome (FCO) and fly home from Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG), for example.
How to Do It
ANA miles are fairly easy to come by with the right credit cards.
ANA is one of the absolute best transfer partners of American Express Membership Rewards. That means you can transfer the points you earn from *amex platinum card* or the *amex gold card* straight to your ANA account.
With huge bonuses of up to 75,000 points available on the American Express Gold Card after spending $6,000 within six months available via CardMatch, that's a strong option – or better yet, get a 100,000-point bonus via personal referral links. You can even find a 175,000-point bonus on the Platinum Card via CardMatch, too. With that bonus alone, you can book a roundtrip to Europe in business class … and then some.
One thing to beware of: These transfers can take a day or two to hit your account. That could put you in a time crunch if you're looking to book award space that could disappear after you receive a Thrifty Traveler Premium alert.
Take a Cheap(er) Flight Deal & Make It Free with Points
At Thrifty Traveler, we pride ourselves on finding some amazingly cheap flight deals like $200-some roundtrip flights to Europe, cheap flights to Hawaii and back for under $200, and even $63 roundtrip fares to Chile. Cheap business class flights, though? Though are much tougher to find …
… but not impossible. We're constantly searching to find our Thrifty Traveler Premium members some fantastic lie-flat fares across the pond for under $2,000 roundtrip – and sometimes closer to $1,000. Here's a recent find, flying Singapore Airlines, from Houston-Intercontinental (IAH) to Manchester (MAN) in the U.K. and back for just $1,750.
Get business class deals like this plus cheap economy fares sent straight to your inbox with Thrifty Traveler Premium!
But this post is all about using your credit card points and miles, right? Well, when prices get this low, sometimes the best method is to skip airlines and transfer partners altogether and use your credit card points directly through something like the Chase travel portal or Amex Travel.
Rather than paying cash, you're using your credit card points as if they were cash. And that's a goldmine when you can harness a cheap fare you find using Google Flights or get straight to your inbox from Thrifty Traveler Premium. And unlike when you redeem airline miles, you won't have to pay any additional taxes or fees – they're covered by your points. You'll even earn extra points on your free flight!
How to Do It
Once you've got that cheap business class fare in your inbox, you've got a few options to use your points to make it free.
There's no easier way than using Capital One Venture Miles to cover your travel purchases. Just charge your flight to your *venture x* or a *capital one venture card*, wait a few days, and then go back and cover your purchase using Venture Miles. Every 1 Venture mile is worth 1 cent toward travel so that $1,750 roundtrip business class flight would run you 175,000 Venture Miles.
You get a bit more bang for your buck using points from Chase cards like the *chase sapphire preferred* booking flights through the Chase travel portal. Every point is worth 1.25 cents apiece, so this $1,750 fare all the way to England is all yours for 140,000 points. Points from the *chase sapphire reserve* go even further: This same ticket would be less than 117,000 points!
Lie-Flat to Rome from 58K Points
If you're looking to get to Italy in comfort as quickly as possible, look no further. There's a new way to fly business class to and from Italy this year and next, and it belongs to Italian flag carrier ITA Airways.
When ITA first unveiled its new business class seats, we assumed booking these nonstop business class flights to Rome (FCO) would be hard. We were wrong.
After partnering last fall, you can book ITA flights with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points. And these flights start as low as just 75,000 points – or as much as 100,000 points each way for longer routes from the West Coast. Best of all, you won't pay a mountain of additional taxes and fees: Virgin Atlantic doesn't pass on fuel surcharges on these ITA awards, so you'll pay just $5.60 for a one-way to Rome and 56 euros (about $62 USD) for the return flights to the states.
One of the regular 30% transfer bonuses to Virgin Atlantic from banks like Chase, Amex, and Capital One can make it even cheaper: As low as just 58,000 points each way!
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How to Do It
It's incredibly easy to get the points you need.
Virgin Atlantic is a transfer partner with all the major banks: American Express, Bilt Rewards, Capital One, Chase, and Citi. Just be sure to scope out award availability on Virgin Atlantic's site (and use the trick to see a full month's worth!) before transferring any of your hard-earned credit card points.
A One-Way to Lisbon for 35K Points
Ready for a weird one?
You can fly to Lisbon (LIS) in TAP Air Portugal business class for just 35,000 miles one way by using Avianca LifeMiles. But this is a unicorn, as it only works at that ultra-low rate on a single route: New York City (JFK) to Lisbon. Oddly, even a flight from Newark (EWR) or the return flight back to JFK from Lisbon will cost you the full 63,000 miles.
Avianca LifeMiles isn't our favorite way to book flights using miles, as its website is wonky and customer service can be quite bad. But when you can book a business class seat to Portugal for just 5,000 miles more than economy, it's worth it. We recently gave Thrifty Traveler Premium members the heads-up on how to book this deal for a trip this fall.
How to Do It
For years, LifeMiles were fairly difficult to earn – other than frequent bonuses to buy their miles on the cheap.
But that has changed. A few years back, American Express added LifeMiles as a transfer partner. That means you can transfer points from *amex platinum card* or the *amex gold card* to your LifeMiles account – and these transfers are typically instantaneous. LifeMiles can also be one of the best Capital One transfer partners if you've got a big stash of Venture Miles after opening either the *venture x* or the *capital one venture card*.
You can also transfer points to LifeMiles from your Marriott Bonvoy account as well as Citi ThankYou points.
A Summer Ride to Europe for 70K Points (or Less)
Trying to score a ride overseas in business class over the summer? Good luck. It's a tall task … unless you get an award alert like this one.
That's right: Lufthansa business class seats straight into Frankfurt (FRA) for this summer. But it wasn't just Frankfurt: You could also connect onward to Munich (MUC) or Berlin (BER) … or head down to Italy to visit Rome (FCO) or Florence (FLR) … or even head to Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) in time for the summer games!
It's all thanks to Lufthansa's brand-new routes to Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) and Raleigh-Durham (RDU) that began this year. New routes are a constant source of great flight deals, and both routes had wide-open award space all summer and fall long.
Considering you'll get a blank calendar searching for summer business class flights to Europe with almost any other airline, this could even be the best option on the entire list.
Summer might be drawing to a close, but we recently spotted plenty of these same flights bookable for this fall and even next spring!
How to Do It
Lufthansa is part of the massive Star Alliance, which gives you a ton of options to book these fares, including:
- Most flights will cost you 70,000 Air Canada Aeroplan points each way, which you can transfer from Amex, Chase, Capital One, and Bilt.
- Avianca LifeMiles charges just 63,000 miles each way for these flights, whether you're flying nonstop or connecting onward in Europe. You can transfer points to LifeMiles from Amex, Citi, Capital One, and Bilt.
- United MileagePlus is another option, though the airline charges 88,000 miles for these same flights. You can top off your United account by transferring Chase points.
But transfer bonuses can make these deals even better. Under 60,000 points for a business class flight to Europe over the summer? That's unbeatable.
Lie-Flat to the Alps for 60K (Or Less)
Many travelers flock to Europe over summer or shoulder season … but not ski fanatics. This one's for you.
There's no better way to get to the alps to hit fresh winter powder than SWISS business class. A nonstop to Zurich (ZRH) – or, better yet, Geneva (GVA) – puts you just hours away from some of the best skiing in Europe … and maybe even the world.
Lucky for you winter sports aficionados, SWISS business class can be fairly easy to book if you time it right – or get an alert like this.
Most SWISS routes from the U.S. will bring you straight to Zurich. But the airline also flies nonstop from New York City (JFK) to Geneva, just a few hours from the incredible slopes of Chamonix and other world-class mountains in the Swiss, French, and Italian Alps.
And it won't cost you much to book a lie-flat seat on that flight. Two checked bags with your business class ticket means you can even bring your own skis for free!
How to Do It
Air Canada Aeroplan is almost always the best way to book these flights – particularly the shorter routes from the West Coast to Switzerland. Throw in a transfer bonus from Chase or Amex to Aeroplan and it gets even cheaper: Just 50,000 points each way!
Read more: Why Aeroplan is the Best in the Biz for Booking Business Class
But just like its partner airline Lufthansa above, there are plenty of other ways to book these flights to Switzerland:
- Avianca LifeMiles charges just 63,000 miles each way for these flights, whether you're flying nonstop or connecting onward in Europe. You can transfer points to LifeMiles from Amex, Citi, Capital One, and Bilt.
- United MileagePlus is another option, though the airline charges 88,000 miles for these same flights. You can top off your United account by transferring Chase points.
Italy or Greece And Back for 108K
This deal has taken a hit, but it's still a stellar way to get to Europe and back in style on one of the world's best airlines.
Emirates operates two funky fifth-freedom flights between the U.S. and Europe: One from New York City (JFK) to Milan (MXP) and another from Newark (EWR) to Athens (ATH). On either route, you can snag a seat in Emirates business class for as low as 108,000 Skywards miles roundtrip – plus about $250 in fees.
But the trick is finding the award availability at those lowest rates: Searching yourself on Emirates, you might only see flights for closer to 200,000 miles … if you see anything at all. Thrifty Traveler Premium has you covered there, too, pinpointing you to the exact dates you can travel to book.
These seats all got booked – get the next award alert to fly business class with Thrifty Traveler Premium!
You can even try your luck at upgrading to Emirates First Class at the airport!
How to Do It
You'll need more Emirates miles to book this flight than just a few months ago thanks to a recent devaluation. Fortunately, those miles are still easy to earn.
You can transfer them from Chase, Amex, Capital One, Citi, and even Bilt Rewards. That means a stash of 108,000 points on cards like the *venture x*, *amex gold card*, *chase sapphire preferred*, or *citi premier* is all you need, as all those points transfer to Emirates on a 1:1 basis instantly.
Bottom Line
Even if you've got a million points and miles to burn, booking a business class seat across the pond can feel impossible. Heck, even scoring a seat in economy to Europe can be tough at times.
That's what our Thrifty Traveler Premium service is all about: Doing the legwork for you so you can score business class seats around the world without breaking a sweat.