AwardHacker is one of many tools out there, like Google Flights to help with your award flight search. It’s a platform whose slogan is “find the best award flights.” With the complexity in finding award flight deals, everyone could use a tool like this in their life. The website is easy to learn with the end goal of helping you to book award flights easier.
While the current travel environment is off again on again, it’s always good practice to book flights way in advance. That strategy works well now as it’s hard to tell when international travel will truly open back up again. With that said, let’s dive into how to leverage the AwardHacker platform to book a flight to Europe.
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Best Credit Cards to Book Airfare After AwardHacker Searches
Some of the best credit cards to use to book airfare include the Amex Platinum Card, Chase Sapphire Reserve, and Citi Premier Card. Each card is unique in its own way as well as how it fits in the portfolio of cards within each respective bank.
The Amex Platinum Card earns 5x on airfare. You earn 3x points on all travel, including airfare, with the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Citi Premier cardmembers earn 3x points on airfare. Points earned on these cards are transferable. In other words, you can transfer these points to airline partners of these bank programs to book award flights.
Booking a Flight to Europe
It’s typically good practice to start any award search on Wikipedia to see the different routes offered by each airline. For our example, let’s start with the Star Alliance Wikipedia page where you’ll see each member airline. Not all of these airlines fly between Europe and the US, so focus on the ones that are based in either Europe or the US.
Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa, SAS, Turkish Airlines, and United Airlines are Star Alliance members based in these regions that are representative examples that we can use. Let’s assume we want to fly Austrian Airlines. On the Austrian Airlines Wikipedia, click on “Vienna” in the top right of the page next to “hubs.” Next, click “Airlines and destinations” and see which cities Austrian Airlines flies to from Vienna and write the cities down.
With a list of cities, enter the name of the city pairs in the “From” and “To” search function on AwardHacker. For “Route Type” select either “round-trip” or “one-way.” You’ll do the same for “Cabin,” and “Stops.” Leave “Frequent Flyer Program” set to “Any.”
Once you’ve inputted your data, AwardHacker lists the award programs you can use by the least number of airline miles or credit card points on the left. For Austrian Airlines, programs that likely make the most sense to use are Air Canada Aeroplan, Avianca LifeMiles, or United Airlines. These programs don’t pass on the high fuel surcharges that Austrian Airlines requires. So, you can save a ton of money by using these loyalty programs.
Next Steps on AwardHacker
Now that you know which programs are available and the number of miles or points required, you then head to the website of the loyalty programs to search for award flights. In our Austrian Airlines example, you will find the Air Canda Aeroplan charges 60,000-70,000 points for these one-way flights. Avianca LifeMiles is likely going to be 63,000 miles. United Airlines charges 75,000-77,000 miles to fly Austrian between the US and Europe.
Depending upon the points or miles that you have, you would nail down the program that you want to use first. Then you would book the flight or transfer points from the credit card program. With the points in your airline account, you can then book the flight and pay the taxes and fees.
What do you make of AwardHacker flights to Europe? How do you like to use AwardHacker? Please let me know in the comments or by sending me an email on my contact page.
Disclaimer: If you click and/or sign up for a credit card through certain links on this site or any of my related social media platforms, I may make a commission from that click-through. The editorial content on this page and the user comments are not provided by any of the companies mentioned and have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are mine alone.
