Using Alaska Miles

[dawnyp]

H and I were hoping to go to Europe next year and redeem my Alaska miles for 2 business/first class tickets. I called today to see what is available for flights from SEA to Amsterdam or Paris and there are no flights available for points the last week of August. The September flights aren't available yet. We may have to rethink our travel plans. We can fly Air France, KLM, Delta and American - I only want 1 connection. What cities should we look at flying into?

The end goal is to do a cruise out of Barcelona or Venice.

[sunshinedaydreams]

Try looking at IcelandAir. They're an Alaska partner and will take you into Amsterdam (and a bunch of other European cities; not sure if Venice or Barcelona are included) with a short layover in Reykjavik, Iceland. We fly almost exclusively IcelandAir to/from Europe and it's typically cheaper than other options, and we earn Alaska miles for the flights. I haven't used points to purchase a flight from them, so not sure how much that will run you, but might be worth a look.

[dawnyp]

I am hoping that maybe it is just August that there are mileage tickets and we can get something in September. I think it's crazy that they can have absolutely no seats available 2 weeks after you can first book a flight. I've used miles in the past to fly BC to South America this is the first I've seen absolutely nothing available.