Sweet Spots – Business Class to Europe

Known Business Class Sweet Spots to Europe

If you are new to using your points/miles to fly business class to/from Europe, you may not have heard of some of these sweet spots. While these aren’t always available, checking availability on these is a great jumping off spot.

Iberia

Iberia starts at 40,500 miles one way to Madrid
Iberia releases award space at 361 days out. At 361 days out, it is common for them to release 1 – 2 business class seats per flight. These 40.5K one way deals are for off peak dates, within the following routes: JFK/BOS/IAD/ORD to MAD.

I personally don’t pay too much attention to this sweet spot because it’s extremely rare to see more than 2 seats available in business class. But here’s where it gets interesting {and doesn’t make much sense}. Sometimes, when you search a route BEYOND Madrid, you can find better availability. Here’s an example:

1st: Find availability to Madrid in business class with at least 1 seat available.
In this example, you see on May 20, 2026 there is 1 business class flight from IAD to MAD for 40.5K Avios (one way)

But sometimes, you can change the end destination to a different European city. And sometimes, MORE availability opens up. This example shows exactly that. Now on that same date, there are 3 seats available with the route of IAD to NAP with a layover in MAD. This option is 57K Avios.

Key points: These deals only work when departing/returning to the following airports: IAD, ORD, JFK, BOS

Booking: You can transfer Chase & American Express directly to Iberia. Or you can transfer Capital One miles to British Airways then move them to Iberia. Or transfer Citi points to Qatar and then move them to Iberia. This is possible because Iberia, British Airways & Qatar share the same Avios currency.

Virgin Atlantic

Virgin Atlantic starts at 29K miles one way to UK
Virgin Atlantic availability varies and the best availability isn’t necessarily dropped when award flights open up at 331 days out. But it doesn’t hurt to be prepared to look that far out.

Use a search tool like seats.aero to quickly find availability:

1. Choose “Explore” at top and then choose Virgin Atlantic from the drop down
2. To/from put North America to Europe (or vice versa)
3. Make sure search is set to “full year” (you’ll need the pro version for this)
4. Click on “Business” to sort by cheapest business class fares

or use the Virgin Atlantic Reward Seat Checker:

1. After entering your to/from on main page, scroll by month
2. Look for cheapest business class fares

Key points:
For US airports, search from/to: BOS, JFK, ATL, LAX, LAS, MIA, MCO, SEA, SFO, TPA, IAD
For UK airports, search from/to: MAN, LHR, EDI

Taxes for flights that depart from the UK are usually very high. I recommend using this option to fly TO the UK. But then use a different carrier to fly home.

Booking: You can transfer points from Chase, American Express & Citi to Virgin Atlantic. You can transfer miles from Capital One to Virgin Red – and those combine with Virgin Atlantic by linking the 2 accounts.

Flying Blue (Air France & KLM)

Air France/KLM starts at 60K miles one way to many European cities
Air France & KLM have been my go to for business class for years. Award seats are released 359 days out. While this year their availability for the best business class award pricing has not been as abundant as other years, they do seem to have “drops” where they release a bunch at once. The best way to catch one of these is by alerts from an award alert newsletter (my go to is Thrifty Traveler).

The other 2 best ways to search availability is

1. Via seats.aero (same method as described above for Virgin Atlantic)
2. Directly on the Air France website. You’ll need to login to search, then you’ll leave the date BLANK. When you do this you can search by month to find cheapest business class award availability.

Key points:
For US airports, search from/to: BOS, JFK, ATL, LAX, MIA, MCO, SEA, SFO, TPA, IAD, PHX, DFW, IAH, MSP, DTW, EWR, RDU, DEN, SLC, AUS
For European airports there are dozens of airports Air France/KLM flies to

Booking:
You can transfer points from Chase, American Express, Capital One and Citi to Flying Blue (Air France & KLM’s loyalty program).

Bonus: If you find an award flight with Air France or KLM, you can call Flying Blue and ask to have those award seats put on hold for you until you transfer your points (usually they give you 72 hours).

Aeroplan (Air Canada)

Book alliance partners with Aeroplan starting at 60K miles one way to many European cities
If you are in a United hub, you should familiarize yourself with Aeroplan (the loyalty program for Air Canada). Air Canada and United are both part of Star Alliance. And Air Canada often has a lot of partner availability to Europe.

There is no easy way to search Air Canada, so I would definitely recommend using a search tool like seats.aero.

Once you find an option via a search tool, then go to Air Canada, sign in and run a search to confirm availability. One very important thing is to watched for “mixed” awards – meaning part of a flight is in a premium cabin and part is in economy. Sometimes a huge chunk of the flight is in economy and of course you want to avoid those options.

1. After signing in and running the search, click on “Business Class” to sort by cheapest option
2. When you see “Mixed cabin”, hover over it to see what the percentage of time in business class is on that flight – you can also select “Details” where the flight info to see exactly what is in premium cabin and what isn’t

Key points: I often have luck search flights out of DEN, IAH, IAD, EWR, JFK, BOS, SFO, ORD, PHL, EWR, LAX, ORD, SEA

Booking: You can transfer points to Aeroplan from Chase, American Express and Capital One

Bonus: Taxes are often low on these award flights

Cathay Pacific

British Airways flights to LHR start at 58K miles one way.
British Airways releases award flights 330 – 360 days out. And they almost always release at least 4 business class award seats per flight. So booking as soon as they are available is your best bet.

Did you know that you can often book British Airways award flights via Cathay Pacific for LESS points and LESS taxes!

This option shows a flight booked directly with British Airways.
This would cost 90K Avios + $375 taxes/fees

But I was able to find the exact flight bookable on Cathay Pacific
This would cost 63K points + $223 taxes/fees

Key points: For US airports, search to/from: DEN, SFO, LAX SEA, LAS, PHX, DFW, IAH, MIA, IAD, BOS, JFK, EWR, IAD, PHL, ORD
Lesser availability: PDX, SAN, CVG, BWI, PIT

Booking: You can transfer points from Capital One, American Express and Citi to Cathay Pacific

My Take Away

Earning transferable points will always be the first step to getting the best award flight deals. Doing that means you can have many different options with your points. From there, I find the best practice is to start looking early – Especially if you are looking for 2+ seats.

There are dozens of amazing options out there to use your points for business class. These are a few of my favorite because they are DOABLE! None of these are omgthebestbusinessclassever. But most of us want to stretch out points, get enough seats for our family and arrive to our destination rested. And for that, all of these are fantastic options.