I recently got back from Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. My travel companion said his friends were asking him to buy COVID-19 rapid antigen tests abroad because they were cheaper and more abundant there Unfortunately, they asked when we were already on our last stop in Zurich, Switzerland, so we didn’t check the other countries. Switzerland is known to be expensive (honestly, I loved Switzerland and didn’t feel that it was extraordinarily expensive compared to major urban cities in the US like SF or NY), but we went out to check the local pharmacies anyways. We were shocked to find that it actually was cheaper and more abundantly available than in the US. Here are some datapoints on what we found:
Tag: Europe
Getting to Europe using your transferable point currencies
As a follow up to the guide on how to get to Asia using your transferable points, Adam from The Jet Set Blog commented that he also had a comprehensive guide for Europe. He’s also planning to add guides for each major region, so I’d give him a follow.
I’ve got some reading to do! And now that I will have 100k extra MR points, Alitalia is looking like an increasingly attractive option for business redemptions.
American Airlines business class award space to Europe wide open – even into summer 2016!
Via View from the Wing, business class award space to Europe on American metal is wide open right now. Act fast, as American is notoriously stingy about opening up premium cabin award space to Europe. The space that is wide open is any American metal to LHR. Those routes are the big American and US Airways hubs LAX, MIA, DFW, ORD, CLT, PHL to LHR.
Normally, the only space accessible by American AAdvantage miles are the British Airways longhaul flights, and those come with hefty fuel surcharges.
Space is even wide open all the way into summer 2016, which is great as space rarely opens up then as well.
I’m flying from SFO, so I need to make a connection to one of those hubs, then beyond. Specifically, I was thinking of flying from London onto Amsterdam or Brussels. But fortunately, you can add on those connections to one award with no additional miles cost. Unfortunately, adding on that last British Airways leg increases the taxes by $95 or so from the $5.60 that it would be without that last leg.
Cheap British Airways business class flights to Europe are back!
UPDATE: Via Dan’s Deals, you can use Cash + Avios and get a very good value out of your Avios (around ~2 cents per Avios)
British Airways has been having on and off business class sales to Europe for the last year or so. According to FlyerTalk, the sale is back again. I’m finding fares to Europe from San Francisco to be around $2000. This offer is not limited to San Francisco though, and should be available from many airports across the country. It’s not too often that the West Coast gets business class deals this good to Europe though.
Combine this with $400 off business class fares with the AARP discount, and 10% with code CARDOFFER4U using the Chase British Airways credit card (although I’ve found that any Chase Visa card works as well), and you can get these fares down to $1450 or so from San Francisco.
Note, the $400 only works on British Airways metal or American Airlines metal that are BA codeshares. The valid periods for travel are November 1, 2014 – March 31, 2016.
For the CARDOFFER4U code, outbound travel must be by December 31, 2015.
Here’s a map of Europe of British Airways + American Airlines flights from San Francisco to give you an idea.
Also, don’t forget about the extra 25,000 American AAdvantage miles you can earn for business class flights through January 31, 2016 to Europe!