We are looking at planning to go to Europe in December/January, at the moment for 2 persons.
Would love advice as it will very cold and not sure on the itinerary thus far.
We are not keen on skiing, rather spend time visiting cultural spots and sites, dining, shopping, local scenery.
For Flights, what are the options flying with Business Class/First Class?
We have heard of the American Airlines option where you pay for miles and you can redeem it for the flights. Has anyone used this and how does this work?
Are there any other options with travelling business class to Europe from Australia?
How to book great accommodation too (perhaps with Miles or Qantas points?)
What are your suggestions on how we can do this and where to go, without breaking the bank?
This site is focussed on travel redemptions not ideal itineraries. There are many other travel forums dedicated to tourism questions . Europe is so diverse there are literally hundreds of different places you could visit.
Your questions need to be more focussed. Do you have any points balances in any program?
But perhaps most importantly there is very unlikely to be any rewards seats in December and most of January. As this is high peak. Even purchasing business seats would be difficult.
Have a look at this page if you are keen on learning more about buying points/miles.
Steps I can suggest is:
Shortlist 3 countries/cities you would like to visit. This depends on the time you have to spend there. Do a Google on where you would like to visit. No one can advise you specifically as everyone is different.
If you do not have enough points, you have to consider which airline points to buy (dependent on your travel budget). Once you have a rough plan on what points to buy, you have to check and see whether there are still seats available before buying the points.
On most FF programs, you cannot place seats on hold, so there would be a bit of a lag between when you buy and see the points in your FF program account to when you are actually seeing the seats and making the booking. So in other words, there is still some risk of you buying the points and not being able to secure the seats on the flights that you thought there were seats for (no longer available).
If you are flexible, you might be able to still score some flights but the clock is ticking and December is peak season due to Xmas.
Europe is incredible at winter time and there is plenty to do that doesnt involve skiing. A lot will depend on how long you have, what you’ve seen before and how you like to experience new places (quick day trips or immerse yourself in a city for a week?). We’ve been living in europe for 2 years and would be happy to put together a few notes if you can let us know some more details.