American Airlines’ new European Routes for Summer (and Beyond)

Posted By Jon Nickel-D'Andrea on Jul 20, 2019 | 2 comments

Finding award seats across the Atlantic Ocean in the peak summer season is usually pretty tough, but when an airline comes out with almost a dozen new routes to get you from the US to Europe, the options are endless. American Airlines launched a slew of new European routes for the summer, and some of the routes are going to stick full-time!

Dubrovnik, Courtesy of AA.com

Nonstop routes

• Charlotte, NC (CLT) to Munich, Germany (MUC) – starting March 30, 2019
• Chicago O’Hare (ORD) to Athens, Greece (ATH) – starting May 3 through September 28, 2019
• Dallas / Fort Worth, TX (DFW) to Dublin, Ireland (DUB) – starting June 6 through September 28, 2019
• Dallas-Fort Worth, TX (DFW) to Munich, Germany (MUC) – starting June 6 through October 26, 2019
• Philadelphia, PA (PHL) to Edinburgh, Scotland (EDI) – starting April 2 through October 26, 2019
• Philadelphia, PA (PHL) to Bologna, Italy (BLQ) – starting June 6 through September 28, 2019
• Philadelphia, PA (PHL) to Dubrovnik, Croatia (DBV) – starting June 7 through September 27, 2019
• Philadelphia, PA (PHL) to Berlin, Germany (TXL) – starting June 7 through September 28, 2019
• Phoenix, AZ (PHX) to London-Heathrow (LHR)

I’m really excited to see some “second cities” on this list, places that have been underserved by direct service to the United States.

Edinburgh, Bologna, Dubrovnik, and even Berlin are getting new service from Philly. There aren’t enough direct flights to Athens, in my opinion, so I’m excited to see the new Chicago to Athens route. Here’s to hoping that there is enough demand to keep the route going full-time.

Award Seats

There are some flights that have seats available on the new non-stop service. It looks like American is using their 767-300 on these routes, which are equipped with a 1-2-1 configuration in business class.

You can search for the direct flights right on American Airline’s website, and you can even search on Alaska Airline’s website as well. Depending on who you carry your miles with, you might find that Alaska, American, or even British Airways is a good redemption option. Remember that Avios are transferrable currencies with both Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards, so you can easily top off your balances.

One other benefit of using your British Airways Avios is that you won’t pay those pesky fuel surcharges that British imposes on their own flights. You should just pay the $5.60 on the flight to Europe.

New Routes, New Options

Take a look at these options that you’ve got to get to Europe. Most people looking to redeem rewards are going to look at the normal routes (big hubs to London, Amsterdam, Paris, etc) and those might be full this late in the game. Now, with all of these flights, you’ve got the opportunity to see new places in Europe that you might not have thought about.

Cash prices on these routes for peak summer travel can be in excess of $1,600 in economy, so if you’re able to snag one of those seats with miles, count yourself lucky.

Are you excited about any of these new American Airlines routes? Any you’d like to see stick around?