After more than 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown, we were looking forward to some travel. I have been collecting miles on United MileagePlus for quite some time and I was scouting for destinations which we wanted to visit and where we could maximize our miles.
Europe was on top of our list and I was trying to figure out how we could do the most with that. My wife has always wanted to visit Iceland and I wanted to go to the Azores.
After lots of research and award search, I was finally able to zero in on our travel plans. United MileagePlus has a nice benefit called the Excursionist Perk, a free one-way award within select multi-city itineraries. With that, I was able to book award tickets from India to the Azores and to Iceland and then back to India for 126000 miles. The journey from Azores to Iceland cost us 0 miles thanks to the Excursionist Perk!
Our first flight would be on Vistara on Friday 23rd September leaving Pune at 8:35 PM reaching Delhi at 10:30 PM. There we would connect to the Lufthansa flight at 1:10 AM reaching Munich at 5:40 AM and onwards at 6:50 AM reaching Nice at 8:20 AM on Saturday. We had an overnight layover in Nice for 21 hours and 50 minutes 🔗. On Sunday we would fly TAP Portugal from Nice at 6:10 AM reaching Lisbon at 7:45 AM with a 13 hours 55 minutes layover in Lisbon 🔗 connecting onwards at 9:40 PM and reaching Terceira at 11:15 PM.
| Date | Flight | From | At | To | At | Airline |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FRI 23 SEP | UK 992 | PUNE, IN (PNQ) | 20:35 | DELHI, IN (DEL) | 22:30 | VISTARA |
| SAT 24 SEP | LH 763 | DELHI, IN (DEL) | 01:10 | MUNICH, DE (MUC) | 05:40 | LUFTHANSA |
| SAT 24 SEP | LH 2270 | MUNICH, DE (MUC) | 06:50 | NICE, FR (NCE) | 08:20 | LUFTHANSA CITYLINE |
| SUN 25 SEP | TP 481 | NICE, FR (NCE) | 06:10 | LISBON, PT (LIS) | 07:45 | PORTUGALIA AIRLINES |
| SUN 25 SEP | TP 1823 | LISBON, PT (LIS) | 21:40 | TERCEIRA, PT (TER) | 23:15 | TAP PORTUGAL |
After spending 2 days in Terceira 🔗, for the next part of our journey we would travel from the Azores to Iceland via Greece. We would leave from Terceira at 6:10 AM on Wednesday 28th September on TAP Portugal reaching Lisbon at 10:15 AM. After about 13 hours 35 minutes in Lisbon 🔗, we would take the Aegean Airlines red-eye flight leaving at 11:50 PM and reaching Athens the next morning at 5:45 AM on Thursday 29th September. After about 13 hours 20 minutes in Athens 🔗, we would take the Lufthansa flight at 7:05 PM reaching Munich at 8:40 PM and then connecting onwards at 10:55 PM reaching Reykjavík at 12:50 AM.
| Date | Flight | From | At | To | At | Airline |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WED 28 SEP | TP 1828 | TERCEIRA, PT (TER) | 06:10 | LISBON, PT (LIS) | 10:15 | TAP PORTUGAL |
| WED 28 SEP | A3 723 | LISBON, PT (LIS) | 23:50 | ATHENS, GR (ATH) | 05:45(+1) | AEGEAN AIRLINES |
| THU 29 SEP | LH 1755 | ATHENS, GR (ATH) | 19:05 | MUNICH, DE (MUC) | 20:40 | LUFTHANSA |
| THU 29 SEP | LH 2468 | MUNICH, DE (MUC) | 22:55 | REYKJAVIK, IS (KEF) | 00:50(+1) | LUFTHANSA |
After spending 4 days in Iceland 🔗, we would start our return journey to India. We would leave from Reykjavík at 12:25 AM on Tuesday 4th October on Lufthansa reaching Frankfurt at 5:45 AM. After 8 hours in Frankfurt 🔗 we would then connect onwards at 1:55 PM and reaching Malta at 4:25 PM. With 3 hours 45 minutes in Malta 🔗, we would take the Turkish Airlines flight at 8:10 PM reaching Istanbul at 11:40 PM. We had an overnight layover in Istanbul for 20 hours and 25 minutes 🔗. The next day, Wednesday 5th October, we would fly from Istanbul at 8:05 PM reaching Mumbai the next morning at 4:45 AM.
| Date | Flight | From | At | To | At | Airline |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TUE 04 OCT | LH 869 | REYKJAVIK, IS (KEF) | 00:25 | FRANKFURT, DE (FRA) | 05:45 | LUFTHANSA |
| TUE 04 OCT | LH 1310 | FRANKFURT, DE (FRA) | 13:55 | LUQA, MT (MLA) | 16:25 | LUFTHANSA |
| TUE 04 OCT | TK 1372 | LUQA, MT (MLA) | 20:10 | ISTANBUL, TR (IST) | 23:40 | TURKISH AIRLINES |
| WED 05 OCT | TK 720 | ISTANBUL, TR (IST) | 20:05 | MUMBAI, IN (BOM) | 04:45(+1) | TURKISH AIRLINES |
I booked the award ticket on the united.com website. All the flights got confirmed except for the Lufthansa flight from Athens to Munich. I then called the Premier helpdesk to look at other routings, but luckily the agent was able to confirm that specific segment; so we were all set.
I had initially booked the tickets from Mumbai. But after award space became available from Pune via Delhi for the onward journey, I was able to again get someone from the Premier helpdesk to change the flights for us.
I kept looking for flights and options even after our original tickets were booked and moved our transit points from Istanbul, Milan, Vienna, Warsaw to eventually lock in on our final itinerary.
On the return journey, our initial layover in Frankfurt and Malta was 3 hours and 8 hours respectively. But Lufthansa cancelled the morning flight to Malta that day and we were left with 8 hours at Frankfurt and 3 hours in Malta.
With that we were all set for our trip to Europe, thanks to United MileagePlus.
126000 miles redeemed | 13 segments
6 countries | 7 airlines