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 at the 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 126,000 miles. The journey from the 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 and 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 continuing onwards at 6:50 AM to reach 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 Air Portugal from Nice at 6:10 AM, reaching Lisbon at 7:45 AM with a 13-hour 55-minute layover in Lisbon 🔗 before 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 🔗, we would travel from the Azores to Iceland via Greece for the next part of our journey. We would leave from Terceira at 6:10 AM on Wednesday, 28th September, on TAP Air Portugal, reaching Lisbon at 10:15 AM. After about 13 hours and 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 and 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 to reach 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 at Frankfurt 🔗, we would then connect onwards at 1:55 PM and reach Malta at 4:25 PM. With 3 hours and 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 were 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 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, and 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. However, Lufthansa canceled the morning flight to Malta that day, and we were left with 8 hours in Frankfurt and 3 hours in Malta.
With that, we were all set for our trip to Europe, thanks to United MileagePlus.
126,000 miles redeemed | 13 segments
6 countries | 7 airlines
