Frequent Flyer booking - best value European destination?

dunroving

Not sure if the title conveys what I am trying to ask, but here goes ...


I have enough FF miles with United Airlines to book a within-Europe return ticket (I am in the UK). United partners in the Star Alliance Network are:


Adria Airways JP
Aegean Airlines A3
Air Canada AC
Air China CA
Air India AI
Air New Zealand NZ
ANA NH
Asiana Airlines OZ
Austrian OS
Avianca AV
Brussels Airlines SN
Copa Airlines CM
Croatia Airlines OU
EGYPTAIR MS
Ethiopian Airlines ET
EVA Air BR
LOT Polish Airlines LO
Lufthansa LH
Scandinavian Airlines SK
Shenzhen Airlines Z
Singapore Airlines SQ
South African Airways SA
SWISS LX
TAP Portugal
THAI TG
Turkish Airlines TK
United UA


- I assume I can use the FF miles and it would/could be with any of the above partners?


Are there any particular European destinations from the UK that would be "good value"? (I mean that would otherwise be quite expensive to fly to)?


I haven't done much European travel in recent years but have considered Prague, Greece (would be cheap living costs, I presume!), Copenhagen ... but I am quite open to other ideas. Not looking for a hyper-commercial beach resort holiday. Either an interesting city (Athens, Prague) or an offbeat destination would work.


Nice to have the opportunity, so don't want to waste it on a destination I could get to for £20 with Flybe!

richardw

I redeemed on Croatia Airlines and got a bargain, but did it the day the flights went on sale to get availability. This was a while ago when there were fewer EasyJet and ryanair flights.

shammyjack

Croatia is a good idea . Brilliant holiday and a very diverse country .

Try flying into Rijeka or Pula . Work you way the length of the country on the long distance scheduled coach routes and fly back from Dubrovnik ( stay there at least 2 days ) .

richardw

Turkish are doing EDI to Istanbul.

dunroving

Thanks for the replies so far.


I have done some rudimentary searching on Kayak and found that for example, from Glasgow/Edinburgh (I'm close to both), flights to Istanbul and Athens were generally more expensive (£200+) than to, say, Amsterdam and Copenhagen.


Just to clarify, I'm not too concerned with a cheapo holiday as much as taking the opportunity to get a "free" flight to somewhere that the flight cost would normally be expensive.


Also, because my job is mental, I like to just potter on holiday - not into 7-day bus-hopping cross-country escapades!


Keep the suggestions coming ... Copenhagen is currently off the list (can fly there cheaply some other time), Athens, Rome and Istanbul currently in.

richardw

LH are starting GLA-MUC in May.

dunroving

richardw wrote: »

LH are starting GLA-MUC in May.

Hmmm, interesting, never been to Germany (nor Greece, or Turkey, or the Czech republic ...) so many choices!

budgetflyer

richardw wrote: »

LH are starting GLA-MUC in May.

Are you sure? I have just checked for July and Oct and all MUC flights are via Dusseldorf

totallybored

dunroving wrote: »

Keep the suggestions coming ... Copenhagen is currently off the list (can fly there cheaply some other time), Athens, Rome and Istanbul currently in.

Istanbul is my favourite out of those 3. There is so much to do and it's also quite cheap when you get there so you can stay somewhere nice for a reasonable amount of money and eating out and drinking is also cheap. I also found the food and shopping better than the other 2.

richardw

budgetflyer wrote: »

Are you sure? I have just checked for July and Oct and all MUC flights are via Dusseldorf

Seems to be only non-stop on Saturdays.

Doshwaster

totallybored wrote: »

Istanbul is my favourite out of those 3. There is so much to do and it's also quite cheap when you get there so you can stay somewhere nice for a reasonable amount of money and eating out and drinking is also cheap. I also found the food and shopping better than the other 2.

Istanbul is top of my European to-do list this year. I was looking to go there for a long weekend over Easter but the flights are just too expensive so it will have to be another time.

In fact, the flight prices to everywhere are crazy this Easter.