Business Class Milan – JFK & 35,000 Miles From $1,590 (£1,095/€1,420)

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There is a great Business Class fare currently available for travel between Milan and New York JFK that’s not only good value price-wise but could earn you a significant number of miles as well. The one issue is that the fare isn’t available for too many dates but, if you can be flexible with your dates, this may work well for you.

Business Class Milan – JFK From $1,590 (£1,095/€1,420)

The best fare that I found is published by Finnair for travel in Business Class on American Airlines in July 2016.

As usual I used the ITA Matrix search tool to find the fare and these were the parameters I used:

The options highlighted by the red box are important from a mileage earning perspective but I’ll come on to that a little bit later.

These are the results that ITA Matrix throws up for July and you should use the dates offering fares for $1,561 as a guide (not that although this fare appears to be cheaper it also appears not to exist when you check the airlines’ sites!).

While the $1,561 fare may be a phantom the fare of $1,590 is most definitely not as this screenshot from the Finnair site shows:

There are other good OneWorld, July, Business Class fares available as well (in the $1,750 to $1,850) but none that appear to compete with this one.

Fare rules – just the highlights

• Must book by 8 June 2016
• Fare available 1 July – 31 August 2016
• Book at least 14 days before departure

Redeemable Mileage Earning & Why This Fare Is So Good

Note: I’m primarily focusing on earning American Airlines AAdvantage miles in this post because those are the miles that can be earned by anyone booking this Business Class fare. Avios can also be earned with this fare but, thanks to limitations set by BA & Iberia (more on that in a bit), not nearly as many people can maximise their earnings that way.

You’ll earn redeemable AAdvantage Miles in numerous ways with this fare:

1. Miles based on the distance of the flight
2. Bonus miles for traveling in Business Class
3. Bonus miles if you have elite status
4. Bonus miles from a current promotion

Miles based on the distance of the flight

As mileage earning on American Airlines’ partners is still done on a “miles flown” basis, the miles you earn are tied to the distance of the flights – in this case 7,990 miles round trip:

The American Airlines earnings chart for tickets booked with Finnair shows that travelers earn 100% base miles for flights in Business Class….

….so that’s 7,990 miles in the bank just for booking the flight.

Bonus miles for traveling in Business Class

As you should also be able to see from the chart above, Business Class flights booked through Finnair qualify for a 25% “Class of Service” bonus which would earn you a further 1,998 miles (25% of 7,990).

Bonus miles if you have elite status

The AAdvantage program currently awards bonus miles based on a passengers elite status with American Airlines.

• Gold – 25% bonus
• Platinum – 100% bonus
• Executive Platinum – 100% bonus

In the case of this particular flight that would see AAdvantage Elites earning as follows:

• Gold – Further bonus of 1,998 AAdvantage Miles
• Platinum – Further bonus of 7,990 AAdvantage Miles
• Executive Platinum – Further bonus of 7,990 AAdvantage Miles

Bonus Miles From A Current Promotion

American Airlines, Iberia, British Airways and Finnair are all running a version of a promotion that offers passengers bonus miles/Avios for traveling between Europe and the US between now and 31 July 2016.

Because the BA & Iberia promotions appear to be targeted I’m going to focus on the American Airlines earning opportunities from the promotion as that’s open to everyone.

The first thing you need to know about the American Airlines AAdvantage promotion is that you don’t have to book with American airlines to be eligible for the bonus AAdvantage Miles:

This confirms that booking the Finnair fare I’ve been highlighting will qualify for the promotion.

The second thing you need to know is how many AAdvantage Miles you can earn:

So a single return Business Class trip (taken before 31 July 2016) will earn a bonus of 25,000 AAdvantage miles.

Totalling Up The Miles

• A flyer with no status with American Airlines would earn 34,988 AAdvantage Miles (7,990+1,998+25,000).

• Gold status holders would earn 36,986 AAdvantage Miles
• Platinum& Executive Platinum status holders would earn 42,978 AAdvantage Miles

That’s a lot of miles for a single, Business Class, round-trip flight that’s only marginally more expensive that an Economy Class fare during peak season.

To put these figures in context:

• Economy class award (round trip) within the 48 contiguous US states – 25,000 miles
• First Class award (round trip) within the 48 contiguous US states – 50,000 miles
• Business Class award (one way) US to Europe – 57,500 miles

Bottom Line

This is a very good Business Class fare if you simply take it at face value but, when you take a look at how many redeemable miles you can earn thanks to the ongoing promotion, it makes the fare that much better.

The aircraft that flys the Milan – New York route for American Airlines is a 767 and, while I wasn’t exactly wowed by the Business Class product when I reviewed it on this route earlier in the year, at this price it’s not bad at all.

Featured Image: Eric Salard via Flickr