Calling all frequent fliers

[philb]

I am just curious what other people's experiences are in redeeming miles for tickets on flights into ,say, Kiev and Moscow.

In the past I had always had good results with United's mileage plus program.  In the past 13 months I was able to redeem miles for two round trip tickets for August travel.  These were for flights into Kiev.

This year all of my paid flights have been on Northwest.  They added direct flights from Casper to Minneapolis about a year ago.  They comped me their Silver Elite status and their flights are typically a little over $100.00 cheaper then an equivalent flight on United.  The problem is I have yet to be able to redeem miles for a flight to Kiev.  They can get me to Amsterdam, London, or even Prague  (I have to ask about Budapest) but so far no Kiev.

I wonder which program is the best when it comes to redeeming miles for tickets with destinations in the FSU?

[Michelangelo]

I use both American and Delta.  They get me close and then I use internal airlines for connections.  I pay 50,000 miles on Delta and 60,000 miles on American.

See Bruno's post for some good local airlines to get you on into Kiev.

I also have good luck (but I am a risk taker) at buying connnecting flights at the "Last Minute" desk at the airports in Europe...

You can also get online flights at the Ukraine airline
AeroSvit.

See some good sales at

http://aerosvit.ua/eng/actions/

[IvanGrozny]

I have used Delta/Air France to Kiev through Paris.  Don't check any luggage, if possible.  Connections can be tight and CDG is a clusterphuck of an airport.  You can also often find good fares on Austrian, which is affiliated with Lufthansa and so should be in with United's Star Alliance.

Ivan IV