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My brother and I are planning a trip to Europe from the US late summer/early fall. I have Southwest airline points, and we are probably going all around Europe so specific airports and times are not really important. What is the best way to search for the most economical flights?

Andrew
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    Welcome to TSE. Please have a look at How can I do a "broad" search for flights? which will likely answer your question. I'm afraid your Southwest points are useless in Europe (for flights, anyway). – choster Apr 02 '19 at 00:38
  • Browse https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mileage-run-deals-372/ frequently. You don't want a mileage run, sure, but the fares are unusual and very low. –  Apr 02 '19 at 02:50
  • @choster , that's incorrect. Southwest points can be used on any airline in the world, for any flight. Although it is rather inefficient, as you get only 0.10$ per point, whereas flying Southwest, you get 0.14 - 0.21 $ per point. – Aganju Apr 02 '19 at 03:14
  • Sorry, factor 10 wrong. It's 0.01 $ per point, vs. 0.014 - 0.02 $ per point. – Aganju Apr 02 '19 at 03:26
  • @Aganju You're right. I should have said worthless, not useless. Using them for hotels would be a somewhat better choice, but unless OP anticipates never being able to use them for domestic WN flights, I'd advise against any partner redemption. – choster Apr 02 '19 at 14:15
  • My plan with Southwest is to get to the domestic airport where I can get the cheapest flight to Europe. I don't really care where that might be. – Andrew Apr 02 '19 at 16:51

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There is no generic solution, you have to try around various option. Google flights (https://www.google.com/flights/) or ita (http://matrix.itasoftware.com/) do not allow to search across multiple start countries at the same time, but you can for example enter JFK or MCO to 'MUC', and then add all airports within 3000 miles of MUC (that's Munich). This will show you some cheap options all across Europe.

You can buy any flight with Southwest points, but only at an inefficient rate. Still, better than not being able to use them.

[currently MCO-CDG with Norwegian is ~250$ roundtrip, on the right weekdays, for example]

Aganju
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