[05/28/2014 @ 8:16 PM] This fare was last seen on Expedia.
[06/02/2014 @ 12:05 PM] Fare has increased a bit for Turkish flights. $900 (partial accrual) and $1000 (accrual)
[06/03/2014 @ 9:53 AM] Outbound leg on Turkish “L” available still. Inbound is on non-accrual “P” for most dates now.
[06/03/2014 @ 3:14 PM] United Airlines is now offering this route from IAH – MXP for $860 fully accruing “K” fare economy seats.
[06/07/2014 @ 9:24 PM] Deal dead.
Flights to Milan, Italy (MXP) from Houston (IAH) or Austin (AUS) are $876 for flights in October. JetBlue and Emirates seem to have the best and lowest route for AUS – MXP while Turkish Airlines has the best route for IAH – MXP.
For $50 more ($925 total) you can add a stopover in Istanbul (IST) and visit an extra city on your vacation. I was able to break that itinerary down into 1 week in Milan and 1 week in Istanbul instead of just 2 weeks in Milan. This is for the Houston (IAH) route, I wasn’t able to do this on the Austin (AUS) route. My itinerary for this is on Orbitz [here].
Of note: American Airlines is also competitive with AUS – MXP for about $10 more. Also, if you’re booking on Turkish, try to avoid fare class “P” or “W” as those don’t accrue miles. United is an alliance partner with Turkish, and will accrue 100% of the miles with a “V” fare.
United Airlines is now offering this route from both Houston (IAH) and Austin (AUS) via Newark (EWR) for $860 in fully accruing “K” fare economy seats. However, unlike the Turkish route, there are no inexpensive stopovers. Also, from what I can tell, Turkish is no longer offering the return leg of their route in a fare class that earns miles for a competitive price so I’ve adjusted the details below accordingly. It will probably be a better value to take the United flight unless you want to do a side-trip in Istanbul (IST).
Flight Details: UNITED
- Availability: I was able to pull up flights in September / October for Tuesday-to-Tuesday flights.
- Departure and Destination Airports: IAH or AUS – MXP
- Example Dates: Tues October 28th – Weds November 11th
- Carrier: United
- Fare Basis Code: GEG14AKS / KLXNC7NS
- Fare Class: Economy “G” / “K”
- Mile Accrual: 100%
- CPM: 7.95 (10820 miles)
- Full Route: IAH – EWR- MXP – EWR – IAH
Flight Details: TURKISH
- Availability: I was able to pull up flights in September / October for Tuesday-to-Tuesday flights.
- Departure and Destination Airports: IAH – MXP
- Example Dates: Wed September 17th – Wed September 24th
- Carrier: Turkish
- Fare Basis Code: PLV3XPC / VLV3XPC
- Fare Class: Economy “V” / “P”
- Mile Accrual: 100% “V” (via United MileagePlus) / 0% “P”
- CPM: 11.74 (7447 miles after reduction)
- Full Route: IAH – IST – MXP – IST – IAH
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