Star Alliance carrier United is offering great fares for flights from Paris to the one of the busiest American destinations. You can fly nonstop to United’s hub in Chicago for €263. The fare is available for weekday departures, starting in November 2021 and extending into March 2022. A checked bag of 23 kg adds €100 when booking on Lufthansa’s website.
Lufthansa allows you to alter your booking without additional change fees. You’d still have to pay the fare difference, which can easily be several hundred Euros. In contrast, United waives the change fees for basic economy tickets only for 2021 flight dates. Rebooking in 2022 will be even more expensive.
Worldwide travel restrictions are in place to slow the spread of Covid-19. We strongly recommend gathering detailed information about the travel and quarantine restrictions that apply to your desired origin and destination.
A good start is the International Air Transport Association (IATA) website. It provides current updates on a country’s immigration policies. Even better, the Covid-19 Travel Regulations Map is one of the most useful tools you can find.
Our availability calendar shows you all available roundtrips at the lowest fare for trips up to 28 days. It will forward you to lufthansa.com, where you have slightly better cancellation conditions and will spare €1 compared to United’s prices.
This fare will only include one piece of carry-on as well as a personal item. If you want to add checked luggage you can do so on the carriers’s website for an extra €100-120 per round trip.
All promoted prices are Star Alliance fares without checked luggage allowance. Especially when flying United, you will also have other cutbacks:
Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian
On flights with Lufthansa Group carriers, you will be able to select your seat for free at the time of check-in. Star Alliance Gold member can currently bring one checked bag (23 kg). But it is not sure how long this will be possible.
United Airlines
When flying United you can still bring two pieces of checked luggage (23 kg each) as a Star Alliance Gold member, MileagePlus frequent flyer can even bring three pieces (32 kg each). But there are other disadvantages:
- No seat selection. You will be assigned a seat during check-in and can’t change it anymore
- Lowest priority while boarding
- For MileagePlus members:
- No complimentary Economy+ seats
- Only 50% tier miles (instead of 100%)
- No same-day changes
- No upgrades
Air Canada
Air Canada’s Basic Economy fare isn’t as restricted as the one from Lufthansa and United. Star Alliance Gold members can still bring one piece of checked luggage (23 kg), and Air Canada Altitude customers can bring up to three pieces (32kg each).
- Altitude members:
- Only 25% earning rate for international flights, no miles for domestic
- No upgrades
Flights will be operated by a mix of United’s Boeing 767 and 787 aircraft. These feature a 2-3-2 (767) or 3-3-3 (787) seating pattern with video on demand in every seat back. Food and drinks are included.
Search & Book
According to the fare rules, this offer will be available until September 27, 2021, however, the deal could still be over any time.
You can find the cheap tickets between November 2021 and March 2022, with a blockout around Christmas. You’ll have to stay for at least six days or one night from Saturday to Sunday; maximum stay is 3 months. Please remember that your ESTA will only be valid for 90 days.
Once again, Google Flights (instructions) should be of great help with finding all available connections. You should then go to a Star Alliance carrier like Lufthansa.com to purchase your ticket.
Why is booking with an airline better than with an online travel agency?
More often than not, online travel agencies offer lower fares than airlines do. We still recommend booking with the airlines directly. There are two main reasons for that:
Better Customer Service
In case any problems like delays, cancellations or missed connections arise, you can communicate directly with the airline. The airline has to take care of you because you have a contract with them.
If a travel agency issues your ticket, you may have to reach out to them first. You also depend on your OTA to forward information like flight changes instead of receiving them directly from the airline. In many cases, you may get a prime exhibition of responsibility shifting rather than problem-solving.
This especially applies to premium tickets. You don’t want to spend more than €1,000 to wind up with some budget OTA’s telephone hotline in case anything goes wrong.
Baggage and Other Fees
Economy fares not including hold luggage are industry standard by now. In most cases, travel agencies charge much higher baggage fees than the airlines themselves. If bags are not included in your fare, airlines are often the cheaper alternative.
This also applies to other things like food services, insurances or priority treatment. In almost all cases, you pay less for additional amenities when booking on the airlines’ website.
Mileage
All tickets will be issued in booking class K. Here’s an example of what this can get you on a nonstop roundtrip-flight from Paris to San Francisco with United:
- 4,142 Miles on Asiana Club
- 4,142 Miles on Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
- 4,142 Award Miles + 828 Tier Miles on Azul TodoAzul
- 4,142 Miles on Copa ConnectMiles
- 4,142 Miles on Ethiopian ShebaMiles
- 4,142 Miles on EVA Infinity MileageLands
- 4,142 Points on SAS EuroBonus
- 4,142 Miles on Thai Royal Orchid Plus
- 4,142 Miles on Avianca LifeMiles
- 4,142 Miles on Aegean Miles+Bonus
- 4,142 Miles on Egyptair Plus
- 2,484 Miles on ANA Mileage Club
- 2,070 Miles on Singapore KrisFlyer
- 2,070 Miles on TAP Miles&Go
- 2,070 CV Points on Vistara Club Vistara
- 2,070 Miles on Air Canada Aeroplan
- 2,070 Avios on Aer Lingus AerClub
- 2,070 Award Miles on Emirates Skywards
- 58 Award Miles + 12 PQP on United MileagePlus
- 44 Award Miles + 120 Points on Miles&More