So I’m back and I wanted to first say that my trip was incredible. We traveled to 5 countries in 13 days but it never felt too rushed or stressful. But before I begin going into my stories I wanted to start with the flight from Toronto to Brussels on Jet Airways. Why choose Jet Airways, an Indian airline, to transport yourself from North America to Europe or vice-versa? Because of availability while using your American Airlines frequent flyer miles!

The American Airlines/Jet Airways Trick

Using American Airlines frequent flyer miles for other OneWorld airlines is pretty straight forward and rather easy to do. Sure you get the occasional all booked flights and sometimes you have to be flexible but it’s generally easy. There is an exception though. Northwestern Europe, specifically places like Belgium, and Netherlands are generally pretty easy to reach but are expensive because nearly all flights will have you connect through London on British Airways. Never use your miles on British Airways while going to London, because the taxes are just way to high.

Instead book with non-OneWorld affiliate member. What are non-OneWorld affiliate members? They are airlines that still accept frequent flyer miles but are not in the OneWorld alliance and this is very useful to know. It really could save you time and money.

Try booking a ticket on American Airlines website and it will only bring up flights that are in OneWorld. They totally leave out their other affiliate members which leaves out different variations of flights and entire regions of the world. That is why I always recommend booking over the phone and TELLING the representative about available flights. This will take some time to research but it’s well worth it. If you need help you can contact me. I’m in the midst of starting a website that will help people plan their trip.

By the way here is a list of all affiliate members that will take American Airlines frequent flyer miles. My suggestion is to look at each company and focus on the routes they fly to.

So if you look at Jet Airways website than you will see that they do in fact fly from Toronto to Brussels and they are the only affiliate members with American Airlines to do this. You will not have to connect through London or pay high taxes. And the best part is that very few people know to do this therefore this flight will have more seats open. All you have to do is connect in Toronto and finding flights to Toronto on American is relatively easy.

Toronto Airport

One of my new favorite airports is now Toronto. Well at least the International terminal. Modern, new and wide open; it is one of the best airports I’ve visited in a while. Plus it’s not as busy as other eastern American airports. Immigration is the only thing you do have to clear if you’re America but it was easy and straight forward.

Jet Airways Flight

The flight is either served on a 777 or an Airbus 340 and this time we got the 777. 3 seats near the windows which is not as fun but it was nice to have monitors to watch TV, play games or movies. And you can start watching them as soon as you sit down. That was more than I got on my return flight from Düsseldorf to Chicago on American Airlines 767.

Also the food was quite good. You usually get two servings of food plus snacks. The food choice was quite good with some chicken or just choice of vegetable with rice in curry sauce.

And the flight is not very long. From Toronto to Brussels the flight time was around 7 hours.

Brussels Airport

Compared to other European airports Brussels has short lines with immigration and is very easy to connect through. Way better than airports like Heathrow or Paris. I tend to favor airports that are less traveled than the traditional huge airports. The best part is that if you plan to stay in Brussels or another city in Europe you can easily catch a train from the airport and go to major cities like Paris or Amsterdam on a quick express train.

So consider looking into other affiliate members when using your frequent flyer miles and consider Jet Airways for a flight to Brussels or at least for a connection.

images by: shawnvoyage, henri