help planning trip to europe

[steve L]

i have 150,000 starwood points plus 100,00 aa miles ( wife has 25,000) plus 50000 amex membership rewards. I was wondering if anybody can help me out to find availibilty for a trip from new york to italy and france with these points. I would like to go mid august for 10 days. i would love to fly business but up to coach as to use the rest of points for hotel stays. thsi trip is for 2 people. I would love if someone can help me.

I did open an ana account but its a little difficult to use . thank you so so much

[steve2]

 how long in each city, day of week to leave, what were you able to come with

show us some of your homework = you in fact tried and others will help. if you cant seem to get the hang of ANA then you should be asking how to use it.

no sense in doing all the work for U when the problem maybe U not knowing how to navigate ANA, since you will only be back here asking again for us to do everything for you the next time

 so instead of asking us to do your work, ask us where you are having problems with ANA, it is very easy but it can be a bit of ahassle having to check each and every Carrier and hub separately but Im 100% positive that you that its not out of laziness on your part and wanting us to waste our time doing it so that you dont have to waste yours

its so much better to learn to fish then be given food for 1 meal, as you will only keep coming bcak for more meals rather than doing your own fishing ;-)

[steve L]

sorry i fully understand .  from what I read it  make sense to do 3 days in rome , then 3 days in venice and like 4 days in paris give or take. im a flexible in regards to what days to leave as to what i can the best bang of buck . my first question is should i just use my aa miles for flights and starpoints for hotels?

and second since i want to fly to italy but fly back from paris i was wondering how that works and which airlines let you do it?

also does it make sense to transfer starwood points to us air for 50& bonus?

also when checking ana i know that i have to each segment separately but how do i know which flights are availible?

i would really appreciate your help. i do alot of reasearch and read this website plus many other websites every single day and wouldnt have all these points if it wasnt for all your great advice.

[SuperFlyer]

Venice is enough 2 days unless you are visiting the islands as well (very nice), or are staying over shabbes.
Rome could be done in 2 days, but a bit more in debt would be 3 days. You could by train to Florence (Firenze) and a quick jump to Pisa just for the tower.

[steve L]

from what i read shabbos in venice is amazing and would love to go to rome and maybe  florence . this is once in a lifetime trip for me and my wife. so i would would be greatly appreciative for all your help. and if there is anything i can do for you i will. so i need advice as to which airport to fly into i.e rome and then maybe fly out of venice to paris back to jfk or ewr. but i am not sure where you get the most bang for your buck or POINTS

[aussiebochur]

Here is just a quick calculation.
Both AA and US are going to set you back 100k each in business class.
Since you already have 100k on AA, you can use your points and then all you'll need is another 60k stairpoints to get your wife up to 100k. This will leave you with 90k starpoints.
With their 50% bonus  and their flexibility in routing rules, US is a great option. However since you are starting with zero its going to cost you 110k starpoints (including the bonus) to get 200k miles on US. This will leave you with only 40k starpoints.
From a pure $$ perspective, AA miles are worth 1.4 cents each and SPG 2.0 c/e. (These are not definite prices but I believe they are gettable).
So if you get flights on AA you are left with 90k *points @ 2.0=$1800
If you get flights on US you will still have 125k AA miles @ 1.4=$1750
+ 40k *points @ 2.0=$800, Grand total=$2550
So best bang for the Buck is with US, and the routing rules make it easier to go where and when you want.
After all that said, it does depend on availability on the airlines. Secondly if you don't want to spend a cent on flights and hotels, I don't think 40k *points is enough. On the other hand, cash+points is great value and should be enough.( I'm not very familiar with the rates of  the European SPG properties, if someone could give us an idea of prices  points and cash+points). But again, not always available.
Enough of my rambling, if you have any questions just ask.

[steve L]

aussie guy thank you so much. your math is great
how does 60k starwood = 100 . i thought 60 will get 75 with the bonus
 and i thought i cant transfer starwood to aa.

and I am open to flying coach which i would believe then would be enough points to pay for hotel and flights? not sure if have enough aa miles though? and can i transfer aa miles from wife to my account?
thank you so so much

[aussiebochur]

Here is an itinerary on Star Alliance, it is available but I'm not sure about the stop-over and open-jaw policy. If the pros could help, please.
At any rate, just to get a feeling for dates and locations, what do you love and what do you hate?

Mon 8/16 LX 019, EWR-ZRH, 21:30-11:35+1 day, Business
Tue 8/17 LX 1763, ZRH-FCO, 12:30-14:05, Business
3 Nights in Rome.
Fri 8/20 LH 3867, FCO-MUC, 6:45-8:25, Business
Fri 8/20 LH4092, MUC-VCE, 11:10-12:10, Business
3 Nights in Venice
Mon 8/23 LX1663, VCE-ZRH, 14:45-15:55, Business
Mon 8/23 LX 644, ZRH-CDG, 18:15-19:30, Business
3 Nights in Paris
Thurs 8/26 LH 4219, CDG-FRA, 14:05-15:15, Business
Thurs 8/26 LH 404, FRA-JFK, 17:00-19:40, Business

EWR-Newark
ZRH-Zurich
FCO-Rome
MUC-Munich
VCE-Venice
CDG-Paris
FRA-Frankfurt
JFK-New York

What do you think?
Just remember, when booking award tickets, you must be flexible.

[aussiebochur]

aussie guy thank you so much. your math is great
how does 60k starwood = 100 . i thought 60 will get 75 with the bonus
 and i thought i cant transfer starwood to aa.

and I am open to flying coach which i would believe then would be enough points to pay for hotel and flights? not sure if have enough aa miles though? and can i transfer aa miles from wife to my account?
thank you so so much

You mentioned in the OP that your wife has 25k AA miles. If you transfer 60k *points to her and then in turn to AA, she will have 100k miles.

[aussiebochur]

this is once in a lifetime trip for me and my wife.

Fly business class!

[steve L]

thank you so much this is amazing. how many miles will this cost for both of us
and is it cheaper or better or less miles  to just take the train from rome to venice

[aussiebochur]

thank you so much this is amazing. how many miles will this cost for both of us
and is it cheaper or better or less miles  to just take the train from rome to venice

US charges 100k from North America to Europe. See earlier post for how many *points that will be.
The 100k covers the entire trip, wheather you fly there and back directly or you stop over, but there are certain rules. If this itinerary is allowed then it wont cost any more.

[steve L]

so your recommending transfering my miles to us airways instead of aa miles

[aussiebochur]

so your recommending transfering my miles to us airways instead of aa miles

Personally, yes. It might mean shelling out a couple dollars for the hotel, ( but you keep your AA miles), or swapping AA for Spg. Refer back to the maths above.
But, I would wait for a second opinion. At the end of the day its up to you, do you want to use more points and not spend money or spend a little money and have more points for a later occasion.

Don't forget that to get the bonus on US, you MUST register first.

[steve L]

how long does it take for the bonus points to post

[steve L]

ans is it better to use air canada bec its less points to europe but maybe better us air bec of the bonus?

[aussiebochur]

ans is it better to use air canada bec its less points to europe but maybe better us air bec of the bonus?

AC charges 85k to Europe x2 =170k. Transferring from Spg at 20k:25k, it will cost you 140k *points.
As posted earlier, even though US charge 100k, transferring from spg, its only 110k *points.
Even without the bonus US still has much more flexibility, as Dan reports.

[steve2]

 U guys are forgetting 1 thing about AA, ever since earlier this year when they went to 1 way award tkts they did away with Stops! So an open jaw is allowed but no Stops, so if the OP is looking to jump around all on 1 tkt, then AA wont be the answer,unless the OP is willing to either pay their own way between 2 different Countrys or fly say into Rome and out of Milan

 In other words a person can NOT dupicate with AA what Dan just did or what Ive posted about doing from time to time

[steve2]

sorry i fully understand .  from what I read it  make sense to do 3 days in rome , then 3 days in venice and like 4 days in paris give or take. im a flexible in regards to what days to leave as to what i can the best bang of buck . my first question is should i just use my aa miles for flights and starpoints for hotels?

and second since i want to fly to italy but fly back from paris i was wondering how that works and which airlines let you do it?

also does it make sense to transfer starwood points to us air for 50& bonus?

also when checking ana i know that i have to each segment separately but how do i know which flights are availible?

i would really appreciate your help. i do alot of reasearch and read this website plus many other websites every single day and wouldnt have all these points if it wasnt for all your great advice.

if this is truely a 1 time shot I suggest very highly NOT to do it in Aug. I ddi both rome and venice for my 1st time last aug and still regret having done it. You will sweat like you never sweated before. shabbos in VCE I could have changed my clothes 2 dz times and it still wouldnt hav ebeen enough changes.

I went back to Rome and Pompeii in Nov and it was GREAT. the only people in Rome in Aug are the tourists all the locals high tail it out and for very good reason. Think of being in Miami in Aug and you will get the pic. I remember alot more from my Nov trip then my Aug trip

 the train cost 65 euro per person Rome to Venice, or if you book early there are a couple of LCCs for a few bucks. Florence is actually a stop on the train when traveling between R & V but no stopovers are allowed, you have to buy separate tkts

[moish]

i was there in august and did not have the same experience as steve 2. we enjoyed it immensely