@Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon

[@Yehuda]

Hey Guys!

After 5 months learning about cc’s and collecting miles (and then getting married 2 weeks ago!!!) it’s time to book my Israel/Eurotrip for this summer with my wife!!! Any and all help/advice you can provide will be greatly appreciated. I don't have extensive experience booking award travel, and I definitely don't know the best routes/airlines to go with, so I could really use your help!

Here's what we're working with:
We want to start off in Israel for my cousin’s wedding on June 18th (we can leave from EWR/JFK anytime after June 1st). After that, we have no time limit other than trying to finish the trip before the 9 days begin on July 27th. These are the cities we want to see (basically in priority order) and we are completely flexible with dates: (Thoughts on our city choices are also welcome  Of course if we're crazy to think we can get to that many places in that amount of time/with just that amount of miles, I'd love to hear it too.)

_{Major Locations to hit up}
England
London (Is that the only place worth visiting? How about Manchester, York, Wales?)
France
Paris (Marseille? Nice? Toulouse?)
Italy
Rome, Venice (Pisa? Milan? Florence?)

_{Would also like to visit these places}
Spain
Madrid, Barcelona
Gibraltar
Netherlands
Amsterdam
Switzerland
Zurich
Belgium
Antwerp (Brussels?)
Greece
Athens

Thoughts on Iceland/Ireland/Scotland/Sweden/Norway/Finland/Denmark?

Here’s what we have to work with (appx combined totals between us):

UR: 80,000
MR: 25,000
SPG: 90,000
AA: 160,000
Lufthansa: 100,000
United: 60,000
Delta: 30,000
Hyatt: 4 nights
Marriott: 70,000
IHG: 80,000

Last 2 points: Her Zaidy awesomely offered to buy us tickets to come visit him in Israel, so we will have cash (not sure how much, I'd assume around $2000) to help towards the flights as well. We would ideally like to fly business/first class over the Atlantic.

Thanks! Can't wait to plan this!!
@Yehuda

[philbenjoe]

if you got to switzerland, italy, or france you should go see the alps...not sure which country would work best for your trip plans, but something worth looking into.

[@Yehuda]

if you got to switzerland, italy, or france you should go see the alps...not sure which country would work best for your trip plans, but something worth looking into.

Absolutely. My wife's from Denver so she thinks the Rockies are quite a site (admittedly, they're beautiful) but I think she'll agree the Alps should be on our journey.

[philbenjoe]

ive been to vail and the swiss alps and theyre BOTH worth seeing. they are not fully the same...hard to explain. i wouldnt travel from the us special to go there but if your on that side of the world i would definitely go to the alps.

[@Yehuda]

ive been to vail and the swiss alps and theyre BOTH worth seeing. they are not fully the same...hard to explain. i wouldnt travel from the us special to go there but if your on that side of the world i would definitely go to the alps.

Been to the Vail in the summer - was still beautiful, but yeah I hear that and we want to see 'em!

[ayman]

Mazel tov!
and welcome back. Was wondering where you had disappeared to.

[ual902]

Mazel Tov,

Fly into ZRH then take a train to  grindelwald probably one of the most scenic parts of the alps and its a cute village, then take  train to Venice> Florence> Rome > amafi coast.

[ushdadude]

Mazel Tov,

Fly into ZRH then take a train to  grindelwald probably one of the most scenic parts of the alps and its a cute village, then take  train to Venice> Florence> Rome > amafi coast.

+1
there used to be a kosher hotel in grindelwald

[ushdadude]

It's very easy to spend a lot of time in each city in Europe. Each has tons of history. That being said, it is also easy to spend only a day or two hitting up all the major spots.

[Super Speed]

UR: 80,000
MR: 25,000
SPG: 90,000
AA: 160,000
Lufthansa: 100,000
United: 60,000
Delta: 30,000
Hyatt: 4 nights
Marriott: 70,000
IHG: 80,000

Last 2 points: Her Zaidy awesomely offered to buy us tickets to come visit him in Israel, so we will have cash (not sure how much, I'd assume around $2000) to help towards the flights as well. We would ideally like to fly business/first class over the Atlantic.

Thanks! Can't wait to plan this!!
@Yehuda

Also you do have sometime to build up those point bank accounts!

[@Yehuda]

Mazel tov!
and welcome back. Was wondering where you had disappeared to.

Ha thanks! Yeah once wedding things got serious, I kinda left the forums. Glad to be back

Mazel Tov,

Fly into ZRH then take a train to  grindelwald probably one of the most scenic parts of the alps and its a cute village, then take  train to Venice> Florence> Rome > amafi coast.

+1
there used to be a kosher hotel in grindelwald

Thanks! That sounds like a great section of the journey! So you're thinking to go from TLV-ZRH?

It's very easy to spend a lot of time in each city in Europe. Each has tons of history. That being said, it is also easy to spend only a day or two hitting up all the major spots.

True. We're aiming for the major spots

[@Yehuda]

Also you do have sometime to build up those point bank accounts!

Ha yeah except I'm running out of cards to open. Plus, I know it's really late, but I wanted to see if there are any ways to use the UA before they devalue.

[ckmk47]

Experienced award ticket bookers, now is your time to shine!  Lets hear concrete suggestions!

Plan (in my opinion)  Check out the possible ways to get to Israel.  Go for the wedding, visit Zeidy, and daven enjoy the Holy land. 
Note who can get you home from Europe. 
Mentally set aside the points you need to achieve those goals. Figure out how to hop around Europe most efficiently and how much it will cost.
Then book the going and probably even the coming home.  Then work out the rest.

I propose checking for availability on UA, from NY to TLV.  UR points transfer there. MR or SPG may also. (You can set up to book a UA ticket and hold it until you have the points transferred (but it costs))
Check out Flying Blue for tickets within Europe.  MR points transfer there.
Lufthansa also flies within Europe and may have partners that fly from Europe to back to NY.
I don't know which airlines partner with AA, but BA, an AA partner has several that fly to Europe and Israel.

Good luck, mazal tov and have a successful trip.

[ayman]

+1
there used to be a kosher hotel in grindelwald

Wasn't he a famous evil wizard?

[ushdadude]

True. We're aiming for the major spots

Almost every major city has a double decker tour bus. I know it's nerdy and really touristy, but it is the fastest way to see all the major spots. Afterwards you can go back (or just hop off) to whichever you want to see in more detail.

[@Yehuda]

Almost every major city has a double decker tour bus. I know it's nerdy and really touristy, but it is the fastest way to see all the major spots. Afterwards you can go back (or just hop off) to whichever you want to see in more detail.

+1 makes sense - good idea

[@Yehuda]

Experienced award ticket bookers, now is your time to shine!  Lets hear concrete suggestions!

Plan (in my opinion)  Check out the possible ways to get to Israel.  Go for the wedding, visit Zeidy, and daven enjoy the Holy land. 
Note who can get you home from Europe. 
Mentally set aside the points you need to achieve those goals. Figure out how to hop around Europe most efficiently and how much it will cost.
Then book the going and probably even the coming home.  Then work out the rest.

I propose checking for availability on UA, from NY to TLV.  UR points transfer there. MR or SPG may also. (You can set up to book a UA ticket and hold it until you have the points transferred (but it costs))
Check out Flying Blue for tickets within Europe.  MR points transfer there.
Lufthansa also flies within Europe and may have partners that fly from Europe to back to NY.
I don't know which airlines partner with AA, but BA, an AA partner has several that fly to Europe and Israel.

Good luck, mazal tov and have a successful trip.

Thanks! I appreciate the detailed post.

After researching UA, there are no Saver awards for non-stop flights in the beginning of June (even with expanded availability w/ my UMPE), so standard economy would be 75K and Business 150K. Even if I added my 80K UR to my 65K UA, I would still be short for 2 economy tickets - and, again, we're hoping to go business.

Any other ideas for how to go NYC-TLV business?

[@Yehuda]

Ok, thanks to more searching and confirmation from ilherman, going business direct from NYC-TLV is not going to happen. So, how about going to one of the countries first before going to the wedding? Which country do you think makes most sense to go to? Logically, I would think Greece as it's a bit further from the other European countries (so knock it out on its own), but from a quick search only Alitalia/KLM/Delta have that route and I don't have a lot of miles w/ them.

Thoughts? Thanks guys

[efflpetzel]

Have you tried doing Plan B to israel?

[@Yehuda]

Have you tried doing Plan B to israel?

For Plan B to work, there has to be Saver award availability in economy and there isn't for the entire June.