MilesBuzz! - Need help planning Houston to Rome & Paris trip

I am not the most experienced frequent flyer and am hoping some of you can help me out.

I am trying to put together a trip for two for next June that will originate in Houston and include 5 nights in Rome, 5 nights in Paris, then back to Houston. I will be using Marriott Rewards travel packages which will give me up to 240K FF miles to be used for the trip.

How can I accomplish the air portion of this trip while flying business class or first class on each leg?

Thanks

In theory 240K points is enough for two business tickets on Continental to Paris, stopping there for a few days, then flying from Paris to Rome and then returning a few days later from Rome. The intra-Europe flight would be on Air France or Alitalia if you book it now or on a Star Alliance partner if you book after October 25th. The problem would be finding availability. I doubt you'll find seats this far out on CO at the saver reward level.

With the new one-way AA awards you should be able to do that, too, at a similar price, though that will require three redemptions as you are no longer allowed a stopover on AA rewards.

There is no real need to worry about being in business or first on the intra-Europe segment as there isn't enough difference in the seat or service to justify paying extra.

Are you elite on any carrier? That would increase your chances of finding reward seats. And what airlines can you credit the miles into?

I am not elite. :(

My wife and I each have about 35K FF miles with Continental. Marriott will deposit FF miles into virtually any airline 1-1. Also I have over 100K points with Amex that could be transferred 1-1 into some airlines. I recently tranferred 120K of those Amex points into Air Canada to book three roundtrips to Hawaii on United flights. It was very easy and painless.

I am not to worried about the Rome to Paris leg. We can purchase a ticket or even take a scenic train ride.

I am not to worried about the Rome to Paris leg. We can purchase a ticket or even take a scenic train ride.

A word from experience. If you plan on booking the train, make sure you have the ticket in your hand before you even leave the states. It's a 9-10 hour train ride and if you opt to take the sleeper car the spots fill up fast. raileurope.com has good deals on it, but Alitalia or Air France should have a decent rate to get you from FCO to CDG if you're simply staying in Roma.

Someone suggested Ait France. They do have the correct routes, but what is the best way to book it? Through Continental?

What dates will the flights show up as available? They are only showing awards travel through April right now.

Other airlines? I don't want to miss the boat. Please help with any suggestions.
Thanks

(1) Theoretically, Air France's Flying Blue frequent flyer program will work for you. Fly Air France to Rome with a stopover at Paris; and you're set. IAH-CDG will be nonstop.
I say theoretically because I don't know how smooth Flying Blue will work when you want them to. And I don't remember Air France as being particularly practical or valuable when it comes to stopovers in its itineraries.
If you can't do Air France's Flying Blue, get Delta Skymiles. Theoretically, the Skymiles can be used on Air France flights because Delta and Air France are supposedly SkyTeam partners.
By June 2010, Continental will no longer be part of SkyTeam. Continental will be partnered with United in Star Alliance.
You'll probably want to phone ahead to Air France and/or Delta to see if this will even work before you exchange for ff miles.
(2) If the above SkyTeam route doesn't work, your next best bet will be Continental because it also has a nonstop IAH-CDG route, but now a stopover doesn't work because niether CDG or FCO are hubs for anybody but Air France. You'll have to book an openjaw for CDG & FCO. You'll also be on your own to get between CDG and FCO.
(3) Any other option will be openjaw again but no more nonstops from IAH.

(4) For getting between CDG & FCO, if you have enough ff miles to do it by reward, it won't be many ff miles for economy class. It may not be worth more than that because it's such a short distance, and probably two short distances with a stop. For these intra-continental flights not being many ff miles, I regularly bite the bullet and get a roundtrip reward and then never show up for the return. (Of course, I book the return ticket for the maximum 12 months out. If by chance, I'm out in the right place at the right time again, I'll shell out the minimal change fee and use that return leg at that time. By courtesy, when a year's elapsed and there's no hope of me using the 2nd half of the ticket, I phone in my cancellation.) There are budget carriers for intra-continental Europe travel but study them carefully--their airport locations & schedule reliabilities are scattered throughout the time/space continuum.
Better than burning up a roundtrip on a oneway itinerary here, why not consider yet another location to visit, for example Moscow. Nest an open-jaw intra-continental ticket like CDG-Moscow and then Moscow-FCO into the bigger scheme of things.

In my experience, reward travel hasn't yet been bookable online for openjaws and/or stopover itineraries. I've always had to phone in such reservations.

Good luck.

What dates will the flights show up as available? They are only showing awards travel through April right now.
330 days out is the most frequent setting. Your chances of booking a reward are maximum when you set your countdown for 330 days out so you're doing good. Remember to set the 330 days for the last leg of the reward itinerary. I'm counting down towards a May 26, 2010 (June 7, 2010 return) reward itinerary myself. 330 days before June 7, 2010 is July 14, 2009 -- my alarm clock setting to remind myself to phone in my reward travel booking.

... 330 days out is the most frequent setting. Your chances of booking a reward are maximum when you set your countdown for 330 days out so you're doing good. Remember to set the 330 days for the last leg of the reward itinerary. I'm counting down towards a May 26, 2010 (June 7, 2010 return) reward itinerary myself. 330 days before June 7, 2010 is July 14, 2009 -- my alarm clock setting to remind myself to phone in my reward travel booking.


Have you seen any SaverPass availability on Continental at 330 days? They don't seem to have anything when I check.

(1) Theoretically, Air France's Flying Blue frequent flyer program will work for you. Fly Air France to Rome with a stopover at Paris; and you're set. IAH-CDG will be nonstop.
I say theoretically because I don't know how smooth Flying Blue will work when you want them to. And I don't remember Air France as being particularly practical or valuable when it comes to stopovers in its itineraries.
If you can't do Air France's Flying Blue, get Delta Skymiles. Theoretically, the Skymiles can be used on Air France flights because Delta and Air France are supposedly SkyTeam partners.
By June 2010, Continental will no longer be part of SkyTeam. Continental will be partnered with United in Star Alliance.
You'll probably want to phone ahead to Air France and/or Delta to see if this will even work before you exchange for ff miles.
This is actually pretty bad information. AirFrance has incredibly high fuel surcharges on their reward tickets. Delta has fees that they charge for redemption on partner flights. If the same inventory is available that DL and AF can book then CO can book the same inventory right now, at the same number of miles but with lower fees.

(2) If the above SkyTeam route doesn't work, your next best bet will be Continental because it also has a nonstop IAH-CDG route, but now a stopover doesn't work because niether CDG or FCO are hubs for anybody but Air France. You'll have to book an openjaw for CDG & FCO. You'll also be on your own to get between CDG and FCO.
Continental allows for a free stopover and a free open jaw on a reward to Europe. So it is possible to fly into CDG, hang out for a while, then fly either AZ or AF to Rome and then fly home with a connection in many different cities on the way. You could even visit Paris, fly to Rome and then fly home from Venice (Rome-Venice via car/bus/train) all on the same reward ticket.

In my experience, reward travel hasn't yet been bookable online for openjaws and/or stopover itineraries. I've always had to phone in such reservations.This part is actually accurate for the most part.

330 days out is the most frequent setting. Your chances of booking a reward are maximum when you set your countdown for 330 days out so you're doing good. Remember to set the 330 days for the last leg of the reward itinerary. I'm counting down towards a May 26, 2010 (June 7, 2010 return) reward itinerary myself. 330 days before June 7, 2010 is July 14, 2009 -- my alarm clock setting to remind myself to phone in my reward travel booking.This is actually not at all true anymore. It used to be, but it no longer is. Airlines release reward inventory on a much less rigid schedule now, essentially when they figure out that it is somewhat unlikely to sell. For CO it is closer to 6-8 months out, though there is no exact pattern to figuring it out.

Come November CO would be a *A option, not a SkyTeam option.

I'd still consider the AA potential with one-way rewards, too, as their fees are generally low.

Are non-US carriers an option? If so bmi (BD) also offers one-way awards using *A partners. You could potentially do AA over and BD back, for example, with one-way rewards, though I suppose that would depend on Marriott splitting the reward into two accounts so maybe not so much.

I've been in Hawaii the last two weeks and kind of forgot about this. The flights I am looking for are now available on Air France when searching through NW and Delta FF miles programs, but not when searching through Continental or Air France. I would like to make the miles request tomorrow (or Monday) with Marriott. Any reason not to use Delta for the exchange?