Bgsnmky

Everyone..I am JUST starting to work on flights for a trip in Sept 2017. I don't have all the itinerary worked out but wanted to book flights this week as we are using miles.

I did book DFW - BOSTON - MADRID - ATHENS using miles / business class. Am planning on continuing to check for availability to try to avoid the 2 stops. This is using American Miles.

This Friday we can book our return flight at the 330 day market. The problem is we don't have our full itinerary together yet. So trying to decide a good GUESS.

I know flights may not be available with miles on these islands, but trying to figure out what we THINK would be the best island to fly back from or just go back to Athens.

(just doing a search on expedia)
I noticed that flights from Crete seem to have 2 stops back to Dallas.

But Santorini and Mykonos have flights with one stop. (or two - again not sure what will be available first class over the water home)

Islands we are looking at (but I am sure this will change).

Currently fly into Athens,

Mykonos

Milos

Paros

Naxos

Crete

Santorini

I am probably asking a lot without a lot of information, but was wondering if there is a BETTER way to organize the trip.

Fly into Athens and then fly to the furtherest island (Crete) and then go back to Santorini etc

Fly into Athens, Mykonos smaller islands and end in Crete the furtherest away. (then we could book from there or go through Athens even if we have to book a separate flight)

Any advice on flights back to DFW and routing for me to try.

Thanks. I hope the post is not to "choppy" and makes sense. ! It is like predicting where we will want to fly back from..but maybe the best routing etc will help determine.

TommyD2

My guess is that your best bet will be to get your award flights to/from Athens, and then between the islands use the ferries or buy cheap flights.

At least get your DFW-ATH-DFW flights nailed down, and then after that see if you can add additional legs if you can. Especially if you aren't sure which islands you'll hit.

(I'm not that familiar w/ AAdvantage program, but the above advice should work for any alliance).

KLouis

The islands you list are all relatively close to each other and, consequently, there are no flights between them. Also, domestic flights are all with either Aegean (*A), Ryanair (LCC) or small "independent" airlines such as Sky Express, so forget award flights with OW or ST. As TommyD2 suggested, ferryboats are the only way to do island hopping. Crete (Heraklion) is connected by two high-speed ferries daily to some of the islands listed.

As for ATH-US, in 2016 only PHL (AA) and JFK (UA, DL) could be reached be reached non-stop, and my guess is that there will be no change next year. Thus, again as TommyD2 suggested, try to secure your AA award from PHL and do some more research for the islands. Anyway, you can't buy ferry tickets so far in advance.

jaymar01

American Airlines' AAdvantage partners Air Berlin and Niki fly directly into and out of a number of Greek islands. This will require you route your travel thru Germany and/or Austria.

Romanianflyer

While your entire post and advice on Greece - like always - is sound, there might be other options.

I'm unfamiliar with OW as alliance, but Crete is well-served by BA and especially AY during the summer season, theoretically offering links tru LHR and HEL.

KLouis

True, but the OP said September. Most "legacy carriers" stop operating to HER some time during that month, leaving the business to the "other" airlines. But I did not think of Air Berlin, my guess is they go through October.

Romanianflyer


Also Finnair and SAS operates til quite late (at least from CHQ last year, should be same from HER! Thousands of Nordic people around each season on the island )

Bgsnmky

FOR the flight home - tho..the thought is from where home! Crete? or Athens and then have to get back to athens and recheck bags.

OR fly from Athens to Crete - then ferry to other islands and have home flight from Santorini or somewhere else.

Thoughts? I can try to go through Philly, but need to determine where from (I guess or I get the BEST flight home with miles and make the itinerary work!!)

jaymar01

One thought...if you end up in any of the major Dodecanese Islands (Rhodes, Kos or Samos), you can take a short ferry to Turkey, and fly back from Dalaman, Bodrum or Izmir.

flatlander

Personally I'd have a backup plan if I was getting AB tickets for next year, they may be much reorganised or have gone belly-up by then. They're in serious financial trouble and may not have the same alliances or routes by then.

WorldLux

I don't think that AB goes belly-up any time soon. It has been rumored for years already and they just started a huge new plan of wet leasing large parts of their fleet to Eurowings and Tuifly.

The problem is probably more precisely, that Greece will be a holiday destination for AB and those routes are supposed to be canceled (AB wants to exit the holiday market).