Originally Posted by
SirRagnar
Well, first of all I would avoid IB if at all possible. They are just sub-standard.
Secondly, I would personally stick to where you have elite status since you will be jumping so much in relatively short time - lounges in Europe are generally better than US lounges (free booze and often food).
How fixed are the cities you want to visit? Can you squeeze in Brussels instead of Amsterdam perhaps? or in addition?
Brussels is well worth a visit. It is a much under-estimated city because people usually think of boring EU politics when they hear Brussels. It's a great place for night life and the beer are some of the best in the world.
Also, Brussels will give you all the connections you want. Brussels Airlines have flights to BCN, LHR and TLV and they are Star Alliance.
When you are in Brussels you can reach Amsterdam in just 2½ by train (I know, I hate traveling without earning miles too) - remember not to carry any weed across the border when you go back
Sounds good, and I never thought about adding Brussels to my itinerary. What else is interesting about it, because I definitely don't hear about it a lot.
That's true that SN is *A, and there's also BD in London, but they don't fly anywhere! I could see potentially adding Brussels to the list, but not instead of Amsterdam; perhaps in addition. So would you suggest not flying out all in or out of AMS, but fly to BRU, visit Amsterdam, and then train it back to BRU?
And still, how would I route it, because I really want to do London as well. The best I can think of is TLV-LON (perhaps via ZRH on LX, which could actually get me to LCY instead of LHR) and then LHR-BRU on SN, train r/t to Amsterdam, SN again BRU-BCN, and then JK on the return, BCN-TLV. Is there better or more obvious routing?
Ideally, I wanted to start in Barcelona, then London, then Amsterdam, but obviously, when it comes to elite status and ff miles, you can't have everything in life
