all, thanks for the advice. I can't fly out any earlier in the day on the 8th due to a prior commitment (as it is I'll be pushing it), the AA bonus expires on the 8th so it looks like DL/AF is it. At least AF has 5-across biz class on 767s. Thanks for the advice Merry, I finally got to the library on Sunday to look at an atlas to see that BRU-Groningen is pretty ridiculous (I have very little concept of the Netherlands north of AMS). Actually DUS is more sensible than BRU...but I'm sticking with AMS (2.5 hours just seems like an awfully long time within the Netherlands!)

jl