Welcome to flyertalk! If you have good credit, minimal or no consumer debt and the ability to invest some time in a new 'hobby' (collecting miles and points), you can definitely cover most or all of a trip to Europe as well as lots of other trips. I began this journey about 18 months ago nearly from scratch took the trip to Europe that got me started last November, and am now earning miles faster than I can spend them. Try clicking the 'start here' links on several of these blogs
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/exter...resources.html for simple step-by-step starting instructions, but keep in mind many of them are compensated if you apply for cards through their links. So your best bet is to research based on
your situation and what you want and then go from there. A few excellent blogs not on that list include travelisfree.com, saverocity.com, freequentflyerbook.com, lazytravelers.net and milenomics.com. There are several good books available as well, or you can wade right into the relevant airline and credit card forums here. There is no one program that works best for everyone, but we can help you get started on the right path if you share a potential itinerary/goal with departure and arrival times and a general time frame.