Award Advice: AA & BA to the Adriatic? Routing?
Sep 3, 2017, 12:49 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: ORD/PSP
Programs: AA LT Plat, 6.0 MM, Marriott LT Platinum
Posts: 1,002
Award Advice: AA & BA to the Adriatic? Routing?
We'd like to take a one-way drive around the Adriatic next summer, either direction. I have about 600K AA and 200K BA. Outbound around mid-August and return end of September, so it's almost time to start searching for business or first awards outbound.
Does anyone have advice on best flight routings to search from St. Louis or Chicago for two people?
Does anyone have advice on best flight routings to search from St. Louis or Chicago for two people?
Sep 4, 2017, 8:31 am
#3
Join Date: May 2007
Location: London and Madrid
Programs: BA Gold, UA 2MM, Hyatt Globalist, Columbia Record & Tape Club Triple Diamond VIP
Posts: 580
Consider IB. They have a solid business class product on transatlantic routes (and fly ORD-MAD year round), or you can take AA to MAD through DFW (to get the good seats). IB fly to Zagreb and Dubrovnik, plus a few destinations in Italy.
I'm not a fan of BA's business class, either over the water or within Europe, but they're perfectly adequate. You can take AA to BCN and then connect to various cities around the Adriatic, but I've had very bad experiences with Vueling. You might have better luck.
I'm not a fan of BA's business class, either over the water or within Europe, but they're perfectly adequate. You can take AA to BCN and then connect to various cities around the Adriatic, but I've had very bad experiences with Vueling. You might have better luck.
Sep 4, 2017, 9:36 am
#4
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: BOS, BWI, DCA, IAD
Programs: American, Delta, JetBlue, United
Posts: 2,049
We'd like to take a one-way drive around the Adriatic next summer, either direction. I have about 600K AA and 200K BA. Outbound around mid-August and return end of September, so it's almost time to start searching for business or first awards outbound.
Does anyone have advice on best flight routings to search from St. Louis or Chicago for two people?
Does anyone have advice on best flight routings to search from St. Louis or Chicago for two people?
Sep 4, 2017, 9:52 am
#5
Join Date: May 2006
Location: SAN
Programs: Lots of faux metal
Posts: 6,424
BA, IB, and AY fly into Split (SPU) on a seasonal non-daily basis. I just flew XXX-LHR-SPU-HEL-XXX
Split had easy access to ferries serving the islands. Hvar was only an hour catamaran ride away.
Split had easy access to ferries serving the islands. Hvar was only an hour catamaran ride away.
Sep 4, 2017, 10:59 am
#6
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: TPA
Programs: BA Silver; Hilton Gold; IHG Diamond Ambassador; Marriott Gold
Posts: 2,811
If driving around proves to be unworkable, trains are an option.
And there are ferries between Italy and Croatia as well. So a complete loop with car/train plus ferry would let you start and end in your choice of FCO/FLR/NAP, if that made the award search easier.
Either way, visiting the Adriatic coast of Italy gives you an excellent chance to add San Marino to the list.
And there are ferries between Italy and Croatia as well. So a complete loop with car/train plus ferry would let you start and end in your choice of FCO/FLR/NAP, if that made the award search easier.
Either way, visiting the Adriatic coast of Italy gives you an excellent chance to add San Marino to the list.
Sep 4, 2017, 12:26 pm
#7
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 8,771
As well as being a good entry point for exploring Croatia, Split is also a lovely town in itself - well worth a visit. ^
Sep 4, 2017, 1:10 pm
#8
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: WAS/TYO
Programs: UA 1K, AA EXP (3MM), DL PM, BONVOY TITANIUM, HYATT GLOBALIST, HILTON DIAMOND, IHG DIAMOND AMB, et al
Posts: 5,913
As skunker alluded to, don't rule out Finnair (AY). They fly seasonally to both SPU and DBV, have decent award availability if you plan in advance, and HEL is a pleasure to connect through (particiuarly in comparison with LHR). We just flew back on them from DBV last month using AA miles in J and had no complaints.
-FlyerBeek
-FlyerBeek
Sep 4, 2017, 2:36 pm
#9
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Thousand Oaks, Ca., USA
Programs: AA Lifetime Plat; Bonvoy Titanium Lifetime Elite;Hyatt Globalist; HHonors Diamond; United Silver
Posts: 8,315
Must you start in August? The beaches are crushed then.
in May/June I did Venice/Rovinj/plitvice lakes (inland detour), zadar, split, dubrovnik. IB from Lax to VCE. Was supposed to takes them on the return, but they schedule changed, giving me a misconnect, and would not adjust the TATL, leaving me stuck. So I went BA from DBV to Gatwick, overnighted and then lhr-lax on AA.
i was actually happy with that as I overnighted in London and had a great evening., plus AAs 789 hard product beat IBs Airbus hands down. But doing Gatwick -Heathrow the same day would have been miserable.
in May/June I did Venice/Rovinj/plitvice lakes (inland detour), zadar, split, dubrovnik. IB from Lax to VCE. Was supposed to takes them on the return, but they schedule changed, giving me a misconnect, and would not adjust the TATL, leaving me stuck. So I went BA from DBV to Gatwick, overnighted and then lhr-lax on AA.
i was actually happy with that as I overnighted in London and had a great evening., plus AAs 789 hard product beat IBs Airbus hands down. But doing Gatwick -Heathrow the same day would have been miserable.
Last edited by beachfan; Sep 5, 2017 at 2:04 am