My friend is hoping to celebrate her 30th birthday in Paris next August (25th is the day)and turned to me for help. We are based in BOS but she is flexible and would probably fly out of JFK, etc if it helped. She is hoping to keep costs as low as possible and would fly Y but would, of course, accept nicer flights and accomodations if they could be gotten. She has excellent credit (800+) and would apply for cards to make it happen. Ideally she would take her grad. student partner but can't spend more than $3000. I think she would like to spend even less if possible. Can anyone help me map out a plan for her?

How long does she plan to spend there? $3k should be easy for a week or two for two people if she is flexible with her dates and can book tickets using miles.

On-the-ground costs of accomodation, sightseeing and food can easily be kept under $200 a day for two people. Get an apartment off airbnb.com, make the occasional meal at home, eat out at cheap places like maoz, make do with a bageutte et fromage lunch, buy drinks from the supermarket, use the metro instead of cabs (that's what Parisians do), and try to visit the museums when they have free admission.

Others can chime in with CC recommendations to get miles but I think the Chase 50k Sapphire Preferred and Ink Bold bonuses should cover you. The Ink bold bonus expires on Nov. 28th so hurry.

People often get CCs for hotels here, but in most cases I find those to be poor value as I don't value staying at the Ritz any more than I value staying at a nice $100/night apartment. But I guess they can save you money if you don't want to do apartments...

The AA 40/50k offer would help:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...-targeted.html

If she and her partner both applied, they would at least have enough for one RT ticket (would have to transfer points). For the student, student fares such as offered through STA travel can be good as well, although they aren't what they used to be (and that would make it harder to travel together).

There may be better offers coming (e.g. BA 100k or Starwood 75k of days past), but it's definitely not to be counted on.

August isn't a bad time to get to Paris, price-wise, but some caf�s and such will be closed as it's a popular time for Parisians to vacation themselves (July even more so).

Depending on taste, there are some pretty decent 2* accommodations that are well-located and easy on the wallet. Priceline also has great steals sometimes, but you have to wait until nearer the date. TripAdvisor is good for scouting.

Good luck!

She & partner can each get two Citi/AA cards for a total of 100k AA miles each, which is more than enough for two flights (check the AA award chart. Europe starts at 40k but not during August). Priority club visa would net each 60k, and using cash & points would give them 8 nights (15k pts + $60/ night) at some decent properties. Otherwise Chase Sapphire Preffered would give them each some flexible points for hotels or whatever else.

Thanks everyone for the guidance so far. One update: her partner cannot/will not apply for cards, so that changes things a little. Right now I may tell her to wait and see if the AA bonus changes after 12/1 (read that it may on a blog after seeing the post about the cards) and if not to apply for both as someone mentioned. My wife did this and it worked well, but for 150k not 100. That would leave my friend a little short of two coach saver awards assuming they are available. Is coach award availability usually pretty scarce? I may look into apartments a little for her, but if she goes with hotels it looks like PC might be best. With points and cash and the free night available with the card she could five nights for $240, which would be a pretty good deal. Anyone think the Marriott card may be better? I know Chase will only let you get one every 60/90 days. I promise to investigate any ideas suggested.

Well with Marriott 70K offer, and 1 night that could have been good. I think it's less now the 70K offer might be done. Here is a link to how many points it takes to redeem for nights at the hotel.

https://www.marriott.com/rewards/poi...dType=Standard

Not to be rude but...

Certain questions w/r/t cc applications can only be addressed to and answered by her, since she will be the one to do all the work and figure out the trip planning, why not have her come on board and ask these questions herself so FTers can help her first hand with planning? @:-) She eventually has to learn how to fish herself, doesn't she?

I understand you are being a good friend to relay the info to her but FTers can give more tailored advice and suggestions only when we know her personal take and the situation better. Good luck!

FYI: the PC free night cert comes on the anniversary of the card so if she doesn't already have the card, she won't be able to use the free night next Aug. but there are other ways to get cheap PC stays.

Please understand that I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer but....

It is the end of November and your friend has not even started to apply for cards for a trip that she wishes to make in 9 months. Is it possible that this can come together? Sure, but chances are just as equal that they will not. She needs to apply for two cards. Make the spend on each. Have the miles post and then find tickets for two to Paris during summer. Can she make spending quickly? I would have her jump on apply immediately and not wait for bonuses that may not go up after 12/1. She needs to get the cards and work on meeting the spend. Now on the positive side, it is after the Olympics, so that does help. But, other non-Olympic attending folk will be hitting Europe both immediately before and after to avoid crowds and high prices.

Just saying she may want to have a back up plan. I would hate for anyone to set their hearts on a big trip for a big moment in life and then have it deflate.

It can be done. I'm just hoping you, Patsfan73, are ready to be the one to do all the legwork, because there will be a lot, and it seems like your friend doesn't even know where to start. Honestly, I'd lower her expectations, and quickly.

My advice if she still wants to pursue this: it's generally easier to get hotel awards than flight awards, so encourage her to sign up for cards with open-ended rewards now—I'm thinking the 50k Chase Sapphire, Chase Ink, or the American Express Membership Rewards cards (green and above, usually gold has good bonuses)—and have her sign up for hotel cards in six months, at which point she can cancel her airline cards if Chase wants her to without losing her bonuses.

After she has all her points, she can see if she can find any award seats for two people. If she can, she can transfer her credit card points to an airline program. If not, she can transfer everything to a hotel program and look for a cheap flight on vayama.com. $1500-2000 for two rt tickets to Paris and hotels paid leaves her $1000-1500 for food and attractions, which is pretty good.

On the topic of companion certificates, Lufthansa's card gives you a free companion ticket if you buy one ticket in H economy. I haven't tried to use it, and I don't believe Lufthansa's credit card mileage bonuses are as great now as they have been in the past, but you'd have to pay for the ticket to get the free companion, anyway, so it shouldn't be a big deal. Also, LH's card is issued by Barclays, so it won't compete for your credit with cards from other issuers.

I very much agree with this. It is possible to have a plan in place that would allow your friend to do this trip in August 2012; it is equally (and perhaps more) possible that even if the miles/points are earned, availability may have dried up.

All is not lost, however. A good backup plan simply may be to move the dates of the trip into September or October or maybe even into the winter of 2012-13. My sister did this when she celebrated her 50th birthday by taking a trip to Dublin six months after the date.

If your friend is insistent that the trip must occur surrounding her birthday, then she may have to adjust her destination or look for especially good deals on flights. I'm assuming from your original message that your friend is paying for her partner's portion of the trip. Given that your friend's partner is also reluctant to apply for credit cards, this means that your friend is stuck with funding the trip with her own money and whatever credit card bonuses she can find.

Assume for the moment that your friend has to pay for everything without any credit card miles/points. Your friend would be lucky indeed to spend at or about $800/ticket for economy seats to Paris in August. On the other hand, I think it's realistic to find two tickets at that time of the year for around $1000/ticket, but your friend will have to keep an eye out for sales, perhaps be a little flexible in her travel dates (mid-week flights tend to be cheaper), and be ready to buy the tickets as soon as she sees a good bargain. By the way, offseason, tickets should be available for $700 each or less.

Since your friend is young enough, she might find that hostel or B&B accommodations in Paris are sufficient for her needs, which would reduce her lodging costs. Just as an example, as I have no personal knowledge of these accommodations, it appears that your friend might be able to get a double room with a bath on the hall in August for about $75/night: http://www.paris-hostel.biz/budget.html. Assuming a seven-night trip, she's just spent about $525 more.

Your friend would then have a remaining budget of about $500 for a seven-night trip for two people, which must include RT transportation from and to the airport, meals, sightseeing, and fun. She'd then need to do some research (duh, she's a librarian!) regarding inexpensive places to eat and free to inexpensive options for touring. Doable, but it sounds as if she'll really be seeing Paris on the cheap.

Now, let's see where we could free up some money to increase the amount of fun your friend and her partner might have. United miles will get your friend on a Lufthansa flight from Boston to Paris, with a connection in Frankfurt, for 60,000 miles and $131.60. She'd still have to earn the miles, but two Chase cards could do the trick: first, the Chase Sapphire Preferred, http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...0k-points.html, which requires $3000 in spending in 3 months to qualify for 50K Ultimate Rewards points that are transferable to United on a 1:1 basis.

Then she should get either a Chase Continental or United card. Not a spectacular earnings bonus: 25K on first use, 5K for an adding another user who makes a purchase within two months. Another 10K is available for $25K spending, but I'm going to assume your friend can't afford that on a librarian's salary. Nevertheless, she should be able to earn 75K United miles from this card and the conversion of UR points from the Chase Sapphire Preferred, enough for one person to fly in economy on an award ticket. Assuming a trip in August, that saves about $800 right there.

The big deal here is that seats available by award redemption and available seats for purchase with cash may not be equivalent; in other words, there's no guarantee that your friend will be able to buy one ticket and then use her miles to get an award ticket on the same flight. In general, award availability is less than seats available for purchase so your friend and her partner have to be open to the possibility that one might fly over on one flight several hours earlier than the other. Great if they can get seats together on the same plane, but they need to know that to make the trip possible, they may need to accept the inconvenience of flying one or both ways separately. This issue tends to disappear when you try to book in the offseason.

Accommodations? I'll throw a curve ball here: Choice Visa. The deadline for the current offer is November 30. No annual fee. 24K points with first purchase, 16K additional if she uses the card to pay for a Choice hotel stay. I understand Choice isn't the snazziest hotel chain; on the other hand, Choice has some excellent values in Europe, with some hotels in Paris going for as low as 8000 points a night. Even if the hotels go for 20K per night, she's saved herself another $150 for a very minimal investment. One big caveat with the Choice program, however: assuming no other status with Choice than the Gold conferred with taking the credit card, award bookings cannot be made more than 50 days in advance.

If they're willing to move the trip off those August dates into the offseason, the redemption picture improves for airlines and hotels, and as a bonus, the number of points/miles needed to redeem for an award drops as well. In that case, I'd suggest the Citi/AA cards (apply for two at one time, 50K bonus each, see here). Off-peak awards to Europe on AA go for as little as 40K RT so two cards would be more than enough to get to Paris, especially because AA generously defines "off-peak" as October 15 to May 15. I just did a trial booking for 2/15/12 through 2/22/12--80K miles and $185.40 for two people with plenty of flights and seats available.

I agree that it would be helpful to have your friend post here directly as we would probably be able to get a fuller picture of her wishes; however, I suspect that you're going to be doing the heavy lifting on this one so you have a lot of research to do. The more patience and flexibility she brings to this enterprise, the better off you are.

Good luck!

Well, she can always find a rich guy. haha

No but for real it will help if her friend pays for him/her self. I assume her friend has at least some kind of job. Why is she paying for her friend I don't get it. Ya that's your friend, but the friend should feel bad having her pay for them.

As for people saying it is to late I don't agree. She just really needs to find the best offers out there, and jump on them. Do her research, and I am sure she can find a way. If she is willing to make the trip later there has to be some good offers coming early 2012.

I was looking at traveling my self next year. Paris, London, Dubai, Sidney, Germany, ect......But will probably hold of, and plan it ahead of time for a future year since I want to focus on my career while being young. Already feel like I wasted a few years.

If she does decide on a smaller trip in August and postponing Paris until later in the fall (which I would highly suggest as she will not get the true Parisian experience in August), you might suggest Montreal/Quebec City for her birthday. It is only 9k Avios points per person round trip from NYC to Montreal (she could also rent a car and drive). She could get the 50k British Airways card and use the remaining points for a couple of hotel nights (and/or use the avios points for the car rental).

I'd also suggest looking at postponing the trip past August (the mini-trip to Canada is a great idea). Not to stereotype librarians, but if she enjoys museums then a great time to go is mid December (around December 15-20th. People haven't started their holiday travel yet, so it's a great time to be a tourist, very few lines. The big drawback is that the days are short. But, that could be her Plan B if she can't get the tickets for August.

If she postpones the trip, she could also use the two 50k AA cards to buy both tickets (40k each). I forget when the off seasons starts for AA but I know it's a pretty lengthy period.