What about flying to/from LHR? It looks like there's availability on those dates for 30K each way (United).. There are various ways of getting from London to Paris that shouldn't be too expensive.

Oops, just noticed the high taxes! Never mind (unless paying a few hundred dollars extra is worth it to you...)

Good idea below as saver award availability from NYC to CDG on ua.com appears to be far less than to LHR. OP can travel cheaply between LHR-CDG using BA miles (transfer from MR to BA). I checked ba.com and it shows LHR-CDG each way costs only 4.5K Avios points plus $20. [ETA] Notice the award type from ba.com says "Reward Flight Saver", i.e., no taxes/fees, not sure if this is a promotion or not.

Another consideration is to check flights from/to PHL for travel on ua miles. Its a relatively easy commute between NYC-PHL.

For the outbound flight, there's a non-stop to EDI for 30K United (leaves around 8pm) that has almost NO taxes and fees! You could still use Avios to get to CDG, or even a low-cost flight might make sense.

The out-bound leg EWR-LHR incurs only $2.50 for tax/fee, its the in-bound LHR-EWR that would have cost $179 in tax/fee instead of $85.xx for CDG-EWR.

OP could chose
Option A.
a1) EWR-LHR UA28 leaves at 7:35pm on 6/21(30K UA + $2.50), arrive LHR in early morning on 6/22
a2) LHR-CDG (4.5K BA + $20), I don't see flight available on same day right now on ba.com but it may open up later; alternate is that OP can choose to stay in LHR for a day, and take e.g. BA304 leaves 7:25am on 6/23 (currently bookable on ba.com)
a3) CDG-EWR UA55 leaves at 1:10pm on 6/28 (55K UA + $85.30), arrive back home airport at 3:50pm
---> total cost 30+55=85K UA, $2.50+$20+$85.30=$107.8, 4.5K BA, plus potentially overnight hotel cost at LHR

Option B. as suggested by an earlier post (in-bound CDG-BRU via train, then use UA miles for saver award available for BRU-(YUL?)-EWR
---> total cost 55+30=85K UA, $2.50+$55(train)+$53.80=$111.30,
I do have a question: since BRU-(YUL?)-EWR departs BRU at 10:40am, would OP be able to make same day connection from Paris, or does he need consider at least overnight at BRU one day before to ensure he has sufficient buffer for his return flights? If the latter is warranted then the total cost would be similar to Option A. I guess OP could then choose based on which connection city he prefers

After checking a bit on the United website, I found a saver award for 60,000 miles + $96.20 if you can leave one day earlier and fly RT Newark--Brussels. Here are the details.

Wednesday, June 20:

UA 28 Newark--London Heathrow; lv 7:35 PM arr 7:40 AM next day
SN 2094 LHR--Brussels; lv 10:05 AM arr 12:20 PM

Thursday, June 28:

AC 833 Brussels--Montreal; lv 10:40 AM arr 12:20 PM
UA 4968 Montreal--Newark; lv 2:53 PM arr 4:46 PM

I realize that it's not ideal, but it seemed worth calling it to your attention.

There is also availability from GVA on the 20th at the low level. GVA isn't much worse than BRU when it comes to train travel time. I don't think leaving a day earlier would be in issue in this case because the travel is overnight on a non-stop flight. Probably the best option here.

You can travel on your dates via ZRH. ZRH is 4.5 hours away, or most likely a 100E plane flight.

I'm not on KVS so I can't do much better right now. This isn't a difficult situation if you are willing to use nearby airports and be slightly flexible with your dates.

P.S. - French girls are tough. I've dated 2.

I've been a lurker on FT for a while now and it's things like this that I always find spectacular. Perfect strangers helping someone out for nothing else than the challenege of solving the puzzle. Amazing.

I am similarly highly impressed. I started to open some windows to search before I realized that everything I was thinking about had already been suggested!

Hey Everyone,

Thank you so much for all of the help. I'm sorry I haven't been back on to respond sooner but I had a flight back from Greensboro last night that went late so I didn't get to take care of this flight as quickly as I would like. I'm hoping to be able to weigh all the options you've given me at lunch or right after work today and hopefully lock it down.

Thanks again, I really appreciate all the effort.

Mitch

These and some other suggestions here are great ideas. One back-up option is to check awardnexus.com, which can do some good searches for award availability on various routes. I think the initial sign-up is free for FT members, though it could cost you if you use it too much.

Given the great options folks have already suggested and the fairly short time frame, I'd just hold awardnexus as a back-up if these routes don't pan out.

+10 Best.Community.Ever.

Agree. And some solutions are highly creative as well.
Love it.

If the OP can leave a day earlier, there are actually plenty of *A Awards available to PAR itself:

[KVS Availability Tool 6.9.9.R3/Diamond - ITA: Awards/AC-StarAlliance/CA]

Pics of the french girl?