darkom

Hi, first and foremost you guys are incredible, this is an amazing website. So so much to take in.

Background: I am a second year law student in the Midwest. I have about a 740 credit score with a couple of basic credit cards; a university credit union Visa with $0/$4000 and a Freedom by Chase $0/$1500. I'm also an authorized user on a few of my Dad's cards. Spend about $2000/m and currently avg about 6 RTs per a year. I have a Delta Skymiles account with almost 15000 miles in it.

After discovering this website I was wondering if you guys think it's possible to rack enough flyer miles to take my girlfriend of 3 years to Paris to propose to her? Depart city would be either DTW or Chicago, but NYC is an option as well -- i.e. the airline possibilities are endless. I'd like to do this before Dec 31 2012.

Viable? Advice?

Thank you, Gideon

lwildernorva

So long as you can qualify for the cards, the Citi/AA personal and business offers might be your best bet. Current offers here (check the whole thread, the best current offers are spread through the thread, not necessarily summarized in post #1): Citi/AA.

That would get you 100K miles. Your spending patterns indicate you could get the mileage in two to three months, so you'd probably have the miles in hand by no later than May 1. So long as you don't mind flying in coach, you can fly AA nonstop from Chicago to Paris. Fly in the fall, and you should be able to snag two RT coach fares at the offseason rate of 40K each. Be flexible about your dates, and the availability should be there before 12/31.

You might even be able to qualify for a hotel credit card before your trip that would allow you to defray some of your hotel expenses. Or, given that you already have the Chase Freedom, perhaps the Chase Sapphire Preferred would be good.

Good luck!

darkom

Thank you for the response. What made you recommend the Citi/AA above all of the other CC as well as airline options?

cwilson830

Prenup.

jk

Easily doable. Citi AA's are a good option bc you can get two at one time.

lwildernorva

In addition to the link above, you should look at this post: Guide to applying for multiple Citi/AA credit cards. The links in the remainder of this thread no longer work, but the principles behind applying for multiple cards set forth in this post still work for the current offers. Follow the instructions explicitly, and you should qualify for two cards on the same day.

blackmamba

The Citi AA is a terrific deal and if you do the steps correctly, you will likely get both of the cards without any problems. That being said, I would actually wait for a better offer to arise from a different card.

Also, don't worry. I'm a law student in a school in the midwest too and I was able to book a RTW using miles earned through credit cards just this past December

lwildernorva

Sorry, didn't see your post asking why I recommend Citi/AA before I posted about the second thread you should read. Three reasons: first, you can get two cards to get 100K miles; second, there are nonstop flights available to get you from ORD to CDG (Delta and United also do this and Delta does out of DTW, thus, reducing your travel time); third, AA has an offseason rate of 40K RT with reasonable availability.

lwildernorva

Um, not so much. Keeping in mind that there is a spending requirement to be met, two seats required (booking two award seats may require more advance planning than one), a relatively popular destination, and a stated deadline, I wouldn't wait too long. A better offer might indeed come along, although the 2011 standard of 75-100K offers appears to have receded to 50K offers, but award seat availability might not be so good. In addition, we never know when Citi will decide it's worth their while to stop the "two browser" trick from working.

Having been through law school myself, in private practice for years, and now an administrative law judge, I've learned the wisdom of "a bird in the hand."

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

If the OP does indeed get the Citi/AA cards, he should keep in mind that for the same 20,000 miles that AA charges for an off-peak MileSAAver Coach award CDG-JFK or CDG-ORD, one can get CDG-JFK/ORD (stopover) - Hawaii/Caribbean/Alaska/etc. This essentially adds a free, one-way from the North American gateway to another North American destination. (The stopover at the gateway can last weeks or months, as long as all travel on the award is completed within one year of award-ticket issuance.)

vulgarboatman

I proposed 18 months ago on the Eiffel Tower, then returned 6 months ago for the honeymoon. Each trip we also drove for a week in a different part of France. Can't go wrong with Paris in my experience.

Few things, first you will need 100K miles for coach and 200K miles for Buisness. I think the first response was pretty good because you need to get the tickets ASAP. Remember you can always cancel them if you get better later. If you can get the 100K AA miles quickly and book something up, then maybe go for the Chase Hyatt for each of you to get the 2 free nights each at the Vendrome.

I've been to Paris many times and prefer September over all other months myself. other Paris tips: Museum pass, Metro pass, Metro iPhone app. Don't get hung up on the Louvre, make sure to visit the Musee D'Orsay, and take the nighttime boat tour of the Seine.

satman40

Be nice to see the GF get her own CC and share the load....you will have more fees than air....nice to feed he pigeons on the Eiffel Tower by the food courts...great view...

clacko

what cabin?

ask dad to help w/spend by getting him a card on your mi cc....

darkom

You guys continue to impress me. A dozen quick responses all filled with good information.

I thought about getting her on board and "sharing the load" but I kind of wanted the trip to Paris to be a surprise. With that said, no doubt in my mind she would be more than willing to sign up for whatever card I recommend, and it would be much easier to obtain this goal if she was apart of the process. But.. I can't help but think of her retelling the proposal story with, "It all started when my crafty boyfriend decided to obsess over airline miles.." Cheapens the romance of the journey (to non flyertalk members).

darkom

My first thought was economy, but the first few responses make economy seem like light work. Maybe I should raise my goal to business/first class for both of us?

If business/first for both would take a bit more time that could be a factor in delaying the proposal past Dec 31, but probably not much later than say Spring 2013. She's not a brat though, so she'd never gripe about a trip to Paris in any class. But, if I want to make the proposal special, business/first would certainly start the trip off right.

darkom

A stopover in Hawaii would be amazing, but certainly starts adding up the $$$/time. My initial thought was to do "weekend" in New York with dinner our first (and unbeknownst to her, only) night at a very memorable French restaurant, e.g. Daniel, Per Se. Sometime after the dinner make a comment about I wonder what REAL French food tastes like.. and present her with the two tickets to Paris? That type of surprise may require far too many obstacles, but I could still employ the same stopover tactic your post illustrates even if she knows we're ultimately going to Paris.