And my post was at 12:46, but as you can guess by its length, I started typing it long before you posted post #6. Anyway, thanks!

It might be fun to take a boat from LHR-DUB but I am OK on a short flight. My concern is not having our flight or boat trip connected to our trip home if we fly out of LHR. I'm thinking I need to work on United miles and try the business class on the 757-200.

So much can change by next year!

I have nightmares about our flight home from Ireland a couple yrs ago. AA let us book flights round trip out of ORD to DUB and then a month before we were to leave, told us our flight from DUB home was canceled because it was seasonal! We ended up booking a separate flight at our expense from DUB-LHR and then had to race through this unknown airport to make a flight home! But the icing on the cake was when the night before we left Dublin, I noticed online that our flight was canceled! They had put us on a flight the day after and this would have made us miss our flight from ORD-MCI which was also on miles with UA. Not connected! And not smart planning. I called and got the last 2 seats on an earlier flight. There for, we had terrible coach seats in the middle of 5 people across!

Given that I doubt you can fly direct MCI-LHR anyway, the fact that you've found MCI-EWR-DUB as a one-connection flight seems better logistically anway.

But yes, I do agree that you have to either have all your flights connected on the same itenerary, or "pad" the timing greatly (like at least a day between connections) otherwise.

Meanwhile, here's a strategy for United miles:

1. Apply for the Chase UA Explorer card under the best offer you can find.

2. Apply for the Chase Freedom card under the best offer you can find. Then use it on its rotatng categories (and presumably nothing else after you do whatever spend is needed for the signup bonus). You end up with tens of thousands of Ultimate Rewareds (UR) points, which at that moment can't help you a bit, but hold on to them. (This card has no annual fee, so it doesn't hurt to keep it "forever" and just always use it for its rotating categories.)

3. Later, apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card under the best offer you can find.

One you ahve the Chase Sapphire Preferred card (which also earns UR points), you can transfer all the UR points you've earned (including the ones you earned on Freedom) to UA!

However, this card has an annual fee (after the initial year), so you may not want to keep it. That's why you want to wait and get it last, because it "unlocks" the Freedom UR points you're able to earn before you get it, and it costs nothing the first year.

(The UA card also has an annual fee after the first year, but it comes with travel benefits like early boarding and free first checked bag and a couple lounge passes, while the Chase Sapphire Preferred doesn't. So if you only want to keep one card that has an annual fee, of these, the UA might make more sense.)

I really appreciate all your help! This is such a great site for travel info! I will do my best to "give back" when I can.

I have the business mileage plus explorer card. I also have the personal Chase Southwest air, Amtrak and Hyatt cards. That's 1 business and 3 personal Chase cards. I do have a high credit score and always pay balance in full each month but I've been skeptical of applying for more Chase cards.

I have wanted to apply for the Freedom and Sapphire cards or a personal Mileage Plus. Is that too many Chase cards? I got the Amtrak card just a month ago.(32,000 pts!) I have a 18,000 spend to accomplish for a family sleeper roundtrip to Chicago. two free nights at the Park Hyatt! Ok, now I'm bragging. I got the Cap One Venture and $1000 travel credit for proving $50,000 spend on my HHonors travel card!

Funny you should ask that now, since this thread got started in the Credit Cards forum just yesterday:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...-you-have.html

(So far I've spotted 6 personal + 2 business from one person. That's about double what you have now.)

There's also this longer-running thread on various aspects of applying for Chase cards:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...solidated.html

And apparently there is a "two a day" trick with Chase somewhat like with Citi?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...day-chase.html

That seems like it'd really jack up the price for the itinerary.

I tried to force this via multi-city and it entertaingly came up with
SEA-DFW-MAD-JFK-ORD-DUB on the outbound. For 50 flight options, there was not a single one from MAD-DUB that did not involve a flight back to the US to JFK/ORD/DFW. Great site American

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

The aa.com website does not support award redemptions involving IB, so why would you conclude that XXX-DFW-MAD-DUB would cost more miles than some other routing? The only way to find out for sure would be to call AA and ask.

Good point.I was looking at paid tickets and not reward redemptions.

I just realized that we could fly DFW-ORD, ORD-LHR, LHR-BHD on AA. ORD-LHR would be on a 777 with first class. Would there be high taxes flying into and out of LHR on BA booked thru AA? I wouldn't mind checking out Northern Ireland. I've heard it's beautiful. We could then take the train to Dublin.

Maybe book a one-way on AA to BHD and home from DUB on UA. Since I have miles on both airlines, It would be easier and faster to earn enough points to go next year. I think it would take 125,000 on AA and 100,000 on UA (business/first). I could then concentrate on hotel points. What do you guys (and Gals) think?

Yes, TATL on BA booked with AA miles will have the BA fuel surcharge added. Now if ORD-LHR is on AA with just LHR-BHD on BA, it's not really a big impact - forget how much but you can do a dummy booking and see.

The new Titanic exhibit opened this year in Belfast and looks fairly interesting.

The taxes will be rough flying through London (hundreds-thousands).

One way around this would be Aer Lingus, not as good as 3 class first but probably good enough for what you need -

http://www.aerlingus.com/travelinfor...sclassfrom699/

Bookable with BA Avios pts, and have a direct flight from ORD-DUB

What flight was canceled the night before your return? the one you book separately DUB-LHR, or LHR-ORD? This is something I don't understand, if you already booked tickets ORD-DUB-ORD, AA had to accommodate you back to ORD regardless of DUB-ORD being canceled. You should get reimbursed for the DUB-LHR flight. That is part of the contract of carriage, you should not have to pay for the DUB-LHR part. AA partner with BA and they do that route, also EI too.

Ok, here is my take, skip all this connecting airport, separate tickets, complications, etc. and concentrate that the most important flight will be the transatlantic part, USA-DUB, both AA and UA offer service to DUB with "similar" type of seats that you are looking for. Once you have an idea on date then determine if AA works for you, as their flight is a seasonal route, I think its April to October, but not sure. Once you have the dates, then start accumulating the miles and book a complete ticket, meaning from your home airport MCI-ORD-DUB-ORD-MCI all under one itinerary. Do not do a separate ticket from the HUB airport to your home via train or plane, reason is that if there are any changes or delays on the international part of the ticket, you are not going to be protected on the other ticket, like you mentioned before.

I have flown the ORD-DUB route with AA a couple of times a year, and I have posted on the AA forum how the immigration process work. Overall I'm very satisfied with the service and will continue to do so.

Another option is to book a flight with United miles which allows free flight changes as long as the departure and arrival cities remain the same. I would consider about 2-3 weeks out from departure, trying to switch to MCI-CLT-MUC-DUB. Lufthansa has non-stop daily flights from Charlotte to Munich (A330) and I've heard their first class is superior. I've only flown economy on that route multiple times and even their economy is great. You could also probably pick up ORD-FRA-DUB all via Lufthansa. Lufthansa usually only offers their 1st class cabin 2-3 weeks in advance so you would need another first class *A flight booked in order to change to this if it opens. Flying through Germany probably adds $40 in taxes per ticket.

Switching from a business class award to a first class award would not be free. Also, the O/D pair rule is based on requesting the change 21+ days in advance of the new travel date. So it it opens up inside that you're paying a change fee there, too.