Hi all:

I am trying to consolidate FF miles to get my family of 4 to France next summer. Sadly my miles are spread on many airlines. I have:
185K+ on AA, 40K UA, 40K Delta, 30K on Amex...

It seems that to fly to BOD, CDG or TLS on AA, I have to stop overnight in London, and pay high taxes. Last summer we flew on UA miles into TLS (Toulousse), taxes were low and it worked out well. I'd love to find a way to get all my miles to UA again.

Any tips on dealing with AA or consolidating miles through some creative portal? Our destination in France is near Bordeaux but we can always drive from another airport if needed.

I need to begin the booking process in August when the dates open up, so I just want to prepare with all of my options before then.

Thanks for any ideas you may have...

Go to the individual forums for the airlines and read up. AA, for example, has many partners that that you cannot book through aa.com. For example, AB.

AB and HG are bookable on aa.com, it's Iberia that is not bookable online. That said, since you are starting early in the planning, you should be able to snag the flights and avoid LHR if you are somewhat flexible. Have you looked into any of the direct to CDG flights? ORD, DFW, MIA, JFK all have them IIRC but availability dries up fast. Can you get another AA credit card or two before August? You would be close to getting everyone there at 60k a piece roundtrip.

Otherwise, if one parent wouldn't mind taking both kids, the other could go using Delta points if you transfer some from Amex. Since Air France is a partner, you should be able to find somewhere to fly into France. Nothing is certain with Delta though.

All helpful. I hadn't considered flying out of a different airport since I'd have to then have to get myself to that airport by miles or $. But its a great backup in case my local airports only go through LHR. So far in the search, I see no AB or HG choices at all but that could change.

I did a quick search and found that if I flew DFW to CDG, it was pretty direct and the taxes were only $10. Of course I'd have to spend the money flying to DFW.:-) Good to have options.

You do realize you can connect from sfo to DFW to CDG on the same award ticket right? No extra miles needed

whats your home airport?

Consider going during spring break 2014. You only need 40K AA miles per RT to Europe.