Hi,

This summer, we'll be flying on AA 158, JFK-BUD, and then will finish our Hungary/Croatia trip in Dubrovnik, on or about June 26, 2011. OTHER THAN flying through London, does anyone have suggestions for where we could/should fly to out of DBV to get a OneWorld reward flight home to NYC on 6/26? (The flight from DBV to the OneWorld gateway city doesn't have to be with OneWorld, and I assume we'd use a low cost carrier.) We're very open to leaving DBV a day or two before 6/26 in order to have a couple nights at whatever this gateway city would be.

We will be traveling with a very small child, so we have a strong preference for minimal connections. We're also looking for U availability, though that's not 100% required (i.e., could do Z or even T, if necessary). Most of our miles are with AA, though we still have some BA miles left from the BA Visa promo from last year.

As of right now, flying DBV on a low cost carrier to one of the London airports (Stansted, Luton, Gatwick) and then shuttling over to Heathrow (with or without a night or two in London) seems to be our only options. Given how much time we've previously spent in London, we were hoping for something more inspired. Please let me know if you have any other suggestions.

Many thanks for any advice.

You could fly DBV-HEL on Blue (codeshare on SAS available) on your desired date:
DBV-MAD on Iberia:
DBV-FRA on Croatia, codeshare on LH available:
DBV-CDG on Croatia:
DBV-DUB on Aer Lingus:
DBV-SXF on Easyjet.

Jerry,

Thanks very much. I may be misreading your chart, so I apologize in advance, but what I need to do is find a city I can fly to from DBV from which I can then use AA miles to get back to NYC, preferably in Business Class. I know I can get home by flying DBV-LGW/LHR-JFK, but I'm hoping to find some other European gateway city besides London from which to then fly to NYC on 6/26/11 (if for no other reason than to avoid $500 in taxes for flying out of LHR).

Are you saying there's availability from HEL, MAD, and DUB to NYC on 6/26, or were you just talking about getting from DBV to those three cities?

Thanks again, and sorry if my original post was unclear.

Nope, I was just getting you to the OW gateway city which I understood you to be asking. You can look at expertflyer or kvs for award availability. For availability on Finnair or Iberia you will probably have to call or try ba.com.
Just a cursory glance at expertflyer shows coach (x) availability for HEL-JFK on your dates with Finnair. There appears to be availability through LHR, which you don't want, and DUB-ORD-JFK, which you might not want.

You also won't have to pay the extra taxes if you are merely connecting through London. For example, fly to FRA, spend 2 days there, and then connect through LHR to JFK

Thanks very much Jerry. I have been checking ExpertFlyer, and have had a lot of trouble finding any business class award availability in cities that are readily serviced by connections out of Dubrovnik. I'll look into other European cities a bit more that would connect me back to the U.S. via London in order to avoid the LHR luxury tax. Thanks again for the advice.

wikitravel might help: http://wikitravel.org/en/Dubrovnik#Get_in

oneworld interactive map might be of use as well. <link>, good for cities nearby with connections as well.

To / from NYC and the Continent, Iberia via MAD or BCN, AA via BRU, AA via CDG, AA via FCO, BUD (when does AA begin serving BUD?) etc. though you may have to research connecting flights.

Thanks very much for the links. I've actually used those, as well as http://www.whichbudget.com/, but have had some difficulty in finding any business class seats (other than out of LHR) on 6/26/11. I may just bite the bullet and go back to BUD and book three economy seats (me, wife, child).

Question for JDiver: Regarding the cost of taking my new infant son on our lap on this trip, the cost of taking an infant on this routing (JFK-BUD/LHR-JFK) as a lap infant in business class is about $350 (apparently 10% of I class). When AA priced the infant fare on this same routing, but with each leg on *separate* PNRs, the cost was about $1k. Here's my question: If I fly JFK-BUD in U (infant on lap), and then return BUD-JFK in T (we all fly economy, and infant gets his own seat in economy), will AA price the infant fare for the first leg off a round-trip ticket price or a one-way ticket price? That is, how does AA price a ticket for an infant where the adults are flying round-trip, but the infant is flying lap in one direction, and with an actual seat in the other?

I realize I could ask AA, but they seem only able to price out actually held reservations, and will want me to change the routing before they'll quote me the infant fare, which I don't want to do until I better understand how it works. I also don't want to give up my two U seats out of LHR until I know what I'll be getting if we return to NYC from BUD. Thanks very much.