help using AA miles PIT-TLS
 

So it may be finally time to try and use some miles...

I want to get my family from PIT-TLS (Toulouse, FR) roughly 7/20-7/27. I can give or take a few days either side, but there is an event prescribing my presence 7/23 that I just learned of.

I have AA miles (~240k), and was hoping for award travel... I know, high season to Europe and all, but AA did find me outbound tickets at the 60k rate, but could not find anything to get me home.

The outbound on hold is 7/21, taking AA PIT-ORD-LHR, 10 hours to kill in London, then LGW-TLS on BA.

Am I missing any creative options? Should I call OneWorld for this instead of AA?

Also, I could probably drive to an East coast city (thinking something like Boston, PHL or NY) if it would help, or take a train from Paris or Madrid... I've never been to France before (only once to Europe, and that was Ireland - not to knock Ireland, I loved it!) so am unfamiliar with options there. I don't think I want to rent a car, unless there is compelling reasons to reconsider.

So, any gurus help me do this? I could maybe use miles for 2 tickets and purchase two, if I have to go 100k per ticket. Most fares I have seen are $1300-$1500.

Have you considered Barcelona? I know you are not too keen on driving but Toulouse is a very easy drive from there or, if you want to give the family a thrill, a spectacular albeit much longer drive via Andorra.

I am considering it now... could maybe drive, or is there good train service?

Good, in terms of quality and service, yes, excellent, but not in terms of convenience or schedules, because the main rail lines in Spain and France run North-South and Toulouse is sort of in the middle of nowhere, between Bayonne and Perpignan.

i would rather consider PIT-ORD-MAD-TLS on AA/IB
They used to have , and still i think, the MAD-TLS


1) you skip the LHR-LGW transfer
2)you skip LHR full stop: stack over heathrow, long queues at immigration,shops racket, BAA ineficciency...
3) IB Y is as bad as AA y: but at least you get free booze
4) Barajas is a very nice piece of airport architecture. Not very well planned IMHO but far better than LHR
5) MAD-TLS is operated by AIr Nostrum which is the very fine regional carrier from IB. The difference in product quality is amazing between both
6) Last but not least, you can enjoy spanish "jamon" in Madrid which is always nice ....

On an AA Partner Award? Never tried but I don't think it can be done.

The train BCN-TLS is not an especially viable option, involving a change at Narbonne & probably a very late arrival (23:41) into Toulouse. In addition, you would be paying for 4 tickets, although there are often quite generous family concessions.

For speed and simplicity, driving on the autoroute via Narbonne is hard to beat. The ViaMichelin website reckons that it would take under 4 hours of driving this way (with about EUR 30 to pay in tolls). (This is their "Quickest Route".) Their "Recommended Route" goes near Andorra, and takes about an hour longer, and there are still some tolls to pay, such as for tunnels. (At that time of year, keep in mind that the Barcelona-Narbonne autoroute is one of Europe's busiest holiday routes and it's high season.)

These days, driving BCN-TLS via Andorra is much easier than it used to be. There's been a tunnel under the Cadi mountains (getting to Andorra from BCN) for quite a few years. Recently, however, they opened a new tunnel within Andorra which cuts out the 2400 m. (7800ft.) Envalira Pass, making the road into France quite a lot simpler. Andorra itself is a curious tax-free country, with the President of France and the local Spanish bishop as co-Princes. The population is around 65,000 but there are around 14 million visitors annually, who came mainly for the tax-free purchases and petrol (gas) that's about the cheapest in Europe. To be honest, and I have an apartment there, it's much nicer up in the mountains & away from the 14 million visitors. :td: If you just want to do some shopping, I would suggest a shortish detour from the Michelin-recommended route into Pas de la Casa. Not very beautiful, but your kids might like the idea of going into a different country. You might even be able to get your passports stamped, but normally there are zero formalities, and generally no-one even stops as they drive in. (Not exactly DHS/CBP. :D)

A simple alternative that you might consider is simply flying into CDG on AA and driving or taking the train from Paris. The Michelin-recommended route gives 6.5 hours driving time from Roissy (CDG) to Toulouse. Again, there are tolls to pay, but you cover a lot of ground quickly. Generally, on the autoroute expect to divide the distances in Kilometres by 2 to get the no. of minutes it will take. (An average of 120 Km/h or 75mph.)

Have a good trip, whichever way you get there.

Although not an AA Partner Award we did an AA oneworld award last year that included mad-tls on Air Nostrum.

A oneworld award booked prior to September 1 would be the same mileage pit-tls as a partner award in coach and less in the forward cabins.

Success!
 

Thanks for the advice, all. I did try going into Paris or Barcelona, but couldn't find award availability (4 in coach, or even business, just not there.)

However, after my 5th or 6th call and different agent over 3 days, I did end up with this, rather creative routing:

Same outbound, AA PIT-ORD-LHR, 10 hours to kill in London, then LGW-TLS on BA.

On the return, on BA metal: TLS-LGW-BDA, overnight in Bermuda, then AA BDA-JFK-PIT.

There are worse places to overnight - I am going to try and see if we can stay two nights, if I can ever get an agent on the phone again!

If that is an AA Partner award the stopover will not be allowed.

OW timetable shows that it can be done literally overnight (Arr:19:15. Dep: 08:45.) so would not technically be a stopover.

I know, but the OP wants to stopover for two nights; that's what I responded to.

Correct. The overnight I currently have booked is not by choice, but allowed since it is less than 24 hours. I can't stay 2 nights, as desired, since that would be >24 hour "stop-over".

I may look into the PIT-ORD-MAD-TLS option, but last I checked there was no availability getting back MAD-ORD.

Then you would have to go for a oneworld award, not an AA Partner award, but if you do that you cannot get back via MAD-ORD, because you need two airlines other than AA.

I'm not as familiar with the Oneworld award - do you mean I need to fly a total of three airlines? Also, are the mileage requirements the same for this?

If AA is one of them then yes, you need another two airlines. If AA is not flown at all then you oly need two. The mileage requirements will depend on the total distance flown. For the details I suggest you read the sticky, right here in the oneworld forum.