pritomd

My girlfriend and I are planning a trip to Europe to visit London/England and Paris/France. This is the first time we've booked a big trip like this, and we're wondering the best way to use our money.

Right now, we're seeing LivingSocial all-inclusive (save for meals) deals that look good.

However, I'm trying to see if I can use my miles to book our trip in business or first.

That leads me to my first question

A) All my miles are with American. It's seeming that if I use the lower mileage options, it still costs around $1200 per ticket. Is there some way to reduce the surcharge like flying via other airports? These are for tickets to/from LHR.

B) Would it be cheaper to book an all inclusive package, which includes hotels and tours and whatnot? Is there a good place to book those, but without the flights included in the price?

C) Any other tips for booking this? Such as what sites to use, etc? Right now we're mainly looking on LivingSocial and also AA.com for pricing. We're trying to figure out if we should do some sort of package or if individually planning the trip might be a better option...

The dates would be in July sometime.

guv1976

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

"All my miles are with American. It's seeming that if I use the lower mileage options, it still costs around $1200 per ticket. Is there some way to reduce the surcharge"

Yes: redeem on some carrier other than BA, which has very high surcharges for long-haul travel. The problem is that finding low-tier award space for premium-cabin TATL travel on non-BA carriers in July can be challenging. You can see in you can find anything on Air Berlin for JFK-DUS-STN (London/Stansted), and you can call AA to see if there is award space on IB for JFK-MAD-LHR, or award space on 9W for EWR-BRU or YYZ-BRU (with a connecting flight on AA from LGA/JFK to YYZ). From BRU, you can take the train to/from LON or PAR, but the train costs money too.

The aa.com website cannot display award-seat availability for IB or 9W; that's why you have to call AA.

mandolino

July is peak/peak time in Europe (and the USA I assume). I assume you can't avoid travelling then? Everything is much nicer in May/June IMHO.

The driver is school summer holidays ("vacations"). The trouble is that DC area starts these as early as mid-June in some cases whereas London area starts them in mid-late July, so you're hitting peak demand in both directions.

All I can offer is do like guv1976 suggests above. Find your cheapest route to wherever in Europe first and figure out the budget plane or train way of getting to London/Paris from there.

BearX220

You can do better by not booking BA metal, and not flying in or out of the UK. Fly AA to Paris and take the Eurostar train or the Calais-Dover ferry to England. More fun, less money (even when flying on miles).

As for the inclusive-tour question -- I'm generally against them, but it really depends on whether you want to get out into the countryside for significant periods, or stick with Paris and London. If you want to stay in the cities and perhaps just have day trips out to see Versailles, Bath, etc., I'd forget the inclusive tour thing and keep your freedom. You can book discounted hotels a la carte on Priceline, etc. and come out ahead, and you won't be paying for anything (tours, surcharges, etc.) you don't really want.

If you do want to get out into the countryside in either country and see things that are beyond the reach of trains, and you don't want to hire a car, a tour might -- might -- suit you, but if this is meant to be a romantic private time-with-girlfriend kind of thing, you will probably have dozens of chaperones, most older than you.

Might I suggest you consult the relevant forums in FT's Destinations section for specific advice on things to see and do on scene.

How long are you planning to travel for and what are the goals of the trip?

mandolino

.. who spend most of their time gossiping about other people on the bus, if my various aunts' stories are still representative. Also these tours are renowned for exhausting early 5am starts day after day and stopping at isolated retail outlets that give kickbacks to the guides and drivers.

best to book your own hotels and take small local day or half-day guided tours to the country if you don't want to drive. There are oodles of them in cities like London or Paris

BearX220

I should add that France and Britain have comprehensive rail networks that will be eye-openers for those used to the sparse and erratic Amtrak. You might consider planning train trips in and out of Paris or London. From Paris you can get to Lyon, Brussels, Bruges, Caen / Bayeux for D-Day history, etc. and back in a long day or a fun overnight. In England you can do daytrips via rail to Oxford, Cambridge, Bath, Brighton (if you want), etc. or a B&B overnight in a Somerset village.

If you are worried about dealing with bookings on scene you can pre-book a lot of things in US dollars (sometimes with good discounts, sometimes more expensively) on the Rail Europe website. I would vote for this choose-your-own-adventure strategy over an escorted coach tour where, as mandolino observes, gossiping oldsters are likely to find a younger couple an object of fascination and speculation.

lloydah

Good advice above. Also look at www.seat61.com. This is a fantastic site for all european (incl UK) rail networks, tells you the best deals, all the home site addresses best times to book etc etc. I would def. try to fly to Paris, do what you do there, train to the coast, ferry it over, train in UK. ferry is only 50 mins or so but on a good day feels like a cruise. Personally I'd train from Paris to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to the Hook of Holland, ferry- largest car ferry in the world (8 Hours) to Harwich, train to London then radiate in every direction. I like the sea Don't to an all in. Be adventurous, and you'll get out more than you put in.

Scots_Al

Each to their own, but I would hate to be somewhere exciting on another continent and be constrained to a timetable and meals set by someone else, unless it was somewhere really unnegotiable. Western Europe is so easy to get by, you can work it all out on your terms, I'm sure.

If you want to save money on eating in particular, then there are various things you can do. For example, in Scotland, you could check out 5pm.co.uk, which in simplistic terms is a place for restaurants to shift distressed stock - you get some good deals (and some less good), or itison.com (a local groupon-type site, which has some very good restaurant deals from time to time).

guv1976

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

"You can do better by not booking BA metal, and not flying in or out of the UK."

Flying into the UK on AAdvantage miles is not expensive, as long as one can avoid BA metal. Flying long-haul out of the UK is expensive, and even more expensive if on BA metal.

For short-haul travel out of the UK on BA metal, redeeming BA Avios for a Reward Flight Saver can provide decent value.

BearX220

First point -- very true -- I wrote in haste. Cheaper to arrive than leave. So the possibility of an XXX-LHR-(ground)-CDG-XXX trip exists.

Second point -- I don't think OP has any Avios in stock.

guv1976

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

"Second point -- I don't think OP has any Avios in stock."

True. But that's real easy to fix between now and July: Chase Sapphire Preferred card; Chase BA card; Amex SPG card; or any Amex card that participates in the Membership Rewards program. (Of course, just taking the Eurostar from LON to PAR might be a more convenient option.)

slawecki

if your money is tight, and you are under 60 or so, i would recommend you go to small towns in french and italian countryside. save london and paris and tokyo until you are old and have trouble getting around,like me.

the outlying burgs cost about 25-33 the price of london and paris, and are much more enjoyable.

fly to bru, or cdg, rent a car, and drive the wheels off it. live out of a suitcase.

if you are going to buy the trip on miles, consider UA, they have the most complete selection of half price offers from dc.

pritomd

Thank you for all the advice! It's all very helpful and I'll take a look while planning and come back with any questions. It does seem like I should avoid BA metal to reduce the costs...I did not realize the AA website would not pull some of the other partners! I'll try calling the PLT line, while also trying to find AA flights.