Help me plan an awesome honeymoon
 

I'm looking to plan a really awesome honeymoon and I need your help. I am a Chairman with US Airways and I have a bunch of miles that I can use, but I'm also not opposed to paying for my trip if it's a better value. So here are the details. I'm getting married on Nov.8, 2014 and I'll probably be leaving for the honeymoon on Nov. 10 from my hometown airport which is TRI in Tennessee, which pretty much means I'll be flying through Charlotte to get to anywhere. We plan on taking 2 full weeks for the honeymoon. I'm open to ideas for places to guy, routes to take etc. I have traveled throughout Europe and parts of Asia, but she's never been out of the country besides to the Bahamas. My thoughts are in no particular order. Europe, Australia/New Zealand, or Hawaii. If you have an other ideas let me know. I'm also a Diamond with Hilton and I have some HHonors points to use, but again I'm willing to pay to stay if it's at a nicer place.

Unhelpful advice here, given your preference of destinations, but... I would strongly look at the 90K Business Redemption to North Asia before US joins OW. You can stop over in Singapore before you hit Hong Kong, but with 100K required to Europe in Business, this is a really good deal only with DM.

Keep it simple with your honeymoon.. just go to Paris/London and back. Book Park Hyatt Vendome before it gets more expensive. Feel free to PM me for personalized advice. I've been to most of Europe as a young newlywed couple.

Congratulations! We got married last November and our honeymoon was my wife's first trip out of the US as well. I fly out of CLT and used miles to fly Lufthansa Business Class to Venice. We were going to Venice, Florence and Rome. Starting in Venice allowed my wife to ease into Italian culture (the further south you travel, the more intense it gets). We had a layover in Munich which was pretty short. Depending on the miles that you have, you should try to get LH First Class if you can. You may not be able to upgrade to First until a few days before you leave. If you get First, you will find some very special treatment on your layover in Frankfurt or Munich (special lounge, boarding and you may even be driven to your plane in a Porsche!) When we landed in Venice, we took a water taxi from VCE to the Hilton Molino Stuckey (this was a great way to beat jet lag because we were in the sunshine and wind for 45 minutes). The hotel is across Guidecca Canal from Dorsidoro and we had a great room overlooking Venice. Hilton has it's own shuttle boat but you will not be far from the Vaporetto. We saw all of the major sights in Venice and wandered around and "got lost" just to see the non-tourist Venice. We went inside any church we saw and found some fantastic art! (We also did this on Florence and Rome.) We spent 3 nights there and then took the train to Florence. We stayed near the Duomo and walked everywhere around town. There is a Hilton near the airport, but I don't recommend staying outside of the center if the city. See the Duomo, the Baptistery, the Uffizi and Accademia. Buy some bread, cheese, prosciutto and vino and have a picnic. We stayed in Florence for 3 nights as well and took a train to Rome. In Rome, we stayed near Campo de Fiore. There is a Hilton property (the Rome Cavalieri) which is very nice. I stayed there a few years ago and as a Diamond, we were treated like royalty. The downside to this property is that you will need to take a taxi to get just about anywhere. We stayed 5 nights in Rome and walked mile after mile checking out the sights and restaurants. We flew home from Rome and had a 5:55 AM flight. We stayed at the airport Hilton and walked to the terminal. This is the only hotel from which you can walk to the airport. Let me know if you have any questions. BTW...my wife said that she would gladly go back and do the entire trip over again. I told her we should branch out and see more of the world! :)

I was in a similar situation many years ago. Had 3 weeks - did a "short week" (5 days) in Bora Bora, and then spent 2 weeks in Australia (melbourne to barrier reef). For me, we wanted a combination of just sitting on a beach PLUS doing more active stuff. I was never a sit on a beach for 2 weeks type of guy - I like cities, etc. I also considered FIJI - New Zealand and Bali - parts of Asia. Quickly elimitated Bali and Bora Bora won out given the luxury of the place. However, is a pain in the ... to get to

Also, I would suggest that if you have 2 weeks to spend, go somewhere other than Europe. Europe from the US is so easily accessible for a 1 week trip (or even for a long weekend) - go some place that is further away that you can't do for a 1 week vacation later in life. Particularly if you have a ton of miles / points (which sounds like you have).

My wife and I did our honeymoon back in July using UA miles for a *A award. We did AMS, VIE, and PRG using a mix of UA, US, and OS. We had a wonderful time and saw some great places in Europe.

Tokyo and Seoul are great places, but I wouldn't think of them as being romantic. Lots of great things to see and do in both places though.

Oz would be nice that time of year too as it'd be summer there. I've heard good things about EZE too.

We flew to Bali in April on a *A business class trip (120,000 miles + $53 in tax per person) and it was a rather amazing two weeks. I highly recommend Award Nexus as a service to find creative award availability. We noticed that first class often has better availability, and business class is often available only on the non-newest products of the Asian carriers, but it was well worth the trip.

Given the time of year, Bali is more crowded than it was in April, but basically, if you have the time to get to somewhere in Asia, you'll find pretty solid value once you get there, whether you end up in Thailand, Bali, Malaysis, the Maldives, etc.

It was my wife's second trip outside the US (first was getting engaged in France the year before)... given the time of year (November), I highly recommend somewhere tropical in Asia over somewhere in Europe, and I think you'll find better award value going to Asia.

With the merger, *A availability is going to go away, so I suggest booking things asap. Note that once you book, it is difficult to change things, so you'll really want to scour award nexus, and then call US Airways right away to book it.

Let me know if you have any questions, or feel free to DM me if you decide to go to Bali or Thailand and would like any suggestions or recommendations, as it can be somewhat intimidating to make sense to everything when you first start looking.

Costa Rica is very nice and there is nonstop service from CLT. It's not a cheap destination, but definitely beautiful! I have been here for 3 months so could give you plenty of advice depending on your interests (jungle, adventure, beach, etc.).