Originally Posted by
GunshipGuy
Suggestions and tips being sought.
I'm strongly considering taking the family of four to Paris the third week of March. I'll probably use the One Great Team passes for one of the kids and myself so I want to make a decision sooner rather than later to get the seats locked in. With that said I'm hoping some can help me out with some questions.
1. For non-rev purposes, is going to Amsterdam (then taking the train to Paris a couple days later) a better option for non-reving than Paris? We have to go through Atlanta and the wife and one child will be non-reving. Which has the better chance of getting 1st class-CDG or AMS? (Considering AMS to break up the 7-day trip a bit).
2. Any suggestions on where to stay or who to go through for lodging? I'm not looking to go on a shoe string budget, but I don't want to bust the bank either. Hoping to get something under $200/night that will sleep four. Possible? Searching VRBO.com right now, but I've never used them.
I'd consider other destinations, but the teenagers haven't been to Europe (or anywhere outside the 48 besides HI and the Caribbean) and I think Paris is a good place to start. South America has great destinations I've seen discussed here, but Europe just seems right for us at this point (I'm the less adventurous travel planner). That being said, other destinations I've considered are Barcelona, Rome, or London.
The reward travel requires you to return out of the same city that you flew into so just keep that in mind if you are not flying direct to Paris. I took my family of four to Paris just this past March. The loads were fine until the week prior and they started filling up. We actually had trouble getting back so be prepared to get split up if you are using a reward pass. Also, if the flight out of Paris is oversold in coach, they
will upgrade revenue coach passengers to business class. We had 21 open seats in business class and coach was oversold by 21. They upgraded everyone and not a single nonrev got on the flight.