Hey guys I am planning a trip to Europe with the wife the first week of August and I was looking for some info from you guys that frequently overnight or travel there. We are leaning towards CDG and the loads are still looking quite nice out of ATL but we know there are still a couple weeks of ticket sales so we are trying to keep the options open.
I will be starting the trip out of MEM on the 30th and look to spend about 5 days.
So I guess an hotel recs. in CDG would be nice? Want to keep it less than $100 a night. Any hotels w/ crew deals?
Rent a car or do the metro?
Best sites, Restraunts, etc.?

Back up cities we were considering were Barcelona or maybe somewhere farther north as well since it is summer and the temps are nice.

Oh we have DAL benefits so there destinations are prefered

Thanks for the knowledge up front.

 

August is prime travel season in Europe- especially for Europeans. It is also smoking hot in most of the major cities making most outdoor activities uncomfortable. If you go, I'd suggest somewhere like Chamonix, France up high in the Alps or maybe the Swiss Alps since you would have a bit cooler temperatures and beautiful views and hikes up there. If at all possible I would suggest waiting until September for Europe. I never had luck nonreving to Europe in the summer, but I did have quite a few nice trips there in the Spring and Fall. Mexico and the islands would be a lot easier to visit since they are more off season now- I did Cancun one July and it was pretty easy to get there and the all-inclusives were pretty cheap. They are probably even cheaper now. Good luck wherever you go.

 

Plenty of cities have seats open to and from Europe in business class, right now. Other places are oversold. What jtf560 is absolutely true, but if the city you want to go to is wide open then the loads part is out of the picture and Europe isn't much hotter than most of the USA right now anyway (you in MEM?).

Wherever you go, if it ends up being a trip that takes place entirely within a city, such as spending four day in Paris itself, I would not even consider renting a car. Who wants to drive in traffic on vacation! The weather is nice and the public transportation is good when there's no strike going on.

 

Don't do it unless you are ready to pay a ticket back home. I did it last year with some friends. It was not a problem going to Europe but a nightmare to come back. I had to fly to Frankfurt - stay overnight (I couldn't get on any flights) - and finally got a seat with United the following day after trying other carriers. It's definitely prime season in Europe. Have fun but be ready.

 

If you check the loads before you leave the states you should know the odds of something like that happening though. Some places are wide open coming back to the point of, the only way you will not get a seat in business class is if the flight gets cancelled.

 

Loads can be deceiving on Travelnet, especially hub to hub like ATL-CDG.
Last spring had a ATL-MAD go from "all non-revs will get first" to "only 2 got on "... all in the last 3 hours prior to departure.

If August is your only choice, good luck! If you can put it off to shoulder season, loads are more favorable, and hotels are cheaper.

 

I thought I had the whole thing figured out by knowing the loads before hand also, but then one flight canceled and the 200+ pax on board got rerouted on all the other carriers that had open seats. The one cancelled flight actually caused a domino effect for over 2 days. I spent $700 one way and that was the last seat 24 hours later. While there may appear to be a lot of open seats, it doesn't take much for them all to disappear. Figure out all the options for return before you go and leave yourself as many backups as possible. Also try to be as flexible with where you will go as possible since flight availability may change quite a bit shortly before you leave. I don't suggest booking any hotels that you can't cancel with little or no penalties. If you find some great hotel deals that you can easily cancel, you may want to book hotels in multiple destinations and then cancel the ones that you can't get to when you get your flight over. I've spent over $2000 buying tickets when I ran out of options. I hope you have better luck than I did. At least with the world economy in the tank there is a better chance this summer than any other summer in the last decade or so.

 

"Plenty of cities have seats open to and from Europe in business class, right now. Other places are oversold. What jtf560 is absolutely true, but if the city you want to go to is wide open then the loads part is out of the picture and Europe isn't much hotter than most of the USA right now anyway (you in MEM?).

Wherever you go, if it ends up being a trip that takes place entirely within a city, such as spending four day in Paris itself, I would not even consider renting a car. Who wants to drive in traffic on vacation! The weather is nice and the public transportation is good when there's no strike going on."

Yes I am based and live in Memphis so this is where the wife and I will start from. Thanks for the advice.

 

Wow talk about making me more nervous
Well I guess Ill watch the loads but the flights I was looking at have about 16 up front and 20 in the back right now...Like I said I know its a little ways off still but telling the wife no now is going to be tough...she has been looking all over the net at stuff from Paris and is really pumped up. I have about 17 days off so the 5 days in the middle doesnt scare me but she only has the 5 days from her job.
As always thanks for the suggestions guys I appreciate it.

 

My wife and I went to Athens at the begining of June and WOW. ATH is great there is enough to do in 3 days and the flights were not bad but we went out of EWR and got first. Depending on your time frame if Athens is an option go to the islands. Public transit in the city is fantastic and most people speak english plus the food is fantastic. Also my parents got back from BRU 2 weeks ago and loved it there. Good luck.