Air, both ways, can now be booked for Grand Prix. Are most using Regent air or booking on your own? Anyone going in early to Monte Carlo? Any recommendations on hotels? I was going to check with Amex Platinum for hotel instead of spending $600 with Regent.

How far away that seems Marc.
But I think we will just be using Regent air, and upgrad to biz class, I might check it out with American, but if we use their air, then we will probably just take the one night hotel. Its the Monte Carlo Fairmont, or at least is for us according to our invoices. As to Rio, have no clue. Dreyfus's and thus Glanville's will probably stay over several days, I think we will only do two nights, which is basically three full days.

The Fairmont is really really nice and we've been there before, and who knows AMEX might have a better deal.

And....nice to see this come up. :) :app:

We'll probably go in a couple days early to get the jet lag out of the way before the cruise. We're doing Regent Air, but I'm guessing we won't be able to pick a deviation itinerary for another month or so--hoping Ngaire will let me know when we can book a flight. We'll probably try to use points for the hotel. There's a nice Marriot just outside Monte Carlo and lots of good hotels in nearby Nice. Right now I'm looking at Le Meridien in Monte Carlo.

I sent our air request to Ngaire, may be awhile before we know anything. We're planning to go in a day early and open to any hotel in nice or Monte Carlo.

Earliest time is 270 days before the cruise date to book air with Regent. In this case it will be 02/13/2012. This usually works but sometimes they do not have all the contracts in this early.

Booked our air using mileage, two one way itineraries. :banana:

11/7 1st UA SFO-FRA, biz LH FRA-NCE arriving Nov 8

11/28 Biz-First CO/UA GIG-IAH, 1st UA IAH-SFO

Did it all through the Continental website transferring miles from UA to CO. Easy peasy compared to dealing with United. I didn't start the outbound until a few days ago so biz tix were gone but got them for the return yesterday.

Will start investigating hotels soon, looking to the group for ideas.

Since we stayed in Nice for several days after WINES, for the moment we've booked a night at the Le Meridien Monte Carlo using Starwood points. We've never really spent any time in MC.

Think I have taken care of our air. (Actually booked our return using my iPad on our trip back from NYC yesterday.) I sure wish that Delta would get on board (pun intended) and let people book one-way award travel like many of the other airlines. It would be especially helpful for we cruisers because of the open jaws. When I looked at business class fares for this trip using a site such as Kayak, it was coming up close to $10K per person.

------------

Eugene

Is there a Le Meridian in both Nice and Monte Carlo? I only saw the one in Nice. We are thinking of a couple of nights in Nice, as we have only done about an hour short walk around in Nice. We have been to MC a few times and overnighted once, but if everyone is staying in MC, then we will probably just do the one night as we are using Regents air this time around.

Editing to say I now see the one in MC.

Marcie - are you using Regent air or doing your own? Are you not using the included overnight?

Yes, there is a Le Meridien in both Nice and Monte Carlo. Both were available with Starwood points--considerably fewer points are needed for the Nice hotel. It is located right across from the beach. Seemed like a great location.

We stayed at the Le Grimaldi. Mitch and I had researched hotels and decided on that one. It was fine and reasonable, but nothing luxurious.

--------------

Eugene

We liked Le Grimaldi nothing luxurious but more than adequate, I thought - we have been to Nice twice and loved it - first time just day trip with guide and second 2 nights hotel - which hotel is Regent using? I am tempted to do 2-3 nights Nice...sorry I need to read earlier posts

Regent only offers the Fairmont in Monte Carlo for pre cruise. Room type is decided by cabin level. Concierge and above get higher level rooms, in this case.

In most embarkation cities there are two different hotels, again determined by your cabin level, in a few cities it is the same hotel, just different room levels -- at least that is what I was told today. They no longer offer pre cruise options other than the included hotel in embarkation cities I was told and I didn't think to ask if one can add extra nights to their included hotel or not.

JoAnn, We are covered across the board... signed up for included Regent hotel room. I also made reservations at both LeMeridian Monte Carlo using 20,000 SPG pts as well as a reservation at LeMeridian Nice using 12,000 SPG pts for 11/8/12. We'll decide as it gets closer without any penalty.

Well you certainly are covered Marcie, nicely done!! lol.

As of now we are just doing the one included night, but if a lot of the group goes into Nice a day or two early, then we probably will do that too. We do have to see what Jack and Laura, and Jim and Jill want to do as well.

What is everyone thinking at the end? We plan to spend a couple of days in Rio, again not sure what the Dreyfus's and Glanville's will do, so will be doing and air deviation. Anyone know of good hotels and maybe a good private guide/driver? I know there is a nice Marriott.

"Book Now, think About it later" is my middle name...just ask Ngaire or Tom.

As for Rio, we'll leave day/night of disembarkation as we've been there several times.

We're also booked at the Le Meridian in Monte Carlo for 11/7 & 8. Since we stayed in Nice after WINES, we'll stay in Monte Carlo this time--I love wandering around the marina there, checking out the big yachts -- plus the hotel is very close to the port which makes it nice.

Interesting Peggy, since you are using Regent air, you are not doing their hotel. Was the Le Meridian that much less? Do you get two nights for the approximate amount of the hotel credit? I'd have to give that some thought, as the extra night would certainly help the jet lag recovery.

JoAnn, I would check Regent site . For peons, the hotel is now the Marriott or the Columbus Monte Carlo. :(

The hotels change and not guaranteed to be the ones on the list on the web or that may show up on a guest reservation early on. They reserve the right to make a substitue and often that happens. A hotel fills and they have to find another one or they simply decide to use a different hotel. If they have complaints I know they change. It is all subject to change! You just get what you are given when you do the included night.

If you are platinum and using RSSC air and want to come in a day early you do not have air deviation fee and unless there is a LONG expensive transfer you are better off doing your own hotel.

If you are NOT Platinum and are doing RSSC air and have to pay the air deviation fee of $125 pp each or $250 for to come in a day early then the situation is not as clear. The price you get direct with the hotel you have to consider that $250 cost and the transfer costs as well. Also remember to confirm your own rate includes taxes and breakfast.

If you are doing your OWN air then most of the time you should just do your own hotel.

If you can use points you should do your own hotel.

LONG transfers for instance London to Southampton change the dynamics as to buy that transfer is pretty expensive then the RSSC hotel program is probably best for everyone.

Marcie:

Did you look at the SPG Cash and Points option for Le Meridian Monte Carlo? We are staying there for two nights in April for our cruise and the points and $150 option seemed much better than the 20,000 points per night.

Marc - i had not noticed the hotel change, its hard to even find that particular info, LOL. I only talked to an agent, as Jim Glanville was asking if there were any other options in London other than the hotel they were assigned. Also, our invoices all show the Fairmont from Regent for Grand Prix.

Thanks for that info though, still trying to figure out what we might want to do.

Frank thanks for that info, we don't have a lot of SPG points, but I will give that a look.

Good points to consider Ngaire, as in this case the transfer from Nice to Monte Carlo might or might not justify using Regent hotel and transfers, I think it is about 1/2 hour between the airport and Monte Carlo if I remember right.

Joann, we're using SPG points. Actually, we're using the points and cash option, as that seemed like the best deal to me too. The transfer from the Nice airport to Monte Carlo is about 100 Euros ($130 or so) for a private car and 90 Euros for a taxi. That's kind of pricy, but not too bad if you can share with someone. Anyway, our total cost for two nights including the transfer will be around $430, plus breakfast (less if we can share the transfer to Monte Carlo). The hotel credit is $600--so we'll come out a little ahead.

Oh right I forgot many of you have/use spg points. We don't have enough built up yet. It sounds like you got a good deal Peggy.

We're booked at le Meridien Monte Carlo for one night precruise.

I looked at the points and cash rate (8,000 pts and $150) which is a good deal. Because I hoard points for air I'm tentatively going with the "senior" rate (it quotes 60+ or an AARP card) at 191 Euro a night which was about $247 including tax but not breakfast yesterday.

we will probably go in 2 nights pre - not sure Nice or MC yet, we do love Nice,but can figure it out - out of Rio same day been there - we have SW pts

I do prefer Nice, but I'm on my own for air and hotel. I just like the town been there at least 4 times, and love the flower market in the morning, and just the whole "thing" about Nice rather than its more expensive cousin. Just me. Oh, you MC lovers talk me out of it. I am game for that, too.

Talking, Talking, Talking

Come on Olivia join us all in MC!! (Though I love a great flower market in the morning too!)

dupe sorry (I must do something wrong each time the "flood control" message pops up as I always get duplicate posts Sorry Karen

Monte Carlo has some beautiful gardens - open all day!

I love that flower market in Nice and since I bring flowers onboard its a great stop on the way to the ship.

Looks like though everyone is opting for Monte Carlo on this one, so we likely will too. Maybe we can organize a dinner on the 8th or something. Now I just have to find someplace in Monte Carlo to get flowers before boarding. :D

haha...as if we didn't have enough hotel options already, I added one more...M.C. Le Meridian using 8,000 pts plus $150. Starwood is going to think Mr. Matassa is a very busy man!

Marcie, I did the same thing the afternoon. I'm surprised *Wood don't see a conflict. Really not sure what we're going to do, so seems reasonable to keep options open. (What was strange is that I tried to just change the all-points reservation for the points/cash option, and the representative couldn't even see that option. So I went back online and ended up with the two reservations.)

--------------

Eugene

I booked the Meridien MC for one night pre cruise. The senior rate that Suzanne found seems pretty good.

Does anyone have information and recommendations on hotels in Rio? So far I've come up with hotels that are charging between $700-900 a night for their least expensive rooms. That seems incredible. Tom.

WELL...much as I love Nice looks like MC is the place to be - booked 2 nights 7 and 8 - using pts -

Big OUCH Tom....do you have points you can use? sounds like a good time for those.

We need Rio options too, as we plan to spend two nights, and our friends may want to stay even longer, but boy looks expensive. We have Marriott points, and that looks like a nice location. But like Tom, if anyone has any better suggestions, we are open.

As I posted on CC, we had reservations at the Arpoador Inn but never used them because we canceled the relevant Oceania cruise. It gets good reviews and is supposed to be in a relatively safe, convenient area. I don't think it's anything fancy, but it was very reasonable. Some of you might want to check it out.

We plan on flying back the day we disembark, having just been in Rio a at the end of LLAMA. The other thing I recommend if you want to get out of Rio is a day trip to Petropolis (the Imperial City). We and the Byrnes went there and it was a welcome relieve from the heat and congestion of Rio.

A word of warning. Do not use the ATMs at the the Rio airport. Both the Byrnes and we had our credit/debit cards compromised. The only reason that we needed cash was because, the luggage storage counter would not take credit cards--suspicious, isn't it?. (I think that I posted at the time, but in my case, my credit union did not figure out what was going on, and almost $10K was accessed over a period of time. The reason that I didn't notice was because it was from an overdraft account--very clever.)

-----------------

Eugene

Suzanne, Thanks for the heads up about the senior rate at La Meridian... We got it too. staying there the 7th and 8th.

We don't get in until 7:45 the night of the 7th so should be at the hotel by 8:30 or so in time to meet any and all for drinks. Got our flights on British Air using points both ways. We are business going out and coach back (via American) but were able to use points both ways and still have enough points for TAJ next year.

Question: We have a 7 hour layover at Heathrow... any one know what the club access is like there?

Question # 2: Any one else on the BA flight from Heathrow to Nice that gets in at 7:45 pm on the 7th and want to share a taxi inoto MC? If so, let me know as you get your arrangements made.

Now I can concentrate on packing for ZODIAC..Yiippee!

Arlene, we'd love to share a transfer from Nice to Monte Carlo, but have to wait until Feb. when we can get our air from Regent. I have my fingers crossed that we can get something on AA/
BA but we'll see--Regent doesn't usually use them.

Oh. forgot to mention--AA just redid their Business Lounge at LHR, the new one is very nice, but won't be in the same terminal as the BA flight from LHR-NCE. The BA business class lounge is really nice too and closer to your departure gate. With a long layover, you could probably spend some time in both.

Peggy, we are BA from ATL to LHR and then on to Nice so we will use BA lounges. I am hoping we can use arrivals lounge for showers then the departure lounge to get lunch.

You will be able to spot us; we will be the ones transferring Turdley back to his original parents. ;)

Is anyone else working with Ben from pointspros on this cruise? Ben just got me amazing schedule from my little airport all the way to Nice, and all the way back from Rio. Biz class for 100K points. I think that is pretty good deal.

Olivia:

Which airline are you using. I might want to give this guy a try.

Thanks
FV

HI Olivia, as you know we use Ben's Pointspros.com and author of www.boardingarea.com/blogs/onemileatatime/One Mile at a Time (one of the best boarding area Frequent flyer blogs) to glean tips daily (am/pm) on earning miles & points. For example, Ben worked our air for Asia last march Voyager (HK to Bangkok) (FC/BC on Cathay Pacific) last April and he developed our initial air (FC (BA to London then Dubai) for our Voyager Dubai to Istanbul voyage this March-April. Prefer Ben over Gary Leff's, bookyouraward.com, award service--tho Gary is good too.

Olivia - didn't know you were on this one. We booked, along with Jack & Laura and Jim & Jill while on CANADA. Look forward to seeing you again, this is our only Regent this year.

JoAnn, I guess I didn't put myself on the roll call yet! Been booked forever, but wanted to make sure I could get award travel.

Frank, Ben ran into a glitch when trying to ticket me on what we had worked out through USAir (using Lufthansa and United flights). Seems they won't let you do it if the open jaw is longer than the other segments, and for me, it was. So Ben soldiered on, and I ended up with 2 one-way awards. British Airways going over (used American points) United coming home from Rio (using United points) Thank goodness I had points with both airlines. It was still 100K total for biz class. I would NEVER have been able to figure this all out on my own, would have lost patience!

Olivia, we're actually doing something similar: We have a British Airways Award using BA points going from IAD to NCE via LHR and a United Airways Award coming back from GIG to IAD with a stop in Sao Paulo. I had hoped to use BA (meaning AA) coming back, but it became such a hassle. I was able to piece together the return using some CO and UA miles we still had. We depart IAD on 11/7 and are departing GIG the day of disembarkation 11/26. Used 99K (points/miles) per person for Business Class.

I dread getting award tickets for TAJ MAHAL. For that, I may use one of the services.

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Eugene

Eugene, we probably would be on the same flights were it not for you leaving a day later! For some reason, I thought several were coming in 2 days early and so I booked for 11/7 arrival. I love the whole area, so will surely find something to do! Have not flown BA for over 30 years, I'm sure!

I will say that Ben was not about to leave a stone unturned, BUT he was helped by my having points in several places with different ccards. Thank goodness for those promotions where they give you a bunch in the beginning.

Not sure when you booked, but I got a non-stop flight to IAD from Rio. I know these things open and close and you may be staying on; I am leaving straight from the ship on the day we disembark.

From a helpful email from Eugene, I realized that I failed to notice the stop-over in Sao Paulo. Turns out we will be on the same flight, which almost never happens to me on a BK cruise.

I think that is just a stop Olivia, and you don't change planes, but not sure.

We have spent the day working with Ben at Propoints and he is just phenomenal. He got us great flights with a combo of AMEX and UA points that I could not even have touched on my own, We are now doing our own air for Grand Prix, which I had not thought we would do, thought we would just use Regent air. Of course it did take a chunk of miles and points, but as Frank says "isn't that what they are there for"? Andhe is right thats why we go thru all this.

Delta has just gotten terrible. For Biz Class round trip they want 262,000 miles per ticket. Delta miles have really become Skypesos...

Tell me Frank - I have some pts I can transfer later to Continental but not sure they are any better

I should ask Ben for a finder's fee :D

For my Silversea cruise in April we are paying 92,500 per ticket, Bos to NCE and then Rome to Bos.
We were able to get Economy Comfort because of my Medallion status, but its still too expensive per ticket.

I guess I will start trying to use my AA and US air miles and give them a try..

Peter!!!!! FOR SURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOL Peter maybe you should. I know both Olivia and TomG used him for Grand Prix as well as us.

He was very good, very patient with my many questions, this being the first time I have used one of these point services, and got us great flights. Even Air France non stop to Paris and Air France isn't part of any of our miles clubs. So by getting the Air Credit from Regent, saving the deviation fees and upgrade fees, we can spend that money instead on three days in Paris!!! Really excited as we haven't been to Paris yet. We will probably just use the one night Regent Hotel in Monte Carlo, but not sure on that yet.

I think that is a great idea, Paris is a great stop on the way to MC. We might do something like that in April since we got 2 days cut short when we went on our Xmas river cruise, only 1 day in Paris which was not even close to being enough...

Yes, Peter you SHOULD get a finders fee. We used Ben for Nile 2 and got great flights and 1/2 the miles I could find the tix for. (120k vs. 240k)Thanks!
-------------------
Helen

Paris is a great city to spend some time, we spent a week there years ago and really enjoyed it. Getting f.f. seats on airlines is becoming more and more problematic and it's so great that Ben is so good, the day will probably come for us to use him as well. Agree Peter...you should get a cut of the action. :)

Delta sounds terrible to get f.f.seats. It sounds like they charge more miles than other airlines and don't offer one way flights for 1/2 the miles. Maybe they're good for easy flights only within the USA. Frank...love your skypesos analogy!

For those of you who are planning on staying in Paris - consider getting the Hyatt credit card - while redemption can be difficult, the 2 free nights signup bonus is an amazing deal at the Park Hyatt Vendome (rates there are 600+ Euros).

Marcie:

I cannot take credit for the Skypesos analogy, I got that from the Forum on Flyertalk.. I just think it really shows what Delta has become, I would say that for flights in USA Delta is terrible for my Hub being Boston, they have a huge new terminal there and they fly direct to Absolutely No where from Boston, I find myself flying AA or Jetblue because I really do not want to make stops and I have top tier status with Delta which for me is basically a waste except for that one or two trips I might take over seas per year. NO one way awards either.. Biggest airline in the World and I guess they have enough loyal following to keep up the madness..

Frank I feel your frustration - Delta is so bad I looked at flights 200 thou points PP IF you are lucky and NO one way booking

Joanna:

Thats just Europe.. If you want to go to Sydney Australia Biz Class its 370k per person, I mean are You kidding me....

Frank, I feel your pain. Last time I booked award seats on Delta, had to pay twice the miles as two different "regions". I liked it before because coming and going from Africa for the Roars, paid upgrades were great. Going on a cruise from Africa to South America, not the same, double the miles cost. Have finally burned off most of my miles, and never use this credit card any more.

Olivia:

Last year I could not get Biz Class back from Syd to Bos, so my last option without paying thousands of dollars was to use Pay with Miles option that Delta had, used almost 500k miles for one way tix in Coach, I got 3 seats and they were the bulkhead seats so my goal of plenty of leg room was reached but the miles I burned were outrageous but the good news is it didnt cost me any out of pocket so I guess they were good for something, just a long long Way, to build up 500k miles to blow them that fast...

And there are rumors that Delta is looking to buy American - God forbid!!! Not if Delta is in charge of the FF miles program please no!!!

There is another way to handle the increasing difficulty finding available reward seats and the ever-increasing cost (in miles and fees) of them. The airlines are running their own inflation program, at our expense, and there seems noting we can do about it. I disagree: the alternative is to let Regent handle your air to and from the cruise with its free air and business class upgrade programs. The airlines have debased their own frequent flyer 'currency', further weakening any brand loyalty they may have had left, and there seems little or nothing even the most frequent flyers can do about it. The airline industry has lost its way, and with all the bankruptcies its investors and employees have paid for its management's missteps!

We will fly to Nice and return from Buenos Aires on our Grand Prix extended cruise using the Regent air programs this fall. With some of the sale offerings advertised by some air travel consolidators and ‘bucket shops’, plus a very careful following of airline sales, we might be able to match or even beat the Nice fare, particularly if we just fly to London or Paris, enjoy a short stop-over, then take the excellent European trains on to Nice/Monaco. But there is no way we can match the Buenos Aires return without entrusting ourselves to Air Comet and the like; something I’m very wary of doing. No, we’ll stick to Regent’s plan, which has the added benefit of being there to pick up the pieces if something goes wrong, an increasingly common occurrence in this era of decreasing flights and full planes running late.

As Ngaire suggests above, if you have no-cost air deviations (SSS Platinum and above), use Regent’s air but make your own hotel arrangements. Regarding the long transfer, check web site http://www.monte-carlohotels.com/ which contains a fantastic offer – a free helicopter transfer "to" the Nice airport for a two-night stay. If they will make that "from" as well as to, even with an up-charge, we’ll go in two days early and take advantage of the offer, catching a cab from either the Freemont (249€/night) or Le Meridien (235€/night) to the ship. The hotel allowance savings will almost pay for the extra night; if the € continues its recent plunge, we may even save a bit! I admit, this sounds too good to be true; separately the helo transfer per person is 105€ from Monaco to the Nice airport and 125€ from it to Monaco. We’d gladly pay the 20€ pp upcharge to take advantage of this deal though – what a way to arrive to start our wonderful cruise!

We were going to use Regent air Count, But after contacting Ben at Pointspros, I realized we had the miles we could use, and for the AirFrance we had AMEX platinum points that could be transferred. So in our case we got the 1100 per person air credit, saved the 2000 per person it would have cost us to upgrade round trip and since we are not platinum, saved the 125 per person deviation cost to stay in RIO a couple of nights. We also got the Marriott Hotel in RIO with points. We may look into the Senior rate at the Le Meridian that has been mentioned above, but we have two other couples cruising with us and need to find out what they will do. Since the Regent Hotel is the Fairmont, at least at the moment, we are fine with that. If they switch out on us, then we may look at other options.

We have used Regent air in the past and been very happy, and a couple of times we have done our own air and everything has worked. Agree that it is more work, and can get complicated dealing with schedule changes and delays and such, but in this particular case if those things happen PointsPros will work with us to make other arrangements, so I'm comfortable. And as I said, with the savings we can do three nights in Paris someplace we have never been and have been wanting to go.

kudos Joann, for making your own travel arrangements (and saving some coin) doing what Ben at pointspro and Gary at bookyouraward refer to as "aspirational travel" i.e., using you miles/points to leverage your travel comfortably while saving $$ on airline tickets/hotel rooms that you otherwise prefer not to pay top dollar for. Ben is a wizard at finding you the "just right" award (BC/FC) award itinerary at best miles rate available.

I agree and disagree with you, Mike. I would never pay any airline what they charge for business class fares, and have absolutely no experience working with consolidaters, etc. I do use Regent once in a while, their upgrade prices simply can't be beat.

For my next two cruises, to Europe and back, and to Europe and back from RIO, I am flying free in biz. When you have the miles anyway, because you charge everything you can on cards and pay them off with no interest every month, it is a no brainer to me. Rack up the miles and it pays off in the future.

For my next Regent cruise in April and the one after that in November, I got the $1100 credit, and like JoAnn, did not have to pay almost $2000 in upgrade fees, and I have free biz class both ways for my flights. I just can't see why this would not be the first choice. The savings to me is $6,200, and I am a solo traveler. twice that for a couple if you have the points.

Hotels, I never take the Regent route. There's always a better way unless the airport is far far away from the port. (Oh, and I am a Priceline fan)

I agree Olivia:

I do not know the dollar amount but almost every cruise I have taken with Regent I have used FF miles and taken the credit. Some Biz and some Coach. I would have to say the savings would have to be in the several thousands especially the international flights..

Using points the way to go always envious when people get them :app: :app: :app:

i had no problem using miles for a cruise this fall in Business class on Delta. Every route I looked at had mileage seats available in all classes Non Stop to Paris and routing from Paris to Prague and returning from Budapest to Paris and LA. I even booked less than the 270 days out

Kathy, but were the seats on DL metal or its partners? Going to Europe, I can often do okay finding Business class on one of its partners, such as AF, but seldom on DL itself-- especially at low mileage.

The problem is especially difficult for Asia, I think.

----------------

Eugene

Delta Always has seats available, You just have to pay more....

Usually ridiculously more on DL planes, which was my point.

------------------

Eugene.

100K for Bus Class Seats RT on AF (which I prefer the service and food on anyway)

What kind of seats were in the biz section?

Lay Flat...we have been on this flight many times. The seats and service are excellent.

The AF seats from Dulles that we've always had weren't true lay flat. They were angled, which is fine for me but some don't like them. The food and wine is usually better than DL, and we generally like the flight attendants just as much as on DL.

--------------------

Eugene

Thanks Eugene, maybe by the time we fly AF will have upgraded those flights from IAD! Those will work for us. :rolleyes:

Guess Kathy those of you from LA get better aircraft.

Yes, but I think that for IAD, AF runs the A380 at least on some flights.

Just got off the phone with Delta Medallion desk asked if any 100k Biz seats to Paris were on AF available.. Got the Big NOPE!!!! Exactly what I expected... But go on Delta.com a and for 270k They surely are available...

You might want to try Ben at points pros, Frank, if you have enough points on other airlines. I think you need to find a new favorite airline other than Delta! Maybe another one would even transfer your status.

I agree Olivia, I am going to give Ben a try. Recently got Lifetime Gold on AA so started using them a bit more. Changing flights with them seems so much easier than Delta and the Awards seem to be less than Half of Deltas skypesos...

Yes AF flies a 380 on some flights to Dulles though it may be seasonal. However, I am pretty sure that even these have angled lie-flat seats.

Regarding mileage needed, I don't know the Boston situation but with two flights a day to Paris from IAD, I've been fairly successful getting low mileage seats on AF if I do it far enough out. As you may know, DL partner mileage is always at the low level.

--------------------

Eugene

I got my award for my April trip using the rest of my Delta points earned from the ROARS. Ben found a deal where it took only a 36K transfer from Amex MR points to get 50K points to Delta, but flight is on AF. I was glad to get rid of those Delta points.

The one thing I do not like about British Airways (for Grand Prix) is that unless you are either in First (in a 3 class aircraft), or have elite status, you cannot do seat selection until 24 hrs. before the flight.

Frank, you must fly a lot if you alread have Lifetime Gold on AA!

Olivia:

I only fly a couple times a year.. On AA its usually down to FLL or Miami. Last year there was a Promotion that gave you something like a 35 percent bonus not including the SPG bonus when transferring SPG points to AA. so I did a bunch of transfers to get me over the 1 mill mark so I could get the small perks that come with AA Gold. The few times I have used it have been great and now if we decide to do an international trip I have the miles to redeem.

Frank has been lifetime Gold for many years now. It really doesn't get us a lot, but it does get us early boarding, and he has some upgrade certificates which we have used, but we never know until day of flight if the upgrade has been granted or not, and then we never get seats together unless someone is willing to trade with us.

But my question here is for those of you with a bunch of DL points that seem to be impossible to use, can you transfer them to one of their partners and use less miles for flying to Europe than DL would require? For instance would Pointspros be able to transfer something like 50k per person from DL to AF for a flight thru Paris?

Why I want to know this I'm not sure other than the fact that as I said above there are rumors that DL is trying to buy AA and thus AA points would be even harder to use by those standards and AA points are difficult enough as it is.

JoAnn, as I posted above, I used the rest of my DL points, and added to them via Amex with Ben to get my next free tix in April on Air France. When you book these flights, you can get any airline within whatever consortium they are in, is my knowlege. Like with Star Alliance, you could get Lufthansa, United, USAir, et al. for an award ticket. With my Dela points, I got AF because they are a Sky Team member. I think that's what it is called

For my flight in April, it is showing the 777-300, which has those angled seats Eugene referenced. I'm seeing same thing on www.seatguru.com for the 380 on AF.

I have flown AF and KLM with Delta points a number of times but I am not sure re; Joann question about transferring to the Flying Blue program from Delta and then book reward travel directly with AF. I have the AF flight from LAX to CDG booked 3 times in the coming months, 100k points for the flight that terminates at CDG, 120k points for the flight that goes on to Cairo (secured with the help of PointsPros) and 100k points for the flights that goes on to LIS. Come July it is an A380, presently it is a 777.
We flew Lufthansa's A380 to Roar III. Seats were lay flat seats, not lay flat beds.
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Helen

Maybe we at LAX are just lucky to get the good AF Flights. There are two a day NS to CDG.

Contacted Ben at poinspro with JoAnn's ? above, his reply:

While there’s no way to efficiently transfer Delta miles to another mileage currency, you can use them for travel on partner airlines.
While Delta has three award levels for travel on their own flights (low, medium, and high), they only have low award space on their partner airlines. So that means if you’re able to find award space on their partner airlines (Air France, Alitalia, KLM, etc.), it would be
at the lowest level of 100,000 miles for oundtrip transatlanticbusiness class.

Air France generally has the best transatlantic award space,especially on routes like Atlanta to Paris, New York to Paris, and especially Washington to Paris. Then you can add on the intra-Europe connections at no additional cost.

Hope that helps!

Best,
Ben

I just booked our Grand Prix flights...1 way AA LAX non stop to LHR/BA to Nice Biz class. Returning one way ticket on Continental. Biz seats from Rio to Houston/1st Class Houston to LAX.

I was happy there was lots of availability to pick from. Each one way ticket for Business Class was 50k miles so didn't get gouged.

Thats great news Marcie:

They should have more availability I would think this is not HIGH time in Europe....

Since I did two one way awards I wish I had thought about the Delta partner angle before I booked our tix. I, too, have 50K+ miles on Delta that I have been trying to get rid of for some time. Could have transferred in Amex points to get two one ways in biz and burned those miles!

My mileage redeposit fee would be more than had I just booked Ben and his brain to begin with!

Edited this to say I just reread and now see that Delta has no one way awards. I may just leave this to the expert next time anyway!!

I am totally going to use Ben for this trip. Whatever award flights I think I can find on my own I know he can do better.. Worth every penny...

Delta does not do one way Suzanne, so they booking the one way is the same as roundtrip.. Terrible...

FV

Thanks Frank. I just reread the thread and picked that up.

I love one way awards. It gives you so much more flexibility when you have mileage in more than one basket!

I agree. I have spread out the mileage all over the place so hopefully will make Bens job a little easier when the time comes...

Well finally have it all in place, air, hotel. We will be at the Le Meridien Beach Plaza with everyone else.....our friends Jack and Laura will be there too.

Due to FF miles availability on the return we will only be in RIO one night, but two full days and come back on the 27th. Ben did a great job getting air for both us and Jack and Laura. :app:

Glad it all worked out for you 4 JoAnn. We have our flights worked out too which is good feeling. We have several hotel reservations so not sure which we'll keep and which we'll cancel.

LOL Marcie.....how many do you need???? Hope we can maybe work something that night for dinner for a group of us, or drinks after or something.

we would have loved a night in Nice, but we didn't want to be there by ourselves and it seemed everyone else was leaning toward MC and the Le Meridein was less expensive there, and we had to think about Jack and Laura as well and probably Jim and Jill who are all on this too. We might have thought about going in two or three days early and spending a couple of days in Nice, but decided on Paris instead since we have never been there and are dying to go.

I'm a little late getting my flights in place for this trip. I was actually going to cancel since the single supplement hasn't decreased, but after spending time with the wonderful people on ZODIAC who will also be on this cruise I decided the money is worth it!

I got an AA biz award BOS-LHR-NCE.

I don't have the return from Rio booked yet. AA hasn't released any milesaaver awards yet but hopefully they will in the next few weeks. I've never been to Rio and would like to spend a couple of days there. Still working out those plans!

Andrea--you traveling fool

At least you have something booked Andrea.... We have not done anything as of yet: Have to make a move soon...

Called Delta last night around Midnight to see about flights.. I must really like self torture but I had to give myself a late night laugh.. Nothing on Air France or KLM for low mileage awards,or direct flights to Paris or Nice, BUT!!!! Delta has everything and anything available if your account balance is big enough... The woman on the phone was very nice and we were joking a bit: She thanked me for being a Delta Diamond Medallion member and I thanked her for trying to help and then I had to throw in the comment that from Boston I fly Jetblue most of the time or AA because they actually get you there without making a hundred stops, she agreed and said she hates connections herself, go Figure...

Time to call Ben I'd say. LOL. :rolleyes:

Totally Agree!!!!!!

Hi Frank, sorry you are still having difficulty, I guess I assumed you had already contacted Ben and he couldn't find anything. There was an interesting article on Gary Leff's website the other day about Delta and premium seats on international flights. In fact, if you do a search on that site for Delta award flights, there's even more.
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewf...book-international-premium-class-awards/

I don't think that any of those guys working with points awards make many favorable remarks about the ease of booking a Delta award flight.

I guess, I am in minority; I have done very well over the years getting Delta rewards. I just wish they would come out with one way rewwards so you can easily book outgoing prior to return.

For taj mahal, I might use ben or gary as I will have very few miles to spare and will need to use some MR points to augment delta skymiles.

Thanks for the article link Olivia;

I emailed Ben yesterday,will see what he comes back with.

FV

Soooooo. Frank did Ben get it together for you? So glad you and Carla are on this, fun fun fun.

We are still working with Ben.. I have miles with Delta/AA/Us Air but it looks like the best deal on the return from Rio is United and I do not have any miles so working on getting the two CC and then topping off with SPG points to make it work.

Looks like it will be AA going over and then United coming back if it works out.

We are excited too, What a blast this will be..

Frank, will you be flying British Air with American points?

Working with Ben, I did same thing. One way via American points, and one way via United points.

Sounds like us...using AA points going (Iberia Airlines) and returning on UAL from Rio.

The return could be AA or UAL we will see how it turns out..

Looks like it might be BA on the way over..

When all else fails I can always lean on my Trust worthy Delta at double the points so I have back up..

We are now joining the many who will be leaving the Mariner in Rio Monday morning Nov 26 but won't be flying out till late that night. There are six non-stop flights from Rio to the USA on November 26th, all late that night: Delta to Atlanta at 10:20 PM; American to Miami at 10:20 PM, to JFK at 10:55; TAM (codeshare w/United) to Miami at 10:28 PM; United to Houston at 10:55 PM; and US Air to Charlotte at 11:55 PM (our flight, the latest of course).

So what do we do from say 9 or 10 AM till our plane leaves? How about touring a while, get a day room, have lunch, then perhaps tour some more, even go to the beach or just hang out or nap, then have an early dinner before heading to the airport to catch our flight. Here the message I posted on CruiseCritic to find cruisers to share, showing what I had sent to a couple of private tour guides in Rio:

LOOKING FOR A PRIVATE TOUR GUIDE IN RIO de JANERIO 26 November 2012
We are a small English-speaking group arriving in Rio by cruise ship (Regent Seven Seas Mariner) from Monte Carlo, Monaco about 9 AM Monday, November 26, and will be flying home late that same night. The final size of the group, which will have its luggage from an 18 day cruise with it, will depend upon the details of the services offered as well as the cost.

The group would prefer a tour of Rio‘s highlights followed by lunch at a nice hotel with “day rooms” to refresh themselves in, with the option to nap at the hotel, do some further touring or perhaps even go to the beach before an early evening dinner, say at a traditional Churrascaria restaurant, before being transferred to the Galeão International airport no later than 8 or 9 PM.

There are six non-stop flights from Rio to the USA on November 26th: Delta to Atlanta at 10:20 PM; American to Miami at 10:20 PM, to JFK at 10:55; TAM (codeshare w/United) to Miami at 10:28 PM; United to Houston at 10:55 PM; and US Air to Charlotte at 11:55 PM.

Any interest from LCTers going on Grand Prix only as far as Rio?

we might be interested. I need to find out what Regent plans to do with us, and our luggage. We've been to Rio several times but hanging out at the airport all day is not an option. We're on the UAL @ 10:55pm flight.

We were on our own when we disembarked from LLAMA in Rio. The Byrnes and we stored our luggage at the airport and then went to Persepolis for the day. I highly recommend this if you've seen the sights of Rio.

However, a couple words of wisdom. Have cash for checking your luggage. You may recall that both the Byrnes and I had identity theft problems using ATMs at the airport. The luggage storage did not take credit cards at that time.

Also, although the weather was much more pleasant in Persepolis than Rio, we were desperate for showers before the flight home. We were flying DL, but not in business class, but we were able to pay to use the AA lounge. I think it was $50 pp, but it was worth it. I'm sure the other passengers appreciated it too.

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Eugene

We're staying on the ship until Buenos Aires but if we were getting off in Rio, there is another alternative I would consider. Most likely, there will be representatives of several major Brazilian jewelry companies (H. Stern, Amsterdam Saur, etc.) on the cruise. The representatives are not allowed to solicit business or sell jewelry on the ship but it is usually pretty easy to pick them out. They have no connection with Regent and their fares are paid for by their companies.

Their goal is to get you to visit one of their stores. Their is no high pressure in the stores to buy and you may politely decline a purchase. In return for visiting a store, the companies often provide a car, driver and guide for the day. Friends of ours were on the Buenos Aires to Rio cruise last year and had a late night flight home. They were given a car, driver and guide who took them anywhere they wanted to go and then drove them to the airport.

This option is certainly worth considering.

yes Dave, we have been with the jewelers several times and no pressure at all. We became friends with nice owners of Saban on cruises and they've even visited us at our home. Thanks for reminding me. That might be a good idea.

For those of you booked at Le Meridien in Monte Carlo, I noticed today that they are offering a senior and AAA rate of 172.80 Euro a night down from the previous 191 Euro. It is now cheaper than le Meridien in Nice.

Alas, for those of us too young for a senior rate and don't belong to AAA; we will stay how we are.

Anyone taken the bus from Nice Airport to Monte Carlo? On another board, someone mentioned that the bus stops in front of Le Meridien but I don't know anything more. Thinking of taking the bus instead of a taxi.

I'm sure glad this came up again because I found a government rate for 145 Euros including taxes. I had planned on using the rate Marcie found with points + $, but that was 8000 points plus $150 plus $33 in taxes. I learned that when you use points + $, you pay taxes, but when you use straight points, taxes are included. Also, Suzanne's AAA rate 172.8 Euros is quite good and apparently inclusive of taxes. But the senior/AARP rate was more expensive 192 Euros when I called. I was told that both rates did include taxes.

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Eugene

Eugene can you use the government rate for non business travel?

I have found that on the rare occasions where I can find a government rate that is better than an Internet rate, you can use the rate as long as you provide a government ID. Government contractors are specifically excluded. But you usually do not need to be on official government business.

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Eugene

Thanks for the clarification Eugene I always wondered if we could use it!