Help for Europe (LHR, FCO, ATH) Summer of 2017 - Emphasis on ATH

[Gloobnib]

Hello! I'd like to get some thoughts/suggestions for a trip my daughter and I are taking next summer. We have a little bit of flexibility but will be booking very far in advance, which will hopefully help us obtain good availability for rewards programs. I think I've figured out most of the transport options except the return leg (Athens to IND) but would welcome a 'sanity check' on my plans as well. My daughter primarily wants to sightsee all the normal suspects, with an emphasis on Historic/Medieval London, Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece sites.

1. What route are you looking for? Athens to Indianapolis, but would welcome input on other segments as well (see below for detailed itinerary).
2. What dates do you want to travel (mention how flexible you are)? July or August 2017. Most likely mid-July to Late July for a total of 16/17 days (Fri to Sun + 2 weeks)
3. Do you want to fly first, business, or coach? (maybe also "are you willing to fly coach for a positioning flight") Definitely business class or higher for the transatlantic segments. I want the trip to be special, but at the same time I'm not exactly looking for 'extravagant' either. I am an Aviation Geek, so would welcome the chance to sample some unique aircraft. I would really like to fly on an A380 for the first time, but am not willing to spend 'stupid miles' just to make that happen! For the short-haul segments, coach would do, but of course would consider business class 'for just a little more' to help make the experience extra special for her.
4. How many passengers? 2
5. How many points do you have, in which programs?

• Airlines
  • Southwest - 40K Points (good for positioning?)
  • Delta - 95K points (will have well over 140K points by the time we book this later this summer. I also have not yet chosen my Diamond Gifts for this year (must do so by December 31) and will also earn Diamond again this year in Octoberish timeframe. This means that I can potentially get 4 to 8 Global Upgrade certificates good for most paid fares on Delta and many paid fares on Air France.
  • American / United / Hawaiian / BA / Iberia / KLM / Singapore - Effectively 0 points (ranges from 0 to about 1500 points) in each program. But I am a 'member in good standing' so these could potentially be transfer partners if needed. I'm United Silver.
• Transferable currencies: Amex MR 185K, Chase UR 145K, Citi TYP 162K, Starwood - 5K. I have the Citi Prestige, so get decent 'cash' redemption value on the TYP, particularly when booking AA.
• 'Cash like' programs: Penfed 73K points (worth about $450), Barclay arrival about $450 worth, Cap1 venture about $250 worth.

Detailed Itinerary:

• IND (home) to LHR to visit London. I have pretty much decided to burn all/most of my available Delta points on this leg, booking two Business Class tickets on Virgin. As of now, they have solid availability at the 'low' level all the way through end of schedule. So that will entail spending 125K Delta points which will get me first/business class from IND to LHR with approximately $20 in fees (I believe).
• London to Rome to visit Rome. We're planning on taking the Eurostar / TGV trains through the Alps. This is a case of 'Its the journey, not the destination'. We both are really looking forward to the train trip as a 'destination in and of itself'. Will probably either just pay cash for this or burn what may remain of my Barclays/Cap1 points for a 'pay me back' redemption. If anyone has some other travel hacking ways to make this happen via points/MS/CC signups, I'm all ears!
• Rome to Athens to visit Athens. Open to suggestions here, but it looks like Alitalia has decently priced coach tickets from FCO to ATH. Will probably use my PenFed points for this leg, as they allow me to pay 'cash difference' between points I have available and the actual cost of the flight. I've had these points sitting around for what feels like forever and I no longer am accumulating them at all; I'm somewhat anxious to just burn the points so I can forget about the program going forward. (I consider it a 'failed experiment').
• Athens to IND return flight. No idea what to do here. I have considered maybe redeeming for a A380 Singapore Suites class on their 'fifth freedom' route (can't recall the exact route), but that might fall into the category of 'wasteful extravagance' as I'm fairly sure the experience would be lost/wasted on my 17 YO daughter. Maybe Lufthansa? FWIW, I think the westbound leg is going to be less important that we have a 'killer lie flat seat' since we will be much less worried about jetlag going westbound at the end of our trip vs eastbound at the beginning. But I'd welcome input there as well.
• Hotels: I've got Hyatt points coming out my ears. So will likely be staying in a lot of Hyatts on points-only redemptions (would love recommendations). I will also be accumulating a lot more Hilton points between now and then, so will probably leverage them for locations without a viable Hyatt option.

Final thoughts: Neither of us have been to any of these destinations, so would also welcome other related tips/tricks/suggestions/whatnot. Thanks in advance for all suggestions!

 

[SanDiego1K]

You've already put a lot of thought into this. Well done. I don't think SQ is an option for you on your return from ATH. You say: "Athens to IND return flight. No idea what to do here. I have considered maybe redeeming for a A380 Singapore Suites class on their 'fifth freedom' route (can't recall the exact route)" The fifth freedom route is FRA-NYC. You'd have to add positioning flights at both ends, likely making this value prohibitive.

I know Hyatt fairly well and am happy to comment on their hotels once you have pinned down your itinerary a bit more. London is awash with Hiltons as well as the Hyatt Churchill and the Andaz Liverpool. Even as a Hyatt fangirl, I tend to go with Hilton in London. I like the location of the Waldorf Hilton as it puts me in the center of activities that I enjoy.

 

[Gloobnib]

You've already put a lot of thought into this. Well done. I don't think SQ is an option for you on your return from ATH. You say: "Athens to IND return flight. No idea what to do here. I have considered maybe redeeming for a A380 Singapore Suites class on their 'fifth freedom' route (can't recall the exact route)" The fifth freedom route is FRA-NYC. You'd have to add positioning flights at both ends, likely making this value prohibitive.

I know Hyatt fairly well and am happy to comment on their hotels once you have pinned down your itinerary a bit more. London is awash with Hiltons as well as the Hyatt Churchill and the Andaz Liverpool. Even as a Hyatt fangirl, I tend to go with Hilton in London. I like the location of the Waldorf Hilton as it puts me in the center of activities that I enjoy.

Agree that the SQ route isn't workable. And I may take you up on the hotels as I get closer to booking. I'm concentrating on nailing down the flights first, on the theory that finding flights at 'low/saver' levels is going to be a lot harder than finding a chain hotel on points in major European cities. IOW, book the hotels to fit the flight schedule instead of the other way around.

I did some more poking around last night and came up with what I think may be a very workable option for the ATH to IND return leg. I was surprised to find that I can find low/saver inventory ATH-IND using Delta Skymiles and flying on Alitalia. Inventory isn't exactly 'wide open', but there is at least one day each week where two business class saver seats are available. I can even choose if I want to do the long-haul segment on Alitalia or on Delta.

So I guess my question has now become: Is spending 150K Delta Points and 100K Amex Membership Rewards points (by transferring them to delta), plus $460 in fuel surcharges a good value redemption for two 100% business class seats? Or more precisely, it doesn't feel like a terrible value redemption. But at the same time I'd appreciate input from others on ways to maybe avoid the fuel surcharges.

I also considered maybe changing the order of the segments to leverage delta's "no fuel surcharges on round trips' with a redemption to/from IND and FCO or ATH. Then ultimately commuting in a triangle around Europe so that we wind up back at our Europe gateway city for our trip home. But that would necessitate one additional 'paid' intra-europe segment, which will likely eat up most of the fuel surcharge savings. Plus that would add another day of travel into what is already a fairly frentic 3-cities-in-2-weeks trip.

 

[niehaubs]

If you can find the space, you can price an open jaw with Delta IND-LHR then ATH-IND for $95 in fees.

Also, for the 2 very random days I chose to check the route (depart Feb 8, return Feb 22....not even close to the summer but just go with it here), there is a lot of availability on IND-LHR/FCO-IND if you can change your order of ATH and FCO to depart from there. An open jaw prices to 125K miles and $76 for fees. For the same dates, I didn't see any lowest level awards from ATH. I realize this re-arrangement will not be super helpful for your train trip, but it is an option.

 

[Gloobnib]

If you can find the space, you can price an open jaw with Delta IND-LHR then ATH-IND for $95 in fees.

Also, for the 2 very random days I chose to check the route (depart Feb 8, return Feb 22....not even close to the summer but just go with it here), there is a lot of availability on IND-LHR/FCO-IND if you can change your order of ATH and FCO to depart from there. An open jaw prices to 125K miles and $76 for fees. For the same dates, I didn't see any lowest level awards from ATH. I realize this re-arrangement will not be super helpful for your train trip, but it is an option.

Good points. I was assuming that Delta's new "there are no open jaw awards, just one two one-ways" would price the open jaw at the sum of the one ways. I will definitely will poke at it some more to see if the open jaw pricing results in lower fuel surcharges vs two one-ways.