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Quick question about Airlines and Airports in and out of France

Hello,

My wife and I are visiting France for two weeks next Spring. The plan is to fly into Paris, travel south, and then fly back to Los Angels either from the airport in Marseille or Provence. Or possible reverse the order and fly home from Paris. Has anyone had experience with any of the major Airports in the South of France?

Also, we have enough miles through our Alaska program to fly on either American or British Airlines. I'd prefer British, but two roundtrip tickets would use all of our miles, whereas American would use about a third less. I imagine you get what you pay for (or give miles up for in this case). But is American really that bad?

Thanks!

Posted by
5687 posts

I've flown AA numerous times overseas in the last few years. What is supposedly so bad about them? I would prefer Delta based on flights overseas in the last few years on both, but I am frugal with miles, and I wouldn't spend 1/3 more just to fly Delta, all else being equal. My AA flights were fine.

I've never flown BA. Wouldn't you have to fly via London?

I'm sure you can get a direct flight between LAX and CDG. I doubt you can from any of the airports in the south. So you'll probably be making a connection if you fly that way. FYI, Alaska allows a free stop-over with miles; if you say wanted to fly north to Paris for your last night so you have a direct flight home the next day or something, you probably can.

Posted by
776 posts

Before there were direct flights from Miami to Paris I had a couple of disastrous experiences with BA. Due to confusion or delays or whatever at Heathrow, delayed Paris travelers were shuttled efficiently to the Paris bound aircraft but the luggage either never made it or was over due by a week or more. Fortunately my stop was Paris but those going on from Paris were less than happy with this development . I would never fly to Paris again on BA if it went via London.

Posted by
7730 posts

All airlines are really bad even BA depending on a random person's experience.

Has anyone had experience with any of the major Airports in the South of France?

After starting a trip flying into Paris I have flown out of Nice to Montreal to Chicago.

Depending on the airline flying from the Nice or Marseille you might connect in Paris or London to LA.

Posted by
23 posts

Thanks for the quick replies. One more question, I've only redeemed miles for a few local flights since I was intent on saving the miles for this trip. I just did some test reservations and was shocked to see that the British Air flights booked through the Alaska Air miles were going to charge me over $1,000 in taxes and fees along with all the miles.

When I went to the British Air site and checked to see how much two normal purchased tickets on the same flights would be, it was just over $1,600. So either pay $1,000 with miles or $1,600 without. Is that normal with international flights? It hardly seems worth it.

Posted by
7977 posts

if you are flying coach it doesn't matter what airline. BA is not even slightly better than AA. AA premium economy is quite good -- sort of an attempt to create a business class light that is affordable. It is by far the best economy plus we have used.

Posted by
882 posts

How about flying from Marseille to Barcelona, hang out for a few days, then fly home to LAX from BAR?
Una bueno idea? I guess that should be...Una bona idea?
Also, if they are still around, you might consider flying Norwegian Air Shuttle - they serve both CDG and BAR- non-stop from LAX. Your mileage rewards won't work, but you might find seats for very low prices.

Posted by
7730 posts

Are you saying it was $800 per person or $1600 for 2? If the former that is a good price from LA to London
And I would just save the miles. What date and where are you trying to fly into specifically?

And you might be trying to book a ticket for 2020 too far in advance. I have not seen any sales or deal offers in my email for Spring 2020. I

Posted by
11027 posts

When I went to the British Air site and checked to see how much two normal purchased tickets on the same flights would be, it was just over $1,600. So either pay $1,000 with miles or $1,600 without. Is that normal with international flights?

Yes, that is 'normal' for BA to have huge surcharges on Alaska miles. Presumably its just as bad with BA's other partner airlines, from comments I have seen.

What class tickets are you looking at? I have flown both BA and AA in biz class using miles, but would not pay extra just to use one over the other.

Posted by
14800 posts

I fly BA all the time. When I try to use AA miles for flights, the only choice I get is on BA. BA is notorious for high fees when using miles. I recently bought tickets for a trip across the pond. Using miles the fees were about half of what it would cost me to just buy the tickets.

I have flown all classes and find most airlines are the same:

Economy/Coach-- cattle class. Just get them where they are going.

Premium Economy: Same as above but with some more legroom.

Business class:. Better seats, better service

First class:. You are Royalty for the day. "May we please kiss your a**?"

YMMV

Posted by
3586 posts

We don’t know what month you are thInking of traveling, but when I put some April dates into skyscanner.com, a whole lot of choices came up well under $1600 rt. Some were non-stop; others, one-stop. Several were under $1000. I would not be in a hurry to plunk down $1000 plus a bunch of miles to AA or any other line.
Some of the fares were under $800. That is a good deal. If you know your dates, I would move on prices like that. Keep in mind the oft-repeated advice to book directly with the airlines
There are high speed trains from Nice and Marseille to Paris. You can price out the cost of flying home from one of those cities vs train to CDG. The down side of that is that it’s wise to go up a day ahead. Then you have to figure in a hotel stay. The reverse plan works better, with either a flight or a train ride to the south after arrival at CDG.

Posted by
7277 posts

Zaswx. T hBA has run direct flights between Denver, Colorado and London, England for over 20 years, so it’s been our main gateway provider to European travel for all that time. Icelandair and Norwegian Air have started serving Denver, too, and with low fares, are giving BA some serious competition. Using Avios points has often come with astoundingly high fees and surcharges, although flying around Europe uses far fewer Avios and carries much less in additional charges that flying between America and Europe.

Long ago, even in cheapest Club Economy seats, BA greeted passengers with a selection of that day’s British newspapers, and a warm, moist washcloth for freshening up, presented a menu on a card to clue you in to what was available for your inflight meal, provided unlimited, free beer, wine, and cocktails, and your seat had a package containing a blanket, pillow, eye mask, slipper sox, a toothbrush with toothpaste, and headphones for listening to the plug-in entertainment system. Most of that’s gone now in Club Economy, but the BA entertainment system is extravagant, seats are still relatively very comfortable, and flight attendants are actually attentive. They make an effort to keep passengers hydrated by coming around frequently with water and juice. Seats near the bulkheads are usually saved for families with infants and table trays that hold infant carriers, so a crying child might accompany you if you sit near the wall in the front of an Economy compartment. Avoiding dehydration, limiting jet lag, and probably for several other reasons, too, all seem to limit the alcohol people are consuming onboard these days, compared to 20 years ago, so free-flowing alcohol might not be such an amenity as it had been.

Flying from the USA to London, then connecting on to the Marseille airport has been an ideal route for us, twice in recent years. Are you considering a rental car for Provence, or using other transportation? Either way, take an airport bus between the Marseille airport and downtown Marseille, before moving onwards.

You could do it the other way, but if I was doing your trip, my sense is to fly first to Marseille, tour southern France/Provence, then wrap up the France trip with Paris at the end. Hope you find workable flights. Maybe this complicates things even further, but there are also budget airlines like easyJet that can shuttle you affordably around Europe, so looking at budget flights might be worth considering, if you want to ensure you’re getting the best value for your money and/or frequent flyer points.

Posted by
26829 posts

In spring 2017 I flew from Washington-Dulles to Nice, with a change in Amsterdam, I think. The Nice airport is fine, but I arrived on May 1, which is such a major holiday that there was no public transportation running from the airport and precious few taxis working. I suspect all the tourist attractions were closed (certainly the streets were empty), but I didn't care about that because I was brain dead.

BA has a reputation for very high fees on frequent-flyer tickets.

Posted by
4020 posts

The Marseille Provence airport is the major southern landing strip (along with Toulouse and Nice). A five-minute shuttle bus connects to the regional trains travelling into the centre of Marseille or, in the other direction, Avignon. A half-hour bus ride joins the high-speed network at Aix-en-Provence. In both cases the shuttle ticket is included in the on-going train fare. The TGV stations for the fast trains are on the edges of Avignon and Aix-en-Provence with shuttles downtown. All three of those destinations are worth a visit.

Very useful airport website:

https://www.marseille-airport.com/

https://en.voyages-sncf.com/en/

My experience with multi-destination itineraries for France favours flying the more complicated route first, with a transfer at a gateway airport such as Paris, depending on the airlines. Then a return flight from Paris can be taken at a civilized departure time rather than rising before dawn to catch an internal European connection. Your multi-destination search function will show the alternatives.

Posted by
11294 posts

Of the non-Paris airports in France, I've used Lyon (arrival), Nice (arrival and departure), Bordeaux (departure), Montpellier (arrival) and Marseille (arrival and departure). They're all fine, and have the advantage of NOT being one of the world's busiest the way CDG is.

I definitely favor flying to the airport closest to the place you want to be. Of the ones I listed, all but Montpellier get flights from a number of European cities (not just Paris, but also London, Madrid, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, etc). Looking at the Wikipedia page for Montpellier's airport, I see that it now has some more connection options than when I went, but still fewer than the others.

I also agree with the strategy of making the connection to the non-Paris airport on the way in, then working your way back to Paris for the flight home. Among other things, the flights from other airports to the US often leave early in the morning so they can make the connection; a flight home from Paris is likely to leave at a more civilized hour.

Posted by
12172 posts

Years ago I thought BA was one of best airlines. Today, I'd say they are an airline and all of them are just transportation - long tubes with lots of people in side. Especially on the flight over I just want to catch as much sleep as possible. I don't care about entertainment, meals or drink service. A short duration is the most important feature.

As far as Airports in the South of France, Marseille is the probably the busiest, Nice second. Avignon is the biggest transportation hub in Provence but I don't think so much for international flights. Access to Provence is probably best through Marseille.

When I went. I flew into Paris, because of the cost, then worked my way south to Provence and the Riviera. At the end I flew Air France from Nice back to Orly (Paris) before flying home.

Posted by
4255 posts

I don't fly American but friends who used them to return from Greece last week had a miserable experience(they had to spend the night in the airport when their flights were cancelled and some of the contents in one lady's luggage were wet), probably due to the grounding of planes and work slowdown by unhappy mechanics. Neither could have been anticipated when their flights were booked in January.

I'm not a fan of BA-last summer I was in the very back row when weather delayed our flight to Edinburgh several hours. The air conditioning didn't work well and they ran out of water for sale, and I was afraid I would pass out. They don't even provide free water to coach passengers. The problem is, they fly almost everywhere so it's hard to avoid them.

Bottom line, I definitely wouldn't pay more to fly British. Plus, I think they just placed an order for the dangerous Boeing planes-dangerous because Boeing was more concerned with doing what the airlines wanted(less pilot training) than with safety. When are we going to hold these corporate entities criminally liable for their dangerous priorities?

It's also my understanding that taxes for flights to or from(I don't remember if just one or both) the UK are really high.