Alternate airport needed to meet up with RS tour in Rome

Milan is also worth a night or two. See http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/22/travel/36-hours-in-milan.html?_r=1

Dawn, I agree with the suggestions that Frank II mentioned. It seems a bit early to be booking flights for June 2012. The schedules may not even be finalized yet. I'm not too familiar with the Air Rewards programs you're using, so can't offer any suggestions on that. If you can't find a flight to Rome, another possibility would be to look at flights into Frankfurt. It's a major hub and one of the largest airports in Europe, so there should be good flight availability. As American Airlines is part of the OneWorld Alliance, you may be able to arrange "code share" flights. This may not be as difficult as first thought. See the information I posted in another reply (running out of room here). It would be a really good idea to arrive in Rome at least a day or two prior to the start of the tour. That will give you some time to "acclimatize" and get over jet lag. Try to book the same Hotel used by the tour (you'll get a note on the Hotels prior to the tour). As this is your first trip to Europe, starting in Rome will be a bit of a "culture shock" so it would be a good idea to go through the Guidebooks or watch some of Rick's TV shows to get some idea on what it will be like. It's somewhat of a "different world" there and of course you'll be dealing with the language difference. I'm very sure that you'll have an awesome time on the tour. I'm embarking on my fifth RS tour this year, and can't imagine talking any other type. Good luck with your planning!

Dawn, Using an arbitrary date in August, I found a flight with American Airlines to Rome. Would this work for you: Depart: Austin (AUS) Arrive: Fiumicino (FCO) Departs: Wed, Aug 10, 11:20 AM Arrives: Thu, Aug 11, 9:15 AM Duration: 14h 55m American Airlines #360 Departs 11:20am, Aug 10 Austin (AUS), Time 2h 40m Arrives 2:00pm, Aug 10 Chicago (ORD), Layover: 3h 05m in Chicago American Airlines #110 Departs 5:05pm, Aug 10 Chicago (ORD) Time 9h 10m Arrives 9:15am, Aug 11 Fiumicino (FCO)
on a Boeing 767-300 This seems like an easy flight, and hopefully it's available with your Reward miles. One other thing to remember in the planning. You'll arrive in Europe the day after you depart the U.S. so be sure to allow for that when you book your Hotel room. Cheers!

Have you tried Milan? That are not that many airports that have direct flights from the US.

My first suggestion is to wait until the 2012 tours are announced to make sure there aren't any changes in the itineraries. That should be in a couple of months. (If you don't want to wait, call the RS tour department just to confirm tours and dates which you may have already done.) The RS tours usually start on a weekend and that is the hardest time to get FF awards. You may think about arriving a day or two early. Or, fly to London for 2-3 days, see that city, which is not on the tour and a good introduction to Europe since they speak English, then take a discount carrier from London to Rome. (This can be done very inexpensively if you book ahead and follow the rules.) Lastly, you can sometimes get a better deal or award by actually talking to someone at AAdvantage rather than just trying to do it online. It may cost a bit more but you might get what you want. As an example....if direct from Texas to Rome isn't available on your date...what about a stopover which is allowed. Say Austin to Rome with a stopover for a couple of days in London and then a return from Paris to Austin. The flights don't necessarily have to be on AA. They can be on any of the OneWorld alliance airlines.

Suggest you look at flying into CDG and look at flying from there onto Rome(FCO) using Easyjet. I always check several gateways from the US and to continue to my ultimate destinations using Easyjet or AirBerlin, whoever is cheapest.
Check AA to any UK location or the others listed and then either of these 2 lines' website, however, you won't see any prices from them this far in advance.

Milan works! What's a good way to get from Milan to Rome?

Via train. Book early and get the mini early. Booking early is about 60 days and not 6 months.

Hi Ken, The problem with the flights into Rome (and I checked going from Austin, Houston or Dallas) is that American says there are no "30K" miles per leg seats available. They have seats at the "60K" rate, but I don't have enough miles to do that for 4 people. So, I need to find a route with the "milesaver" option available. I want to fly June 14, 2012, a date that won't be available for booking until next week, so I was checking for availability for June 7, 2012 (the latest date they let you book today). There is plenty of "30K" availability into everywhere else I checked (London, Paris, Milan, Frankfurt)just not Rome. We were planning to tack on a few days in London after the tour ends in Paris, so I think I need to decide whether to move that to the beginning instead and pay for a flight from London to Rome or fly into Milan and take the train into Rome (leaving the train from Paris to London for the end as we originally planned). I talked to the RS tour folks and they gave me tentative dates for the 2012 tours. No guarantees, but since I have to find the "30K" rates I feel like I have to book intercontinental air travel now based on the tentative dates that will not be final until mid-August. Thanks for your help, everybody!!

Dawn, As I don't have much information on the AAdvantage program you're using, it's difficult to offer many suggestions. I'd probably wait until the fights are "bookable" (you indicated that would be next week) and then phone the Rewards C.S. number and discuss it with them, as Frank II suggested. Beginning in London is certainly one option. That would be a good place to get over jet lag, in a country where there would hopefully be no language issues (keeping in mind the phrase "two people's separated by a common language") and less culture shock compared to Rome.

In addition to the mini fares suggested by Frank from CO, search for discount airfares. The mini rates are very good and the train ride is fairly fast, but sometimes there are very attractive airfares if you monitor and book early. The Italian discount airlines generally don't charge a premium for one-way flights, which is what makes flying worth considering.

Having recently booked AA FF tickets myself, have you looked at Zurich? It's not ideal, but we had no problem getting tickets there as opposed to the other cities that kept dropping off the radar...Problem is, it's not cheap to then get to Rome; I checked. One strategy would be to stay in Zurich or somewhere very close, then travel on to Rome the next day. That way, you could buy the 'cheapest' tickets available on the first day IN Europe and not worry about what happens if your flight is late, etc. I looked at Milan, Verona...maybe there's somewhere you'd like to go. Or, look into cheap flights. Our 'free' flight is actually ending up costing us more money in hotels and parking than we would normally have paid, but we're still saving a huge chunk of $$$...

Thanks Everyone for your advice. I ended up booking FF tickets to London a few days in advance of the start date of the RS tour. I found out that I have just enough miles left over to book 4 one-way tix on an AA partner airline to get us from London to Rome. So, it worked out perfectly, and we'll get to enjoy 2 full days in London while we recover from the jet lag. Thanks again!!