We have not been across the pond in 10 years and I must be out of practice for planning. I am having a tough time deciding on
if we fly into Brussels or Amsterdam to begin our Belgium part of the trip. Amsterdam looks interesting to see the tulips in April.
Our plan is to travel by train after we arrive until we reach Lille France, rent a car and do Normandy and the Loire Valley.
We have over 100k Delta miles but not enough to help. We are too old to do coach and at least want an upgrade. How do you decide which airline and airport? How soon should we book for "best" deal?
It seems confusing and prices change daily. Our trip is planned for mid April 2024.
We may leave the car and take a train in to Paris for a few days OR take the train to Germany or Switzerland and fly out of Franfurt or Zurich.
Italy, Ireland and England were SO much easier to plan. Maybe I am just getting old and cant really decide on where I want to go the most. If you have any words of wisdon, please help!
Posted by
Twin Cities of MN
5610 posts
I feel its too early to book for April, but you could monitor prices for a while. Pricing may help you determine which airport to use. If you see a fare that seems good, you can always book a changeable ticket, and continue to monitor prices.
You could also give skyscanner a try and set up alerts for a drop in prices.
If this were my trip, I'd take the train from Belgium to Paris, and then train to Tours, Rouen or Chartres and pick up a car to visit Normandy and Loire.
West Switzerland around Zurich is a lovely area. A couple days to visit Bern, Luzern and/or Basel would be fun.
I think you are smart to look for open jaw tickets (multi-city), into one airport and out from another.
Posted by
San Diego, California
4750 posts
Just last month we nabbed business class fares on British Airways for under $2000 each RT, for April, 2024, out of LAX., into Amsterdam.We live in San Diego, so it's a pain getting to LAX, but the San Diego BC prices have been really high consistently for the past. 18 months, so this was worth it for us.
I had alerts set up on Google Flights, as this is a great research tool. You can set up alerts on several different days and to different cities, and for different fare classes. You cannot set up open jaw, as far as I can tell.
We used the AARP discount and stacked it with the discount for using our British Airways visa.
I've watched prices since, and they have been fluctuating wildly.
So if you get the price you want, it's not too early. I spent a lot of time searching for our great fares, so time is money, sometimes.
I wish you good luck!
Posted by
Olympia, WA, USA
6522 posts
If you're "too old to do coach" you might also be old enough to consider comfort and convenience as well as price. As recommended above, search for flights on Google Flights or Kayak.com. Look for nonstops between your home airport (or nearest US hub) and the airports you're considering in Europe. If you want to spend time in Belgium, flights into Amsterdam might be faster and easier than those into Brussels. There are fast trains between AMS airport and Brussels, so you don't need to spend time on Dutch tulips unless you want to. Open jaw is a good idea if you don't want to loop back to where you started.
Only you can decide where you want to go and what you want to see in Europe. Build your flights around your sightseeing goals, not the other way around.
Posted by
Huntsville, AL, USA
8154 posts
Your best bet out of Orlando would be Delta which goes into Amsterdam on a seasonal basis. I don't know what "seasonal" means, however. If you have Delta Miles, you may can purchase an upgrade of service.
By far the least expensive way to Europe would be Norse Atlantic Airways into London Gatwick. You could either catch the Eurostar train over the English Channel or fly on EasyJet to where you'd like to start your trip. Norse Atlantic is a new international airline that took over the leases on Norwegian Air Shuttle's Boeing 787's. We've flown on those very planes many times out of Orlando.
I'd be looking around year end before purchasing flights--unless a special low price deal pops up. We keep our eyes on airfares to get a feeling for what most travelers are paying. We usually buy @ 50% or less of normal airfares.