You might remember that MrsMJonTravel and I are traveling to Europe next year to celebrate a certain unnumbered birthday. We are flying over on the big day, spending a few days with friends, and then traveling up to Venice where we will board the then brand new Celebrity Reflection for a 14-night cruise from Venice to Barcelona. I posted previously that I had nabbed 2 first class seats on United from Dulles to Rome next October, and was waiting for return flights to open up in mid November.
Well, the calendar finally ticked forward far enough for me to start looking at availability. For the return trip, there are no real nonstop options from Barcelona at this time, so I knew I’d be connecting. Furthermore, I followed Lucky’s advice and used the Continental website to perform my search. Not that I ever doubted, but boy was he right about it being a better way to book awards than United.com. Of course, November isn’t exactly a peak travel time for US-Europe travel, so I’m not surprised that availability was out there, but I have to say, it was easy to find exactly what I wanted.
For the return, I was thinking Lufthansa via Frankfurt or Munich. There is no First Class availability right now, but Business is available and I nabbed 2 seats. A321 service to Frankfurt and then 747-400 service from Frankfurt to Dulles. Continental.com could not assign seats so I rang up the Continental elite line and retrieved our Lufthansa confirmation numbers (we are in separate PNRs for the return) then gave Lufthansa a call. Row 3 on the A321 and row 1 on the 747-400, which I’m pretty pleased about. Something about riding in the nose of a 747 appeals to me. Also, I’ll keep an eye out for First Class, and if availability happens to appear, I might switch to that. Business is plenty acceptable for a trans-Atlantic flight, but this is an important trip for us, and a visit to the First Class terminal in Frankfurt would be icing on the birthday cake for sure.
Note: This is reposted from 12/24. The original post went missing due to a technical error.
[…] might remember that I’m quite proud of the fact that I have already arranged air travel for Mrs MJonTravel’s (ahem) 29th birthday extravaganza this coming October. I was […]
Kudos on your successful booking for your birthday celebration in Europe w/cruise. We r celebrating in similar fashion for our anniversary–we are flying to Dubai late Spring (our AA miles snagged FC on BA to Longon, now on Biz from LHR to DXB, waiting for FC availability (via Expert Flyer alert). We then board Regent’s Voyager for 24 days (Dubia to Istanbul) fly home BC on Turkair to Frankfurt, o/n on points at a/p Hilton, then next a.m.,we get on Luftansia BC from Frankfurt direct to home.
Congrats on completing your booking. Unfortuneatly, now I have to wait almost a full year for the trip report!!