Trip Planning: Volume 1

I have spent the better part of my free time over the last several days trying to find a way to fly on frequent flyer miles from Washington to somewhere in or around Northern Croatia over Easter. In light of this somewhat random and undoubtedly challenging task, I shall write about my accumulated knowledge of finding cheap ways to get somewhere far away. And once I actually get there and back, I expect I shall write about the unexpected pleasures of Croatia.

So, step 1: accumulate frequent flyer miles. These buggers can be really frustrating, but a little discipline can reap great rewards. Step one is consolidation. I try my hardest to make sure I’m accumulating miles on the same airline. So this means using a miles credit card for purchases, work and personal. It also means getting miles on the chosen airline whenever I rent a car or stay in a hotel (most places have some sort of arrangement with airlines). Also, sometimes you can use miles from one program (say Amtrak) to “buy” miles with another (say Continental). This is also rather handy. Some airlines also let you transfer miles from one account to another at a fairly reduced price, which is quite useful when you’re trying to get two tickets. So, all of this hopefully yields enough miles to start looking for tickets.

Step 2: finding the frequent flyer seats. If you know 11 months in advance that you’re taking a trip, you’re all set in this department. Otherwise, it takes some creativity. Most airlines now allow you to search online for frequent flyer seats, but it’s all rather deceptive. That’s because most websites will only show you the seats on that airline, and most miles programs also let you buy seats on partner airlines.

So, for example, at continental.com, you can search for Continental frequent flyer seats. But if you have the endurance to sit on the phone, they can also access Delta, Northwest, and other airlines’ seats. This is rather handy when, for example, you want to fly from Washington using Continental miles, but most Continental flights from Washington connect through Newark, which is deeply irritating. Luckily, Air France flies to Europe direct from Dulles, and you can use your Continental miles on Air France, by way of Delta. An added bonus is that I’ve found the telephone folks at frequent flyer programs to be pretty handy. They can do better searches than the website – such as, I want to leave April 6th, but I only want to use 50,000 miles, so if there aren’t seats on April 6th, what day are there seats? Or, I want to go to Pula, but I’ll take a 50,000 mile seat anywhere within a couple hour drive, are there any other airports with free seats? So, moral of the story: suck it up and sit on the phone for a while.

Step 3: making the frequent flyer flight work. One of the problems I have faced a time or two before is that I can get a frequent flyer seat to the general vicinity of where I want to go, but not exactly where I want to go. The great news is that Europe, and increasingly Asia, is overrun with discount airlines that are the perfect solution. For Europe, as a general matter, if you fly to London, you’re pretty much good to go anywhere in Europe or Northern Africa. Surprisingly, this phenomenon has spread across the continent, so you can now get Swiss, Czech, Italian, Belgian low cost airlines and a host of others. For the most genius list of low cost airlines, this website can’t be beat. We’ve flown Geneva-Rome, Venice-Geneva, London-Gibraltar, and are probably headed for a London-Ljubljana flight. So convenient.

That said, sometimes it’s more fun not to fly over all those fun places. There’s the obvious romance of the train (I rather enjoyed a Nice-Rome sleeper some years ago, complete with espresso served by the conductor in the morning and people in the neighboring cabin who we imagined as a husband and wife spy team). But I’ve grown rather fond of renting a car and heading out on the open road. I’ve never driven in Asia, but I think I’d give it a whirl the next time back, if the itinerary was right. Europe, certainly, is doable – roads are good, support services are good, roads are much better marked than at home.

The appeal of driving to me is that you actually get a little more local flavor this way, you don’t have to schlep your bags much, and you can stop off in fun little places along the way where the train never goes. Plus you get harrowing tales of driving through the madness of European cities (I believe I did a good 8-10 laps of the center of Nice at one point, and more or less screamed my way through downtown Barcelona) and of squeezing your car through tiny medieval streets (let’s just say you actually can drive through Montepulciano – who knew?) Admittedly, this appeals more to those of us who were forced to learn to drive stick shift in our youth, but there are enough Americans around that for a little more money, they’ll rent you an automatic. Plus, if you drive in Italy, you get to stop at the Autogrilles (rest stops, Italian style).

As far as car rentals go, I’ve had unparalleled success with Europcar. They let you pick up in one country and drop in another, they run good discounts from time to time, they don’t force you to buy insurance, they arrange for after-hours drop offs, and to date their customer service counters have been excellent. (By my count, this includes Paris city office, Nice city office, Rome Ciampino airport, Rome Termini Station office, and two rounds with the Piazzale Roma office in Venice, and a Fes-Marrakech reservation we never actually used). I’m a fan. Also a huge fan of the Michelin site for maps (and their print road maps are great, too).

So, it looks like April will have us flying on free seats to London, then Easyjet to Ljubljana, then a drive to Istria, in Northern Croatia, from there. Sounds like the perfect trip.