happy cruzer

Yes, I am about 2 months from getting my AA miles on the Citi AAdvantage card. The option of using them on FinnAir looks pretty good. Love seeing all the options everyone is posting.

Ticket is purchased. AA RTW was great; got flights that did not show in the OneWorld tool. Got the flights that Gardyloo recommended. All in for less than 12,000 business class for 2. I be back bugging everyone for recommendations for dfw to osl in Aug. 🙂

Planning on using the same combination of Chase Sapphire and GeoBlue Trekker, when should we buy the GeoBlue Trekker policy? We already have a deposit on the cruise and will buy airfare soon but the trip starts in Aug of this year. Also if your US medical insurance provider changes during the travel period does it affect the GeoBlue Trekker policy in anyway. One of us may go from a private policy to Medicare during the time. Thanks to Steve and all the other great poster for being a great resource.

Points well taken and will be pursued when I call in to AA. Have been caught up in the credit card stuff. The Citi AAdvantage was approved but needed to see the terms and conditions in writing. Took over a week to arrive in snail mail. No mention of miles bonus. Called and they will now send that seperately via snail mail. FYI (many may know this already) the new cards typically come with a fairly low limit about 13500. So purchasing the RTW tickets may be difficult. Then I pursued the Sapphire Preferred card thinking I would get that bonus on a card with a higher credit limit. We have a sapphire card (very old and nice high limit) which I am the authorized user on per the first call to Chase. Applied for Preferred and was denied. Called the reconsideration line and told I was denied because I am a Secondary card holder not the same as authorized card holder. No way to drop off the sapphire card, would have to cancel that card totally, reapply which would possibly lower our credit limit, take 30 days, etc. Tooooo much hassle. So getting close to resolving cc issues, to start the RTW ticket purchase. So we will stay with our current cards plus the new Citi AAdvantage for the bonus miles. More later.

Yes, we will be allowing a full day for travel time that include the time traveling and the hotel check in/out. Only 2 full days in each city with have to suffice.

Yes, you are correct about Toledo, Segovia and El Escoral. We did all 3 many years ago on a road trip around Europe - 18 castles, 17 churches in 21 days.... It was fantastic and got us hooked. Would visit again if there is time.

Time, Finances, and Resources Time - we have two weeks (one of us is still employed with limited vacation time) to spend on the Europe sections. Either Aug 24 to Sep 8 or the start Aug 31. Note the Aug 24 to Aug 27 part is on our nickel to get to Oslo. Finances - still employed. Fairly low priority to save bucks. The great ideas of using cheaper econ flights will matter in 2 years. HA! Resources - We are slowing down. Like to spend 4 to 6 hours touring then a nice meal. A few days can be longer. So maybe we change the order of our itinarary? Right now we plan to have two day in Oslo, two day in Prague, train to Vienna, 2 days in Vienna, train to Budapest, 2 days in Budapest, fly to Madrid, two days in Madrid. Ideas to improve?

Check out the Cruise Air board. There is some interesting discussions over there. You might want to look at a Round The World ticket. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/77-cruise-air/ And do look at the Celebrity pricing as well. We have found good international rates. But remember that Celebrity will be in the loop if there are changes or refunds after ticketing. That was an issue for us. We booked the air about 1 year out, then when we flew there was an delay that caused a downgrade in the ticket and a refund. The airline refunded the payer of the ticket i.e. Celebrity. It look month to get Celebrity to issue us the refund. Still would use them for significant savings.

OK, I will call AA this coming week. But before maybe I can have a bit more knowledge? How do you get seat assignment in business class (how to easily check seat configuration)? Here is the RTW Segments of note: osl prg 27/aug/2024 BA763/BA860 BUD MAD 05/sept/2024 ID32914 MAD DFW 08/sept/2024 IB6149 (AA only shows econ) three US trips dfw tyo 22/feb/2025 JL 11 TYO SIN 26/feb/205 JL35 HKF OSL 16/Mar/2025 AY100/AY911 Any ideas of options? Thanks.

You may want to look again at Gardyloo's advice. At first the RTW or Circle tickets look complicated, put a little work and practice yielded great options. I spent a few hours seeing how the RTW ticket works and now I am a believer!

So glad to see your post! We are getting ready to book a ticket as well. We have one segment showing in the ONEworld tool for 21 Feb 2025 DFW to TYO which we want a time later than 6pm departure but the tool only shows early in the day departures. Otherwise we could purchase in the one world tool. Any ideas on which is better? Call AA's desk or book in oneworld tool? Thanks.

We are Back! We loved Sky Reef. The taxi fee was posted and was $16 one way. Easy! They did try to get us to get the package rate, just said we wanted a short quiet stay and kept walking. They need tried to get us to buy anything after that. Great! Good chairs. Great view and snorkling from the stairs on the beach! Our new favorite. Thanks for the information from everyone!

The FAQ just says bottle. Does that mean plastic bottles are OK? Thanks.

Thanks for coming back to report. Being one of the nasty people who suggested that insurance could help you out, would like to know how you were satisfied. Did you get an actual refund, more over offer or future credit?? Hope you have many future adventures and continue with your early adopter ways. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the report. We are pretty weak swimmers. Is it possible to stand every once in awhile or is it all coral on the bottom? Did it get crowded? Thanks!