We can find a flight to Amsterdam with the ff miles we have accumulated.
We would love to do this but also get to Paris. Can someone tell me the choices for travel from Amsterdam to Paris, train, plane, drive? Thanks!!!

The high speed train to Paris is about as good as it gets. City center to city center and sure beats the hassle of flying and security checks.

We've taken the train several times from Amsterdam to Paris --its easy, relatively quick & u can get some good fares.

The Thalys will be high speed all the way from this coming Sunday, so that would be the best I think. It takes 3 hours 18 minutes city centre to city centre then - much faster than flying, when you take into account the time before your flight and getting into the city. It stops at Schiphol so you can get it straight from your flight, though it seems a shame not to spend some time in Amsterdam as well if you are here anyway.
Have a look at www.Thalys.com.
You will need a paper ticket, which you can print at home or collect on arrival.

The standard 2nd class fare for Amsterdam-Paris on Thalys trains is 110 euro. However, if you can commit well in advance (up to 90 days allowed) to a specific departure date and time, you can book a Smoove fare ticket as low as 25 euro at thalys.com. The ticket is non-refundable and non-exchangeable. The allotted number of discount fare tickets sell out fast so book early.

In any case just do NOT show up and buy your Thalys ticket as you could well pay $100 more than the fares TimS mentions, which are in very limited supply and must be secured far in advance to have a chance usually at getting. Thalys trains have a Byzantine fare structure with many different fares, etc. - seniors, youths, passholders and tiers of discounted online fares - when the cheapest 25 euro fare sells out they bump it up to another fare level until that is exhausted, etc.

What are you trying to do, exactly?

Are you:
1) Trying to fly to Paris with FF tickets, but can only get as far as Amsterdam?
2) Trying to visit both Paris and Amsterdam with FF tickets?
3) Trying to use FF miles just to fly from Paris to Amsterdam?

If it is #1, I would look at flights. Give yourself a decent layover of 3 to 4 hours, but this would probably be the easiest and best option, since you never have to leave the airport.

If it is #2, did you look into trying to book this as a stopover award? If your FF program allows it, you may be able to simply tack on the AMS-Paris leg at no cost.

If it is #3, then I wouldn't bother. It is cheap enough to get between the two cities, whether by train or by plane, that this is unlikely to be a decent use of miles.

Thanks for all the great suggestions. We (or I should say, I, as husband is in the dark about all this, poor guy still thinks he's getting that trip to the Grand Canyon)would like to go to Europe, but our number of miles, just over 60,000 each will only get us from Minneapolis to Amsterdam. I am thinking we should spend a couple days in Amsterdam and then go to Paris for a week. Still working this all out, but your suggestions are great.

the miles will not get you to say Brussels? Only Amsterdam - is it that only Amsterdam is available because you must use NW-Delta? NW/Delta also flies to CDG and the total mileage must be about the same.

I'm assuming that you have Delta miles. If that is the case, then you get either one free stopover or one free open jaw. My suggestion is to try and book this as MSP-AMS/break/CDG-MSP. This should come in at the same 60k miles, since it counts as a stopover. There is no need to spend extra money or miles to fly between AMS and CDG, unless there is no availability. In this regard, do not rely on the Delta website, as it stinks.

If you are willing to post the dates, I can check availability for you and let you know when might work. You often need to spoon-feed the agents to get what you want/need.

Amsterdam to Paris now takes just 3 hours 20 minutes, compared to about 4 hours by plane all in.

Book Amsterdam to Paris at www.nshispeed.nl and print out your own ticket.

Paris to Amsterdam would be best booked at www.voyages-sncf.com, but see advice at www.seat61.com/France-trains.htm before using this to avoid being bumped to a US site with higher prices.

I love your idea of visiting the two cities. Both are lovely and special but very different. If you have that time I would not give up one for the other.

Regarding the Thalys; it is sometimes worth checking out the prices for 1st class (Comfort 1) also. It happened to me recently that a train-ticket Comfort 1 was about 20 euro's cheaper the Comfort 2 (2nd class). This can happen if the cheapest tickest in Comfort 2 are sold out, but the cheapest ticktets in Comfort 1 are still available.

travelgourmet - thanks for the good advice. I have no dates yet because too many things are getting in the way! If and when this trip is a go, I will call an agent. I have tried to book in the past and had to offer my firstborn son (well, he is 27) to get anywhere. Again, thanks all. I'll get back to ya if all the people in my life quit throwing up roadblocks such as "I have a business trip that week." or "That is the week we are renting a beach house for the whole family or it might be the week before or the week after, not sure." or "It's August and everything will be closed" or me saying, "I have to go back to work."