firenz

Using points, we will be traveling to Paris for four days. Having been there several times, we think this is enough for us. We will then fly to Venice for three days (we"ve never been there and want to include it on this trip). We would then have to fly to London and get a limo for the trip to Southampton to meet the ship for our transatlantic journey. I am wondering if we may have done this trip backwards and should fly to Milan first and work backwards or skip Paris altogether. We still have time to change our tickets. Thanks for any help.

justshootme

If you don't care to visit Paris why not just fly to Venice, spend sometime there and then fly to London. If you would like to include Paris, I'd still fly to Venice, then fly to Paris and take the Eurostar to London. Unless you want to visit Milan, I don't understand why you'd want to fly there just to travel by train to Venice.

firenz

The number of points required to fly directly to Venice is 3 times the number to Milan. Hence, the thought of flying to Milan. The more I think about it, going through Milan is way too much hassle. At least the other itinerary is all flights. Thanks so much for your suggestions. Maybe we need to think about this a bit more and hope we get some more suggestions.

elaine

If your flight to Paris is a must, don't stay in Paris but change to a European flight and fly on to Venice. Stay a nice 4 or 5 days. Fly back to London, and have a couple of days before going on to Southhampton. Or, fly back to Paris and have a couple of days before going on to London. Less fuss, less muss.

justshootme

Now, I understand why you'd consider flying to Milan instead of Venice. You can take a train from MXP to Milano Centrale (check when the train starts as this is a new service), if the trains aren't in service yet, then you could take a bus to the train station and then get a Eurostar train to Venice. The drawback is that this will take 1/2 a day, but so would a flight from Paris to Venice by the time you go to the airport, check in, fly and travel from the airport to Venice. Remember, the train will take you to Central Venice. Venice has two train stns, you need Venice Santa Lucia stn for Venice proper. Before, you start thinking of this in great detail, I'd check if you can use points for flights to Milan, if there aren't any seats available, flying to Milan won't be an option.

Hope this helps.

kfusto

We often use miles to fly to MXP to begin our trips to Italy as it is generally easier to find seats.

You can catch a cheap flight to Venice from here. Look at whichbudget.com to find options.

Or take the train after spending a night or two in Milan, a lovely city IMO and worth the time.

elaine

I hadn't seen your second posting when I posted mine, but my intended suggestion was to fly into Paris if that's easier to book,immediately change planes, and fly on to Venice. It's already a "lost' travel day. On the other hand, flying into Milan MXP, bus from airport to Central Station, and train to Venice, will pretty much kill most of that day as well. Or as suggested above, stay a night or two in Milan.

janisj

There are flights from Milan to Southampton -- which would most likely be easier/cheaper than flying to London and then transferring to Southampton.

firenz

I think the best route might be to book my award ticket with American Airlines to Milan for 30,000 point. Forget about the Paris segment of the trip. Spend a day or two in and around Milan then go onto Venice for three days. Rather than going back to Milan, I can take a British Air Flight to London. I couldn't find any good flights to Southampton from Venice-only something on Flybe (???). The rest took hours and hours and connections and were very expensive.) Once at Gatwick, we'd have a car pick us up and take us directly to Southampton for the ship. Whew!! Do you think there is enough to do around Milan for a couple of days?

Thanks to all of you who answered. I really appreciate the help.

janisj

"Flybe (???)"

Why the '???' -- Flybe is totally OK - it is a well known airline.

Booking Flybe to Southampton would be a hecka hecka lot easier, cost/time effective than flying to LGW and paying for a limo transfer to the port.

firenz

Sorry...I guess I just never heard of Flybe. I'm glad you gave it a thumbs up.

janisj

"I guess I just never heard of Flybe."

That's OK -- Just like folks in Italy may not have heard of Southwest or JetBlue

annettetx

We were in Milan for a couple of days two years ago -- that was the perfect amount of time for us. We were able to tour the Duomo (toured it during the day, then came back in the evening and went up to the roof, which I highly recommend!), walked through Vittoria Emmanuel shopping mall, and saw the Last Supper. We had a pretty relaxed itinerary, but enjoyed having time to just stroll around.
We enjoyed riding the Metropolitana, but were amazed by all the grafitti all over the city.
Enjoy!

justshootme

Just want to add, if you are spending a day or two in Milan and you'd like to see the Last Supper, you need to reserve tickets in advance, either online or by phone.

alihutch

Flybe has been around in various guises since 1979 and bought BA Connect a few years ago.....they are almost more business than budget

kfusto

I have been to Milan a half dozen times for several days each visit and have had never had an issue with things to do. You could also take a train to Lake Como, an easy trip, and spend a day there, returning to Milan in the evening in time for dinner.

Nonconformist

Yes, flybe's fine, and Southampton is a nice little airport with minimal hassle. The only downside would be luggage restrictions may be less than you have on your transatlantic flight.