I'm looking at an AA flight (via advantage miles) ORD to CDG and would like to catch an Easyjet connection to Nice. The arrival into CDG is 7:55 am, however, no convenient connections from CDG to NCE are avilable on Easyjet.

Looking at ORLY to NCE results in a full day of travel. Not very efficient.

The goal is to depart ORD early May, arrive in NCE directly and spend 5 - 6 days in Villefranch or Beaulieu, then move up to Paris for 2 days prior to departure. Presently I have ORD-BST-CDG-BST-ORD on hold at AA. Need to move quickly on this.

I'm looking for alternative suggestions. We've already spent a week in Paris 2 years ago, this is a short trip in celebration of our 20th anniversary. Thanks for your help.

Have you looked into taking the TGV into Nice? I don't know how long it takes to get to Nice, but it's only around 3 hours to Avignon. You can get the TGV from CDG.

If you're traveling on miles, AA can take you all the way to Nice, albeit probably via London. ORD-LHR-NCE is easy using BA's AA codeshare intra-Europe. If you want to come home via Paris, then set up an open-jaw, ORD-NCE, CDG-ORD. I would only use easyJet if there were no other alternative, and you have one.

The trip by train to Nice takes a good 6 hours, as the TGV doesn't go all the way. Still, once you factor in 2+ hours at the airport, it's not a bad way to go, unless you have heavy luggage.

I don't have the time to check right now, but I believe AA has a codeshare agreement with the French railroad company, (can't remember their name).

As Gardyloo suggested above. If you are flying on an award ticket, do AA to London, connect there on BA to NCE.

The return is also possible with the help from BA, but you would need to connect through London again before getting to Paris. But as I said above, I'm not really sure if it's still possible but AA did at one time have a codeshare agreement with the French railroad. I will check tomorrow.

Got to go..

I agree with gardyloo and AA frequent flyer that you should try to use AA and it's partners. Have you tried posing the question to the Aadavantage desk? If that doesn't work, BMI is another low cost option. They fly from LHR to NCE. You can buy one ways w/o a problem on BMI and Easyjet.

Definitely take Gardyloo and AAFrequent FLyers' suggestions. We flew roundtrip using AA miles from JFK-LHR-Nice-CDG-JFK last summer with no problem. In the summer there are usually several BA flights each day to Nice, so pairing one up with your transatlantic flight shouldn't be a hassle. Good luck!

Thank you all for the suggestions. I just finished my call with the AA folks and must report I'm a bit discouraged. Seems after factoring layover times, utilizing 2 alternate routes, we'd be traveling nearly 2 days before reaching our final destination. Given the shortened duration of this trip I'd rather not waste the time.

I find it peculiar that the proposed NCE to CDG return I'd requested routes 1st through Heathrow. What a waste of time. I'm considering pitching the whole Riviera thing and settling for an area closer to Paris.

One option was ORD to NCE via Zurich. Finally getting to NCE at 2pm. Then travelling to the final destination.

Hey, do you need a car in Provence?

Thanks for any other ideas!

I don't think it's so terrible going through Zurich. I've heard that it's a much easier airport to connect through than LHR.

By the way, I made a mistake about our itinerary last summer. We paid out of pocket for the Nice-CDG portion of our trip, since Air France isn't part of the AA OneWorld network.

Regarding your question about a car for Provence:I do think it's necessary if you want to get off the beaten track, but many of the more popular tourist destinations ( Monaco, Eze, Beaulieu, St. Jean, Villefranche, Nice, Cannes, Antibes, St. Paul de Vence) are served very well by either train, bus, or both.

Do you have any American Express skymiles? Delta flies nonstop from JFK to NCE and will start service nonstop from Atlanta to NCE in April or May, I think?

If you can do it - and it's a big IF, getting into Nice by 2PM via ZRH is as good as it gets, and painless - ZRH is a breeze. I'd say take it, and book open-jaw return from CDG to ORD. Try talking AA into letting you fly this with Swiss while they're still in the one-world alliance; it may be too late next May, I can't remember the dates when they'll part company (Swiss has been gobbled up by Lufthansa).

If it has to be all CDG coming and going, and you can't fly on your miiles to Nice, why not take a later Easyjet from Orly, like the 15:10 or 17:00?

Or - if it has to be all CDG coming and going, and you can't fly the rest, you'll have to pay for the TGV - there's one leaving the CDG-TGV station at 10:10, arr. Nice-Ville 17:04 (one transfer en route), another at 11:24 (non-stop), arr. Nice-Ville 17:25.

WK

Ok, I knew that NCSF is an AAdvantage partner but only for earning miles, not spending. So it's not possible to include the train as part of the award tickets.

I agree with some of the above advice. The best you can do is an open jaw ticket.

Zurich is a breeze to connect through so ORD-ZRH-NCE for the outbound.

Somehow get from NCE to Paris on your own. A train/one way flight on a budget airline.

The reason you have to fly through Zurich or London to get to Paris from NCE is because none of the AAdvantage or OneWorld partners fly that route directly. It's not peculiar as you put it, but rather impossible to do it any other way. I would just do that part on my own and probably just do the high speed train, so you end up in city center as opposed to CDG where you would still need to get a train/taxi or whatever to get you to Paris.

From Paris it should be a breeze getting home, either a direct flight on AA or depending on availibility connect through London, Zurich or Madrid with one of the partners.

The poster above is correct about Swiss leaving as an AAdvantage partner , but Swiss was never a OneWorld partner, only AA's partner. I believe you can only book Swiss on AA All Partner award ticket until DEC 2006.

With award tickets you sometimes have to take an extra flight or do something extra on your own. Award seats are capacity controlled so many times you won't get the exact flights/routes that you had planned. That's just the way it is.

What site are you folks checking the train schedules on? When I go to tgv.com, the RailEurope site pops up. For my date of 5/9/06,I'm told no info can be provided for that date (to far in the future?).

I'd like to check into AA's & Weadles recommendation of getting from NCE to Paris on our own via Easyjet or TGV. THanks.

Train schedules:

<b>http://www.sncf.com/indexe.htm</b>

Budget airlines:

<b>www.whichbudget.com</b>

You should use the following SNCF site.
http://www.voyages-sncf.com/

You can get the trains for 09 May 2006 there. Remember, in Europe we put dates in the order of 09/05/2006. If you put 05/09/2006, they will take it as 05 Sep 2006.

Alrighty,

the winner is:

AA: ORD (5/3) - LHR (landing &amp; departing via LHR)- NCE (5/4) landing 1:15 pm

Grab an easyjet flight NCE to Orly

SWISS: CDG (5/12) - ZRH - ORD (5/12) landing 3:30pm

All, except the easyjet flight via aa mileage award.

That took awhile but thanks for all your help. Now to book the easyjet portion.