Hello,

We are changing our strategy for using frequent flier tickets next June to go to Europe -- we live in San Diego and tickets from San Diego to Europe appear to be impossible to get (Delta). So I am thinking about using miles to get to an east coast city and then paying to fly to London from there. Delta appears to have good availability into Dulles and Newark at that time. Which of those hotels would be easier in terms of getting a hotel near the airport, accessability to the city (Washington DC or New York City), etc.

Thanks for your advice!

Have you tried calling Delta and asking about their partners? We frequently use our Delta miles on Air France and have found tickets when there are none available on Delta.

Newark is easier for access to NYC than IAD is for access to DC. You can take the train from EWR into NYC and its pretty easy. IAD doesnt have a metro/train going to it. You need to either take a cab ($50+), take a shuttle service or take the Metro Bus that leaves about every hour and has a couple stops in DC. You can also take the Washington flyer to the Vienna, VA I think that's the stop) metro stop and take the metro from there into DC. There are hotels with shuttles near IAD. Can't speak to hotels near EWR.

I think Newark would be easier. You don't need to go into NYC. There are plenty of hotels around the airport area plus they will have free shuttles to/from. The Newark Airport Hilton is a good choice.

What exactly are you trying to achieve? Are you going to spend some time in DC or NYC? Or just overnighting?

It seems a huge hassle just to overnight there. You most likely have to take two plane trips just to get to IAD or EWR, then pay for hotel, and then another ticket to Europe.

Anyways, not that many good airport hotel choices at EWR. If you're just overnighting, go with IAD. But fares from IAD to Europe may not be as good as from NYC. And why EWR? JFK has more cheap flights to Europe.

Ms- I know you asked about EWR or IAD, but have you considered LAX? DL might have options from there on DL or one of it's code share partners. If you fly out of EWR or IAD, you'd more than likely need to overnight in each direction, since you'd have separate tickets (safer that way). It might be cheaper to take a shuttle bus from SAN to LAX or leaving your car in long term parking compared to the overnight hotel expenses in EWR area of IAD area??

Thanks for all the advice! Main goal here is to not pay $1,500 a ticket (since my family of 4 is going), but wouldn't find seeing DC (have never been) or NYC (have been once). I was hoping to get 2 tickets with my 100,000 Delta miles, not just 1! I will try calling them and asking about partner airlines.

Thanks!
Michele

Absolutely call about partner airlines. You can get to Europe on all of DL's Skyteam partners - AF, KL, CO, NW, AZ, and so on.

Having said that, I wouldn't want an AZ (Alitalia) itinerary as who knows if AZ still exist or in what form comes next June. Also, forget getting CO seats this early as they don't release them until later.

But the others are all possible.

I avoid Dulles at all costs because of the extra security and general rudness that you are subject to when flying into Dulles.

Dulles (IAD) is a horrible airport.

Dulles is not that bad compared to other large airports (except for those mobile loungesgt;) Given this summer's horror stories on flight delays and cancellations involving the New York area airports including Newark, I would use Dulles as the connecting airport.