Welcome to my next trip report, a brief series recounting my visit to France, Germany, and the Netherlands earlier this year. For this family trip, we exclusively flew SkyTeam, flying out on Air France and returning on KLM.
A Family Trip To Europe On SkyTeam – Air France + KLM Longhaul Economy Class
The trip got off to a rough start when my Air France flight was cancelled (without notice). We showed up at Los Angeles International Airport ready to fly to Paris (and with a hotel reservation and train tickets on arrival) only to be informed a mechanical issue meant our flight had been scrapped. We were rebooked to travel the following afternoon.
Rather than return home, we accepted the offer of hotel and meal vouchers at the Sheraton Gateway LAX, a hotel that is quite close to LAX…and quite underwhelming (though it gave me a good chance to check my privilege at the door).
Our lost day meant our we lost our only day in Paris, since we wanted to maximize our time with Heidi’s family in Germany.
I considered asking Air France to rebook all the way to Basel – Mulhouse, but did want to jeopardize my EU261/2004 delay compensation by accepting a “voluntary” change so we ended up landing in Paris, traveling across town to Paris Est rail station, eating lunch, then continuing our journey by train not Mulhouse. I will detail our train segments in hopes of saving you the stress that we endured.
Our time in Germany, as always, was lovely, though it was a warm and dry season: no snow this year. Even so, we enjoyed some excellent downtime, great walks, good cooking, and quality time with the German side of the family.
For our return, we flew to Amsterdam with a 25-hour stopover. We spent the night at the Andaz Prinsengracht, which remains a superb hotel, and toured the Anne Frank House with our kids.
How do you talk to a six-year-old about the Holocaust? We certainly did, and I will dedicate a post to to this.
On our trip home, we flew KLM and ran into an issue with a US official at the airport, but had a very pleasant flight home. Augustine even wound up with a very special souvenir.
Finally, I’ll say that we paid 168,000 Flying Blue points and €477.28 for four round-trip economy class tickets that included the stopover in Amsterdam. Using Flying Blue in the off-season is a great buy: 42K miles round-trip plus €119 per ticket is really superb (especially considering the latest United devaluation).
Here are the segments for this report:
- Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles Hotel (LAX)
- Air France 777-300ER Economy Class Los Angeles – Paris
- Why My Wife Was Annoyed By The Paris Airport Restrooms
- YOTELAIR Lounge Paris (CDG) – Priority Pass
- Parisan Lunch At Marché Saint Quentin
- The Stress Of Traveling From Paris-Est On TGV Train
- Hyatt Regency Zurich Airport – Always Convenient
- Marhaba Lounge Zurich (ZRH)
- KLM Embraer 190 Economy Class Zurich – Amsterdam
- Andaz Prinsengracht (Suite)
- Visiting The Anne Frank House…With A Six-Year-Old
- US Official At Amsterdam Schiphol Airport Harasses My Wife Over Green Card
- KLM 787-10 Economy Class Amsterdam – Los Angeles
Thanks for reading!
Good deal. I recently just also scored a summer ATL-BRU (with train connection!) for 21k+$200 R/T. Can’t wait for your report of the Yotel PP in CDG rofl
You simply can’t beat Flying Blue promo awards for cheap transatlantic trips! I’ve paid as little as 12k miles for one-way flights from Spain to the East coast. I’ve only used the program from an Chase/AMEX transfer point of view, but as my travel to Mexico has ramped up (revenue J tickets), I’m starting to credit all those international short/medium haul trips to FB. Miles accrued might not be incredibly generous, but a few round-trips a year gets me silver, and potentially gold with one revenue transatlantic biz ticket! With the demise of Delta Skymiles, FB seems to be the best choice for Skyteam, and given that AM tickets in J are far cheaper than any of the big three, might as well make the best of it!
How do you explain the Holocaust?
Jealousy. That same hateful emotion is when politicians say “make the rich pay”. We who are rich with miles may be the target one day.
Oh yeah, no one in the world is hated as much as frequent fliers. They’ll be raging from the streets about mileage inequality and vowing to exterminate the frequent fliers and re-distribute their miles.
Imbecile
Sarcastic is fine, but careful. There are folks trying to redefine male, female
Only right wing nut cases are trying to define male & female. What hysteria over nothing. Fear is a great motivator.
Our intrepid blogger bumbles his way across Europe with his dimwitted family – makes for exciting reading.
Attacking his family reflects more on your character ( or lack of character) more than anything else. Now, everyone knows everything that they need to about you and so much more. Have a very pleasant day.
Blah Blah Blah
This is an old post isn’t it? It looks familair. What….nothing exciting today? No one got punched out on Spirit to report on?
I wrote “teasers” for these flights, but have never published a full trip report.
But he can’t express his racist viewpoints with these types of points…well, maybe. We’ll see.
I get the need to provide content, hence the endless posts about United, but a “teaser” post, an “introduction” and then the “trip” itself, is the hamburger helper of blogging and is perhaps taking things a little too far.
The model works. If you don’t like it you are welcome to skip these posts.
“Marhaba Lounge Zurich (ZRH)”
Interesting name for a lounge in a Swiss airport.
I think it’s owned by Emirates…
Hmm, if so, that makes sense.
“How do you talk to a six-year-old about the Holocaust?” For some one who finds an analogy between apartheid and being denied access to a Virgin lounge, this should be easy?
But we’re not talking about analogies here…
Wow. Tough crowd today.
I too have a dimwitted family that I bumble through Europe with, so I’m looking forward to this series.
As for telling kids about the Holocaust, we recently covered this with our oldest. Naturally there were some questions. The questions of a child can really help refine your understanding of any subject. It never occurred to me to link the holocaust to jealousy over frequent flier miles, as suggested above, but I’m sure I’ll get the chance if desired as the topic will come up again at some point.