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Italy 2008 Planning Blog December 2007: It's hard to believe, since I've done very little recent flying with them, but I took up a no-fee offer for the Northwest Airlines Visa card, and the bonus qualified me for another free trip to Europe. At least this time it would have to be in Economy and out of the Saver bucket. NW has recently changed its booking site, and some people have reported frustrations with it, including not showing award availability where there is some. I was able, however, to get availability for a multi-leg trip using partner airlines. So, for late summer, when I have some hope of having saved some spending money, I got availability on the outbound on Delta, from Kansas City connecting only at Atlanta. They offered a 1-hour layover, which wouldn't be comfortable for me, so I took a near-7-hour layover and can plan to go into Atlanta. For the return, I've been wanting to have a stopover in Amsterdam, and the new system was able to show availability and book it on a regular round trip award; the stopover isn't so easily done on a paid trip. The problem was that it kept wanting to put one leg of the trip a week after the previous leg, and I kept needing to correct the dates. But I got it to work (KLM Rome-Amsterdam, NW AMS-Minneapolis-KC). It looks like my one night in Amsterdam will be during a big convention, which could limit my lodging choices. It looks like I can check my main bag at the airport, just carry my overnight needs in a carry-on, and more easily stay in one of the places with steep steps common in Amsterdam. So I have the time in Italy, mostly staying in the family house. I'll see who else will be there and where else in Italy I might stop. February 2008: Checking in again, a difficult time after my cat has succumbed to cancer. About the trip: I see that changes in my flights include the KC-Atlanta flight being operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines, which gets bad reviews. I was initially assigned to a seat that Seatguru marks in red, and got that changed. I would like to get to Abruzzo during the trip. There are some preliminary recommendations from SlowTrav, and advice to read trip reports there, which I still need to do. I won't be reserving any lodging very early: I'll want a better feel for the trip, seeing who else will be there and what will be happening in Umbertide, during the time of their annual festival. So I'd kind of like to be in Italy before I firm up my plans, but I may book something tentative. I have booked my one night at a small hotel in Amsterdam. Feb. 27 update: Even though I figured it was way too early to book, I thought I'd take a look at what the price of a rental car would be. Since I don't want to pay the airport surcharge and hesitate to drive after an overnight flight, I'm thinking, if I'm going alone, I'll take the bus from Rome FCO airport to Umbertide on a Thursday, then take the train on Friday to Città di Castello (C di C) to get a car to return at FCO at the end of my trip. My usual first place to check, Auto Europe, says they can't make a quote. It's an Avis office, so I go to Avis.com to look for more information, to see if the C di C office might be on summer closing, ending its affiliation, etc. They offer quotes; interestingly, they appear to quote comprehensive rates (Auto Europe's forte) in U.S. dollars and all apparently payable at the time of rental without requiring a credit card in advance. The amount isn't as much as I feared. I thought no downside to holding a reservation, but I'll check some alternatives. From Perugia to Rome, Auto Europe also didn't offer quotes from the locations that I identified as Avis, although they did for Europcar, which is not right at the station in Perugia as Hertz and Avis are. I take it that rates for Avis haven't been set yet; I got some quotes for earlier dates. I checked Kemwel, affiliated with Auto Europe; they weren't listing Avis locations at all; they had a Europcar quote with zero deductible insurance (I identify all these companies by their street addresses; they're not named when you first get the quote). Neither of them is showing Hertz locations. So then I tried the site for residents of Canada www.autoeurope.ca . It included Hertz locations; I thought I could save a day's cost by starting on Saturday at noon there. The Canadian site is known for giving zero deductible quotes; I got one (16-day rental) of $583 Cdn. But then I went to SlowTrav's clickthru for Auto Europe Canada; an identical rental request showed $653 Cdn. It's been established that U.S. residents can use the Canadian site; this is much better than the U.S. site was showing. So now to decide whether to make a prepaid booking this early. I've had credit cards that get me various travel award points; there's the risk that I'm diluting the awards by using several cards. On a Discover card, I'd made a final push with their Miles card to get a $50 travel credit; with that done, their Open Road card, which gives a 5% rebate on gasoline, looked appealing. I asked about changing the card, and they said I would need to apply for a new Open Road card. I did that and got the card, with the appealing benefit of a 0% interest rate for the first six months. With that, I can concentrate most of my spending there, leaving travel awards aside for a while, make retirement account deposits, and let my bank balance build up to a comfortable level for spending money in Italy (hoping to manage it responsibly enough that I'm not broken when interest rates kick in at the same time as my trip). The Discover Card can't be used in Europe and has little acceptance in Canada, but autoeurope.ca does accept it, and they reportedly do the exchange at the Interbank rate without taking an extra percentage; I expect the Canadian amount to be pretty close to the American. So it looks good; I wonder about putting that big a charge on the card during my first week with it. My first use of the card was at a gas pump and included my "baptism" with gas that spilled on me March 5-- I decided to complete the transaction last night. Calling up my old voucher, the Auto Europe site didn't give the option of paying with Discover. I started a new rental request, got the same price quote, and it did give the option of paying with Discover. I did that, and got a voucher saying Paid. Then this morning I got a phone call from Auto Europe saying I couldn't use Discover. I said I wasn't interested in booking yet in that case. March 19-- I got a new notice that my KC-Atlanta flight was changed back to a mainline Delta flight; as Delta announces cuts, I won't be surprised to see more changes. Once again, I changed my seat assignment from a seat in the back row marked in red. April 2-- New developments as my mother has booked her trip. She'll arrive a week after me, so I'll plan to tour Abruzzo in the days leading up to it, and meet her on her arrival in Rome. On her return, she'll have a layover in Amsterdam from 11.30 p.m. to 8 a.m. I'm giving her an award night at the airport Hilton. Under the current plan, I fly from Rome to Amsterdam later on the day she continues home, and I leave for my home the next day. I've been looking to change to her flight, we can share that room, and I'll have more time in Amsterdam. The other day, there was no award availability on that KLM flight, but there was on Alitalia a little earlier. I thought about it and called to ask to get that flight, and they said it wasn't available. Today there's a lot of doubt about Alitalia's future, and I don't know if it's good or not that I didn't get changed. Since this would be a NW-issued ticket, I'd hope to be protected on KLM if Alitalia isn't flying. In a short time we'll know more, and I keep looking at least for KLM availability, which shows online. If my plans don't change, I'll stay at one of the Rome airport Hiltons, and probably won't go into Rome even with an early afternoon departure after the stay. I may take that time to explore and take pictures of the airport complex and train station, to add to the page that I contributed to the SlowTrav site. April 23-- I've booked lodgings in Abruzzo. One potential problem was that one place wanted a deposit sent by bank transfer; it would be €22.50, and I think the bank charges would be more than that. I wrote offering to send them cash, and they said they would hold the reservation without a deposit. I booked the rental car, with the price on Auto Europe's Canadian site still showing the same price while I'm assured that I'll have my tax rebate before my credit card bill is due. I still save $70 Cdn. by going directly to www.autoeurope.ca rather than the SlowTrav clickthru. Although I'm an appreciative member of SlowTrav, having gone to their Savannah gathering, I won't pay this much more for the clickthru and don't know if it's really their Internet Brands owners' intention for it to be that much higher. April 30-- Late one night last week, I did my routine search of award availability on the Rome-Amsterdam segment, and found it for my mother's late-night flight. There was frustration trying to change it online; they said I could do it for no more miles if I changed to a Delta transatlantic flight leaving earlier, and with another long layover in Atlanta. I tried making the change online, and ran into an error message, directing me to phone. When I called, I made a few attempts getting cut off or waiting until I couldn't any longer. I got up early the next morning and tried again. I tried with the Delta option and that agent ran into trouble, transferring me to a WorldPerks specialist who made the change just on the one segment, and let me keep the later-departing trip out of Amsterdam that I had. So we'll be staying together at the Amsterdam Airport Hilton that night, then I'll move into the city for another day and night. June 5-- Not much more to report; just that my Kansas City-Atlanta flight was changed back to Atlantic Southeast. As word comes out about airlines making more cuts, I wouldn't be surprised to see more changes. Oh yes, on my return, my Minneapolis-Kansas City flight was changed because the last flight of the day was taken off the schedule. Now I barely make the minimum legal connect time. Even though American's fee for checked baggage wouldn't affect this trip, it's causing a paradigm shift for me to start thinking of taking carry-ons only even for a trip this long, considering the late arrival of the Rome-Amsterdam flight and the short time to clear customs and connect at MSP. August— I’m getting ready; I haven’t checked in much, I have plans for either train or bus connections from Fiumicino to Umbertide depending how smoothly things go on my arrival. I have a little more time for the MSP connection. I have a bag that I plan to check on the outbound and carry-on on the return. I’ve tried to retrieve many of the details that I looked up long ago and have forgotten. Otherwise, I’m hoping for a great trip.
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