Some international travel questions

[bumbershoot]

It would be nice to stick with all one airline so I can rack up the miles. I do know I'll be going back to Kuwait at least one other time and a trip to Italy. That sure would be a lot of miles!

Decisions decisions.....

one airline isn't necessary as long as you pay attention to partners. NU mentions Star Alliance...that's a group of airlines that is partnered in some way. So if you fly lufthansa, you can put your United number in, and earn United miles. It's a lovely thing.

 

[rewok]

NotUrsula- thanks for all that info. Certainly something to consider. If I did stay overnight in Frankfurt I could always stay with my DIL, if she was willing to come pick me up and bring me back. She's about an hour away. There is no domestic connection as I live in Tampa.

An hour away from the airport, that's a lot! I don't think it would help out to relax from all the airplane time, jet lag, ... Do not underestimate how tired, frumpy, grumpy you'll be when landing, if you never lived the experience before. Taking a shuttle to a nearby hotel, relaxing in the lounge with a meal, going to bed early will help you get into the new time zone. Then the next day you get to your DH in much better condition.

Like other, I wouldn't do the unticketed connection unless I knew there were lots of backup available, e.g. 1-2 other ways to get from your pre-transactlantic airport to Frankfurt. Our plane to Paris was delayed quite a few hours this summer, luckily we got there quite early, and we caught an earlier flight (losing our extra nice seats...)

 

[phorsenuf]

So I checked into Star Alliance and while they have a lot of partner airlines they aren't the ones offering the best fares. Is there another way to search partner groups besides looking at every airlines rewards programs?