Thread: AMS Hotels for non-employee nonrevs

Originally Posted by carolyngo

How did you accumulate your database? We are planning to do frequent TATL travel. How do you handle hotel reservations? Do you make advance reservations or do it when you get there. We are parents and will be listed as SB3. DTW is our home airport. We have been around in Europe and know how easy it is to get from city to city so , , like you, we will go on any flight to almost anywhere to get across the pond
We want to travel as much as we can for as long as we can. Life is short and it's a big world
As always, Carolyn

Hi Carolyn and welcome. Sorry for the late response but we just got back from Europe and I wasn't following the board while we were there.

The first thing you need to understand is that everyone's situation is different so what works for one person might not work for another. You have to take lots of things into consideration; How many travelers? in our case - 2 TATL and usually 1 Domestic. My wife doesn't like the relative uncertainty of domestic and we usually have to be somewhere at a specific time, or the route is a tough one for nonrev and we'll buy Fly Confirmed For Less (FCFL). We'd save a little more with Fly Confirmed for Even Less but lose the perks that our DL Medallion Status gets us wwhen flying FCFL. As an aside, since one can only nonrev for personal travel, my business travel is regular ticketing and so I'm a Diamond Medallion and my wife is a Platinum Medallion. That does nothing for us when we're nonreving but on FCFL tickets we still get our miles and upgrades. Another important item is that we're not DL but 9E and as parents we don't have many ZED options which matters once we're out of the US.

Examples: We have a wedding to attend next Saturday in Michigan and can't leave until Friday. NYC-DTW is a tough nonrev, especially on a Friday so we wouldn't take a chance on missing the wedding and bought FCFL tickets. We live in the NYC area in the summer but I go to MSY a lot and I have flexibility on that travel so I nonrev. We also have lots of SkyMiles and will use them if we get stuck or if our destination isn't nonrev convenient or attainable with our S3C. The trip we just made to Europe was Norway and Belgium. We had a set itinerary and no date flexibility and July TATL doesn't work with those parameters so I got Award tickets with Sky Miles as soon as the flight schedule was posted (331 days in advance).

Our approach, as mentioned elsewhere, is to get across the pond nonrev. Our summer trip is usually planned and uses award tickets but our spring, fall and mid-winter trips are nonrev. Once there, we have cars, trains, and LCC's (Low Cost Carriers) to get someplace. so going to Europe, we get on the first flight that has J (Business Class) open for us. Returning to the US, we'll look at where we are but invariably end up returning from AMS That's a whole other subject).

The Database. I initially used a downloaded schedule ( https://www.delta.com/flightinfo/vie...esSetup.action ) and downloaded a printable version in PDF format. Then I went through it (it took under an hour), identified each European City that Delta served with their own flights (no codeshares) and the US cities they connected with and gathered the specific flight information - To, From, Flight Number, Departure Time, Seating Capacity and Equipment Type. That's the database.

We avoid places that only have 1 DL flight a day

A separate note on stuff I've learned about AMS since I started this thread. We have a friend who's moved there and has given me some good information. He and his wife are high mileage flyers.

1. The hotels near the airport are problematic for shuttles back to the terminal in the morning. If we're trying for the early flight back from AMS, we'll book the CitizenM through a discount site and walk to the terminal in the AM.
2. Train service from AMS to the rest of Europe is great.
3. ZED and LCC connections are numerous
4. If we're staying in AMS the best way from the airport to the city is the 197 Express bus. You get it right outside the terminal. It's cheaper than the train and much more pleasant. We've evolved to staying at one of a couple of small hotels in the Museum area. The 197 stops at the Rijksmuseum and there are many reasonably priced hotels (bookable through the discount sites -hotels, bookings, etc.) within 2 blocks. Also good tram and bus service.