Frequent Flyer Tickets for Europe

We just reserved a round trip to Rome next May with Delta FF miles, both ways non-stop from Atlanta.  Ron wants to be at the 70^th anniversary of D-Day and also to see Anzio Beach (Italy) where his father landed in 1944, so we will visit just those two countries. Tonight at 11 p.m. Central Time, it was 331 days out to June 10^th, when we will be returning. Joan spent some time planning this timeframe to grab those flights; and interestingly, the non-stops did not open up until 11:30 p.m.
     Our original plan was to fly one way into Rome and then take the train to Normandy and then fly one way home from Paris.  It’s done often.     What we did not figure on was the high Paris airport fees.  RT Fare is $653, but.....fees are $644 (unlike to Rome, it is ~$1200 and just a $60 fee.  But when you use FF miles, it was 95,000 miles to either place, PLUS the fee.  So that made the Paris leg untenable.

    It turns out that Eurorail is not as cheap or easy to use as it was in 1970 (surprise… NOT!)

      We decided to use the FF miles RT to Rome and then fly RT to Paris from Rome.  On Alitalia Airlines, it was $363 RT for both of us (the train was almost as much and took a long time.)  PS: That price was also much cheaper than Pam could get for us.