I'm looking for community input.
Mostly because of business travel, but also because I have signed up for almost every reward program that American Airlines offers, this year I expect to earn around 200,000 frequent-flyer miles. I need to spend them. And when best to spend them then off-season, in late November or early December, when people aren't traveling much?
But where to go? American and its partner oneworld carriers fly non-stop from Chicago to about 95 destinations, ranging in distance from Milwaukee to Delhi, India.
So here are my rules for this long weekend in November or December: the destination must be 12 hours total flying time or closer; outside the Lower 48; avoid the infamous Newark-to-Kennedy connection that American loves to inflict on people using miles; no visa requirement; and nowhere I've been before. Oh, and it has to be somewhere I actually want to go.
Here's the preliminary list, with non-stop flights from Chicago listed first:
- Amman, Jordan
- Calgary, Alb.
- Cancún, Mexico
- Madrid, Spain
- Manchester, U.K. (i.e., Scotland)
- México City
- Montréal
- Ottawa
- Tokyo
- Toronto
- Bucharest, Romania (x LHR)
- Budapest, Hungary (x JFK)
- Buenos Aires (x MIA)
- Curação (x MIA)
- Copenhagen, Denmark (x LHR)
- Honolulu (x LAX)
- Panama City (x MIA)
- Quito, Ecuador (x MIA)
- San Jose, Costa Rica (x DFW)
- San Jose Cabo, Mexico (x LAX)
- Santiago, Chile (x JFK)
- Stockholm, Sweden (x LHR)
- Tel Aviv, Israel (x LHR)
- Vienna, Austria (x LHR)
- Zurich, Switzerland (x JFK)
(I'm leaning towards the places in bold.) Thoughts?