The Airline

It really sucks that our freedom to choose the best airline (Capitalist-American style) is hindered by the monopoly American Airlines has here in Texas.  American SUCKS!!  United (out of Houston) isn't much better.  Delta is better, but getting to Atlanta (on Delta) is horrible on a little shitty puddle hopper plane.

I refuse to fly on a subpar airline.  I need decent food, comfortable seats, wifi and and entertainment module at my seat.  I need the plane to leave on time, and the safety record has to be top-notch.  None of the 3 "top" American airlines qualify.

The only non-stop flight from DFW to Spain is via American Airlines.  There is a non-stop flight from Atlanta to Spain via Delta, but getting to Atlanta via Delta sucks.  AND, arriving home via Atlanta is sub-optimal.
We considered flying Southwest (better airline with good sized planes) to/from Atlanta, but that makes for a long travel day since we would have to really get to the airport early, and take an early flight to Atlanta in order to ensure we won't miss our international connection.  Because if we do, we're stuck in Atlanta...

We considered flying to Asia (since lots of the Asian airlines are rated highly).  We considered flying in to other European cities.  In the end, only a few flights go non-stop from DFW to Europe period.  And if we eliminate American (which means eliminating their "partners" because it's American that "operates" these flights) three cities remain:

1.  Lufthansa to Frankfurt
2.  British Airways to London (1 flight *not* operated by AA)
3.  KLM to Amsterdam

Then, we have to consider coming back.  There may be a Air France that we can find (based on days, and aircraft operation, etc), but that would have to be *going* and *coming*, which doesn't seem to exist.  Additionally, the goal is to end up and spend the majority of time in SPAIN.  So coming home from Spain would not be on an Air France flight.

In the end, we decided to fly KLM into Amsterdam.  Take the Eurorail down to Madrid via Paris.  Then fly out of Barcelona to Amsterdam then onward to DFW via KLM.

Decided to choose dates based on the least disruption in school, work, and activities.  This is mid-May until mid-June....