Topic Wiki

Points Used:

UR: 133K
MR: 40K
SPG: 90K
AA: 148K
UA: 95K
Hyatt: 4 free nights
Marriott: 146K and 2 free nights (still waiting for some points to post and then change cash res. to points)
IHG: ~130K (still haven't decided which hotel in Belgium to stay at)
Melia: 22K
BA: 4.5K
And 1 BRG :)

Desired Locations: (Strikethrough means booked)

Israel
London
Paris
Zurich

Rome (Car rental booked FCO-FLR-PSA-VCE)
Florence
Pisa
Venice
Madrid (RT train booked to Toledo)
Barcelona
Seville
(Car rental booked SVQ-GIB-SVQ)
Gibraltar
Bruges/Ghent (Belgium) (Have to book trains within Belgium and RT to AMS.)
Amsterdam

Days Scheduled in Each Location
In no order in particular...

Rome 3.5
Florence .5
Pisa .5
Venice 4.5 including Shabbos (although others said it can be done in less time)
Israel 12
Amsterdam 2
Paris 4 including Shabbos
Dublin 1.5
London 4 including Shabbos (although others said it can be done in less time)
Zurich 1 (b/c it's the United <24 hour stopover, but I'm sure there's more than 1 day's worth of activities there)
Belgium 1
(Amount of days in the different Spain cities are short and were very calculated based on suggestions, as I wanted to save any "extra" days I had for other countries.)
Madrid 1
Seville .5
Gibraltar 1.5 including Shabbos
Barcelona 1.5
« Last edited by @Yehuda on June 08, 2014, 06:26:36 PM »

Author Topic: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon  (Read 108012 times)

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #200 on: March 27, 2014, 08:22:12 AM »
What's your routing?

Whoops, should have posted that. I know it passes through LHR a lot, but every routing we tried in Feb also did.

TLV-MAD-BCN-MAD-SVQ-MAD-FCO-LHR-AMS-LHR-DUB-LHR-CDG/ORY-JFK

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #201 on: March 27, 2014, 09:49:43 AM »
I actually got the individual YQs from them pp:

TLV-MAD $79.50 IB
MAD-BCN $39.20 IB
BCN-MAD-SVQ $70.80 IB
SVQ-MAD-FCO $60.80 IB (weird that leaving Spain is cheaper than the previous flight)
FCO-LHR-AMS $158.50 BA
AMS-LHR $81.80 BA
LHR-DUB $134.30 BA
DUB-LHR-CDG $140.40 BA
ORY-JFK $396.20 BA

Again, total is about $1160 and they want $25 pp phone booking fees (which I thought could be waived bc this trip can't be booked online, but first rep said nope. If I go through with it, obv I will HUCA the matter).
« Last Edit: March 27, 2014, 10:26:30 AM by @Yehuda »

Offline Ergel

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #202 on: March 27, 2014, 09:58:58 AM »
What airline are you flying ORY-JFK?
Life isn't about checking the boxes. Nobody cares.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #203 on: March 27, 2014, 10:25:58 AM »
What airline are you flying ORY-JFK?
BA, but I expect the Europe-NY flight to cost money. It's all these other ones that are 80-150 that are bothersome. Will update the previous post with the airlines for each leg.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #204 on: March 27, 2014, 11:17:16 PM »
This is getting back to the frustrating stage where I left it in Feb.  :-\

I found Cbs's Euro TR in which he used Avios to book certain legs for cheaper than AA is coming up with, but doing something like that would kill my OWE. I learned yesterday that the OJ allowed on the OWE has to be used in NY - ending the trip there as opposed to requiring me to go back to TLV. I don't know why I didn't realize that before, but I thought you could book a one-way trip and have an OJ in there too. Basically, now I can't leave any OW city in Europe and travel to another via a different airline unless I return to the OW city I left off at. Since I can't really stray too far from my last OW city, using Avios to go around won't help.

I've skimmed through every other Eurotrip report in the Master List as well and haven't come up with any good ideas from them. I've looked at the cheap airlines like Ryanair, EasyJet, and JetAirFly and even though they connect many random cities, they still cost between $50-80 for most flights and they don't connect the cities I want with skipping LON (eg. they don't have AMS-DUB). And again, if I use them, I have to get back to my last OW city to continue my Explorer.

I also looked at LH as an option to go back to NY, but every flight they have from DUS, VIE, ZRH has about $400 YQ - no better than my current $400 ORY-JFK. There is 1 seat on biz DUS-JFK at the end of July, which only has $80 YQ and would totally change things (dropping my total by over $300pp), but it's only 1 seat. I keep checking to see if another opens, or if there's some way to view expanded award availability (like how United 1K can see expanded United availability), but no luck yet.

If anyone has any other ideas for how to travel within Europe on award flights with low YQ and ending back in NY, please pray tell.
Thanks

Offline smart brit

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #205 on: March 28, 2014, 01:37:23 AM »
Did you try aer lingus? Dub jfk 20k avios +90$?
Aer lingus from zrh-dub should be around 100$ pp.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #206 on: March 28, 2014, 07:39:54 AM »
Did you try aer lingus? Dub jfk 20k avios +90$?
Aer lingus from zrh-dub should be around 100$ pp.
How do you suggest to search for avail? BA.com only shows with stopovers at LHR.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #207 on: March 28, 2014, 09:31:28 AM »
Been trying to find it on Qantas as suggested by The Points Guy (http://thepointsguy.com/2012/04/using-british-airways-avios-on-aer-lingus-to-avoid-taxes-and-fuel-surcharges/) but can't find anything direct.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #208 on: March 28, 2014, 09:43:56 AM »
Just called BA. Couldn't find any AerLingus avail for DUB-NYC or BOS even. Same thing for MAD/BCN-NYC. I guess I can try again once US officially becomes OW in April.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #209 on: April 01, 2014, 01:13:20 PM »
FOUND IT!!! FOUND MY WAY ACROSS THE ATLANTIC!

DUB-CLT on US on the exact date I want to leave Europe for $45.60!

Wow, 2 months of waiting and there it is.

Now, 2 things to do:
1) I need to re-piece everything together (for the millionth time) from TLV and now ending in DUB.
2) I need to find CLT-NYC. Ideally, I would like EWR since my car will be my mother's house who lives near there. Either way, right now AA is not showing any availability departing after I arrive in CLT. Worst case, I spend the night there.

Woohoo! Onwards!

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #210 on: April 03, 2014, 09:30:13 AM »
Gentleman (ladies),
We have liftoff. AA is pricing out the itinerary now, and b"h it looks awesome, if I may say so myself. Will post more details once it's done.

Traveller's Insurance
I have scoured the forums for info on insurance - cancellation, delays, medical, etc. Seems like every time someone started a thread on the topic, there were no replies. Is anyone familiar with traveller's/trip insurance? Is it enough to just pay for everything with my SP and not get any additional insurance?

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #211 on: April 03, 2014, 01:26:23 PM »
Coincidentally, SP just promo emailed me about their Travel Benefits program. Called up to get more details:
Flights cancellation or interruption due to death in the family or illness/injury are covered up to $5000, but delayed or missed flights are not covered. Medical is also not covered. As is well known, intl rental car insurance is covered. Also just had them send me an EMV chip card, which I do not have yet, and put a notice on my account that I will be in Europe in the summer to avoid getting locked out for fraud.

Will now look into other travel insurances to cover delayed/missed flights as well as looking into my health insurance to see if I'm covered abroad.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #212 on: April 03, 2014, 01:40:56 PM »
looking into my health insurance to see if I'm covered abroad.

Hopefully this shouldn't happen, but I'm covered for emergencies abroad. Explained as - having to go to the hospital. I pay everything upfront and get an itemized bill, file a claim when I get back and then my regular benefit rules apply - copay/deductible/etc.

Good to know. Think that will hopefully be enough coverage.

Offline YankyDoodle

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #213 on: April 03, 2014, 02:40:09 PM »
Hopefully this shouldn't happen, but I'm covered for emergencies abroad. Explained as - having to go to the hospital. I pay everything upfront and get an itemized bill, file a claim when I get back and then my regular benefit rules apply - copay/deductible/etc.

Good to know. Think that will hopefully be enough coverage.
Assuming you have no preexisting conditions, travelers health insurance is pretty cheap anyway.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #214 on: April 03, 2014, 02:44:08 PM »
Assuming you have no preexisting conditions, travelers health insurance is pretty cheap anyway.
Aha, but if I have this, don't see why I would need more, no?

Offline YankyDoodle

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #215 on: April 03, 2014, 03:33:01 PM »
Aha, but if I have this, don't see why I would need more, no?
Ya absolutely, you just want to make sure that there's no fine print you're missing (i.e. does it cover ambulance etc). In the event that you are not 100% comfortable with it, you can get health insurance cheap.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #216 on: April 03, 2014, 04:13:17 PM »
Ya absolutely, you just want to make sure that there's no fine print you're missing (i.e. does it cover ambulance etc). In the event that you are not 100% comfortable with it, you can get health insurance cheap.
Thanks. Just called again to confirm and yes ambulance is covered. After this call, I'm very comfortable, so I'll stick with just this.

On to trip insurance - are all these insurance programs going to be the same - a few different tiers of coverage for all about $100-$300? Anyone have a specific positive experience with any company? Someone suggested Travel Guard. Site looks good, seems like the coverage will cover everything, and their highest tier is $180.

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #217 on: April 03, 2014, 06:09:57 PM »
Look in to travelex insurance we used them and had to make use of them and they were excellent

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #218 on: April 03, 2014, 09:30:12 PM »
Look in to travelex insurance we used them and had to make use of them and they were excellent
Thanks for sharing your experience. Will do.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: Stage 1: 90% COMPLETE == @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #219 on: April 03, 2014, 09:43:37 PM »
And the OWE just got priced out! (This is not the entire trip; additional stops via train, Ryanair, EasyJet, and car rentals are planned.)
Here it is:       *indicates connection only

TLV-MAD-BCN-*MAD-SVQ-*MAD-FCO-LHR-BRU-*LHR-CDG-*LHR-DUB-CLT

Total cost for 90K miles and $848.20 pax   (+$25 booking fee, still want to fight that)

I am SO freaking excited!

Now, I just need that SPG-AA transfer to move a little faster before the reservation hold ends...