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 107988 times)

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #220 on: April 04, 2014, 01:17:12 PM »
Might go crazy here waiting for the miles to post... Hold expires on Sunday. Read through FT and a few blogs and found 1 report of SPG-AA posting on a Sunday and not on Wednesday (as is normally the case). Crossing my fingers here or else I'll have to get them to unleash the whole ticket and rebook it, wait for the rate dept again to price it, etc...

Offline ilherman

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #221 on: April 05, 2014, 11:18:06 PM »
Just to make sure.... Did you transfer from YOUR SPG account?
You can say what you think when you think what you say.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #222 on: April 05, 2014, 11:46:30 PM »
Just to make sure.... Did you transfer from YOUR SPG account?
Wife's SPG to wife's AA and just checked after Shabbos and the points were there! Never used FT but I should add my data point to their SPG transfers thread as no one there reported incoming SPG-AA miles during the 25 hours of Shabbos.

Ready to book! Any ideas for avoiding the $25 booking fee? Every rep so far said it's not a convenience fee like I thought (and therefore should be waived when it's impossible to book on the phone), but it's just simply a phone booking fee without anyway to go around it. Tried in Aadvantage reservations and tried Aadvantaqe Customer Service depts.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #223 on: April 06, 2014, 01:38:35 AM »
BOOOOOOKED!

Yeah, got excited when the points posted after Shabbos and wasn't tired till now, so I just called and booked!
Tried to get the $25 fee waived, but they were not budging once again. But interestingly... it was $848.20 pax when I called on Thursday, but tonight it was only $751.70!! What?? AWESOME.

Good night.

Offline ilherman

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #224 on: April 06, 2014, 01:47:26 AM »
BOOOOOOKED!

Yeah, got excited when the points posted after Shabbos and wasn't tired till now, so I just called and booked!
Tried to get the $25 fee waived, but they were not budging once again. But interestingly... it was $848.20 pax when I called on Thursday, but tonight it was only $751.70!! What?? AWESOME.

Good night.
Happy for you! Now we're waiting for the TR!
You can say what you think when you think what you say.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #225 on: April 06, 2014, 10:19:41 AM »
Happy for you! Now we're waiting for the TR!
Thanks :)

Just picked up the last 2 seats on the flight I wanted from CLT-EWR to end the trip on US booked with 4500 Avios + $2.50 pax :)

Offline Marco Polo

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #226 on: April 08, 2014, 10:19:34 AM »
Did you ever finis booking the RTW ticket? Seems like it is not an option anymore.
Quaerite et Invenietis.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #227 on: April 08, 2014, 10:21:09 AM »
Did you ever finis booking the RTW ticket? Seems like it is not an option anymore.
Yes! Posted in the AA thread that I thank G-d ticketed on SUNDAY!!! Crazy.

Offline Marco Polo

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #228 on: April 08, 2014, 10:22:37 AM »
Yes! Posted in the AA thread that I thank G-d ticketed on SUNDAY!!! Crazy.
Happy for you. Would have been a shame after all the effort put in for this trip.
Quaerite et Invenietis.

Offline efflpetzel

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #229 on: April 08, 2014, 10:25:08 AM »
Yup, your a very lucky boy

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #230 on: April 08, 2014, 10:33:17 AM »
Yup, your a very lucky boy
Happy for you. Would have been a shame after all the effort put in for this trip.
Thanks guys :) Phew!
Yeah here's the lineup from a few posts upthread:
 *indicates connection only

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

$776.70 pax

Offline Marco Polo

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #231 on: April 08, 2014, 10:34:33 AM »
Thanks guys :) Phew!
Yeah here's the lineup from a few posts upthread:
 *indicates connection only

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

$776.70 pax
What class and airlines are you flying in/on?
Quaerite et Invenietis.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #232 on: April 08, 2014, 10:37:00 AM »
What class and airlines are you flying in/on?

J (got lucky they had avail on every leg)
TLV through FCO is IB
FCO through DUB is BA
DUB-CLT is US

Had been waiting forever to find a way to cross the ocean w/o having to take BA and their YQ.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #233 on: April 08, 2014, 11:30:19 AM »
Any ideas here guys?

Trying to go VCE-NCE/MRS on 7/7 and then NCE/MRS-FCO either on 7/9 at night or on 7/10.

Tried EasyJet (only one of the cheap European airlines that flies these routes with availability) but it'll come out to $100/leg/pax.

AF has availability, although the dates/times aren't perfect, for 15K and about $30-40 per leg. I saw that these flights can be booked via AS for the same miles/YQ, but I'm not sure it's worth transferring 50-60K of MR or SPG over there.

AZ might have something, but their system just went down and CSR said to call back later.

Any other ideas?

Offline ilherman

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #234 on: April 08, 2014, 11:59:00 AM »
Any ideas here guys?

Trying to go VCE-NCE/MRS on 7/7 and then NCE/MRS-FCO either on 7/9 at night or on 7/10.

Tried EasyJet (only one of the cheap European airlines that flies these routes with availability) but it'll come out to $100/leg/pax.

AF has availability, although the dates/times aren't perfect, for 15K and about $30-40 per leg. I saw that these flights can be booked via AS for the same miles/YQ, but I'm not sure it's worth transferring 50-60K of MR or SPG over there.

AZ might have something, but their system just went down and CSR said to call back later.

Any other ideas?
$100 would be your best option. 10,000 MR points is worth about $150....
You can say what you think when you think what you say.

Offline ilherman

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #235 on: April 08, 2014, 12:20:41 PM »
I hope you know, most of your flights don't even have real business class seats.... Hope I didn't make you in a bad mood now.
You can say what you think when you think what you say.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #236 on: April 08, 2014, 12:26:54 PM »
I hope you know, most of your flights don't even have real business class seats.... Hope I didn't make you in a bad mood now.
Yeah, I realized that a while ago. The goal was to cross the ocean in business, and from what I understand, the rest will be 2 roomier seats in a row instead of 3. For the extra 20K pax for the trip, I'll take it.

ETA: I also realize US DUB-CLT might not be the fanciest J either.

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #237 on: April 08, 2014, 12:38:06 PM »
Yeah, I realized that a while ago. The goal was to cross the ocean in business, and from what I understand, the rest will be 2 roomier seats in a row instead of 3. For the extra 20K pax for the trip, I'll take it.

ETA: I also realize US DUB-CLT might not be the fanciest J either.
Yup..
 
Not sure what you mean roomier seats usually they are regular economy seats not even economy plus, with the middle seat left empty.

Though the service might be business class service.
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Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #238 on: April 08, 2014, 12:39:35 PM »
Yup..
 
Not sure what you mean roomier seats usually they are regular economy seats not even economy plus, with the middle seat left empty.

Though the service might be business class service.
Really? I thought it's 2 larger seats in place of 3 regular ones.

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #239 on: April 08, 2014, 12:41:38 PM »
Really? I thought it's 2 larger seats in place of 3 regular ones.
So now you know... Sorry... Again for just 20k more it's not really a big deal.

You can say what you think when you think what you say.