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 108015 times)

Offline @Yehuda

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Oct 2013
  • Posts: 9693
  • Total likes: 187
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 5
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #240 on: April 08, 2014, 12:53:38 PM »
Checking seatguru now (LOL). You're right. But yeah, it'll be nice not having anyone sit with us. + First on/off privileges.

Offline ilherman

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Jun 2013
  • Posts: 8935
  • Total likes: 227
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 35
    • View Profile
  • Location: Brooklyn
Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #241 on: April 08, 2014, 12:57:05 PM »
LY is more less the only one offering nice J flying from TLV to Europe. (I think BA/AZ/LX have J as well)
You can say what you think when you think what you say.

Offline @Yehuda

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Oct 2013
  • Posts: 9693
  • Total likes: 187
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 5
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #242 on: April 08, 2014, 02:55:13 PM »
Just confirmed the layout of all my BA flights (can't reserve seats without paying a fee until check-in apparently) and every flight has larger seats in business class with either 2x2 or 2x3x2 layouts.

Offline ilherman

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Jun 2013
  • Posts: 8935
  • Total likes: 227
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 35
    • View Profile
  • Location: Brooklyn
Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #243 on: April 08, 2014, 02:58:34 PM »
Just confirmed the layout of all my BA flights (can't reserve seats without paying a fee until check-in apparently) and every flight has larger seats in business class with either 2x2 or 2x3x2 layouts.
Whom did you confirm it with?
You can say what you think when you think what you say.

Offline @Yehuda

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Oct 2013
  • Posts: 9693
  • Total likes: 187
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 5
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #244 on: April 08, 2014, 02:59:11 PM »
Whom did you confirm it with?
Called BA. He showed me how to pull up online the layout for each flight.

Offline ilherman

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Jun 2013
  • Posts: 8935
  • Total likes: 227
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 35
    • View Profile
  • Location: Brooklyn
Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #245 on: April 08, 2014, 03:31:29 PM »
how?
You can say what you think when you think what you say.

Offline @Yehuda

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Oct 2013
  • Posts: 9693
  • Total likes: 187
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 5
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #246 on: April 08, 2014, 03:44:07 PM »
how?
http://www.britishairways.com/en-us/information/about-ba/fleet-facts
On the left, pick the aircraft. Then scroll to the bottom to choose which version of the aircraft it will be. For the most part there's just 2 options, UK Domestic and European.

Offline @Yehuda

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Oct 2013
  • Posts: 9693
  • Total likes: 187
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 5
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #247 on: April 08, 2014, 06:29:14 PM »
Have an idea here: The OWE has me in FCO for 10 days. The original plan was to spend a 2-3 days in Rome, then train northward to Florence/Pisa for 2 days, and then up to Venice for 2-3 days, then do this EasyJet idea to Nice and Marseille for 2 days and EasyJet back to FCO to catch my flight to LHR.

I'm not in love with spending $400 on EJ (see upthread) to see Nice and Marseille, especially when the whole OWE is $750. I also read through the Nice thread, and although there isn't much content there, it doesn't seem to be as remarkable a place as I thought it was. Now I'm thinking of finishing the 10 day journey by going VCE-ZRH-FCO, which I can do for 60K UA/$140 or 60K LH/$375 (for both of us). Obviously, the LH route is almost as expensive as taking EJ to NCE/MRS so that doesn't make a lot of sense. But with the UA route, I'd have to transfer from UR/SPG - either half and half (I only have 30K UR) or 50K from SPG (almost all my SPG, leaving me with basically nothing for hotels)...

I'm not very good at the valuing miles ever. Is the math as simple as would the $260 I'm saving by going UA instead of EJ be worth the hotels I could have gotten for 50K SPG?

Offline ilherman

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Jun 2013
  • Posts: 8935
  • Total likes: 227
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 35
    • View Profile
  • Location: Brooklyn
Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #248 on: April 08, 2014, 07:43:47 PM »
Have an idea here: The OWE has me in FCO for 10 days. The original plan was to spend a 2-3 days in Rome, then train northward to Florence/Pisa for 2 days, and then up to Venice for 2-3 days, then do this EasyJet idea to Nice and Marseille for 2 days and EasyJet back to FCO to catch my flight to LHR.

I'm not in love with spending $400 on EJ (see upthread) to see Nice and Marseille, especially when the whole OWE is $750. I also read through the Nice thread, and although there isn't much content there, it doesn't seem to be as remarkable a place as I thought it was. Now I'm thinking of finishing the 10 day journey by going VCE-ZRH-FCO, which I can do for 60K UA/$140 or 60K LH/$375 (for both of us). Obviously, the LH route is almost as expensive as taking EJ to NCE/MRS so that doesn't make a lot of sense. But with the UA route, I'd have to transfer from UR/SPG - either half and half (I only have 30K UR) or 50K from SPG (almost all my SPG, leaving me with basically nothing for hotels)...

I'm not very good at the valuing miles ever. Is the math as simple as would the $260 I'm saving by going UA instead of EJ be worth the hotels I could have gotten for 50K SPG?
60k UA + 140 = at least $850 and if you wanna burn SPG you really get a bad value. I would just stick to EJ.
You can say what you think when you think what you say.

Offline Ergel

  • Dansdeals Lifetime 10K Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *******
  • Join Date: Jun 2010
  • Posts: 12818
  • Total likes: 905
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 3
    • View Profile
Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #249 on: April 08, 2014, 07:53:13 PM »
Why not rent a car and do fco-Florence-vce-lake Como-Italian alps-Milan-fly back to fco
Life isn't about checking the boxes. Nobody cares.

Offline @Yehuda

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Oct 2013
  • Posts: 9693
  • Total likes: 187
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 5
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #250 on: April 08, 2014, 08:24:49 PM »
60k UA + 140 = at least $850 and if you wanna burn SPG you really get a bad value. I would just stick to EJ.

Honestly curious - how do you calculate the $850?

Offline ilherman

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Jun 2013
  • Posts: 8935
  • Total likes: 227
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 35
    • View Profile
  • Location: Brooklyn
Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #251 on: April 08, 2014, 08:43:25 PM »
Honestly curious - how do you calculate the $850?
First of all I have news for you, SPG transfers to UA 2:1 so you'll have to transfer 60,000 SPG to get 30,000 UA, if you do so it will effectively cost you $1670!!!! UA points are worth at least 1.3 so 1.3 x 30,000 = $390, SPG is worth at least 1.9 so 1.9 x 60,000 = $1,140, plus $140 = $1670!!!!
You can say what you think when you think what you say.

Offline ilherman

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Jun 2013
  • Posts: 8935
  • Total likes: 227
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 35
    • View Profile
  • Location: Brooklyn
Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #252 on: April 08, 2014, 08:47:18 PM »
Now EVEN if you transfer 60,000 UR, UR values at least at 1.4 so 60,000 x 1.4 = $840 + $140 = $980!!!
You can say what you think when you think what you say.

Offline @Yehuda

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Oct 2013
  • Posts: 9693
  • Total likes: 187
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 5
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #253 on: April 08, 2014, 08:58:07 PM »
Where do those values of 1.3 1.4 and 1.9 come from? Is that the avg rate miles-buyers pay?

Offline ilherman

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Jun 2013
  • Posts: 8935
  • Total likes: 227
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 35
    • View Profile
  • Location: Brooklyn
Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #254 on: April 08, 2014, 09:01:06 PM »
Where do those values of 1.3 1.4 and 1.9 come from? Is that the avg rate miles-buyers pay?
About. Either way, you save about $300 by just buying the EJ tickets.
You can say what you think when you think what you say.

Offline ckmk47

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Aug 2012
  • Posts: 7961
  • Total likes: 1044
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 3
  • Gender: Female
    • View Profile
  • Location: brooklyn
Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #255 on: April 08, 2014, 09:20:40 PM »
Where do those values of 1.3 1.4 and 1.9 come from? Is that the avg rate miles-buyers pay?
buyers pay
My favorite cause: cssy.org

Offline @Yehuda

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Oct 2013
  • Posts: 9693
  • Total likes: 187
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 5
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #256 on: April 08, 2014, 10:11:57 PM »
Why not rent a car and do fco-Florence-vce-lake Como-Italian alps-Milan-fly back to fco

Car as opposed to train?
Have you been to Lake Como or the Italian Alps?

Offline Ergel

  • Dansdeals Lifetime 10K Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *******
  • Join Date: Jun 2010
  • Posts: 12818
  • Total likes: 905
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 3
    • View Profile
Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #257 on: April 08, 2014, 10:14:32 PM »
I like to be on my own schedule (make my own detours and stops and not worry about getting to and from the train station. I also like to drive.
Yes. Also, Neither are really accessible via public transport
Life isn't about checking the boxes. Nobody cares.

Offline @Yehuda

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Oct 2013
  • Posts: 9693
  • Total likes: 187
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 5
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #258 on: April 08, 2014, 10:36:38 PM »
I like to be on my own schedule (make my own detours and stops and not worry about getting to and from the train station. I also like to drive.
Yes. Also, Neither are really accessible via public transport
Aha, interesting. Just did some Google Mapping...

Driving FCO-FLR is 3 hours. Training is also 3 hours.
Driving FLR-PSA is 1 hour. Training is 1.75 hours. (I want to stop by Pisa)
Driving PSA-VCE is 3.25 hours. Training is 5 hours.
And then could technically go on to LC/Alps.

Don't know why I didn't consider driving before, unless it's really expensive, it makes more sense than trains. Thanks for the suggestion.

Offline @Yehuda

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: Oct 2013
  • Posts: 9693
  • Total likes: 187
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 5
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #259 on: April 08, 2014, 10:41:27 PM »