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 107996 times)

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #300 on: April 17, 2014, 11:41:55 AM »
I called up to take care of it. Got the 4 free nights - woo hoo! For the 5th night, it's either 30K UR as Ergel said, $1000 cash, or C&P will be 15K plus $300. I guess the Q is: Is this the best use of 30K UR? At this point, I only need hotel stays as all the flights are booked. I'm not great with the math value calculations, but if UR = 1.4 then 30K = $420 which is much less than $1000. Right? That's how it calculates out?

Offline Ergel

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #301 on: April 17, 2014, 12:13:25 PM »
Correct. Just book it with your UR
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Offline sky121

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #302 on: April 17, 2014, 01:34:01 PM »
Why not buy the last night off someone?
"Not all who wander are lost"

Offline Ergel

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #303 on: April 17, 2014, 01:40:20 PM »
Why not buy the last night off someone?

Seems strange to have three separate accounts book a single stay, no?
Life isn't about checking the boxes. Nobody cares.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #304 on: April 17, 2014, 01:47:17 PM »
Seems strange to have three separate accounts book a single stay, no?
On the phone, I explained 2 nights are mine and 2 are my spouse. She didn't seem to care at all...
Why not buy the last night off someone?
And as long as I can buy it for less than $420 it would make sense to buy it from someone then? I guess that would depend on what I could get it for because if not for having points, I wouldn't stay at the PH. I wouldn't spend $400 to spend the night there. I'd rather just stay somewhere cheaper.

Additionally, I realized I have 1K HGP and my wife has 4K HGP. I see there's a form you need to fill out and email to them to combine the points. If I did that, I would only need to transfer 25K UR.

Offline sky121

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #305 on: April 17, 2014, 01:49:25 PM »
On the phone, I explained 2 nights are mine and 2 are my spouse. She didn't seem to care at all...And as long as I can buy it for less than $420 it would make sense to buy it from someone then? I guess that would depend on what I could get it for because if not for having points, I wouldn't stay at the PH. I wouldn't spend $400 to spend the night there. I'd rather just stay somewhere cheaper.

Additionally, I realized I have 1K HGP and my wife has 4K HGP. I see there's a form you need to fill out and email to them to combine the points. If I did that, I would only need to transfer 25K UR.

It would still be cheaper to buy a night. For the value of 25UR you could buy a suite night.  As far as the issue of having different names that's a different story. Not sure it would be a problem.
"Not all who wander are lost"

Offline Ergel

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #306 on: April 17, 2014, 01:58:20 PM »
On the phone, I explained 2 nights are mine and 2 are my spouse. She didn't seem to care at all...
Of course not, but what if you had a night from a third account? Your dogs account?
Life isn't about checking the boxes. Nobody cares.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #307 on: April 17, 2014, 02:08:10 PM »
Of course not, but what if you had a night from a third account? Your dogs account?
Heh, perhaps I should just transfer my points. Have you heard of this before? To transfer HGP, you need to download a PDF form, fill it out and email it to them (doesn't even say how long processing takes). Form also says HGP can only be transferred in an amount that brings the account to capacity to reach an award. That implies to me that I'll get rejected for combining 1+4 unless I already sent the 25K UR to one of the accounts.

It would still be cheaper to buy a night. For the value of 25UR you could buy a suite night.  As far as the issue of having different names that's a different story. Not sure it would be a problem.

Trying to find out about the different names, but either way what does buying the night gain me financially? So, I buy a $300 night and now have UR to use to book another night in the next city. If I use my UR instead and am forced to pay for a hotel in the next city, I wouldn't choose a $300 hotel...

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #308 on: April 17, 2014, 02:46:47 PM »
Ok add this Q to the mix. I just spoke with SPG to think of ways to use my 58K. The rep pointed out the "stay 4 nights and get the 5th free" deal. Paris is the only city I'm in for 5 nights. The cheapest hotels available there are the Le Meridian and Sheraton which are both 16K/night = 64K for the 4 nights + 5th free. Meaning I'd have to transfer 18K MR to SPG to have enough, which really means I'm paying 18K MR to have that last night and all this would be to stay at a lower level hotel and not the PH. Ok I wrote this out for my craziness sake, but it does not seem to be worth it to take advantage of the 5 night deal.

Perhaps I should be satisfied with 1 luxury hotel on our stay, v'zehu.

I can use the SPG, for example, for my 4 nights in Venice at the Sheraton for 7K/night and still have 30K leftover. Much more valuable (in terms of how many free nights I can get) use of points.

Offline Super Speed

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #309 on: April 17, 2014, 03:07:27 PM »

I can use the SPG, for example, for my 4 nights in Venice at the Sheraton for 7K/night and still have 30K leftover. Much more valuable (in terms of how many free nights I can get) use of points.
This.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #310 on: April 17, 2014, 03:11:12 PM »
This.
:) 7K is about as cheap as I can find an SPG, right?

Offline Super Speed

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #311 on: April 17, 2014, 03:18:19 PM »

:) 7K is about as cheap as I can find an SPG, right?
I believe so.

Offline Emkay

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #312 on: April 17, 2014, 03:22:47 PM »
:) 7K is about as cheap as I can find an SPG, right?
yes

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #313 on: April 17, 2014, 03:39:42 PM »
Scratch that. VCE Sheraton is not actually in VCE. #awkward

Offline Ergel

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #314 on: April 17, 2014, 03:51:09 PM »
Heh, perhaps I should just transfer my points. Have you heard of this before? To transfer HGP, you need to download a PDF form, fill it out and email it to them (doesn't even say how long processing takes). Form also says HGP can only be transferred in an amount that brings the account to capacity to reach an award. That implies to me that I'll get rejected for combining 1+4 unless I already sent the 25K UR to one of the accounts.
I'm confused. Why not just transfer from UR to the same Hyatt account?
Life isn't about checking the boxes. Nobody cares.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #315 on: April 17, 2014, 03:52:42 PM »
I'm confused. Why not just transfer from UR to the same Hyatt account?
I guess to save 1000 points. Perhaps not worth it.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #316 on: April 17, 2014, 05:31:13 PM »
Wow, just got a response that they transferred the points! Fastest transfer ever.

Offline sky121

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #317 on: April 17, 2014, 07:34:52 PM »
Scratch that. VCE Sheraton is not actually in VCE. #awkward

In Venice I'd recommend the Westin. Thought it's a bit of a walk on Shabbos.
"Not all who wander are lost"

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #318 on: April 17, 2014, 07:45:44 PM »
In Venice I'd recommend the Westin. Thought it's a bit of a walk on Shabbos.
Prob is that it's 27750/night, so I'd only have enough for 2 nights, and we're staying there for 4. Someone suggested going with AirBNB.

Offline sky121

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #319 on: April 17, 2014, 07:50:35 PM »
Prob is that it's 27750/night, so I'd only have enough for 2 nights, and we're staying there for 4. Someone suggested going with AirBNB.

Might be a good idea anyways since you could get a place closer for Shabbos. Not that walking is a bad thing. Meanwhile nights could also open up. But better to have something just in case.
"Not all who wander are lost"