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 108040 times)

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #360 on: April 24, 2014, 01:51:33 PM »
I just noticed in the wiki that you want rent a car in Venice??
What are you gonna do with a car in Venice? Where will you park?
Rental car is to drive from Rome to Florence to Pisa to Venice. Will return the car upon arrival in Venice.

Offline Marco Polo

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #361 on: April 24, 2014, 02:16:24 PM »
Interesting idea. Hard to calculate the costs of each taxi trip, though, to know if it's worth it.
I'm sure buried somewhere online, you can find rough prices for what people paid for trips.
Quaerite et Invenietis.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #362 on: April 24, 2014, 05:20:32 PM »
I'm sure buried somewhere online, you can find rough prices for what people paid for trips.
Been speaking with a tour guide who does Toledo, and he suggested checking this out http://www.worldtaximeter.com/ for taxi costs. If it's accurate, it looks great!

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #363 on: April 27, 2014, 10:12:29 AM »
Just booked the Sheraton Roma for my 3 nights in Rome. Was one of the only 7K SPG nights in the cities I'm travelling too, so I just wanted to lock it up now. Google Maps says it's 20 minutes from FCO, 10 minutes to the Colosseum and 10 minutes to the Jewish Ghetto. And as usual, made sure to call up SPG and add a request for a possible upgrade since it's our honeymoon.

Offline ChAiM'l

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #364 on: April 27, 2014, 10:54:45 AM »
I stayed at the Sheraton once. Hotel is OK, not the best area, but they have a shuttle bus to and from the town centre throughout the day.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #365 on: April 27, 2014, 10:57:32 AM »
I stayed at the Sheraton once. Hotel is OK, not the best area, but they have a shuttle bus to and from the town centre throughout the day.
Yeah, I realized with the amount of points I have and needing 33 hotel nights, I'll be satisfied with OK hotels for most of my trip. (Just enjoying my 5 nights at PHP. :) ) Shuttle bus rocks! Saves RT taxi every day. Thanks for the tip.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #366 on: April 27, 2014, 12:08:26 PM »
Just booked the Sheraton Golf Parco de' Medici for my overnight connection in ZRH-FCO-LHR. Same 7K SPG, 5 minutes closer to the airport, and figured might as well try out a different hotel. :)
11 free nights booked, 22 to go!

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #367 on: April 27, 2014, 01:34:26 PM »
So, this was fun...
If you read upstream about the Melia deal I jumped on, I now realize I made a mistake. I booked both nights for MAD - the night I land in Spain and the night I leave Spain. But, I just realized I'm actually in SVQ for my last night in Spain, going SVQ-MAD-FCO all starting off the following morning. The Melia deal didn't have enough points for a free night in SVQ, so I cancelled the MAD reservation I mistakenly made for that night.

I just got off the phone with AA (feels like I haven't called them in ages) and pushed off my MAD-BCN OWE flight from leaving the evening after I land in MAD to the next morning. This allows me to have a truly complete day in MAD to see the Royal Palace (or some other attraction) and make the RT train to Toledo, that will likely make Ergel and sky happy :). Because I'm now staying in MAD another night, I used the Melia points to book the same hotel for a 2nd night. Would have been a shame to let them go to waste. :-D This change, however, is lowering my stay in BCN from 2 days to 1.5 days, which would probably make Ergel and sky crazy, but for the 1/2 day I think I can do the Jewish Quarter and for the full day I think I can do 2-3 out of La Rambla, Park Guell, and Casa Milla which are all pretty close to each other.

Besides for being able to use the Melia points, I now shortened BCN to 2 nights instead of 3, which works out perfectly for my SPG reserve. I just booked the Four Points by Sheraton Barcelona Diagonal for 7K SPG/night and (found the only remaining SPG in one of my itinerary cities that would come out to 16K or less based on price and how many nights I'm there for and) booked the Sheraton Zurich for my 1 night there for 16K SPG, which really means...

I just used 58K SPG for 7 free nights and cleared out the account to basically 0.
4 nights in Rome.
2 nights in Barcelona.
1 night in Zurich.

Yeah, okay, I'm proud of myself. We can call this a productive day. Thanks, G-d for letting it work out.

Offline sky121

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #368 on: April 27, 2014, 01:37:10 PM »


I just got off the phone with AA (feels like I haven't called them in ages)
lol

DDF side affect :)
"Not all who wander are lost"

Offline CS1

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #369 on: April 27, 2014, 01:43:15 PM »
So, this was fun...
...
I just used 58K SPG for 7 free nights and cleared out the account to basically 0.
4 nights in Rome.
2 nights in Barcelona.
1 night in Zurich.

Yeah, okay, I'm proud of myself. We can call this a productive day. Thanks, G-d for letting it work out.

Great itinerary -- esp. for not spending cash.
1) Are you SPG Gold? So you'll hopefully get some upgrades and 4pm check-outs to add value to your stays...
2) You may earn more spg before your trip, so you can book add'l Cash & Points if needed.
3) Thanks, Dan! (he's taught us well, B"H.)
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Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #370 on: April 27, 2014, 02:05:10 PM »
lol

DDF side affect :)
OWE side affect, too. ;)
Great itinerary -- esp. for not spending cash.
1) Are you SPG Gold? So you'll hopefully get some upgrades and 4pm check-outs to add value to your stays...
2) You may earn more spg before your trip, so you can book add'l Cash & Points if needed.
3) Thanks, Dan! (he's taught us well, B"H.)
Thanks, that's the goal!
1) Nope. Hopefully the honeymoon upgrade requests get me some, and if not, not.
2) My daily spending is only on SP and 5x Freedom. I only use random cards to hit the bonus. So, I likely won't get more SPG, but it's a good idea.
2) Figured I've thanked him enough times at this point that it gets cheesy. I'll be sure to thank him and everyone here once it's all finalized. :)

Offline CS1

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #371 on: April 27, 2014, 02:19:34 PM »
OWE side affect, too. ;)Thanks, that's the goal!
1) Nope. Hopefully the honeymoon upgrade requests get me some, and if not, not.
2) My daily spending is only on SP and 5x Freedom. I only use random cards to hit the bonus. So, I likely won't get more SPG, but it's a good idea.
2) Figured I've thanked him enough times at this point that it gets cheesy. I'll be sure to thank him and everyone here once it's all finalized. :)
all good -- It looks like your trip is in the summer. You may already have 5 stays posted on your spg.com account. Are you close to that?

So, if it were me, I'd try for some $80 stays at some Cat 1 or 2 locations to hit Gold in time prior or during this special trip.
(I'm not familiar with the European starwood hotels and their summer upgrade options, however in the USA, they were sometimes double the square feet!)
The earlier check-in options and 4:00pm check-out times occasionally translates into almost another day in the hotel value that I'd normally have to pay a new day for -- even if it's just a safe place for luggage before or after your night there -- while touring/on a day trip, etc...
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Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #372 on: April 27, 2014, 02:24:06 PM »
all good -- It looks like your trip is in the summer. You may already have 5 stays posted on your spg.com account. Are you close to that?

So, if it were me, I'd try for some $80 stays at some Cat 1 or 2 locations to hit Gold in time prior or during this special trip.
(I'm not familiar with the European starwood hotels and their summer upgrade options, however in the USA, they were sometimes double the square feet!)
The earlier check-in options and 4:00pm check-out times occasionally translates into almost another day in the hotel value that I'd normally have to pay a new day for -- even if it's just a safe place for luggage before or after your night there -- while touring/on a day trip, etc...
I have 4 stays (2 from each CC) plus 2 in my wife's but I'm sure those don't combine. I don't think the extra space is worth the money on booking those nights. We're not too picky, and I'm still hoping the honeymoon thing might get a few upgrades/late checkouts. I actually thought about the luggage situation. I was hoping, as I read in some places, that the hotel may let me leave luggage at the front desk while touring. Ever heard of that?

--
Also, just checked my AA balances and realized they credited back 10% of redeemed miles, which means our 90K pax OWE netted us 18K AA. Pretty cool, did not realize that.

And for the current hotel count...
15 out of 33 nights booked! Progress!

Offline CS1

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #373 on: April 27, 2014, 02:31:48 PM »
I have 4 stays (2 from each CC) plus 2 in my wife's but I'm sure those don't combine. I don't think the extra space is worth the money on booking those nights. We're not too picky, and I'm still hoping the honeymoon thing might get a few upgrades/late checkouts. I actually thought about the luggage situation. I was hoping, as I read in some places, that the hotel may let me leave luggage at the front desk while touring. Ever heard of that?

--
Also, just checked my AA balances and realized they credited back 10% of redeemed miles, which means our 90K pax OWE netted us 18K AA. Pretty cool, did not realize that.

And for the current hotel count...
15 out of 33 nights booked! Progress!
True -- I think that thy'll let you keep your luggage in a first floor holding room.

4 stays is great. (I wish the wife's would combine, but they don't combine stays, just let you combine points...)
Can you ask a relative to open a new Amex SPG card with your home address?
The 5,000 referral and the new 25K points (THAT, they'll let you transfer internally within spg.com) and some AP points can help you get some May/June nights/stays locally to get you Gold in time for your trip. Either way, I'm sure it will be great.
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Offline Ergel

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #374 on: April 27, 2014, 02:33:20 PM »
Hotels will store luggage for you after checkout.

Not worth it to spend cash for spg gold. Call them on the phone and ask nicely and they will often give it to you
Life isn't about checking the boxes. Nobody cares.

Offline @Yehuda

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #375 on: April 27, 2014, 02:35:25 PM »
True -- I think that thy'll let you keep your luggage in a first floor holding room.

4 stays is great. (I wish the wife's would combine, but they don't combine stays, just let you combine points...)
Can you ask a relative to open a new Amex SPG card with your home address?
The 5,000 referral and the new 25K points (THAT, they'll let you transfer internally within spg.com) and some AP points can help you get some May/June nights/stays locally to get you Gold in time for your trip. Either way, I'm sure it will be great.
That would be great!
Interesting, I probably could work that out although having to spend $5K on the card isn't going to happen. I have 3 new cards in the mail and have just began to touch AP. Don't know how I would do 5K. Thanks for the ideas, though. :)

Hotels will store luggage for you after checkout.

Not worth it to spend cash for spg gold. Call them on the phone and ask nicely and they will often give it to you
Fantastic.
Will definitely try that and report back.
Like your shoutout?

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #376 on: April 27, 2014, 02:36:02 PM »
Hotels will store luggage for you after checkout.

Not worth it to spend cash for spg gold. Call them on the phone and ask nicely and they will often give it to you
Good idea! It's been done by several DDFers... Try it out.
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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #377 on: April 27, 2014, 03:00:24 PM »
Hmm... just failed on 2 attempts. Maybe I'm not so lucky...

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #378 on: April 27, 2014, 07:37:50 PM »
Hmm... just failed on 2 attempts. Maybe I'm not so lucky...

I have been trying for a week already and so far I didn't get upgraded

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Re: @Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon
« Reply #379 on: April 27, 2014, 07:43:20 PM »
Tell them you plan on staying at a lot of SPG hotels in the near future and you have status at other hotels but would like to start using SPG. That's what I said after she said no.  She put me on hold and then approved it.