@Yehuda's Israel/Eurotrip Honeymoon

[@Yehuda]

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.

I explained that I just book 7 nights today for my honeymoon and wanted the benefits, but no-go.

[E R K]

HUCA and say you are planning many hotel stays in the near future and would like to stay with them, otherwise you will have to take your business elsewhere.

[SOS]

HUCA and say you are planning many hotel stays in the near future and would like to stay with them, otherwise you will have to take your business elsewhere.

When I said that, all they said was they can do the gold challenge, but they can't just upgrade me

[@Yehuda]

Just booked the Holiday Inn Express Amsterdam - South for 20K/night IHG. All the 20K IHGs were about 15 minute drives to town. (Figured out where "town" was based on the locations of Centraal train station, Anne Frank House, Flower Market.) Then I used goDaven to see where the different Shuls were in the area with daily Minyanim. Beis Medrash Etz Chaim is a 4 minute walk to the hotel and also had the latest Shacharis at 8AM.
So yeah, just sharing my ideas on how to decide on hotels in areas you don't know about it. Hope it helps.

[CS1]

Just booked the Holiday Inn Express Amsterdam - South for 20K/night IHG. All the 20K IHGs were about 15 minute drives to town. (Figured out where "town" was based on the locations of Centraal train station, Anne Frank House, Flower Market.) Then I used goDaven to see where the different Shuls were in the area with daily Minyanim. Beis Medrash Etz Chaim is a 4 minute walk to the hotel and also had the latest Shacharis at 8AM.
So yeah, just sharing my ideas on how to decide on hotels in areas you don't know about it. Hope it helps.

excellent strategy for the touring destinations that are not as common.

Upon your return, it would be great to share a TR and highlight the smart choices, etc..
Yehoshua made a great map of his city. With those of us on DDF who have been to some of the other smaller locations, perhaps we can edit soething similar and give rankings of hotels, restaurants, etc...

(For example -- LA Link: https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z_h80BCOvmO8.kkLKAieASEmc)

[@Yehuda]

excellent strategy for the touring destinations that are not as common.

Upon your return, it would be great to share a TR and highlight the smart choices, etc..
Yehoshua made a great map of his city. With those of us on DDF who have been to some of the other smaller locations, perhaps we can edit soething similar and give rankings of hotels, restaurants, etc...

(For example -- LA Link: https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=z_h80BCOvmO8.kkLKAieASEmc)

That's pretty cool. I was actually planning to have a running TR throughout my trip. Perhaps posting every night (if the wife allows) or maybe once every few days. I feel that by spending time each night, I'll remember details better, like taxi costs, attraction costs, long lines, etc.

[Super Speed]

That's pretty cool. I was actually planning to have a running TR throughout my trip. Perhaps posting every night (if the wife allows) or maybe once every few days. I feel that by spending time each night, I'll remember details better, like taxi costs, attraction costs, long lines, etc.

That would be awesome, I would live to do a quick Euro trip, I can pull out all the good stuff from your TRs. I'm sure many other people can gain as well.

[@Yehuda]

That would be awesome, I would live to do a quick Euro trip, I can pull out all the good stuff from your TRs. I'm sure many other people can gain as well.

I hope so as well. Expect to see @Yehuda's TR at the top of the TR board all the time instead of @Yehuda's Planning at the top of the Air board.

[@Yehuda]

Just booked the Eliott Hotel in Gibraltar for Shabbos. $165 (incl. $4 cc charge) Hopefully will be the only hotel night I have to pay for.
Having meals at my mother's coworker who lives there, so that's nice. Yes, I tried getting to stay by him, but he just offered meals, and of course we're more than appreciative of that.
He suggested the Eliott. In Spain/GIB thread, it also seemed that the Eliott was the "nicer" hotel (as opposed to the Rock Hotel) and it's apparently already up the hill that you would have to climb to get to the shuls if you stayed at the Rock. And from searching hotelscombined and wego, I found the Eliott to be a bit cheaper.

18 nights booked, 15 to go!

[@Yehuda]

Food for thought...
I haven't always thought about getting the best value for my points. For example, the Elliot I just booked was $165. I then saw in the Chase UR mall that it can be booked for 16K UR and immediately got excited bc it meant that the 1 night I thought I would have to pay for (since GIB has no hotels that are part of points-brands) could be free. However, after some math, it would not be a good value to use my points for this hotel. If UR are valued at 1.6cpp then 16K would be worth $256, much more than the $165 I paid. Obviously, points have more value when used for things that normally cost more money, like my outbound flight EWR-FRA-MUC-TLV for 60K UR (at 1.6 that's $960) which would cost, if paid outright in cash, about $4000. Therefore, math says to only use your points if the cash cost would be more than the points are worth, and logic dictates to hold onto your points for especially expensive flights/hotels to get the most value for your points.

At the same time, one of my main goals of getting into the credit card game is to travel to Europe for as cheap as possible. Even though Zaidy gave us some nice money for the trip, my mind is saying why spend $165 on a hotel when there are "leftover" points that can be used to book it for free? Take it even further, why pay $100 for a gondola ride in Venice, when I can use 5750 Avios for the experience? Obviously, I acknowledge that these are not very good uses for points, but part of me says just to try to make this trip as cheap as possible so that Zaidy's money (and my savings if we use up his money) can be used for as many things as possible that can't be booked with miles, like food/taxis.

ETA: Don't want to sell points.

That's my thought process. Would love to hear your thoughts.

[sky121]

For anyone who would get rid of their points and use the cash to book that would def be the way to go in many cases. If you won't go that route at all and don't want to put out the money and save your points for a better use then I guess go for it.

[Emkay]

,why pay $100 for a gondola ride in Venice, when I can use 5750 Avios for the experience?

imo thats actually a decent use for points If you  Were gonna back $100 for a gondola ride (which is not a good use of money)

[Joe4007]

I suppose the bragging rights for "I've done a month long Europe/Israel trip with $0 out of pocket" are worth something as well

[Super Speed]

I suppose the bragging rights for "I've done a month long Europe/Israel trip with $0 out of pocket" are worth something as well

Well said!

[@Yehuda]

For anyone who would get rid of their points and use the cash to book that would def be the way to go in many cases. If you won't go that route at all and don't want to put out the money and save your points for a better use then I guess go for it.

Correct, I don't want to get rid of my points. Added that to the post. A bit more bluntly.

imo thats actually a decent use for points If you  Were gonna back $100 for a gondola ride (which is not a good use of money)

Whoops, bad example then. How about 30K Avios to tour NYC in a limo? :-D

I suppose the bragging rights for "I've done a month long Europe/Israel trip in business with $0 out of pocket" are worth something as well

FTFY Agreed, although, we're at just about $900 pax right now. And it's 6.5 weeks. :-p

[ckmk47]

side idea on selling:  Making a ticket for someone you know (or a friend of a friend) and charging them less than they would have to pay if they booked cash.  That may pass the LOR test.

[Ergel]

side idea on selling:  Making a ticket for someone you know (or a friend of a friend) and charging them less than they would have to pay if they booked cash.  That may pass the LOR test.

-1

[@Yehuda]

side idea on selling:  Making a ticket for someone you know (or a friend of a friend) and charging them less than they would have to pay if they booked cash.  That may pass the LOR test.

Meaning bc it's more like you're doing your friend a favor?

-1

Thoughts?

[ilherman]

The Airlines don't allow selling tickets either.

[Ergel]

The psak I got is that selling miles/flights is "Kol haover al daas baal habayis nikrah gazlan." Will make no difference how you go about it