Good afternoon everyone, here is a summary of my 2 week trip to Europe from January 2016. Here is my planning and booking process: Hotel & Flight Bookings for LHR, CDG, NCE, MUC, VCE, and DUB. Here is a visual representation of my intra-European flights. I also flew from SFO-LAX-LHR on American Airlines and DUB-SFO on Aer Lingus (not pictured).
Here are the costs of every flight:
- SFO-LAX (AA First) and LAX-LHR (AA Business) = 50,000 AA miles + $5.60 in taxes/fees
- LHR-CDG (British Airways economy) = 2,500 BA Avios + $57.50 in taxes/fees
- CDG-NCE (Air France economy) = $56.76
- NCE-MUC / MUC-VCE (Lufthansa economy) = $99.99
- VCE-LGW-DUB (British Airways / Aer Lingus economy) = $138.60
- DUB-SFO (Aer Lingus economy) = 25,000 BA Avios + $106.76 in taxes/fees
The total cost for all 9 flights was 50,000 American Airlines miles, 27,500 British Airways Avios, and $465.21 paid for with a combination of my Citi Premier and BankAmeriCard Travel Card (to redeem WorldPoints). I did earn a few hundred British Airways Avios and United Airlines miles from the paid flights. I paid for a few seat assignments and checked bag fees with my JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton Credit Card and got those expenses reimbursed.
Trip Reports and Photos:
- 6 Free Things to See in London (After you Buy an Underground Day Pass)
- Photos of Nice, France (Beautiful Beaches) and Monaco (Monte Carlo Casino)
Hotel Reviews:
- Radisson Blu Edwardian Mercer Street in London
- Hotel Indigo Paris (Located near Opera & Vendome)
- Radisson Blu Nice, France (Convenient Access to NCE Airport and Monaco)
- Hilton Munich City as Diamond Elite Member (Executive Lounge + Nearby S-Bahn Station)
- Hilton Molino Stucky Venice (Diamond Status & Lounge Access)
- Radisson Blu Royal Dublin (Free Breakfast for Gold Members)
The total cost for all the hotel stays was 144,000 Club Carlson points, 50,000 Hilton HHonors points, 2 IHG Free Night Certificates, 1 Hilton Free Weekend Night Certificate, 1 Club Carlson Global Free Night Certificate and $473.76 (majority paid for with my Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve Credit Card and the rest paid for with my Citi Prestige Credit Card). I earned a total of 11,038 Hilton HHonors points from the paid stay, 1,200 IHG points (Welcome Amenity) and 3,622 Club Carlson points for a few minibar purchases.
I only used a handful of credit cards during the trip, so I was able to calculate my total trip cost of $1908.27. Here is the breakdown, excluding miles/points and the cost to acquire those miles/points:
- $473.36 Hotels
- $465.21 Flights
- $335.50 Cost of €305 (misc purchases)
- $271.33 Restaurants
- $219.82 Transportation
- $84.18 Shopping
- $45.75 Tours
- $13.12 Pharmacy
$1908.27 sounds like a lot, but if we divide that by 14 days, the total cost per day was $136.31 for all flights, hotels, restaurants, transportation, tours, and shopping. If we add in the priceless memories and photos, I think I got a pretty good deal. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. Have a great day everyone!
That’s fantastic. Great job! I want to return to Europe some day … I’ve been to Paris, Brussels, and London.
That was my second trip to London, but I definitely want to go back. I can’t believe how lucky I got with the nice weather :)
Where in Europe do you want to visit?
Did you choose Lufthansa, Air France and BA so you would get more miles? I feel like (and this is just a guess from previous searches) that through SkyScanner you should be able to find one way flights under 50 bucks for each of these flights. Usually on Easy Jet or some other discount airliner.
Just wondering if you were willing to pay more to get the miles, or those were actually the cheapest flights!
That’s a good point, Jay. My main criteria for flights was that it had to be a non-stop flight that left in the evening around 7pm or later. Even though I didn’t use SkyScanner, I’m pretty happy with the prices I got for the flights that worked perfectly. I think I received a total of less than 1,000 miles for all my flights, so the miles were not a deciding factor. I’m sure I would have been hit with some overweight bag fee or checked bag fee if I went with one of the low cost carriers.
Wow, it sounds a lot of money spent on this trip even with hotel points and miles travel. My fiancé and I are going to Europe in July for 3 weeks, and we just started looking at hotels and plane tickets within Europe. We booked our plane tickets to and back from Europe via AA miles on Air Berlin last Fall. We will try to keep the cost to the minimum with points.
Hotel points and airline miles will definitely save you a lot of money. Unfortunately, local transportation adds up and eating out most meals is not very cheap. Add in a few tours and shopping for gifts/souvenirs and it all adds up. I hope you have a great trip to Europe!
How did you get LHR – CDG for 2,500 Avios instead of 4,500 Avios?
Overall, you did well.
It was an award ticket with a cash co-pay. 2,500 Avios + $57.50 in taxes/fees. It wasn’t hard to find cheap flights around Europe in winter when I booked 6+ months in advance :)
is this $1908.27 cost for 1 person or split between multiple people?
That part gets a little tricky. I traveled with my friend, so we tried to alternate paying for meals. I paid for all the transportation and hotels, so my share would be half that amount. The restaurant total is only showing my half. It’s not a perfect system by any means.
Very nice! Great realistic redemption.
Thank you. I could probably cut down my transportation costs by buying daily or multi-day transportation passes, but that would not make much of a dent in the overall cost. I’m pretty frugal generally too.
Are you in SF or in the southbay? I’m also part of the travel hackers meetup and I’ve been attempting to get a southbay meetup together…
I’m in San Francisco, but I travel for meetups.
Thanks grant !! This trip sounded awesome and would be more along the lines of realistically obtainable travel using points and miles for someone like me (and more along the vein of what I would use as a guide / reference!).
On a side note … Ahhh…. Eurotrip. I loved that movie. Michelle trachtenburg was so cute / hot in it …..
I’m glad you liked the Eurotrip review. I’ve been to Europe several times and love going back again and again.
How was the flight from LHR to CDG? I am contemplating going from London to Paris via the Chunnel, but flying is also an option. Why did you pick flying over the chunnel? Will you be doing a review? thanks!
When I was originally planning my trip, the Chunnel schedule was not available. The flight was cheap and left when I wanted to go, so that’s why I chose to fly. I’m sure the Chunnel is a great option too.