Tag Archives: Hilton Hotels

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New AMEX Offers: KLM $200 Off $1,000, Hilton Garden Inn $40 Off $200, a Few Others

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Good morning everyone.  It’s been a while since I last reported on AMEX Offers.  The offers have just been so bad for the last few weeks that it wasn’t even worth mentioning.  The streak has been broken with 2 pretty good travel offers.  The first is from KLM, where you can get a $200 statement credit for spending $1,000 or more on KLM flights.  The only cash back portal that has KLM is Ebates (they are offering 1% cash back for KLM flights).  The second offer is from Hilton Garden Inn, where you can get a $40 statement credit after spending $200 or more.  iConsumer is offering 3.2% cash back for Hilton Garden Inn.  This offer is not valid at any other Hilton properties and the total stay charge must be higher than $200 to trigger the statement credit.

KLM AMEX Offer Hilton Garden Inn AMEX Offer

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2016 Eurotrip Travel and Expense Summary

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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).

GCM Eurotrip 2016

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Hotel Review: Hilton Molino Stucky Venice (Diamond Status & Lounge Access)

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Good evening from Dublin (and my last night in Europe).  Here is a hotel review for my second to last hotel in Europe… the Hilton Molino Stucky Venice.  Before I show you pictures of the hotel room and canals of Venice, I will show you how to get from the airport to the hotel.  First things first, all the info I used was found here.  You need to take the ATVO airport bus to the “water bus terminal” (P.le Roma).  The airport bus costs €8 one way or €15 round trip per person.

Venice ATVO Sign

Here are driving directions, but the bus takes the same route.  The trip takes around 25 minutes and the ATVO bus leaves the airport and “water bus terminal” pretty frequently.

VCE TO Venice Bus Route

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Hotel Review: Hilton Munich City as Diamond Elite Member (Executive Lounge + Nearby S-Bahn Station)

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Good evening everyone, greetings from Venice, Italy.  Here is a quick hotel review from my short 2 night stay at the Hilton Munich City.  After we landed, we took the S8 S-Bahn train from the airport to the hotel.  The Hilton is within steps of the Rossenheimer Platz station (Google Maps) and costs €10.80 for a one way trip.  I used Hilton HHonors points for one night and my Hilton Free Weekend Night Certificate for the other night (thanks to the Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve Credit card and the $10,000+ spend I put on the card).  Check-in was very easy and I was excited to see what being a Hilton Diamond felt like for the first time.  I got a nice room on the 5th floor and access to the executive lounge on the 6th floor.

Munich Airport to Hilton City S Bahn Map

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Hotel & Flight Bookings for LHR, CDG, NCE, MUC, VCE, and DUB

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Good morning everyone, happy TGI Friday!  First, I wanted to thank everyone for voting in my poll (Reader Feedback Needed: Which Blog Posts Should I Write First?).  I was busy this week with 2 free movie screenings in SF (13 Hours and Pride & Prejudice & Zombies) and the SF Travel Hackers Meetup, but I’m finally getting around to writing about my upcoming trip to Europe.  That was the overwhelming winner and since my trip starts tomorrow (1/16), I better write about it before I fly out of town.

Blog Topic Poll 1-14-2016

I will share my thought process and booking experience with my flights and then about my hotels.  Since I planned most of this trip back in March/April/May 2015, I was able to find award space to/from SFO very easily.  Here is an overview of my paid and award flights:

  • 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

GCM Eurotrip 2016

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