At the blogger’s invitation, I’m writing a pretty "epic" trip report (ORZ~). Hope you all won’t laugh at me.

Flight itinerary

Every year for New Year’s, I take LD somewhere romantic to celebrate. Last year, we spent New Year’s in Budapest, Barcelona, and Tenerife in Spain (the largest of the Canary Islands). Our route looked like this:

Why did I pick these places? First, I hadn’t really been to Eastern Europe before, other than the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Budapest just sounded dazzling, and after going, it absolutely lived up to the hype. It was beautiful, fun, and relatively cheap compared with Western and Northern Europe. Plus, soaking in outdoor hot springs in the snow during winter was amazing. Second, Barcelona is one of the most worthwhile cities to visit in Spain. I had been there once before, really liked it, and wanted to take LD back to experience it. Third, Tenerife is an easy-to-overlook vacation destination, but it’s very well known in Europe. I had previously gone on a work trip to nearby Las Palmas, another island in the Canaries (the Canary Islands are made up of 7 islands), and the impression it left on me was unforgettable. It was cleaner than New Zealand, with crystal-clear ocean water, little desert landscapes, nude beaches, and it was also a place where Sanmao once lived. Most importantly, it has a highly rated Ritz-Calton (Abama) there (more on that in the hotel post later).

When I told LD about the preliminary plan, LD was very pleased.

Flight costs

  • Outbound: DEN-MSP-AMS-BUD, 60,000 Delta miles for two people + $36 in fees
  • Within Europe: BUD-BCN, WIZZ air $38*2 + $25 baggage = $101
  • Within Europe: BCN-TFS, Ryan air 58*2 + $50 baggage = $166
  • Return: TFS-TXL (overnight in Berlin)-ORD-DEN, AA 22,500*2-4500 (10% rebate with an AA card) + $160 fee

Because I had applied for the Chase Ritz-Calton Visa infinite the year before, I was able to call in and get all of the above fees reimbursed, using up the full $300 airline incidental credit for 2016. So total out-of-pocket spending came to 463-300=$163 (I charged everything to the Chase Ritz card, since the travel protections on this card are excellent). Tip 1: When you call, just say the charges were for baggage fees and taxes. Usually they won’t ask too many questions, especially with European low-cost carriers. Chase has no easy way to verify, and probably doesn’t want to bother anyway.

A lot of people see the $450 annual fee on the Chase Ritz-Calton card and hesitate, but last year it came with a 3-night sign-up bonus (rumor had it the 3-night bonus was coming back again, and this card was not subject to 5/24), plus a $300 annual airline incidental reimbursement. That’s actually very generous. Of course, there was also a trick to waive the first-year annual fee (and yes, I shamelessly used that trick).

*Note: In this trip report, I’m not counting miles or points as cash. Otherwise there’s no way a 12-day trip for two could have been done for $600.

Airlines

My general strategy is to keep miles with all three major North American airlines. Whether it’s Delta and its “SkyPesos,” AA with almost no saver availability, or UA, which is often the easiest for award bookings, it’s worth having some of each because you never know which program will be most useful.

Since we were leaving on December 30, I checked all three major carriers, and only Delta had award space. From DEN to BUD, we didn’t have a ton of miles, so we were basically flying economy—30,000 miles + $18 per person—which was already pretty good for New Year’s travel. By coincidence, I had done a Delta Gold challenge in 2016, so I was hoping at least to pick Comfort+ seats. Unexpectedly, because the flight was oversold, we got upgraded on MSP-AMS. Upgraded! Upgraded~~~~~~~ We were so excited. It was also LD’s first time flying business class, so in that moment LD thought I was pretty impressive :)) (Please don’t judge us for never having flown business class before haha :))~~)

We were so excited that we kept asking for drinks, ate until we were stuffed, and completely forgot to take pictures. So just use your imagination with the next few photos—I dug them out of LD’s phone~~~~

It seemed like at least 5 or 6 other people got upgraded too, because I saw quite a few people taking photos~~~~ while the two of us were busy ordering red wine~~~ (blushing).

The food really was good. Since I haven’t flown AA or UA long-haul business class, I can’t really compare~~

After eating, drinking, and watching two movies, I finally remembered that these seats reclined flat~~~~~~ (facepalm). By then we had already flown 4 hours, with only 4 more hours to Amsterdam, so I quickly lay down to sleep. Then, while I was in that dreamy half-sleep state, LD woke me up for breakfast...

How did I get so off topic... Back to airline choices. I chose AA for the return mainly because AA has off-peak and peak pricing, and North America to Europe in off-peak season (it looked like November through March; the period used to be longer, but holidays were later excluded) was only 22,500 miles one-way per person. If you had an AA card, you could also get 10% of the miles back, so it was an excellent deal. TIP 2: When redeeming AA miles, first rule out BA—the fuel surcharges are terrifying. In Europe, Air berlin and Finnair didn’t have fuel surcharges. (The only bad news was that AB had just announced bankruptcy the day before... and Finnair is usually hard to find award space on.) The general principle is: keep searching~~~~.

Within Europe, using miles is often a luxury and poor value because there are so many low-cost airlines. We chose WIZZ, which is based in Budapest, and Ryanair, which is all over Europe. If you book early, you can save a lot of money. Of course, for an intercontinental trip you usually have a fair amount of luggage, so TIP 3: if you’re flying low-cost carriers, buy baggage in advance and eat beforehand in the PP lounge (there’s no meal service on board, and most major European airports have PP lounges. Our PP card also came from the Chase Ritz sign-up bonus).

Here are two photos so you can get a feel for the departure hall used by low-cost airlines:

Even though this was our luxury trip, we still had to experience a little of the common people’s suffering, you know what I mean (question-mark face).

Finally, let’s talk about the “score”!!

Why did our luxury trip only cost $600 total, including flights, hotels, food, and sightseeing? Because we managed to snag two very nice payouts!! :)

Continuing from the Delta business class story: after arriving in Amsterdam, we cleared immigration, found the gate for our next flight, then went to the PP lounge for more food and drinks. About 30 minutes before boarding AMS-BUD, we slowly made our way to the gate, only to be told the flight was delayed. So we sat there bored on the benches, dozing off and fighting jet lag.

An hour later, we finally boarded. I kept sleeping, but before I even really realized what was happening, everyone was told to get off the plane because it needed maintenance. So we waited some more... and I accidentally fell asleep sitting there again. When I woke up, boarding had started again. I looked at my phone and saw that the delay had reached 3 hours and 1 minute. Instantly, I was wide awake—this was the moment the payout arrived!!!!!!!!!!

According to EU Regulation 261/2004, for flights departing from the EU or operated by an EU-based airline, delays of more than 3 hours are compensated based on distance. Since our flight distance was under 1500 km, KLM owed us 250 euros per person. You need to submit a claim through KLM’s website, and it’s best to explicitly cite EU 261/2004 in the claim. After we got back to the U.S., Delta mailed us a check (because they’re close partners), converted into U.S. dollars based on the exchange rate.

That was the very first thing we did once we got to our hotel in Budapest: go online and file the claim. Then it took about a month to process.

After we arrived in Budapest and picked up our luggage, we discovered that LD’s beat-up Samsonite suitcase (a discounted one bought at ROSS when LD first visited the U.S. in 2008) was even more beat up. On closer inspection, there was also a hole in it. So off we went to the baggage service desk to go after our second payout.

After KLM’s baggage staff visually inspected it, they gave us a form to fill out, including the original value. LD and I exchanged a glance and shamelessly wrote down $200 (shy face). A month later, we also received a $200 check from Delta. TIP 4: If there’s any issue with your luggage, don’t hesitate—go straight to the baggage desk. You never know when a payout may be waiting for you.

  • So our final flight cost for the two of us was:168-520 (because 500 euros converted to a little over $520 at the exchange rate)-200=$-532

Writing this now, it still feels like such a good deal!

And that was the start of our “luxury trip.” Stay tuned for the hotel post.