Welcome to my first trip report series, which covers a semi-last-minute trip to Austria in early December 2023. I have never really been to Europe in the winter, so when a coworker told me they were going to explore the Autrian Christmas markets, I started looking right away for awards to join them.
Other articles in this Trip Report
- Introduction: A Little Dose of Holiday Spirit in Austria
- Air Canada A220-300 Business Class Review (BOS>YUL)
- Air Canada A330-300 Signature Class Review (YUL>LYS)
- Austrian Airlines E195 Business Class Review (LYS>VIE)
- Why are Hilton elite benefits so frustrating to use?
- InterContinental Wien Review
- Air France A320-214 Economy Class Review (VIE>CDG)
- Air France B787-900 Premium Economy Class Review (CDG>DFW)
Booking Travel
Given the Air France/KLM promo rewards for November 2023, I was initially prepared to book roundtrip economy tickets to and from JFK for about 23k miles. But given the high surcharges, it would have required me to pay an additional ~$300 out of pocket. Not the best deal! At that point, might as well just book cash – that way I didn’t even need to reposition from Boston to NYC.
Luckily, Star Alliance availability was wide open, albeit with additional connections. While I normally would book through Aeroplan for best value, I had miles on United that I had no intention of holding onto. So for 88k UA miles and $15.10, I booked the following itinerary:
- AC755 BOS>YUL 7:05PM-8:23PM [X Economy]
- AC876 YUL>LYS 9:30PM-11:00AM(+1) [I Business]
- OS406 LYS>VIE 12:50PM-2:35PM [I Business]
Just a few days before departure, Business Class award space opened up on the first leg too. The cost, however, was a whole 10 cents more. Bummer! Thanks goodness there’s no change fee for United award bookings! So for 88k UA miles and $15.20, my itinerary ended up being:
- AC755 BOS>YUL 7:05PM-8:23PM [I Business]
- AC876 YUL>LYS 9:30PM-11:00AM(+1) [I Business]
- OS406 LYS>VIE 12:50PM-2:35PM [I Business]
For my return journey, it was close enough to the holidays that I decided to fly straight from Austria back to my parents’ in Las Vegas. I didn’t feel the need to fly in Business since it wasn’t an overnight flight. But while the economy flight to JFK was a good deal, it would have been much more difficult to reposition JFK>LAS. Instead, I opted to fly to Dallas (another promo reward), which is an American hub and plenty of options for the short 3 hour flight to Vegas.
Given the Premium Economy promo reward available to DFW, I booked the following for 24,375 FlyingBlue miles and $242.50 in taxes and fees:
- AF1239 VIE>CDG 6:15AM-8:30AM [Y Economy]
- AF132 CDG>DFW 10:15AM-1:45PM [A Premium Economy]
So across all my flights, I spent $257.70 for a mix of economy, premium economy, and business. Not too bad!
Booking Hotels
While I always preach using points and miles, I’m saving up my awards for a larger redemption. So for this trip, all my hotels were paid with cash.
I’d like to also take advantage of my elite benefits when I can, so when Marriott hotel prices were 300 Euros per night, I dashed over to Hilton for most of my stay. I ended up booking the Doubletree by Hilton Vienna Schonbrunn, which had a slight discount for “long-term stays”.
I still had my $200 Amex FHR credit to burn for the year. So I booked the InterContinental Wien for one of my nights. With the $100 credit and included breakfast, it brought the effective cost down dramatically. By the way – that breakfast was STELLAR.
Final Thoughts
Get ready for a full trip report and series of reviews coming up. Overall I had a very fun week in Austria and I felt my redemptions (though not the absolute lowest) were sufficiently reasonable.
Leave a Reply