As you may know, I used to travel a lot for business. When I was living and working in France as an International Brand Director, I had the privilege to travel all over the world and as a result rack up a nice bank of points (for me it was Air France, Flying Blue points). My husband was visiting me regularly too so he also banked a few miles.
Since my return to Canada, two years ago, Joe has been doing all the traveling. He’s been flying back and forth between San Fran and Toronto basically every other week, with a few side trips in between. As a result, he has been accumulating Air Canada, Aeroplan miles. Also since he is staying in hotels for 10 days at a time, he’s been banking Hilton hotel points.
Last Christmas, we blew the lot of my Flying Blue miles (nearly 300M) on a business class European trip Vienna-Paris (with a non-free side trip to Budapest). I booked a little late so the number of miles required to get business class was double the normal amount. After a lot of thought we decided it would be such a pleasure (yes a bit frivolous) to travel the whole way business class that it would be worth it.
In fact, Joe and I had never flown business class together, we were always travelling separately. We had visions of drinking champagne (my vision) and snuggling in our comfy leather seats and arriving at our destination much more relaxed and a lot less grumpy (Joe’s vision).
We chose to go to Europe because I was really missing architecture, art and European Culture. We decided to fly from Toronto to Vienna. We had a connection in Amsterdam (I have to tell you Joe was a little disappointed it wasn’t a stop over).
We had spent Christmas in Vienna two years ago and absolutely loved the city and especially the Christmas markets. Wandering around the markets drinking Glϋhwein (hot mulled wine) and eating Stollen (pastry filled with almond paste and raisins), what could be better?
We stayed at a 5 star Hilton in Vienna on points for three nights, the cost of the hotel would normally have been anywhere from 200 Euros to 400 Euros (depending on the day). Aside from taxi to the hotel from the airport and the nice tip to the concierge (who really helped plan Budapest connections) the whole hotel stay was gratis including breakfast, afternoon appetizers and sparkling wine in the executive lounge.
After several days in Vienna soaking in the art and wine, we headed on to Budapest by train (this was not a free trip). We spent several days in Budapest before returning by train to Vienna and heading to Paris.
In Budapest we stayed one night on points and paid for two other nights. Paying for a Budapest hotel is much more palatable than Vienna and Paris.
The flight to Paris was included in our round trip business class tickets using the points. We stayed at another Hilton hotel, courtesy of the Hilton points. This was another huge savings, the hotel would have cost 400 Euros per night (this was New Year’s). Again the hotel included a complimentary breakfast and drinks in the lounge.
We spent New Years Eve in Paris and then headed back home to Toronto in the comfort of business class. Joe was relaxed and I had my little taste of the Parisian life I missed so much.
We also love going to the Grand Magasin to see the Christmas windows
Worth the 300M points? Was it really free?
Here’s my POV on free travel. You have to plan it well. Free flight can be challenging, on some airlines you need to plan well in advance while others are more flexible. You need to know your plan really well, what are the options, bonuses etc.? I manage this like it is my career.
Here are the facts, we spent about $500 on tax for the flights for the two of us. Not bad for business class and even considering an economy class flight to Paris return would be about $700 including taxes, it’s still a good deal and that doesn’t include the stop over in Vienna. I did however blow about 300M points! I would have been smarter to have booked earlier and saved about half the points.
Hotels on the other hand are a great deal. My husband spends his business travel in less than 5 star hotels but you can use your points in any class hotel (you just have to use the appropriate number of points per night). So while it takes longer for him to accumulate enough points for a 5 star, I consider this to be a really good value.
Net-Net, I think hotel points are amazing, air plan points are good to just a bit more challenging to organise and there’s still a cost!
This year we are using Aeroplan miles as well as Hilton and Marriott points to go to South America at Christmas time.
Empanadas and Melbac oh my!
