How I’m Traveling to Three Major European Cities for Less Than $200

This summer, my fiancée and I will be heading to Istanbul for four nights, Vienna for one night, and Prague for three nights. We are super excited about this trip as it will be our first taste of “free travel.” We decided on these three cities by drawing them out of a hat last summer (although I did substitute Budapest for Istanbul after the fact). Overall our cost breakdown was:

• Flight: Chicago-Istanbul-Vienna | Prague-Chicago
  • Points Used: 120,000 United Miles + ~$100 in fees
  • Cost to Buy this Itinerary: ~$10,000
  • Value of points: 8.3 cents per mile (!)
• Hotel (Istanbul): Ottoman Hotel Park – Four Nights
  • Points Used: 43,000 Venture Card points (purchased through Venture portal)
  • Cost to Buy this Stay: $431
• Hotel (Vienna): Hotel Imperial – One Night
  • Points Used: 20,000 Starpoints (SPG)
  • Cost to Buy this Stay: $402
  • Value of points: 2.01 cents per point
• Hotel (Prague): Radisson Blu Alcron Hotel – Three Nights
  • Points Used: 88,000 Club Carlson Points
  • Cost to Buy this Stay: ~$357
  • Value of points: 0.41 cents per point

The only travel purchase that we will need to make now is our connection from Vienna to Prague, which ranges around 30 Euros. This leaves us with so much more money to spend on souvenirs, tours, and, of course, the one of the top reasons to travel anywhere, food! Although all of our bookings are in coach and standard rooms, we still will enjoy ourselves – we like the adventure more than the luxury!

With all the savings from this trip, we’ll be sure to splurge at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul!

Now, how did we accumulate so many points? Credit card sign-up bonuses and total spending on rewards cards is the best way to be able to book trips like this (that is, unless you are a business traveler who racks up hundreds of thousands of miles a year a la George Clooney in Up in the Air).

George Clooney knows how to maximize his stay in Up in the Air

Breaking down how we got enough miles to do this trip:

• Capital One Venture Card: 40,000 points after $3,000 in 3 months
  • I simply used this card to pay for rent and all other purchases for about 2 months to get the bonus. At that point, I was able to book the Istanbul hotel with a few thousand points left over. I used the Capital One portal to book this instead of using the Purchase Eraser since I believe that the portal gives you a sizeable discount on hotels.
• American Express SPG Card: 25,000 points after $5,000 in 6 months
  • This card was a little tougher since I had to spend a lot more money over a longer timeframe. I did the same as the Venture card, relying on everyday purchases and rent for about four months. SPG points are some of the most valued points out there. You can transfer them to airlines and receive a 5,000 mile bonus for every 20,000 you transfer or use them to book some of the best hotels in the world for fairly little points. I used them to book one of the best hotels in Europe (and the initial inspiration for this trip – I always wanted to stay in a palace!). The interface for SPG is a little wonky, but it is still reliable and fairly easy to find and book travel.
• Club Carlson Premier Rewards: 85,000 points after $2,500 in 3 months
  • I am currently spending for this card in order to get the 85,000 points. I will need to spend $500 more than the sign-up bonus to get the 88,000 required for our stay in Prague. The great thing about this card is that technically the hotel in Prague is 44,000 a night, but with the card when you redeem two or more consecutive nights, your last night is free. A lot of people I’ve seen in the frequent flyer forums and blogs have used this to huge advantage. For example, if you wanted to book a nice hotel somewhere for six nights, you could book in two night intervals so you’re only redeeming three nights! Of course, you may need to call the hotel to see if you can stay in the same room the entire time or you may need to move three times (but, as a bargain hunter, I think that is totally worth it).
• United Mileage Plus: 50,000 miles after $3,000 in 3 months
  • After about a year of convincing, I finally got my fiancée in on the game and she immediately gets a better deal on the first card I ever took out. This card is usually 30,000 miles so if you see 50,000 miles I would snatch it up.
• Sapphire Preferred: 40,000 after $4,000 in 3 months
  • I use this card all the time (when I’m not using other card for sign-ups). It is awesome. Not only do I look super cool using it (it’s made of steel), but the points rack up so quickly. Taking a cab? Double points. Eating out? Double points. Eating out on first Friday of the month? Triple points. Buying flowers for the fiancée? 12x points (through the Chase Mall)! I’ve racked up nearly 100,000 points using this card the past year and ended up transferring a large chunk to my fiancée’s United account to top her off at 120,000 miles.

In addition to the above cards that I used, I also took advantage of United’s open jaw and stopover policy by stopping over in Istanbul (for four nights) on my way to Vienna and then open-jaw-ing to Prague. I can explain all the ins and outs of this in a future post.

Thanks to United’s open-jaw policy, we’re able to visit the Sedlac Ossuary this summer!

So that’s how I managed to make this trip cost only $200. Hope you learned something from this post or I hope I gave you some good ideas on how to utilize your miles. I’ll be returning in a bit with a few more trip reports and tips on how to properly navigate the United Award Travel tool.

Happy Traveling!