Things to do in Munich

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Brad Christensen

Let’s say you follow Sheldon’s detailed instructions and book an open-jaw with a stopover into Europe on American Airlines.  You collect 50k AAdvantage points with the Citi® Platinum Select® / AAdvantage® World MasterCard® after spending $3000 in the first three months.

Whenever you fly on American points in Europe, you have to avoid using British Airways because BA gouges passengers with atrocious fuel surcharges.  What that generally means is that you end up flying on AirBerlin, an experience that you will thoroughly enjoy. It also means you may end up using Munich as one of your destinations.

Munich is in Bavaria, southern Germany, a beautiful area especially during the months from October to May, when AA will let you steal their Europe flights for a mere 40k points.

Where to stay in Munich

We’d never expect you to actually have to pay for your hotel, so let’s look at this depending on whether you have Starwood Points or Marriott points.  Both programs offer a free night if you use points to book 4 nights, so let’s assume you’ll stay 5 nights.

With 28k SPG points, you could stay 5 nights at the Four Points by Sheraton Munich Olympiapark or the Sheraton Munich Airport Hotel.


With 60k Marriott points, you could stay 5 nights at the Courtyard Munich City East.

This is a perfect example of why, when it comes to point bonuses from travel credit cards, more is not always better.  In this case, 28k points from one program gets you what it takes 60k from another.  It just depends on what you have in your awardwallet and how you make it work for you.

Things to do in Munich

  • Glockenspiel Rathaus München

    Glockenspiel Rathaus München (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

    Marienplatz, the main public square of the city, is a great place to start along with the nearby market.  The clock or glockenspiel on the town hall has moving figurines which reenact Bavarian history. Appropriately enough, the name for “Town Hall” in German is “Rathaus.”

  • I’m a sucker for science museums and from the moment you first set foot in Germany, you know that these guys clearly understand it as well as anyone.  Visit the Deutsches Museum and you’ll get the idea.
  • The English Garden puts Central Park to shame, full of wooded paths and a moving waterway, and even a nudist area.

Things to do just outside Munich

  • Dachau is not beautiful.  It is not picturesque.  It is not exactly “enjoyable.”  But it is poignant, and you need to see where more than 200,000 people were imprisoned in this Nazi concentration camp between 1933 and 1945.
  • The Olympic Stadium was ultra-high-tech in its time in 1972, and it’s still a sight to behold.

Things to do within a day trip of Munich

  • On this blog Neuschwanstein Castle is a repeat customer… its because it is absolutely, fantastically magical.  Make your way from Munich close to the border of Austria and enjoy it in all its glory.
  • The ancient, walled town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber is medieval Germany brought to life.  Now that I’ve seen the Italian sites I craved, this one is calling to me.
  • The Eagle’s Nest was Hitler’s retreat and is perched high in the mountains, as its name would suggest.

As you can see, Munich would make a great destination for your next almost-free trip to Europe.  Tie it in with a stopover in a US gateway city and an open-jaw from some other European destination and you’ll have yourself one heck of a trip for very, very little in out-of-pocket costs.

Thanks for wanderlusting with us.  Want to hear our free-travel advice on another destination? Comment and tell us where!

 

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Posted in American Airlines, Europe, Marriott Rewards, Starwood Preferred Guest | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Booking a Stopover With American Airlines

Posted on November 21, 2013 by wpengine

Looking at booking an award ticket with American Airlines?  Check out this post to learn how to Book a stopover with American Airlines.

Let’s just review a few key terms that you’ll need to understand before we hit the meat of this post:

Open-Jaw (Multi-Destination)– This is a trip where your destination and the location of your return flight are two different locations.  Here is an example.  SLC-CDG is the first leg of your flight.  The return flight might be something like BCN-SLC.  Notice that there is no connecting flight between CDG and BCN.  You would do this as a part of your trip.

Stopover– A stopover could be defined as somewhere along your trip that you get a chance to stop before arriving at your final destination.  The only example below would be JFK.

Stopover

American Airlines Stopover Rule

American Airlines will allow for only one domestic stopover on an international flight, but they’re rather picky.  They only allow the stopover to be in the “Gateway City.”    The Gateway City is the city from which you leave the country.  Unfortunately this really limits your options.  For the most part the “Gateways” are:

  • New York City
  • Chicago
  • Dallas
  • Miami
  • Los Angeles

You’ll have a tough time finding another city serve as a gateway to an international flight. Maybe once the merger with US Airways is complete there will be a few more, but who knows if these rules will change.

Booking an American Airlines Stopover

1.  You’ll want to start by logging on to the AA.com website.  Check the box that says “Redeem Miles” first.  Then click on the tiny letters “Refine your search.”

Picture 12

2. This will bring you to the next page where you’ll see something like this.

American Airlines Stopover

You’ll now want to click the “Multi-City” radial at the top of the page. This will bring up a screen like the one shown above.  You can add in each leg of the flight.  In this scenario I ran a sample showing a two day stopover in JFK.

In this scenario JFK was my “Gateway Destination,” which allowed for a couple of days in the Big Apple.  You wouldn’t ever want to spend too long in NYC or you’d get robbed or go broke (which are really similar), so this would be a good way to tack on a quick visit to see a Broadway show or something like that.

3.  Now you’ve just got to find award availability.

Multi destination flight

The quote at the top of the page says, “This international award allows a stopover at New York – NYC for no additional miles…”

Yahoo.  You’ve done it!  Now you can book a flight to Europe and include a stopover at one of the destinations and score two vacations in one.  You should also consider doing a multi-destination like the example above.  This allows you to maximize your vacation by seeing a number of locations in one trip. That’s what we call shooting with a shotgun!

Have you ever used a multi-destination or stopover award? What was your experience?  Would you recommend it to others?

 

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Ask and Ye Shall Receive: Writing an Effective Airline Complaint Letter

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Brad Christensen

I’ve told you, our army of WorldWanderlusters, about our incredible trip to Italy where we got tickets that should have cost us $2600 for $162 and 80k points.  I told you that we stayed 13 nights in hotels and didn’t pay a dollar (or a euro) for a single night. I told you it was epic and that every day was filled with incredible sights and adventures.

But what I didn’t tell you was that it got even better.  You know I am vigorous in my pursuit of free-travel, and you also know that I am shameless… shameless enough to try to make my already almost-free trip almost-freer.

Writing an Effective Airline Complaint Letter

We had a little wrinkle in our flight plans on our departure.  We were headed to the SLC airport when we got a call saying our flight would be delayed and that we’d miss our connecting flight.  I called AA customer service and begged them to find a routing that would still get us to Venice in time to keep our tightly-knit itinerary.

Cervantes Fountain

One of the many sites in Madrid

Luckily, they were cooperative and the new plan was to put us through Madrid and get us into Venice even earlier… but as these things usually go, our next flight was delayed as well and when we got into Madrid, we had already missed that connecting flight.  They put us on a flight 6 hours later and gave us a meal certificate.

We weren’t exactly thrilled because we were anxious to get to Venice, but we made the best of the situation and took the train into downtown Madrid and visited the sites.

By the time we arrived in Venice, it was much later than we had planned on and it didn’t spoil our trip, but it did have some consequences.  I didn’t harbor any anger over the deal, but I did see it as an opportunity for American Airlines to demonstrate some awesome customer service for me.

So after our trip, I logged into the AA Customer Service Portal, entered the information for our flights, and, following the same rules I laid out in “How to Write an Airline Complaint Letter,” penned this sub 1500 character letter:

The delays on this trip led to two missed flights, extensive layovers, and a day of cancelled activities for our vacation.

 I understand that air travel arrangements won’t always go smoothly, but there’s always the hope that you’ll still be able to do the things you’ve planned on.

 Because our flight out of SLC or ORD was delayed, we weren’t able to make the flight from ORD to DUS and were re-routed on an Iberia flight through MAD. Then that flight was late and we didn’t arrive at VCE until 7:30pm. 

 As a result, we were unable to do the cave tour we had booked and missed our dinner reservation. We were able to get our tour refunded, but were disappointed that we didn’t get to see the place where Gandalf said, “You shall not pass!”

 The scenic drive we were so looking forward to became a nerve-wracking drive over mountain passes in the dark.

 It’s not like this ruined our trip by any stretch of imagination.  We had a great time and all in all, American Airlines and its partners were accommodating and friendly.  Even so, when we spent two entire days in transit on both sides, every day in country is precious and hurt to miss out on some of those activities.

 I know you can’t offer a refund, but even if you could offer 10k AAdvantage miles for each of us to make our next possible adventure that much closer, it would be much appreciated.

 Thank you very much for your consideration and best wishes.

AA Customer Service was extraordinarily attentive and within 2 hours I had a response in my email box, apologizing for the delays and telling me that the 10k AAdvantage miles would be in each of our accounts in the next few days.

I was, of course, summarily pleased.  There was a temptation to wish I had asked for more, but honestly I felt like it was perfectly fair.  In the end, I had paid a total of 30,000 AAdvantage miles for a flight to Europe… that being only 5k more than a domestic flight, my ear-to-ear grin is probably justified.

 Priority Club Hotel

Also, one of our free hotel nights was at the Holiday Inn in Ratingen, Germany, on a stopover in Dusseldorf. When I booked it initially, I booked it for 15k Priority Club points (I had 85k from the Chase Priority Club Select Visa).

Shortly after booking it, the most recent Priority Club PointBreaks list came out. (Priority Club offers special 5k/night deals on some specific hotels every quarter).  Sure enough, the hotel I had selected for its free airport shuttle was on the list.  I called to see if I could cancel and re-book and they told me there was not availability.  “Oh well,” I thought, yet I never quite resigned to paying full points-price.

Holiday in Ratingen

Thank you very much!

A couple of weeks later I went to try again and found that I could book it online for 5k points.  I simply booked the night at the PointBreak rate, then went back and cancelled my first night.  Cha-ching!  10k points right back into my account.

Now, if you like that action, check this out.  When we rolled into the hotel, they recognized us as gold-status (A nice perk that comes along with the card).  They gave us two free 24-hour internet passes (a $15 value) and two drink passes for the bar.  When we went to our upgraded room, there was a plate of fruit and chocolate along with a hand-written note from the staff.

I am here to tell you, fellow WorldWanderluster, this is the way to see the world. If you’ll dedicate a few minutes a day to learn How to Wanderlust, you’ll be telling these same kinds of incredible stories yourself.

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You Don’t Accept Credit Cards…Are You Sure?

Posted on November 13, 2013 by wpengine

If you’re a true world wanderluster, it has happened to you.  You’re shameless at asking, and have no fear taking your business elsewhere when they tell you no.  You make the call, and after finding that the price is reasonable you ask the question that matters more than the price (almost), “Do you accept credit cards?” Sheepishly the business owner responds, “No, I can’t afford the fees they charge me to accept credit cards.”

Your heart sinks, and you begin to feel sick to your stomach.  How could you make such an expense without getting miles?!  It isn’t possible.  You’d regret not having those 200 AAdvantage miles, and you’re not sure that you’re willing to go thorough with the deal anymore.  You begin to doubt, and don’t know what to do.

Are You Sure You Don’t Accept Credit Cards?

Credit cards Français : Cartes de crédit Itali...

Credit Cards (Courtesy of Wikipedia)

This moment happened to me within the last month.  My wife has been asking me since we moved into our house to put up some rain gutters on our house.  Keeping the ice from building up on the driveway is a major motivator at this point as we get closer to winter.

I did just as mentioned above, I called around and found out that the prices were all similar everywhere we looked.  When I decided to go with Custom Rain Gutters, I made the call to Gary.  After a bit of chit chat, and me announcing to him that he was chosen as the bidder for my rain gutters, he seemed delighted.  Then the conversation turned sour for me, listen in:

  • Me      “You accept credit cards, right?”
  • Gary  “Unfortunately we don’t.  We used to, but couldn’t afford the fees and didn’t want to pass the costs on to the consumer.”
  • Me      “Hmm.  That is a real bummer for me.”

I had to come up with a plan.  I wasn’t about to let 450 frequent flyer miles just run down the rain gutter.  That is almost as painful as paying too much.

My Genius Idea

When the bill arrived in the mail, I was still wincing from pain about losing out on the miles.  Then it came to me, and there was a moment of clarity.  It’s something that I’ve used in the past, but somehow it had slipped from my mind. The solution that would satisfy both Gary and I would be Amazon Payments.

What is Amazon Payments?

Amazon Payments is a service that allows you to use your credit card to pay other individuals or businesses.  In many cases you can send them money using a credit card, and neither of you end up paying any fees.

I’ll do another post later talking about how to use Amazon Payments.

How did it work?

I called Gary and spoke with him over the phone regarding the payment. Here is how it when from there.

Me: You don’t by chance accept Amazon Payments, do you?
Gary: I don’t think so, what is that?
Me: It is a service that allows me to send you money by using a credit card, up to a certain limit, and neither of us have to pay any fees for using the credit card. You just need to sign up for an Amazon account.
Gary: Well, I guess I could give it a shot. Why don’t you send the money and I’ll see if I can work it out.
Me: Great. I’ll send the money to your email address, let me confirm that….

Being much more sensitive than I, my wife turns to me and says, “You made that poor gentleman accept a payment method which is completely foreign to him.  Now he has to open an account and figure out how to receive his payment.”

My response was this, “I just helped him.  There are thousands of WorldWanderlusters out there who want to pay everything with their credit cards.  He could potentially be losing business to others who accept credit cards.  Now he can accept credit cards and be up with the times, without paying the price.”

In the end, I ended up with 450 AAdvantage miles and met the spending requirement on my wife’s most recent AAdvantage card.  Now Gary can accept payments without paying fees. Everyone wins in this case.

Just do it.

The next time an expense comes up and the service provider embarrassingly admits, I don’t accept credit cards, you can give them an alternative that will help both of you.  You’ll earn your miles, and he will earn your business.

Create an Amazon Payments account today and stop missing out on so many miles!

 

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I Make My Travel Decisions Like I Make My Vasectomy Decisions

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Brad Christensen

“Valium? Hell yes, I’ll have a Valium,” I say.  I’m not going to pretend I’m not nervous. Any procedure involving man-parts is uncomfortable, and the idea of being cut is unnerving, but you put those two together and, wow, we’re talking white-knuckle, throat-knotted skittishness. Hooker in church, nothing.

But it’s worse than that.  The parts of me that are distinctly male are not in the aged hands of an eminently capable doctor with 30 years of experience, but in the quavering clutches of a bright-eyed student… and this isn’t my Adam’s Apple we’re talking about.

Yes, I’ve opted to have a vasectomy performed at a Medical School. It’s not convenient… I had to drive over an hour to get here.  It’s not the way I had ever envisioned it… we’ve already discussed how nervous I am.  But it is cheap, in fact, it’s almost free… and that’s why I’m here.

You’re wondering if you’re really reading about this on a travel blog. Well, yes, you are… and I’m getting to that. You see, I make my travel decisions like I make my vasectomy decisions.

What Does This Story Have to do With Travel?

I’m standing on a stone wall, overcome by a sense of awe.  Rather than enjoy the moment, I’m doing what everyone does these days, snapping an infinite number of pictures, applying filters, and dreaming up hashtags.

But then I pause.  I look at Nicole, the love of my life, and together we ponder what lays before us, an island in the sky.  The morning fog has lifted, but it still hangs, a fragile form of lingerie, enhancing the beauty of an already magical landscape.

Estruscan hill city

Civita Di Bagnoregio

It’s Civita di Bagnoregio, a 2500 year-old cobbled city rising atop a plateau in a verdant valley. We’re an hour north of Rome, and it’s not the first time we’ve been utterly stunned by the sites we’ve visited on our 2-week itinerary in Italy.

Lake Bled LodgingWe felt the same way when we woke up to find a picturesque autumn Lake Bled out the window of our Bed and Breakfast in Slovenia. Perched on the “Lovers Walk” outside Riomaggiore in the Cinque Terre, our gasps were audible.

Cinque Terre

Riomaggiore from the Lover’s Walk

Ok, But Back to the Vasectomy?

It’s a starkly different picture from the vasectomy experience, but believe it or not, the means and the motivations to accomplish both were the same.

The vasectomy had to happen.  We make some beautiful kids, and we love them, all four of them, but something had to be done there.

Not dissimilar, a trip to Italy was going to happen.  With a bit of an infatuation for ancient Rome, I had a thirst that wasn’t going to quench itself.

And What do They Have in Common, Again?

In both instances I was able to achieve my objectives for a fraction of a fraction of the expected cost because I was flexible in how I went about getting what I want.

The student-snip? $50, Valium included.  I could have paid $800 going anywhere else. (Strangely, health insurance companies obviously don’t understand the concept of risk/reward). I had to drive an hour away and endure the added stress of scrotum preoccupation.

Our trip to Italy, some $1600 – mostly in fuel, tolls, and food costs.  I could have easily had to pay more than $6000, but I didn’t.  I booked our $2600 tickets with 80k AA miles and $162. I had to fly into Venice and out of Rome (not exactly an inconvenience). When a wrinkle in our flight schedules came up, a made a tiny complaint and got back 20k AA miles. We stayed 13 nights in free hotel-stays.  No wait, they did make us pay the 3 euro city fee in a couple places.

Sounds Cool, Man, But You Went from Funny Vasectomy Guy to Travel-Bragging Guy

How did I do it?  You see, I have a problem… it’s a value computation problem.  Everyone else goes to a restaurant and they pick something off the menu that sounds good.  Not me.  I seek out menu-inefficiencies.  I’ll try to combine a-la-carte items. I have no shame in ordering off the kid’s menu. Split plates? Come, that’s child’s play.

But it’s a problem that comes in handy for people like you – people who want to learn how to travel with the same value-conscientiousness. Or wait, was it the vasectomy thing that drew you in?  Well, if it was, maybe you’ll want to learn how to travel the “free” way now anyways.

How to Travel the “Free” Way

For more than three years now, I’ve been ravaging frequent-flyer mile programs… not the casual here a few there a  few, I’m talking, like, chubby-kid-under-the-piñata aggressive. I’m too impatient to accumulate them the old-fashioned way.  I want them all and I want them now.

And I’m getting them… more than 2 million of them, in fact.  Just last week I did an “App-o-rama” and if you think that sounds fun, you ought to try it.  I’ll pull down 185,000 miles and points from the 4 cards I applied for in one day:

That brings us up to 34 cards in 3 years between my wife and I. We always apply separately in order to maximize our bonuses.

But easy, tiger. It’s not as simple as just running out there and grabbing them. You’ve got to be informed to know which are the right programs and the best bonuses. You’ve got to be diligent to track them all, never missing a payment to keep your credit score solid.  You’ve got to be disciplined not to spend money you wouldn’t otherwise spend, or to pay interest, because the moment you start into that, you lose.

But you can win… oh you can win… I only have one cheap-vasectomy story (merciful heaven above), but I’ve got a dozen cheap-travel stories.  I flew my family to Panama for $261 out of pocket.  Nicole and 4 friends went to LA for a weekend and I had no problem springing for the $25 flight expense. Those are just a couple and I’m writing more all the time.

And you don’t have to go all crazy like me, either… take it slow and pull down a couple of big bonuses to test the waters.  If you decide taking free trips is fun, then keep it up. And if you decide you’d rather pay full price for your trips (and your vasectomy) that’s fine, too.

Obviously there’s more to it than I can give you in a single blog post, but it’s all here on our site.  Poke around and don’t hesitate to comment with a question. We love seeing others embrace the idea and traveling the world. Thanks for wanderlusting with us.

 

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See Your Transunion FICO Credit Score with Barclaycard Arrival

Posted on November 6, 2013 by wpengine

Rock on!  Barclaycard is starting a new benefit for all Barclaycard Arrival(TM) World MasterCard® – Earn 2x on All Purchases cardholders.  You will now have access to your TransUnion FICO score for FREE. Yet another reason to put The Arrival in your wallet.  Here are eight more reasons to remind you about why this card is one you consider.

Current Fico Score

Barclaycard’s New Benefit

Many services charge big money ($10 per month-Look I’m cheap, and you are too, that’s why you’re reading this blog) or so to let you see your credit score whenever you want, which isn’t worth paying.

We’ve talked before about special offers from CreditKarma and CreditSesame that both offer an good idea of your current credit score.  They don’t charge, but they’re not offering the exact score like this offer appears to be giving.

This is a service that you have to “turn on,” but it is more like a microwave than an oven.  You get almost instant results, so what are you waiting for?

How to get your Transunion FICO Score with this offer:

1. First you need to login to your Barclaycard Account. Click on “Tools and education”

Picture 6

2. Click on the “Your FICO Score” icon in the middle of the page.

Credit Score

3. Read through the terms and conditions of the program, scroll to the bottom of the page and attest to the things listed below, and click the green “Accept” button.

Transunion Credit Score

4. Presto!  You’ve nailed it.  Give it a minute to pull up your beautiful score that allowed you the privilege of having the Barclaycard Arrival and admire your wonderful score.

myfico.com

The End Result

Although they’re probably bogus, don’t forget to review the two reasons that are negatively affecting your score at the bottom of the page.  They have to think of some reason to not put everyone at the highest level, so don’t let them affect you too strongly.

This is a huge step toward offering better benefits to you as a cardholder.  It really doesn’t cost them much to hook into the score, so why wouldn’t they do it anyway, right?

Here are the terms and conditions of the program:

1Key score factors provided by FICO explain the top factors that affected your FICO® Score. The order in which your FICO® Score factors are listed is significant. The first factor indicates the area that most influenced your FICO® Score and the second is next most significant factor that influenced your FICO® Score. It’s important to take note of these items so you have a better idea of what can impact your financial health in the future. Barclaycard provides the description of each factor to help explain the factor in more detail.2This material has not been modified or validated by Barclaycard. Not all creditors evaluate credit in the same way; information provided may not reflect the view of Barclaycard.For important information and Terms of Use of this FICO® Score, click here to hide details.

Only the primary cardmember may accept the Terms of Use of this program and only their FICO® Score is available through this program. You (the primary cardmember) understand and acknowledge that if you give anyone else online access to your Barclaycard account(s), by providing your username and password, they will be able to view your FICO® Score as well as the factors impacting that score.

Barclaycard offers FICO® Score access at its own discretion. FICO® Score access is not a permanent feature of your account and may be removed at any time. To view your FICO® Score, your account with us must be open and active (having activity within the past 150 days).

Your FICO® Score falls into a range from 300 to 850, is calculated based on TransUnion credit data, and is offered soley for your own non-commercial, personal review, and benefit. Your FICO® Score is not an endorsement or a determination of your qualification for a loan or credit. Credit score models and score ranges may differ by lender.

FICO and TransUnion are third-party providers and are not affiliated with Barclaycard. Barclaycard does not guarantee the accuracy of any credit information that is provided to you by these third parties.

You can request a free copy of your credit report once every 12 months from each of the three major US credit reporting companies including TransUnion at annualcreditreport.com. If you find inaccuracies within your credit file, this site also allows you to dispute items in your report with the particular credit reporting company involved. Barclaycard does not recommend or endorse fee-based credit products that may be promoted in that site.

To help explain FICO® Scores and credit in general, we offer credit education materials from FICO. This material has not been validated by Barclaycard. Not all creditors evaluate credit in the same way. The information offered in this material may not reflect the view of Barclaycard. To read and download these materials, click the links below:

FICO and FICO Score are registered trademarks of Fair Isaac Corporation in the United States and other countries.

Barclaycard and Fair Isaac Corporation are not credit repair organizations as defined under federal or state law, including the Credit Repair Organizations Act. Barclaycard and Fair Isaac do not provide “credit repair” services or advice or assistance regarding “rebuilding” or “improving” your credit record, credit history or credit rating.

 

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5 Free Nights in a Starwood Preferred Guest Hotel in Poland

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Brad Christensen

As Nicole and I were waiting in line to enter St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome on our recent 2-week tour of Italy, we struck up a conversation with the couple behind us in line.  Judging from their thickly-accented English, we could tell they weren’t native speakers and asked where they were from.  They told us they were from Poland.

We’re always intrigued to meet people and talk travel.  At every opportunity we tell people to come to Idaho (in the summer), and we ask people about their home and what fun things there are to do.  People are naturally unappreciative of their local surroundings, but this couple had some interesting ideas and it left us nudging Poland a little higher on the bucket list.

Naturally, I did what we do as WorldWanderlusters, setting out how to visit Poland with minimal expense.  I already know that my best bet for air travel to Europe is on American Airlines – 40,000 if I work it right and travel between Oct 15 and May 15. And having just recently enjoyed a flight on OneWorld partner, Air Berlin, I’d be hoping to do my long-route travel on one of their planes, if for no other reason than for the delicious chocolate hearts they pass out on arrival.

The next step was to determine where I could stay inexpensively.  Eastern Europe isn’t bad when it comes to expenses, but any big city will have its pricey places.  I used a lot of Starwood hotels on our recent trip to Italy and I loved the extremely helpful staff and great locations.  It just so happens that there are two Starwood properties in Warsaw, one of which was super exciting.

The Warsaw Westin is a brand-new hotel which is unapologetically modern, perfectly located, and ridiculously nice.  It gets even better when I tell you that despite its posh appearance, it’s a Category 3 hotel, burning only 7k points/night.

We’ve talked before about Starwood’s generous “Book 4, get 1 free” promotion.  That’s how you can get a total of 5 nights for spending 28k Starwood Points.

How do you get those 28k points?  I’m glad you asked.  As part of a 4-card “App-o-rama,” (applying for multiple cards at a time to minimize credit impacts and maximize travel point accumulation) I recently applied and got approved for the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express.  I’ll get 10k points right away, and 15k more when I spend $5k within the first 6 months (something everyday expenses together with Christmas will easily allow). So together with the points I get from meeting the spending and the bonuses, I’ll add a total of 30k SPG points to my account.

What is there to do around Warsaw?

Warsaw Poland

There is no shortage of history in Warsaw, despite the fact that it was razed to the ground by the Nazis midway through the 20th Century.  It was central stage for much of both Western and Eastern cultural history.

  • To get a sense for what Warsaw was, visitors can see the reconstructed Old Town – replete with interesting architecture and countless WWII sites.
  • As the birthplace of Chopin, there is an abundance of musical performances and tributes to the great composer.
  • Beautiful parks and gardens include Saxon Park and Royal Baths Park.
  • The Wilanow Palace Museum is full of history.
  • The Copernicus Science Center offers a place to marvel at the wonders of the universe.

As if these weren’t enough, there are also many activities that lay just outside the city.  Five days is enough time to check out all the sites.

If you like the idea, but Warsaw isn’t your thing, take a look at these other great posts about how to use Starwood Preferred Guest points:

https://worldwanderlusting.com/category/starwood-preferred-guest/

Thanks for wanderlusting with us!

 

 

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