Using up free night certificates

A

Andrew Beall

Level 2 Member
I'm going to have a few annual free night certificates before long, and I was bored and just looking around to see if I could use them all in one trip just for fun. I was already planning on booking another trip somewhere anyway; I just hadn't decided where. I'm going to Milan and Montreux, Switzerland in March. Anyway, I came up with the following, but I'm open to other suggestions. I ended up changing my plans for my upcoming trip based on feedback here (from Zurich to Milan). I'd likely try to go around September if possible.

Fly to London using AA miles (Is this even possible without flying BA and paying fuel surcharges? Should I fly to and from the other cities I'm planning to visit instead, visiting London in between?)
Use Fairmont free night cert at The Savoy
Fly to Amsterdam and use Hilton cert at the Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam and IHG free night at the InterContinental Amstel Amsterdam. Maybe use points to stay longer at one or both.
Fly to Hamburg, Germany and use Hyatt cert at the Park Hyatt Hamburg. Maybe use points to stay longer here too.
Fly back from Hamburg using AA miles.
I could possibly fly business/first if I can book before March 22. I have a ton of SPG points I could transfer. Any recommendations for business/first flights? Haven't done much research on that before.

Thoughts/suggestions?
 
J

Josh F

Level 2 Member
Charity Forum Mod
Andrew Beall said:
I'm going to have a few annual free night certificates before long, and I was bored and just looking around to see if I could use them all in one trip just for fun. I was already planning on booking another trip somewhere anyway; I just hadn't decided where. I'm going to Milan and Montreux, Switzerland in March. Anyway, I came up with the following, but I'm open to other suggestions. I ended up changing my plans for my upcoming trip based on feedback here (from Zurich to Milan). I'd likely try to go around September if possible.

Fly to London using AA miles (Is this even possible without flying BA and paying fuel surcharges? Should I fly to and from the other cities I'm planning to visit instead, visiting London in between?)
Use Fairmont free night cert at The Savoy
Fly to Amsterdam and use Hilton cert at the Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam and IHG free night at the InterContinental Amstel Amsterdam. Maybe use points to stay longer at one or both.
Fly to Hamburg, Germany and use Hyatt cert at the Park Hyatt Hamburg. Maybe use points to stay longer here too.
Fly back from Hamburg using AA miles.
I could possibly fly business/first if I can book before March 22. I have a ton of SPG points I could transfer. Any recommendations for business/first flights? Haven't done much research on that before.

Thoughts/suggestions?
Click to expand...
Where are you coming from?

IMO it's a lot of traveling for 1 night stays... but to each their own!

If you fly to LHR on AA metal you avoid the BA surcharges... however, I've found that AA has generally crappy award space on their own metal to LHR, except in Economy, which is okay. YMMV.
 
S

satz

Level 2 Member
I will defer to others because I have not visited all cities listed by OP.

I would advise OP to keep in mind how long it may take to get to the airport from the hotels. In Amsterdam, it would take 20 mins from AMS to city center, so that's pretty easy. LHR to city center, no as easy. Maybe 1.5 hour each way? With successive one night stays, you are spending quite a bit of time getting from/to the airport to the city.
 
A

Andrew Beall

Level 2 Member
Josh F said:
Where are you coming from?

IMO it's a lot of traveling for 1 night stays... but to each their own!

If you fly to LHR on AA metal you avoid the BA surcharges... however, I've found that AA has generally crappy award space on their own metal to LHR, except in Economy, which is okay. YMMV.
Click to expand...
Coming from ATL. These wouldn't be one night stays with the exception of The Savoy in London. I just realized there is a Fairmont in Hamburg though, so I could just eliminate London and do Amsterdam/Hamburg. I'd probably be looking at 4 nights each in Amsterdam and Hamburg.
 
A

Andrew Beall

Level 2 Member
satz said:
I will defer to others because I have not visited all cities listed by OP.

I would advise OP to keep in mind how long it may take to get to the airport from the hotels. In Amsterdam, it would take 20 mins from AMS to city center, so that's pretty easy. LHR to city center, no as easy. Maybe 1.5 hour each way? With successive one night stays, you are spending quite a bit of time getting from/to the airport to the city.
Click to expand...
London was the only city that would've been a one night stay, which I think I may eliminate. I'm looking at 4 nights each in Amsterdam/Hamburg. I'm using points in addition to the free night certs.
 
Eric Bogs

Eric Bogs

New Member
I too would be worried about the stress of so many 1-night stays.

A good rule is if you're checking in after, say, 5pm, you're probably not maximizing the value of your free night cert, nor are you really going to enjoy your one night in the city.
 
A

Andrew Beall

Level 2 Member
Eric Bogs said:
I too would be worried about the stress of so many 1-night stays.

A good rule is if you're checking in after, say, 5pm, you're probably not maximizing the value of your free night cert, nor are you really going to enjoy your one night in the city.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm not planning on just staying for one night, I'm looking at a minimum of 4 nights in Amsterdam and 4 nights in Hamburg. I did decide to ditch London when I realized there is a Fairmont in Hamburg anyway.
 
J

Josh F

Level 2 Member
Charity Forum Mod
Andrew Beall said:
London was the only city that would've been a one night stay, which I think I may eliminate. I'm looking at 4 nights each in Amsterdam/Hamburg. I'm using points in addition to the free night certs.
Click to expand...
London is a fantastic city, but it's a lot of schlepping for a single night (unless you're in early one day and out late the next)... If you could maybe do at least 2 nights, you can see quite a few sights!

If you look at [LINKBROKEN]aa.fltmaps.com/en - go to Destinations. Enter LHR and uncheck Add AA Connection and uncheck Add AA Partners, you can see where in the US AA services (on their metal) direct. LAX, DFW, MIA, CLT, RDU, PHL, ORD, and JFK. If you fly Economy you'll likely find some saver space with flexibility, but you probably won't find much saver in biz/1st to LHR. You can look at other airports (e.g. MAN tends to have decent space). Also, some of their partners may have much better saver space in Biz/1st. BA has great availability but awful surcharges. Iberia has decent availability and a lot smaller surcharges (~$100 in biz) - won't show up in AA, but will in BA award searches. Finn Air is another option. Air Berlin too, although their availability isn't showing up past March or so.
 
A

Andrew Beall

Level 2 Member
Josh F said:
London is a fantastic city, but it's a lot of schlepping for a single night (unless you're in early one day and out late the next)... If you could maybe do at least 2 nights, you can see quite a few sights!

If you look at [LINKBROKEN]aa.fltmaps.com/en - go to Destinations. Enter LHR and uncheck Add AA Connection and uncheck Add AA Partners, you can see where in the US AA services (on their metal) direct. LAX, DFW, MIA, CLT, RDU, PHL, ORD, and JFK. If you fly Economy you'll likely find some saver space with flexibility, but you probably won't find much saver in biz/1st to LHR. You can look at other airports (e.g. MAN tends to have decent space). Also, some of their partners may have much better saver space in Biz/1st. BA has great availability but awful surcharges. Iberia has decent availability and a lot smaller surcharges (~$100 in biz) - won't show up in AA, but will in BA award searches. Finn Air is another option. Air Berlin too, although their availability isn't showing up past March or so.
Click to expand...
I think I've pretty much decided to eliminate London and just do Amsterdam/Hamburg. I'll use the Fairmont cert in Hamburg.

I will most likely end up flying business. My dates are flexible, so if I can find dates with business availability that's when I'll go. I'm not too picky; I'll fly any airline other than BA due to the surcharges. I guess I need to look into availability to/from AMS/HAM.

Just checked and it looks like there is plenty of availability around the dates I'm looking at, even excluding BA.
 
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A

Andrew Beall

Level 2 Member
cavil

cavil

Level 2 Member
The Savoy is great but finding free nights there is difficult. They are severely throttled like at the Plaza in NY. Yet another reason to skip London on this trip. Spend a week or two there on a future trip; you won't regret it.
Travel safe.
 
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