Booking BAP: A $5,000 Trip to Europe for $238 & Points!
Also see:
Just Booked: A Brussels Airlines Biz Class Award Flight With Etihad Miles
My Best Advice: BOOK THE TRIP
In a few weeks, I’ll be in Brussels, Amsterdam, and Prague for the first time. I am calling this trip “BAP” (after the 3 cities).
This is the trip I booked waaay back in August 2016 for biz class seats with Etihad miles. At the time, I paid ~37,000 miles for round-trip seats from New York to Brussels on Brussels Airlines. Etihad has since raised the price to 88,000 miles – which can still be a good deal to Europe in Business.
That was about 9 months ago – the furthest out I’ve ever planned a trip. At the time, I figured I’d fill it in when the time came. Which is now.
I’m coming for ya, Brussy
Here’s how I put together a $5,00+ week-long trip to Europe for $238 out of pocket.
Booking BAP (Brussels, Amsterdam, Prague)
1. To New York and back
First things first, I had to get myself to New York for the flight.
I booked the way there with 6,637 Citi ThankYou points and nothing out of pocket:
One ticket
This will be my first big solo trip as a single guy. Still feeling a bit strange about it…
Then I booked my way back to Dallas with 5,810 Southwest points:
Total bargain
The reason for the different airlines simple came down to schedules.
For this flight, I charged the $5.60 in taxes to my Citi Prestige card. I hadn’t used my $250 annual airfare credit yet, so again, nothing out of pocket.
2. New York to Brussels
I wrote about the gory details of booking these flights with Etihad miles.
I paid 36,620 Etihad Guest miles and ~$93 back in August 2016.
So this gets me to Brussels!
I’ll spend 2 days exploring the city.
Cuuute
I’m staying at this cute Airbnb duplex near Grand Place for 2 nights.
$18 a night
I had a $100 Airbnb gift card from a promotion a long time ago. And an $80 credit for referring a new Airbnb host. So $180 skimmed right off the top.
In the end, I charged $39 to my Chase Sapphire Reserve to earn 3X Chase Ultimate Rewards points. That’s $18 a night out of pocket.
3. Brussels to Amsterdam
Then I’ll take the Thalys train from Brussels to Amsterdam.
Cheep!
A First Class “Premier” seat was a little more than the regular seat. Considering this was my biggest expense of the entire trip, I decided to splurge. And paid $106 for the train ticket to Amsterdam.
Remember Club Carlson? A few years ago I Club Carlson-ed my way through Europe. And stayed at several of their hotels in Ireland. Of course, they are now dead to me, but I had 117,000 Club Carlson points literally just chillin’. And I wanted to burn them on this trip.
My free digs in Amsterdam
Lucky for me, I found 2 nights at the Park Plaza Victoria Amsterdam for 100,000 Club Carlson points.
I love seeing a $0 subtotal
Of course me being me, I wanted to see how much it would’ve cost with cash:
Nearly $600, or $300 per night
In this case, my 100,000 Club Carlson points were worth ~$595 – not bad at all.
4. Amsterdam to Prague
Next, to Prague.
Just paid for it
I found an EasyJet flight for ~$160. I bought it outright with my Citi Prestige card, which covered the entire cost thanks to the remainder of the $250 annual airfare credit.
3 nights in Prague for 21,000 Starwood points
I found 3 nights open at the Sheraton Prague Charles Square Hotel for 7,000 Starwood points per night. So I booked it on the spot.
Or, ~$719
The 3 nights would’ve cost ~$719, so in this case, my Starwood points were worth over 3 cents each. That’s not stellar for Starwood points, but I really didn’t want to pay over $700. Plus, I just signed-up for a promotion to earn 20,000 Starwood points in the next couple of months, so I figured I could easily replace them.
Value added tax indeed
Because this is a Sheraton, I have access to the Executive lounge thanks to my SPG biz Amex (yessss!). This includes breakfast, snacks all day, and drinks in the evening – I expect I’ll be here a lot, if only for the drinks. 
