Finalizing Flights and Hotels for Our Cruise

With our Viking Homelands-British Isles Explorer cruise just two months away, I had a few loose ends that still needed to be dealt with. Those I tackled after settling in following our return from Texas. Back in August of last year, I started looking for flights for our Viking Homelands-British Isles Explorer cruise. I had two main criteria. First, I wanted a nonstop flight, even if it were more expensive. Second, I hoped to use airline miles. 

Of course, there were no nonstops from Denver to Stockholm, but British Airways seemed to offer the best option with just a change of planes in London Heathrow. I had heard horror stories about the airport but decided to take a chance. I was able to book premium economy seats with points transferred from Chase. Unfortunately, I learned that British Airways tacks on huge airport fees on award travel. 

In looking for return flights from London, British Airways also seemed to be our best option, especially when I realized that I had almost enough American Airlines miles, which could be used on British Airways. I was able to transfer Tim’s AA miles, use the AA shopping portal to purchase something I needed anyway, and then book two premium economy seats. Again, however, the add-on fees were quite high. 

When I went on the British Airways site to select seats this week, I learned that seat assignments are not free, even in premium economy. Since the premium economy configuration is 2-4-2, I was not willing to take a chance in getting stuck in a middle seat, so I forked over even more money to British Airways. 

In looking back on my experience in booking flights for this trip, I realized how rusty I had become. Yes, it made sense to use up my American Airlines miles, which had just been sitting in my account for way too long, but I should have explored more options on the outbound flight. Even though we were able to use miles for both flights, we ended up spending way more than we probably needed to. Good lesson for next time. 

I did much better with booking hotels. Last October, I had found a perfect hotel in London, the Great Scotland Yard, and was able to transfer Chase points to Hyatt for a four-night stay. That was a definite win – 100,000 points for a stay that would have cost $3,436. I had similar good luck with booking a hotel in Stockholm. 

Last October, I didn’t have enough points for another hotel stay, so I booked three nights at Hotel Reisen at a promotional rate. This week, I cancelled that reservation and rebooked the hotel with points that we had earned in the last few months. We even splurged and picked the Stockholm Suite. The main reason we did so was to have a water view from our windows, and possibly a view of the Viking Venus once she docked. In this case, we transferred 72,000 Chase points to Hyatt for a stay that would have cost $1,848. Not quite as good a deal, but I’ll take it.

Hotels Are Booked (Photos Courtesy of Hyatt.com)