As each year draws to a close I like to take a look back at my trips over the past twelve months. I did not have any work travel this year (and am not sure I ever will again thanks to Zoom & WebEx!) so my travel patterns were very normal for me.
Here’s how my travel looked on the map:
My 2024 Flights – made with gcmap.com
Introduction: Late Summer in Scandinavia
Flight Review: American Airlines B737-800 First Class, MEM-DFW
Flight Review: Finnair A350-900 Business Class, DFW-HEL
Flight Review: Finnair E190 Business Class, HEL-CPH
Lodging Review: Fairfield by Marriott Copenhagen Nordhavn
Our Time in Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Best Western Hotel Hebron, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Next House, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Story Hotel Studio Malmö
Our Time in Malmö and Ystad, Sweden
Lodging Review: IKEA Hotell, Älmhult, Sweden
Our Time in Älmhult, Sweden and High-Speed Train to Stockholm
Lodging Review: Motel L Älvsjö, Stockholm
Our Time in Stockholm
Flight Review: SAS A320neo Economy Class, ARN-OSL
Lodging Review: Comfort Hotel Grand Central, Oslo
Our Time in Oslo
Lounge Review: SAS Lounge, Oslo airport
Flight Review: Lufthansa A320-200 Business Class, OSL-FRA
Flight Review: Lufthansa 787-9 Business Class, FRA-MSP
Flight Review: Delta B737-800 First Class, MSP-MEM
When I look for award space for international flights, I basically just look for flights to any city which has a non-stop flight back to Memphis. I don’t even try to book all the way back to my home city because I typically book so far in advance that there are no saver-priced flights between an international hub and Memphis. This also gives me a lot more flexibility as to where I land within the US. This time I was fortunate that the flight I found got me back to Minneapolis and the connection there will get me home to Memphis earlier than any of the other connections.
I booked this flight using Delta Air Lines SkyMiles. I originally booked a premium economy flight for 24,500 miles and $5.60 because I didn’t have enough miles for the domestic first class seat. I later realized I could have transferred some in from my American Express Membership Rewards account. As I logged into my Delta account to see about canceling my award ticket so I could rebook it in domestic first, I received an upgrade offer. So I transferred over enough points for the upgrade for $9. (Amex charges a fee when transferring miles to US-based airline programs) I then paid an additional 14,500 miles for the domestic first class seat. Whether I flew premium economy or business class, it wasn’t much of a bargain either way. But that was not the point for this flight. It’s the tail end of my international vacation and I wanted to fly in domestic first, so I did.
Delta Boeing 737-800 credit: delta.com
DL 2713 (MSP-MEM)
Boeing 737-800
Seat 4A (Domestic First Class)
Depart: 03:15 PM (actual 03:25 PM)
Arrive: 05:16 PM (actual 05:14 PM) Continue reading
Introduction: Late Summer in Scandinavia
Flight Review: American Airlines B737-800 First Class, MEM-DFW
Flight Review: Finnair A350-900 Business Class, DFW-HEL
Flight Review: Finnair E190 Business Class, HEL-CPH
Lodging Review: Fairfield by Marriott Copenhagen Nordhavn
Our Time in Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Best Western Hotel Hebron, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Next House, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Story Hotel Studio Malmö
Our Time in Malmö and Ystad, Sweden
Lodging Review: IKEA Hotell, Älmhult, Sweden
Our Time in Älmhult, Sweden and High-Speed Train to Stockholm
Lodging Review: Motel L Älvsjö, Stockholm
Our Time in Stockholm
Flight Review: SAS A320neo Economy Class, ARN-OSL
Lodging Review: Comfort Hotel Grand Central, Oslo
Our Time in Oslo
Lounge Review: SAS Lounge, Oslo airport
Flight Review: Lufthansa A320-200 Business Class, OSL-FRA
Flight Review: Lufthansa 787-9 Business Class, FRA-MSP
Flight Review: Delta B737-800 First Class, MSP-MEM
I booked this flight as I found reasonably-priced award space from Frankfurt to a US city with a non-stop flight back to Memphis. As I mentioned in the last post I was basically searching the whole eastern half of the US, looking for an award flight back. As it turned out, flying into MSP would allow me to catch a flight that would get me home earlier than from anywhere else, so that was a bonus.
I booked this ticket in January, before United’s most recent changes to MileagePlus. I was able to use 88,000 United Airlines MileagePlus miles plus $100.40 for the segment from Oslo to Frankfurt and this connection from Frankfurt to Minneapolis-St. Paul. Those 88,000 miles are worth about $968 and the cash price for these two segments was $4022, so I definitely got the better deal. It’s entirely possible I could have used fewer miles with Avianca or Air Canada but I have never been comfortable using Avianca miles – only because I’ve heard of issues in case of irregular operations – and I did not realize the search engine I’d been using was having issues communicating with Air Canada at the time so it was not displaying that option.
Boeing 787 – photo from lufthansa.com
LH 482 (DFW-HEL)
Boeing 787-9
Seat 4K (Business Class)
Depart: 11:10 AM (actual 11:19 AM)
Arrive: 01:15 PM (actual 01:14 PM)
I’d planned to write a review of the Lufthansa Business Class Lounge near the Z gates, but it was so crowded that I didn’t feel comfortable taking photos. It wasn’t over-crowded, I was able to find a seat, but I was glad I wasn’t traveling with anyone because finding two seats together felt impossible. I just had tea and a scone before making my way to gate Z15, which was only a 2-3 minute walk. Continue reading
Introduction: Late Summer in Scandinavia
Flight Review: American Airlines B737-800 First Class, MEM-DFW
Flight Review: Finnair A350-900 Business Class, DFW-HEL
Flight Review: Finnair E190 Business Class, HEL-CPH
Lodging Review: Fairfield by Marriott Copenhagen Nordhavn
Our Time in Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Best Western Hotel Hebron, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Next House, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Story Hotel Studio Malmö
Our Time in Malmö and Ystad, Sweden
Lodging Review: IKEA Hotell, Älmhult, Sweden
Our Time in Älmhult, Sweden and High-Speed Train to Stockholm
Lodging Review: Motel L Älvsjö, Stockholm
Our Time in Stockholm
Flight Review: SAS A320neo Economy Class, ARN-OSL
Lodging Review: Comfort Hotel Grand Central, Oslo
Our Time in Oslo
Lounge Review: SAS Lounge, Oslo airport
Flight Review: Lufthansa A320-200 Business Class, OSL-FRA
Flight Review: Lufthansa 787-9 Business Class, FRA-MSP
Flight Review: Delta B737-800 First Class, MSP-MEM
Now that our international trip for the year was complete, I had to get home! I searched for business class award space from Oslo to just about anywhere east of the Mississippi River – and even a few places west of it – that have non-stop flights to Memphis. I will say that I did not look for award space to the New York area. Frankly, I hate flying through there and since JFK has no non-stops to Memphis and Newark has exactly two non-stops (one that leaves very early afternoon and the other that gets me to Memphis at midnight), I don’t think it’s even worth my time to look for space there.
I booked this ticket in January 2024, before United’s most recent changes to MileagePlus. I was able to use 88,000 United Airlines MileagePlus miles plus $100.40 for this segment to Frankfurt and the connection from Frankfurt to Minneapolis-St. Paul. Those 88,000 miles are worth about $968 and the cash price for these two segments was $4022, so I definitely got the better deal. It’s entirely possible I could have used fewer miles with Avianca or Air Canada but I have never been comfortable using Avianca miles – only because I’ve heard of issues in case of irregular operations – and I did not realize the search engine I’d been using was having issues communicating with Air Canada at the time so it was not displaying that option.
LH 865 (OSL-FRA)
Airbus 320-200
Seat 5A (Business Class)
Depart: 06:35 AM (actual 06:37 AM)
Arrive: 08:40 AM (actual 08:40 AM)
I left the SAS lounge above gate E2 about 45 minutes before my flight’s scheduled departure time because I did not know exactly where I was going. Naturally my gate, A20, was about as far away from the lounge as you can without transferring to a different concourse!
A Lufthansa A320-200. This image was originally posted to Flickr by tjdarmstadt at https://flickr.com/photos/152414129@N08/35564400803. It was reviewed on 6 August 2017 by FlickreviewR and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.
Introduction: Late Summer in Scandinavia
Flight Review: American Airlines B737-800 First Class, MEM-DFW
Flight Review: Finnair A350-900 Business Class, DFW-HEL
Flight Review: Finnair E190 Business Class, HEL-CPH
Lodging Review: Fairfield by Marriott Copenhagen Nordhavn
Our Time in Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Best Western Hotel Hebron, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Next House, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Story Hotel Studio Malmö
Our Time in Malmö and Ystad, Sweden
Lodging Review: IKEA Hotell, Älmhult, Sweden
Our Time in Älmhult, Sweden and High-Speed Train to Stockholm
Lodging Review: Motel L Älvsjö, Stockholm
Our Time in Stockholm
Flight Review: SAS A320neo Economy Class, ARN-OSL
Lodging Review: Comfort Hotel Grand Central, Oslo
Our Time in Oslo
Lounge Review: SAS Lounge, Oslo airport
Flight Review: Lufthansa A320-200 Business Class, OSL-FRA
Flight Review: Lufthansa 787-9 Business Class, FRA-MSP
Flight Review: Delta B737-800 First Class, MSP-MEM
We needed to get from Stockholm to Oslo and while we could have taken the train, it’s just a one-hour flight and was quite cheap in economy.
We each bought our own tickets for just $77.70 via the SAS website. After we booked our tickets SAS left the Star Alliance and joined SkyTeam so we added our Delta or Flying Blue numbers later. I tried to add my Flying Blue number at the kiosk but it would not accept it. When I returned home I submitted the request via the Flying Blue website. I had to wait until the trip had been complete for 7 days before my flight could get credited. Continue reading
Introduction: Late Summer in Scandinavia
Flight Review: American Airlines B737-800 First Class, MEM-DFW
Flight Review: Finnair A350-900 Business Class, DFW-HEL
Flight Review: Finnair E190 Business Class, HEL-CPH
Lodging Review: Fairfield by Marriott Copenhagen Nordhavn
Our Time in Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Best Western Hotel Hebron, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Next House, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Story Hotel Studio Malmö
Our Time in Malmö and Ystad, Sweden
Lodging Review: IKEA Hotell, Älmhult, Sweden
Our Time in Älmhult, Sweden and High-Speed Train to Stockholm
Lodging Review: Motel L Älvsjö, Stockholm
Our Time in Stockholm
Flight Review: SAS A320neo Economy Class, ARN-OSL
Lodging Review: Comfort Hotel Grand Central, Oslo
Our Time in Oslo
Lounge Review: SAS Lounge, Oslo airport
Flight Review: Lufthansa A320-200 Business Class, OSL-FRA
Flight Review: Lufthansa 787-9 Business Class, FRA-MSP
Flight Review: Delta B737-800 First Class, MSP-MEM
This was a continuation of my quest to reach Copenhagen to kick off our annual international trip. To reach Helsinki I’d booked an American Airlines flight from Memphis to Dallas-Fort Worth and, on a separate ticket, two segments on Finnair: DFW to Helsinki and this flight, Helsinki to Copenhagen.
I booked this flight and the connection from DFW as a single ticket, using 70,000 Alaska Air Mileage Plan miles plus $25.20, which included Alaska’s $12.50 booking fee. If I’d paid cash at the time of booking the two legs of this flight would have cost me $1908. If I value Alaska miles at 1.5 cents each then this 2-segment flight cost me $1050, so I came out ahead using miles.
Finnair E190 (photo credit: Aviation Source News)
AY 953 (HEL-CPH)
Embraer 190
Seat 1F (Business Class)
Depart: 11:55 AM EEST (actual 12:03 PM)
Arrive: 12:35 PM CEST (actual 12:44 PM) Continue reading
Introduction: Late Summer in Scandinavia
Flight Review: American Airlines B737-800 First Class, MEM-DFW
Flight Review: Finnair A350-900 Business Class, DFW-HEL
Flight Review: Finnair E190 Business Class, HEL-CPH
Lodging Review: Fairfield by Marriott Copenhagen Nordhavn
Our Time in Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Best Western Hotel Hebron, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Next House, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Story Hotel Studio Malmö
Our Time in Malmö and Ystad, Sweden
Lodging Review: IKEA Hotell, Älmhult, Sweden
Our Time in Älmhult, Sweden and High-Speed Train to Stockholm
Lodging Review: Motel L Älvsjö, Stockholm
Our Time in Stockholm
Flight Review: SAS A320neo Economy Class, ARN-OSL
Lodging Review: Comfort Hotel Grand Central, Oslo
Our Time in Oslo
Lounge Review: SAS Lounge, Oslo airport
Flight Review: Lufthansa A320-200 Business Class, OSL-FRA
Flight Review: Lufthansa 787-9 Business Class, FRA-MSP
Flight Review: Delta B737-800 First Class, MSP-MEM
Our big international trip was to Scandinavia and you can’t get much more Scandinavian as an airline than Finnair or SAS. But I’d flown SAS before so I wanted to try an airline I’d never flown. I found award space on a Saturday out of DFW to Helsinki (the Finnair hub) and onward to Copenhagen. It was too bad I couldn’t find it on the same days my friends were flying (Sunday) but if I’d taken this flight on the next day they’d have had to wait around at the airport for a couple of hours for me to arrive. (And as it turns out, the flight doesn’t even operate on Sundays!) I didn’t mind going a day ahead and it also let me review another hotel. Continue reading
Introduction: Late Summer in Scandinavia
Flight Review: American Airlines B737-800 First Class, MEM-DFW
Flight Review: Finnair A350-900 Business Class, DFW-HEL
Flight Review: Finnair E190 Business Class, HEL-CPH
Lodging Review: Fairfield by Marriott Copenhagen Nordhavn
Our Time in Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Best Western Hotel Hebron, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Next House, Copenhagen
Lodging Review: Story Hotel Studio Malmö
Our Time in Malmö and Ystad, Sweden
Lodging Review: IKEA Hotell, Älmhult, Sweden
Our Time in Älmhult, Sweden and High-Speed Train to Stockholm
Lodging Review: Motel L Älvsjö, Stockholm
Our Time in Stockholm
Flight Review: SAS A320neo Economy Class, ARN-OSL
Lodging Review: Comfort Hotel Grand Central, Oslo
Our Time in Oslo
Lounge Review: SAS Lounge, Oslo airport
Flight Review: Lufthansa A320-200 Business Class, OSL-FRA
Flight Review: Lufthansa 787-9 Business Class, FRA-MSP
Flight Review: Delta B737-800 First Class, MSP-MEM
I typically don’t review domestic flights but thought I’d give it a shot this time. This is a short flight, blocked at 1 hour, 39 minutes so I didn’t expect much above a beverage service and maybe a snack. It unexpectedly became a lesson in trip planning!
AA 2559 MEM-DFW, Aircraft N885NN
I’d found business class award space from Dallas-Fort Worth to Copenhagen on Finnair so I had to get from Memphis to DFW. At the time I booked my long-haul flight there was no saver-level award space between Memphis and DFW. When I’m booking separate tickets I always like to ensure there’s a way to get to my international gateway should something go wrong with my positioning flight. That often means I arrive at the gateway more than four hours before my international flight and sometimes airlines will not allow a connection of more than four hours. And then there’s the restriction Alaska Airlines has: when flying on a ticket purchased with their frequent flyer miles, if two airlines are involved, one of those airlines must be Alaska Airlines. That’s tough for me because Alaska does not even fly to Memphis but I found a good price from DFW to Copenhagen using Alaska’s miles. Continue reading
Trip Report: Athens and a Mediterranean Cruise
Lounge Reviews: The Club CLT and Centurion Lounge Charlotte Airport
Flight Review: Lufthansa A340-600 Charlotte-Munich
Lodging Review: Academias Hotel, Autograph Collection, Athens
Our Time in Athens, Part I (Acropolis and Museum)
Our Time in Athens, Part II (Roman Agora, Hadrian’s Library, Ancient Agora)
Our Time in Athens, Part III (Kerameikos, Temple of Zeus, Panathenaic Stadium)
Our Time in Athens, Part IV (Restaurants and Observations)
Ship Review: Viking Neptune
Our Time in Ancient Olympia (Katakalon, Greece)
Our Time in Corfu, Greece
Our Time in Kotor, Montenegro
Our Time in Dubrovnik, Croatia
Our Time in Zadar, Croatia
Our Time in Venice, Italy
Flight Review: Iberia A330-300 Madrid-Chicago
While I have preferred airlines and like to try ones I’ve never flown before, often I find that the best airline to fly is the one with award space for what I consider to be a reasonable price. To that end I booked an early morning flight from Venice to Chicago via Madrid on Iberia for just 49K British Airways Avios + $181.65 in taxes and fees. It’s possible I could have transferred the Avios from BA to Iberia and saved a little on the taxes and fees but I was lazy and didn’t even consider it.
Ordinarily it would have made sense to try to connect with an American Airlines flight to get me from Chicago to Memphis but often there’s no award space on that leg except for the first flight of the day. As United is generally my airline of choice I decided just to purchase a cash ticket for the final leg and I won’t be reviewing that here.
Iberia 3249 VCE-MAD A330-300
October 28, 2023
Boarded at 0540 for a flight at 0625
Registration: EC-NTO
Seat: 3A (Business Class)
My return trip started very early in the morning with a 2 AM wake-up call as Viking wanted to deliver us to the airport by 4:30 AM for my 6:30 AM flight from Venice to Madrid and we were docked in Chioggia, which was about an hour by motorcoach from the airport. I was a little confused when we arrived at the airport as our luggage was unloaded from the bus but was then loaded on to a smaller van. From what I could piece together, the large buses are not allowed up close to the terminal. To make it easier for us, Viking arranged to have our luggage put in some vans and brought right up to the curb across from the terminal, where we picked it up after a 3-4 minute walk. I’m not sure it was entirely necessary but given the average age of Viking cruisers it was probably a good idea.
The day started very early…
Trip Report: Athens and a Mediterranean Cruise
Lounge Reviews: The Club CLT and Centurion Lounge Charlotte Airport
Flight Review: Lufthansa A340-600 Charlotte-Munich
Lodging Review: Academias Hotel, Autograph Collection, Athens
Our Time in Athens, Part I (Acropolis and Museum)
Our Time in Athens, Part II (Roman Agora, Hadrian’s Library, Ancient Agora)
Our Time in Athens, Part III (Kerameikos, Temple of Zeus, Panathenaic Stadium)
Our Time in Athens, Part IV (Restaurants and Observations)
Ship Review: Viking Neptune
Our Time in Ancient Olympia (Katakalon, Greece)
Our Time in Corfu, Greece
Our Time in Kotor, Montenegro
Our Time in Dubrovnik, Croatia
Our Time in Zadar, Croatia
Our Time in Venice, Italy
Flight Review: Iberia A330-300 Madrid-Chicago
I had originally booked my flight to Athens as a 1-stop from Memphis to Newark and on to Athens in United Airlines economy for just 33,000 United miles. It was a deal that was hard to beat! But I really wanted to fly business class and United never made any saver award space available on the longhaul leg. I kept searching, utilizing award search tools like PointsYeah!, Roame.travel and Seats.aero and eventually found space out of Charlotte via Munich for 70,000 Air Canada Aeroplan miles. I was going to transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards Points (UR) to my Aeroplan account as there was a transfer bonus going on and it would have only cost me about 58,000 UR points but I hit a snag.
For years my Chase cards had all been in my “called by” first name rather than my legal first name. Years ago I was able to successfully connect my UR and United accounts but now I was unable to connect my new Aeroplan account. I’d had a similar issue with Amex Membership Rewards awhile back and ended up getting all my Amex cards changed just by uploading a photo of my ID and filling out an online form. No such luck with Chase. They had to snail mail me a form. About a week later I saw in my daily USPS Informed Delivery email that the mail piece was to be delivered soon but a week later I still had not received it, so I contacted Chase to send yet another form. That one I did receive but it was at least two weeks after that before the name was changed on my account. So, word of caution, make sure the name on your credit card matches the name on your frequent flyer account!
A few days before my flight, Lufthansa made first class award space available to partners. I have never flown Lufthansa First and seriously considered doing the upgrade for an additional 30,000 Aeroplan miles but I decided to conserve my points and stick with business class.
Now that I had a longhaul flight, I needed to get to Charlotte. As CLT is not a Star Alliance hub, if I could have found award space on United to include with my longhaul flight, I’d have had to connect via Chicago, Houston or Denver. I decided the easier path was to take the American Airlines non-stop. Unlike when I try to get to Chicago or DFW on American, there always seems to be plenty of award space on flights to Charlotte. So I spent just 15,000 British Airways Avios on the non-stop flight in domestic first class. Did I really need to fly in first? Of course not but this is my big international vacation of the year and I like to make it special. I won’t review this flight except to say it was on time and my luggage made it, which were the important parts. There were three flights that would have gotten me to Charlotte in time to make my flight though the first one was extremely early. I decided to take the middle flight which would put me in Charlotte six hours ahead of my Lufthansa flight. Even though that was a long layover for a domestic flight, it left plenty of time in case of irregular operations or lost luggage as there was another flight after that. What didn’t occur to me until about a week before the flight was that the Lufthansa counter would not be open when I landed. Fortunately there was one pre-security restaurant open amidst all the construction in the lobby and baggage claim areas of the Charlotte airport and I was able to have a leisurely lunch until the Lufthansa counter opened at 2:30 PM, 4 hours before the flight.
Lufthansa 429 CLT-MUC A340-600
October 17, 2023
Boarding – due: 1755 actual: 1805
Departure – due: 1830 actual: 1851 – takeoff 1952
Arrival – due: 0915+1 actual: 0856+1
Seat: 6G (Business Class) Continue reading
2B Traveling 
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