Posts Tagged With: Iberia

Flight Review: Iberia A330-300 Madrid-Chicago

Posted on January 6, 2024 by 2btravel

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

Booking the Flights

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)

Venice to Madrid

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…

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Categories: Award Travel, Flight Review, Iberia, OneWorld, Trip Report | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

2023: The Year in Travel

Posted on December 31, 2023 by 2btravel

Another year has passed and I’m just thankful I got through this one without injury. I cracked my tibial plateau while on my European trip in 2022 which meant I didn’t get to ski but for a few hours this year but I still went on the trips I had planned and had a very good time anyway.

The Year in Travel – 2023

January

My first trip of the year was a visit to Winter Park, Colorado, a place I hadn’t visited in nearly 30 years. I was so looking forward to it because I really couldn’t remember much about it and had only been skiing a year when I visited last time. Sadly I spent an hour each day rehabbing my knee instead of skiing though I did get to go tubing one day.

I enjoyed a quick non-stop flight from Memphis to Denver on United and we took a bus right to the lodge. We stayed slopeside at the Zephyr Mountain Lodge where the location of your room can make a big difference.

Zephyr Mountain Lodge Slopeside Building
photo from Planet of Hotels.com

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Categories: American Airlines, Autograph Collection, Award Travel, California, Colorado, Condos, Croatia, Cruises, Europe, Greece, Hotel, Iberia, Italy, Lufthansa, Mammoth, Marriott, Montenegro, North America, OneWorld, Ship Review, Star Alliance, Tours, UNESCO World Heritage Site, United, United States, Viking, Winter Park, Year in Review | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Review: Iberia A340-600 Business Class

Posted on March 27, 2019 by 2btravel

Trip Report: Amsterdam, Iceland and Munich
Review: Iberia A340-600 Business Class
Review: Kimpton DeWitt Amsterdam
A Brief Tour of Amsterdam
Review: Sheraton Amsterdam Airport Hotel and Conference Center
Review: Radisson Blu 1919, Reykjavik
Review: Center Hotel Plaza, Reykjavik
A Week in Iceland
Review: aloft Munich
Visiting Dachau
A Brief Tour of Munich
Review: Hilton Munich Airport

Flights between Memphis and Chicago were on American Airlines, then Chicago-Madrid-Amsterdam and Munich-Madrid-Chicago on Iberia

Outbound: Chicago – Madrid

I’d flown from Memphis to Chicago on Tuesday evening and spent the night at my friend’s house. Then we spent a leisurely morning doing a few last-minute things before driving to the airport garage where she’d park while we were gone. Mid-day, mid-week it’s about a 45 minute drive from her house to the airport. We had left in plenty of time but were over halfway to the airport when I realized I’d left both my charging cords at her house. Well, we’d stop and I could get another one at Walmart. Then I realized I’d left my tablet there too. Oh boy was the trip off to a great start or what?! I still had my phone so we did stop and get a charging cord – I’d needed one to keep at work anyway – and we were able to get a family member to stop by her house and turn off the tablet so it all ended well but it was quite a bummer to start things off like that. Continue reading →

Categories: Iberia, OneWorld | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Trip Report: Amsterdam, Iceland and Munich

Posted on March 25, 2019 by 2btravel

Trip Report: Amsterdam, Iceland and Munich
Review: Iberia A340-600 Business Class
Review: Kimpton DeWitt Amsterdam
A Brief Tour of Amsterdam
Review: Sheraton Amsterdam Airport Hotel and Conference Center
Review: Radisson Blu 1919, Reykjavik
Review: Center Hotel Plaza, Reykjavik
A Week in Iceland
Review: aloft Munich
Visiting Dachau
A Brief Tour of Munich
Review: Hilton Munich Airport

The genesis of this trip was a friend telling me about a group tour of Iceland that several friends were going on and asking if I wanted to go or not. Of course the tour wanted to sell us airfare and options using points and miles aren’t all that plentiful, especially if fixed dates are involved.

The group tour was only a week and since October is when we we usually take a two-week vacation anyway, my travel companion and I decided to use our miles to get to Europe, enjoy a few days there, then buy tickets to Iceland, do the tour and then fly to another city in Europe where our miles could get us back to the US in business class. Continue reading →

Categories: Award Travel, Europe, Germany, Hilton, Hotel, Iberia, Iceland, Icelandair, IHG, Marriott, Netherlands, OneWorld, Radisson, Starwood | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Earn Up To 125,000 Bonus Miles on American

Posted on September 25, 2015 by 2btravel

From now through the end of January you can earn up to 125,000 bonus American Airlines AAdvantage miles on flights to Europe when you fly with American, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, OpenSkies or US Airways. Registration prior to travel is required. You can register HERE.

2015-09-25 AA 125K Promo

The number of bonus miles you get depends on your class of service. To earn the full 125,000 bonus miles you’d have to fly in Business or First Class on five round-trip flights. For each Premium Economy or Full Fare Economy (fare classes Y, B, H) flight you can earn 7,000 bonus miles. And for all other Economy fares you’ll earn 2,000 bonus miles per flight.

2015-09-25 AA 125K Promo Chart

Note that those mileage figures are for each round-trip flight.

The registration page has full information on which classes from the other airlines qualify for each of the bonuses.

Even though I currently have no plans to visit Europe, I’ll still register because – why not, it’s free!

Categories: American Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, OneWorld, US Airways | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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