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
I really enjoyed Oslo. The weather was ever so slightly cooler than at our other stops but it was still warm enough that locals were enjoying dips in the fjord – though they were happy to have the huts to pop into once they got out of the water! I would enjoy going back some time with a car so we could get out from the city center a bit.
While the city does have good public transportation, we bought a 48-hour ticket for the hop-on/hop-off bus to use as our primary transport. That’s because some of the places we wanted to see were either not very close to public transport or would have taken a combination of trams and buses to get there and the tourist bus basically hit all the things we wanted to see.
There was a major tram and city bus stop just outside our hotel, which itself was attached to the train station. While there is a hop-on/hop-off bus stop near the opera house, which we could see from the hotel, it was one of the later stops in the loop, so it was nearly lunch time before the bus made it to that stop. 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
It’s hard to beat the location of this hotel. It’s literally connected to the train station, something we did not realize when we arrived on the train from the airport. So we walked outside and over the cobblestones when it would have been much easier to just wind our way through the terminal to reach our hotel!
Comfort Hotel Grand Central, Oslo, Norway
We booked two rooms, each with twin beds, for 16K points per night via the Choice Hotels website. That’s about a $96 value vs. paying $275 as a refundable rate or $247 with my corporate discount. Definitely a good deal! One annoying thing about using Choice points is that you can only book 100 days in advance. The good news is that in 2025 that will change and you’ll be able to book 50 weeks out when using points.
When we checked out (at 2 AM!) the desk clerk at first thought we owed money but I explained we paid on points. He assured me it would be all right and had me forward my confirmation email, which showed how many points I paid, to a Strawberry Hotels email address. I assume that’s the company that owns this particular hotel as it is a regional hotel brand. At any rate I never heard anything else so I assume they got paid by Choice.
We arrived before noon, knowing that it was likely that our rooms would not be ready. We were welcomed by the young woman at the front desk who was super-friendly. Fortunately one of our rooms was ready so we were able to store all our luggage there while we went out for lunch. 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
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
Our German friend joined us in Stockholm. Not only had she arrived a day early, she had been to Stockholm before so she was a big help in navigating the city and public transport.
Here are some of the places we visited.
I remember when ABBA’s music was in primary rotation back in the 1970s. Later they became the butt of jokes as music of that era was looked down upon. But they surfaced again first with the play and then the film of “Mamma Mia” and now they’re revered as classics. I’d been told that the museum was well done and a lot of fun and I think that’s a fair assessment. There are lots of costumes, musical instruments, and other displays. 
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
The hotel is located just a couple of blocks northeast of the Älvsjö train (metro) station. It was an easy walk though once again our wheeled suitcases took a bit of battering as they bounced over the cobblestones. But it made it easy for us to get back on the train for our time touring the city. Our German friend was joining us for the rest of the trip and she was waiting for us at the train station and guided us to the correct metro line and let us know when we’d arrived.
Motel L Älvsjö (credit: byggfaktadocu.se)
We booked this hotel directly on the Motel L website. We paid a slightly higher refundable rate of about $95/night so that we could pay separately as we checked in. Once again this allowed us each to earn credit card points and we didn’t have to worry about reimbursing each other later on. 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
As I mentioned in my prior post, we had just one night at the Ikea Hotell and were also taking advantage of the free laundry facilities. As a result we did not do much in the way of exploring the small town of Älmhult at all.
As a guest at the hotel we were given free passes to the Ikea Museum, which is just across the parking lot from the hotel.
Continue reading
2B Traveling 
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