How to plan a $15,000 luxury European trip – for $665/person

I’m not traveling these days, but I intend to make up for lost time in 2021! Here’s how to take a European trip on points and miles in 2021. This luxury trip is for two people, and it’s almost two weeks long. I actually took this trip in December 2019, and it’s still very possible to book it for 2021/2022! Now is a great time to start planning, since you’ll need a few months to get your points and miles together. (And if you want to learn how to organize your points and miles, check out my guide.)

In this ultimate guide, I’ll provide you my actual itinerary and what I paid. My trip was to Germany, but I’ll make it easy for you to customize this trip to pretty much anywhere in Europe!

Summary of How to Take a European Trip on Points and Miles in 2021

This is what I actually did on my trip to Germany, and it’s all still bookable for trips in 2021/2022! It’s also easy to customize this to other locations in Europe, so read on for the framework I used, in case you’d rather go somewhere besides Germany.

Part 1: Flights to/from Europe on points and miles in 2021

We’re covering flights first on how to take a European trip on points and miles in 2021. This is because airline award flights are typically the hardest to book due to limited availability. They also cost more points than most hotel award nights. For these reasons, you’ll want to book your flights first.

Step 1: Plan to spend 100K-140K points per person for a round-trip, business-class flight to/from Europe.

Sometimes, you can find ways to pay less than this, but this range is a good rule of thumb. If you don’t have anywhere near that amount of points, you’ll need to get a credit card signup bonus or two. Read on for more details to figure out which points to accumulate.

Step 2: Research airline “sweet spots” to pick your best route to Europe on points and miles.

This will depend on your home airport and where you want to go in Europe. It’s always possible, and sometimes advantageous, to take a “positioning flight” to get from your home airport to the airport you want to use to fly to Europe. But if you live near Chicago O’Hare like I do, it’s going to take a lot to convince me to fly to, say, San Francisco first.

Some “sweet spots” I like:

1. Booking with Air Canada to fly on Star Alliance metal for 120K-140K per round-trip. I did this and gave a detailed, step-by-step account of how to book (with screenshots)! These methods are the same today as in late 2019.
2. Flying to Madrid on Iberia for somewhere between 68K-100K points per round-trip.

Now, I’m no slouch in the award-flights department, but there are others out there who are true experts, if the options above don’t work for you. I use Google and some expert resources I trust: Straight to the Points, the Travel on Points Facebook group, and the 10xTravel Facebook group.

Step 3: Once you know what route you want to fly, determine your points and miles needs.

In the examples in Step 2, a flight from ORD-Madrid during the off-peak season costs only 68K points round-trip (or 100K during peak season). You can use Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Marriott points, or any combination of the above to transfer to Iberia. Flights from ORD-Vienna cost 120K points round-trip, and you can use Amex, Capital One, or Marriott to transfer.

Whatever your chosen route, you should use Google and the resources I mentioned above to figure out how many points and miles you need – and which types of currency.

Step 4: Don’t forget about fees on award flights to Europe.

In addition to ~120K miles, you’re going to pay award fees, which can range from ~$40 per ticket to $1,000+. Avoid the flights with the outrageous fees! Know what you’re getting into, by reviewing those resources I mentioned and/or fake-attempting to book the award yourself.

On most airline sites, you can act as if you’re going to purchase a major award flight, even if you have zero points in your account. That will allow you to see the exact amount of points and fees you’ll need to pay when the time comes.

As you’ll see from my account, I still paid about $1,100 in fees for two people, round-trip. I made that choice because of flight availability and the number and types of points I had, and I’m happy because I still got a value of over 4 cents per point. However, it’s best to avoid these fees whenever possible!

Step 5: Get your credit card(s) as needed for the signup bonuses.

Your next-to-last step is to sign up for whatever credit card(s) you need, to bridge the gap in points you’ll need for the award. You can do this step simultaneously with your hotel research in Part 2 below, just in case you’d like to coordinate your card acquisitions.

Right now, there are some Amex Platinum offers for 100K-125K points, as well as 60,000 points for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card.

Step 6: Finally, book your award flight.

Expect this step to take several hours, from learning how to book, to searching for that award availability. As before, I highly recommend consulting other people who have done it before, including the Facebook group Travel On Points.

Other tips for award flights to Europe

• Consider two one-way trips. You can mix and match between most different award programs, so that you fly TO Europe using one program (say, Iberia) and fly home FROM Europe using another program (say, Air Canada). This can be really helpful if you’re a little short on one particular currency. I illustrated how to consider the different ways of booking my flights to Germany here, and how I decided my final method.
• Consider fast, cheap trains within Europe. Once you get to Europe, it’s pretty easy to get around on their high-speed trains. They’re comfortable, safe, and on time. On my epic luxury trip to Germany, I flew into Munich and spent a few days at the Andaz Munich (not recommended). Then I took a 90-minute train ride to Nuremberg and stayed by the biggest Christmas village in all of Germany for a couple days. Then I took a 2.5-hour train ride to Berlin and stayed there at two different, amazing hotels for a week. And I flew home out of Berlin. In total, I got to explore 3 different cities and didn’t spend that much time in transit.

Part 2: Luxury Hotels in Europe on Points and Miles

In Part 2 of how to take a European trip on points and miles in 2021, we focus on hotels. Figuring out hotels is my favorite, since there are so many wonderful choices. And my site is hotel-focused for a reason: I love luxury hotels.

You spend more of your vacation time in your hotels than you do on your flight across the pond. Even if you think to yourself, “I don’t spend that much time in my hotel anyway,” you’ll still want a centrally-located hotel with a nice bed. And who doesn’t want free European breakfast, like this one?!

Step 1: “Map” out your whole trip

Even if you haven’t booked your award flights yet, you should at least have a sense of what cities you’re flying into and out of, and what time of year you’ll be there. If you don’t know yet, go back to Part 1 and determine it. This is because award flights tend to be more complicated and require more advance notice than award hotel bookings.

Literally plug your arrival and departure cities into Google Maps and see what other cities might be easy to visit.

I recommend 1 European city per 3-4 days you’re in Europe. You can get away with only 2 days in smaller cities like Brussels or Nuremberg, but you really need 4+ days for larger cities like Paris or Berlin. If you’re hopping cities/hotels constantly, you’ll end up feeling like you’re spending more time in transit.

Look up potential train trips. Doing this can help you figure out which intermediate cities you’re going to visit, and in which order to visit them, to give you the most efficient route. Literally Google “Munich to Nuremberg train” and you’ll instantly know how much time it takes. If you want advice on how to book in Europe, I like The Train Line and RailEurope. Keep in mind, cheapest doesn’t always mean best; for example, an express train might cost only $10 more, but you’ll save 90 minutes in transit. Don’t actually book your train tickets until after you’ve got your hotels booked. This will allow you more flexibility on your hotel nights, if you need to play around with award availability. You’re only looking up your train routing to know what’s possible.

Here are the bones of my itinerary, which we’ll build on later:

I liked this route a lot because I got to see a large portion of Germany, including traditional Bavaria in the southern part of the country and modern Berlin in the northern part of the country. I was able to do this without spending too much time in transit too. There are many other cities you could visit, obviously, so do what works for you!

Step 2: Based on your city “map,” pick some possible hotels.

Now that you have your cities mapped out, I recommend choosing 2-4 hotels per city to research. These hotels should fit your basic requirements. I’m all about luxury hotels, so budget hostels won’t make the cut. Here’s my initial list:

Consider hotel programs’ Fifth Night Free and Fourth Night Free policies. Hyatt, Marriott, and Hilton all let you book the 5th award night free if you’re booking the first 4 nights with points. IHG lets you book the fourth night free, if you have the IHG Premier card. These programs should make you consider how long you want to stay in each city.

Consider how big each city is when you’re determining how long to stay there too. I knew Nuremberg had a huge Christmas market, and that was really cool, but I also knew Nuremberg wasn’t that large. Everything was very walkable and wouldn’t take too long to see.

Consider your available hotel points and free nights. If you have 2 free nights available with the IHG program and they expire within 6 months of your trip, then you should prioritize using those free night certs. (Learn how to get organized with your points and miles here.)

Step 3: Determine your points needs.

Now that you have an idea of which hotels you want, gather your available points from the organized sheet you made, and compare what you have to what you need. As you’re doing that, you should also track the cash cost of each room and make sure you’re getting a decent value (cents per point). Here’s mine:

When I did this research, I already had:

• Hyatt: 2 Free Night certificates and ~24,000 points
• Hilton: 300,000 points
• IHG: 2 Free Night certificates
• Marriott/Radisson: Nothing

In other words, I had enough Hyatt points+certs to pay for either the Andaz Munich or the Grand Hyatt Berlin, but not both. I could use up my 2 IHG Free Night Certs in Berlin. And I had enough Hilton points to pay for 4 nights at the Waldorf Astoria Berlin and get the 5th Night Free.

Notice, I only got a value of 1.2 cents per Hyatt point on the Andaz Munich redemption. This is fairly low for Hyatt points, which are normally worth about 2 cents per point. However, my 2 Hyatt free night certificates were likely to expire before I could use them otherwise, so this was worth it to me.

My only remaining city was Nuremberg, which doesn’t have most chain hotels. I settled on paying cash for the Park Plaza Nuremberg because I didn’t want to get a Marriott credit card just for this trip, and I wanted to check out the Radisson status-match experience. (The Park Plaza Nuremberg was nicely located and I got a Gold status welcome gift, so for a total outlay of $230, I was happy with this experience.)

Step 3: Get your credit card(s) as needed for the signup bonuses.

A big part of how to take a European trip on points and miles in 2021 is to get the credit cards you need. In Step 2, I had determined that I didn’t need any new credit cards for this trip, but I was already sitting on a large stash of points. Your situation might vary.

If you already have a card that earns Chase Ultimate Rewards points – such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred – then you might have some points that can be transferred to Hyatt hotels at a 1:1 ratio. (Chase URs also transfer to the IHG program at a 1:1 ratio. But because IHG points are worth significantly less than Hyatt points, I don’t recommend transferring Chase points to IHG unless you’re only short a couple thousand.)

Step 4: Book your hotel nights.

Now that you’ve got your city map and you’ve chosen your hotels – it’s time to book. I recommend making all your bookings at the same time, in case certain award nights aren’t available.

Let’s say you wanted to spend 3 nights in Munich at the Andaz Munich using Hyatt points, but it’s not available on the first 3 nights of your itinerary. (Note, I don’t recommend the Andaz Munich given my experience, anyway.) You still have those Hyatt points, but maybe you could use them later on in the trip – such as at the Grand Hyatt Berlin in this example. Alternatively, you can play with availability; maybe you’ll have to pay cash for your first night, but the second and third nights are available on points.

Do this across all of your chosen hotels at once.

For detailed instructions on how to book with each program, along with screenshots, check out:

• 5 Steps to Booking IHG Hotels for Free
• How to Book Hilton Hotels for Maximum Value
• 5 Steps to Booking Free Hyatt Hotels

Part 3: Bringing it all together

In the last part of how to take a European trip on points and miles in 2021, we’ll bring everything together. Congratulations! You just booked a luxury European vacation, at a huge discount, due to points and miles. But you have a few things left to do, so read on.

Step 1: Gather all of your flight and hotel confirmations.

I know, this isn’t an exciting thing to do. But you’ve just booked a complicated trip, and it’s time to make sure everything is 100% in order, long before you actually show up at the airport.

Make sure your seats are assigned for the flights. You can look this up on your electronic ticket and call the airline to determine your seat. SeatGuru can help you decide which seat is “best” for your flight if you want to change it.

Make sure your hotel nights match the itinerary you expected. It is very easy to be “off” by a single night; I’ve done it before. Get it corrected as soon as possible, because it’ll be much easier to find alternate award availability now than the day you’re trying to check in and can’t.

Confirm your hotel room types, and see if you can get upgrades. Check out my list of secrets to hotel room upgrades.

Get your confirmation numbers in order. I literally print them out and put them in a folder, which is incredibly old-school. 9 times out of 10, I don’t need them, as everything is electronic. But about 10% of the time and especially in foreign countries, there is some miscommunication about the name on the reservation, or the room type. Being able to show the confirmation to the front desk agent has really helped me a number of times, so it’s worth the several minutes of effort it takes.

Step 2. Book your transport between cities.

Back in Part 1, we talked about how you’d look up your train trips between cities. Now, it’s time to actually book those tickets. I like RailEurope.

Step 3. Book the hard-to-schedule activities.

Certain tourist attractions require advance planning. If you show up at the Anne Frank house expecting to walk in, you’re almost certainly out of luck, and you probably won’t get to see the attraction at all on your trip. So figure out which activities are “musts” for you, and plan accordingly.

Consider a guided tour or two. I have always loved going on short, 2- to 3- hour walking tours hosted by locals. I love Viator for this. Usually for about $30 per person, you can learn a lot about history and/or sightseeing directly from a local.

Consider a day trip. If you’re staying in one city for an extended period, you might want to take a day tour somewhere nearby. When I stayed in Berlin for 7 days, I considered taking a day trip to Potsdam. Again, Viator is a great resource for this.

Don’t over-schedule. Step 3 is all about making sure you’re able to do the most important things. But you don’t want to make the mistake of booking 10 non-refundable, guided tours for a 12-day trip and feeling exhausted and unable to “explore.” (I’ve done that before, believe me.) Build in some time to just wander, relax, and eat.

That’s it! I hope you feel more comfortable with how to take a European trip on points and miles in 2021. I will certainly use these techniques to book another one in 2021 myself. Please reach out via email if you have any questions!