MilesBuzz! - Europe Help - Hotels & Intra-Flights

Heading to Europe at Christmas and trying to minimize costs and maximize use of miles + points.

DFW-LHR (F on BA)
AMS-BCN
BCN-DFW (will book J or F, just accumulating them right now and will ticket in about a month)

Need hotels in London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Barcelona.

I have a stack of Starpoints, but I think I'm going to be a few nights short. Any suggestions for cards to grab to snag a few free nights?

I also can't figure out the best way to minimize costs on the AMS-BCN flight. I have UA miles, but that's about it (my AA account will be drained). I checked in Avios, but they look like a huge waste as there were some copays.

Need hotels in London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Barcelona.

I have a stack of Starpoints, but I think I'm going to be a few nights short. Any suggestions for cards to grab to snag a few free nights?

Well, you just admitted you'll have drained you AA miles. So keep in mind that some of these card bonus are one time (in who knows how many years):

Marriott (from Chase):

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milesbuzz/1271936-70k-points-1-night-no-fee-1st-yr-marriott-premier-visa-63.html

which gives you enough points for a couple nights at least many places plus a cat 1-4 free night cert that you hopefully can use of those places (I had a few cat 1-4 AC hotels to choose from in Madrid, but I haven't checked your specific cities). And it has 0% forex, so it's a good card for using overseas (as many other cards charge up to 3% forex). And although it has an $85 annual fee in subsequent years, it gives you a cat 1-5 free night cert on those subsequent years, which should more than pay for the annual fee. I think the free night cert is good for only 6 months, so you may want to time the card application for that.

If you can handle more Chase apps and are interested, Priority Club also has a similar card, except no category limit (since Priority Club doesn't have categories) on the free night cert, also 0% forex, and $49 annual fee on subsequent year (which even more pays for itself with the free night cert). And Hyatt has a similar card, again 0% forex, which gives you two free night certs at the start, but unlike the Marriott and Priority Club cards it doesn't waive the first year annual fee.

With all these Chase cards that have an offset of free nights to the annual fee, and given that they're not churnable, I'd say keep them long-term once you get them, but with that in mind, decide which one or ones will work best for you. Remember, as nice as the extra free night from Hyatt is, Hyatt has way fewer properties than Priority Club or Marriott do.

Hilton HHonors (from Citi):

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milesbuzz/1219687-50-000-citi-hilton-hhonors-visa-26.html

which is churnable, and you might even be able to get two of them at once (and the 100k points total bonuis) by using the "two browser type trick" (more on that inside the thread, if you're not already familiar with it from Citi AA card apps).

Hilton also has an Amex card, which also has no annual fee. It actually has better ongoing earning, so if you get one of these, keep the Amex, and cancel and churn the Citi cards, for maximum HHonors points. (They also have a separate "Surpass" card which does have an annual fee, but it's probably not worth it, the no anuual fee version is good enough for most people.) Sorry, I don't know what the best offer (or where the thread about it would be) is for the HHonors Amex.

Hopefully that's enough. And hopefully at least some these cards will produce value for you on subsequent trips too, because of the annual free night certs from some of them and/or the churnability of the HHonors Visa.

(Several other programs have cards that neither give a whole lot of nights for signup the first nor do they earn many nights -- without a ton of spend anway -- in subsequent years. Some other programs where it's very easy to earn tons of points on cheap paid stays in the US it's very hard to earn much in the way of points from credit cards. And AFAIK no cards from anyone other than Chase come with free night certificates, neither the first year nor subsequent years.)

I was in this situation last year, my wife ended up flying Spainair to BCN (good luck with that) but Easyjet is a viable option, also we stayed at http://www.hotelconstanza.com/ in BCN and loved it. We are SPG Plat and have a ton of points, but we chose to stay there.

You can get goor fares AMS -BCN using airlines like AF/OS. If your a few Starpoints short, use cash and point awards for a few nights instead of all point awards

Thanks all! Been on the phone for awhile with Starwood trying to figure out rooms. Unfortunately, I neglected to mention that we are three adults traveling, which is making the hotel thing difficult!

Thanks for the hotel suggestion. Le Meridien in Barcelona wants an arm and a leg for the third person.

Remember to participate Radisson promotion before 7/15 for your Europe hotel stay.

Just got back from London, Paris, Malaga this week. We used a combo of points and cash to stay at the Holiday Inn Notre Dame. ( $60 per night plus 15000 points). We had two 18 year olds and they loved the location. I have to say that so did I. It was in the heart of the Latin Quarter. Probably at least 50 restaurants within a three block area. Street preformers, shops, one half block to the Metro and one block from the RER. Notre Dame 2 blocks away. Seine was one block away. Extremely safe neighborhood. Cash machines every block. The rooftop has a bar and a great full view of the Eiffel Tower which makes it great for viewing at night during the light show. Rooms small, but that's to be expected for Europe. Very modern decor. I highly recommend for the location, location, location). Hubby and I each got cards (currently 80000 points each).

For intra-Europe flights, I would suggest Citi Thank you points.

Remember to participate Radisson promotion before 7/15 for your Europe hotel stay.

second that... stay in swanky Radisson Blu s all over Europe. For cheap stays, I would suggest you also look in airbnb.com.

Thank you all for the suggestions! I'll look into the Priority Club card as well and see if we can play things that way for Paris.