First as of last week, a number of London hotels were available using points. Priority Club actually has cash and points rates as low at $40 a night for the nights I'm going to be there and Starwood (which had no cash and points) was offering points stays.

The conditions of the trip are two people traveling together. The friend I'm bringing just started a new job and has to take the days off without pay, so wants to return.

And to be honest, I've been focusing negotiations on the prize package with efforts to bring some of the costs down.

I wasn't too successful. They bought tickets a year ago and one of the events they bought tickets to is the athletics finals which has a top ticket price of £725. Tickets at that price would mean a tax bill of $700 to attend a single event! Hopefully they bought lesser tickets, but I have a pretty strong suspicion they did not.

I've been to York (though not in years)