God morgon from beautiful Stockholm!

My sisters and I try to do a sibling trip every year. Typically, our trips were to fun but not terribly exciting locations as my sisters were still in school. But when 2024 rolled around, the last of my sisters graduated and we could set our sights higher.

Late last year, my sisters cornered me and demanded all of my email addresses and credit card to up their chances in the Taylor Swift ticket lottery. I’m not much of a gambler, but I’ve never won anything when I did gamble. I figured my lack of luck would help me dodge this bullet. But I was wrong. I hit it big and won the right to buy four tickets for one of Taylor Swift’s shows in Stockholm. Call me an old fogey, I thought it was kind of a silly/stupid reason to travel. But then again, I’ve traveled for a bunch of less than smart things over the years

Like sports.





Flying to Hong Kong 4 times in a month for miles and maintaining status.





Or the time I flew across the country and spent the night sleeping at an airport just to fly an ancient plane one last time before it got turned into beer cans. (Long live the Mad Dog!)







So yeah, I didn’t really have much of leg to stand on to poke fun or call them crazy. While I wasn’t terribly excited about seeing Taylor Swift, I was excited about checking off my 33rd country visited.

Figuring out how to get to Stockholm was surprisingly easy. Transatlantic premium cabin award space has been relatively scarce of late, though Singapore Airlines has been an exception to the rule with their two transatlantic services. I was able to snag a business class award seat on their Houston to Manchester service for 81,500 Krisflyer miles (transferred from various credit cards) and $5.60. I tacked on two cheap tickets from New Orleans to Houston on United, and on SAS from Manchester to Stockholm taking care of my outbound.

Award space was scarcer for my return. It took some patience, but I eventually found award seats on Virgin Atlantic’s London to Atlanta non-stop. The cherry on top is that the flight was operated by one of their new A350-1000s. I snagged that for 47,500 Flying Club miles (transferred from Amex) and £700. This was particularly exciting as I hadn’t flown Virgin Atlantic before. British Airways offered inexpensive tickets from Stockholm to London Heathrow, and then I bought another ticket on Delta from Atlanta back to New Orleans. Easy peasy.

My final itinerary looked like this:

United Airlines 2420 New Orleans to Houston Intercontinental Boeing 737-800 Economy Class
Singapore Airlines 51 Houston Intercontinental to Manchester Airbus A350-900 Business Class
SAS 2550 Manchester to Stockholm Airbus A320NEO Economy Class
British Airways Stockholm to London Heathrow Airbus A320 Economy Class
Virgin Atlantic 103 London Heathrow to Atlanta Airbus A350-1000 Upper Class
Delta Air Lines 2451 Atlanta to New Orleans Boeing 757-200 Comfort Plus

In Stockholm, I was able to secure rooms though the old reliable Hyatt. Our first two nights, I was able to snag two rooms at the Story Hotel Signalfrabrikin (a JDV hotel) for 5,000 points per night each, which is a bargain compared to the revenue rate of $300+ a night. We then moved to the Hotel Reisen (Unbound Collection) for our final two nights three nights at 15,000 points a night per room, which was also a bargain compared to the close to $900 revenue rate.

And there you have it. A blueprint for a fun five days of unexpectedly beautiful Stockholm, putting up with my sisters, and Swift.

Previous Trip Reports
2024: The Asia Re-Return (JL F ; OZ/JL/UA J ; AA/NK Y)
2024: The Engagement (AA J ; BA P)
2023: From Shire to Sea (AA F; EI J/Y; BA Y)
2022: The Holy Land and an Irish Wedding (AA/BA/EI J; DL Y)
2022: A Slow Boat and Fast Cars (AA P)
2022: The Dam Weekend (SQ/AA J; U2/AF Y)
2021: Chasing Bourdain and Perfect Tinder Pictures (AA/A3/LH J; BA Y; UA Domestic F)
2021: How The Turntables: MQD Running With My Parents (AA Domestic F; AM J; UA Y)
2020: Purgatory: Tales of Pandemic Travel in the U.S.
2020: The Last Dance (CX F)
2019: An Unexpected Jaunt Around The World (UA/CX/TG/BR/OS J; AK Y)
2018: Pilgrimage to the Fatherland (CX/MU J; CX W; WN/MU Y)
2017: The Ultimate Flake (AA F; SQ F and Suites; CX/MS/CA/MH/KL/JL J; TK Y)
2017: The Earth IS Round (UA/LH/HU/CZ/TR Y; CX/BR J)
2017: Something Old and Something New (SQ A350 J / AA J)
2015: Christmas in Asia (AA/CX/UA J; BA/AA/CX Y)
2015: A Manic Fall(AA/WN/UA/CX/FD Y; CX F; AA F)
2015: An Apartment in the Sky (Etihad Apartment First Class, AA Y, BA J/Y, QR Y)
2014: The End of An Era (JL/CX/TG/QF A380 F, OZ J, KA Y, and a Chinese Bullet Train!)
2014: A Tale of Two Cities (AA 77W J BA Y IB Y AF J)
2013: It’s The Most Wonderful Time of The Year (AA/MQ F AS Y)
2013: Geeking Out Across America (AA F)
2012: Around The World and From Sea to Shining Sea (AA F/Y, CX F, SQ F, UA F, DL F, WN Y)
2011: Everybody look at me because I'm sailing on a boat (KL J and DL Y)