Iberia Business Class Between Chicago and Munich
The Kimpton DeWitt, Amsterdam
AIM: Our Time in Amsterdam
The Sheraton Amsterdam Airport Hotel and Conference Center
The Radisson Blu 1919, Reykjavik
The Center Hotel Plaza, Reykjavik
AIM: Our Time in Iceland, Part I
AIM: Our Time in Iceland, Part II
AIM: Our Time in Iceland, Part III
The aloft Munich
AIM: Our Time at Dachau
AIM: Our Time in Munich
The Hilton Munich Airport
This vacation was a study in contrasts. We had guided tours, days with a friend to guide us and days on our own. We had days of bus travel, days of train travel and days spent walking. We had warm, sunny days and cold, rainy days. We had days spent with larger groups and days with just a couple of us. All in all it made for a nice variety on my annual fall vacation.
The central portion of the trip was a guided tour of Iceland that other friends were taking. When my friend C and I started looking at that trip we realized it was only a week (Sunday-Saturday) and we typically like to take a 2-week trip each fall. Plus, we've gotten extremely spoiled by flying business class over the oceans and we like our lie-flat seats. Since it's such a short trip from the US to Iceland, most airlines don't have lie-flat seats.
So we decided to spend time both pre- and post-trip in Europe and just buy flights to and from Reykjavik. We each had a stash of American Airlines miles to use so we looked for cities with award availability in Europe that also had non-stop flights on Icelandair. In the end we flew on Iberia (a oneworld partner of American) to Madrid and connected to Amsterdam. After spending three nights there we flew Icelandair to Reykjavik on Sunday afternoon so that we would be there waiting for the group when they arrived on Monday. We left early the following Saturday morning and flew Icelandair to Munich where we spent another three nights before flying back to Chicago via Madrid on Iberia and I continued on to Memphis on American.
Our flights ended up looking like this:
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| Flights in blue were on American/Iberia while flights in yellow were on Icelandair |
When we booked the Chicago-Amsterdam flight we had a reasonable 2.5-hour layover and would have arrived in Amsterdam mid-morning. Shortly after we booked the ticket, Iberia discontinued the early MAD-AMS flight leaving us with a layover of roughly 8 hours. We hoped that as our flight date got nearer that perhaps the flight would be reinstated but we had no such luck. Since we were flying in business class we did have lounge access but really didn't want to spend all day in the lounge. So we ended up booking a private tour of the city, which worked out well. Sadly, it rained all day so we didn't get to get out and explore the city but it gave us a good enough taste for the city that we've decided we'd like to return some day. As it turned out that was a good idea because the Iberia lounge was shut down while it was being remodeled. Fortunately we each have credit cards that give us access to Priority Pass lounges and the Madrid airport has one of those so we were able to recharge our electronics after our city tour and before continuing to Amsterdam.
I won't review the Icelandair flights in detail but their economy seats weren't terrible - certainly better than any of the Big 3 US airlines, and on the return we bought up to premium economy and thought that was worth it for a flight blocked at 3h 45m. Both of us are widebodies and having not only slightly larger seats but extra legroom was terrific. As a warning, if you choose the row of seats right behind the mid-cabin doors you have tons of extra legroom but if you've got the window seat the life raft compartment bulges out of the door and actually encroaches on to your legroom so I'd avoid that seat. But all seats had seatback entertainment and plenty enough choice for this shorthaul flight.
As for hotels, in Amsterdam we booked two nights at the Kimpton DeWitt which is very conveniently located near Centraal Station, the main train station. We used points for one night and the free night from my IHG credit card for the other, intending to book a third night after I got my next IHG certificate in July. But by that time the hotel had no more award rooms so we decided to book a hotel closer to the airport. You can't get much closer than the Sheraton Amsterdam Airport Hotel and Conference Center because it's actually inside the airport. We were able to take the train right to the airport and were able to spend a relaxing morning there before flying to Reykjavik.
Once we reached Iceland we could have stayed at the same hotel where we'd be staying with the group tour, but that was the Center Hotel Plaza and we did not have any points from the Center Hotel loyalty program. So we stayed two blocks away at the Radison Blu 1919 and used our Radisson Rewards points.
In Munich we used what was then Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) points (what are now Marriott points) to stay at the aloft Munich, conveniently located across the street from the train station. As our flight from Munich to Madrid was at 7:30 AM, we once again opted for an airport hotel so we could sleep in just a little bit later. We selected the Hilton Munich Airport which is just a pedestrian plaza away from the terminal and thus an easy walk for us in the very early-morning hours.
We had a wonderful time and have already discussed things we need to go back and see again!
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