Romantic Danube: Flying United from Chicago to Brussels

Romantic Danube: Overview
Romantic Danube: Flying United from Chicago to Brussels

One truism that occurs when booking award seats is that you need to be flexible.  That may mean long layovers, indirect routing or not flying on your preferred dates.  But when there are just a couple of people involved, we can usually find flights to suit our purposes.

The trick when booking international award flights is to find award space on the longest legs first and then build connections around them.  We knew we wanted to fly out of Chicago, where my friend C lives, and we found award space on a flight that connected in Brussels.  The flexibility part meant my flight from Memphis to Chicago was before 8 AM while the flight to Brussels didn't leave until nearly 6 PM.  And we landed in Brussels around 9 AM but our flight to Prague wasn't until after 4 PM.  But with a little planning, things worked out.

In Chicago, C picked me up and we drove halfway to Milwaukee to meet another friend of ours for lunch.  It was great fun to catch up and we enjoyed a leisurely meal with a lot of laughs.  In Brussels, as I'll mention later, a Twitter friend drove down to have lunch with us and lead us on a brief walking tour.

Romantic Danube: Overview

Last fall several of us took a Viking River cruise down the Danube.  The cruise officially started in Nuremberg, Germany and ended in Budapest, Hungary.  While my friend C and I considered doing Viking's official pre-trip extension in Prague, Czech Republic and the post-trip extension in Budapest, when we compared what was offered to what we could piece together on our own, using hotel points to offset the cost, we decided to do our own thing before and after the cruise.

As we looked at flights to Prague using our United miles, we had a couple of options: one with a long layover in Brussels and another 2-stop flight.  Not wanting to risk our luggage being transferred any more than was necessary, we went with the stop in Brussels.  It just so happens that I have a Twitter friend who lives in Belgium and she agreed to drive down to meet with us for a few hours.

Later that afternoon we caught our flight to Prague and spent a couple of days there walking the cobblestones of Old Town.  On Saturday we boarded a bus for Nuremberg and we timed it right because it was during the bus ride that we experienced the worst weather of the trip.  Once we arrived in Nuremberg we caught a train for the 20-minute ride to Erlangen, which is the small town where our longship was docked.

Overnight our longship moved into Nuremberg itself and we had our choice of a couple of different tours available.  Over the next several days we had stops at ports in Germany and Hungary and had to change longships mid-trip because the water was so low in some places that our longship could not pass through.

We sailed into Budapest on Friday and had a front-row view to the spectacular lights along the river that night.  When the rest of our group left on Saturday we checked into the Hilton in the Castle District and enjoyed a couple more nights of Hungarian hospitality.

For our return trip, C and went our separate ways.  She used her United miles to return in Business Class on Turkish Airlines via Istanbul while I used my Lufthansa Miles and More points for their Business Class cabin.  Lufthansa is known for opening up first class seats within a couple of weeks of the flight so I had hoped that I'd be able to upgrade as my date approached.  Why was flying first class such a big deal?  Because in Frankfurt, Lufthansa has an entire first class terminal and you get driven directly to your plane in a luxury car.  I'd hoped to be able to try this out but unfortunately had chosen to return home on a Monday, when there are loads of business travelers, so no first class spaced opened up.  Poor me, was "stuck" in business class.

Our flights. Mine in Red, C's in Cyan, joint flights in Pink
Map made at gcmap.com

We had a terrific time and I hope to get this posted fairly quickly.  If you'd like to see Viking's official video ad for the cruise you can see it here.

BDU: Hyatt Regency DFW

BDU: Birthday Down Under - Trip Planning
BDU: Flying to Sydney
BDU: Park Hyatt Sydney
BDU: Sydney Activities
BDU: Sydney Opera House
BDU: Flying to Uluru and Back
BDU: Uluru and Kata Tjuta
BDU: Park Hyatt Melbourne
BDU: Melbourne Activities
BDU: Flying to Fiji
BDU: Hilton Fiji
BDU: Snorkeling Trip
BDU: Flying to Los Angeles
BDU: Hyatt Regency DFW

After spending time in the Admirals Club at LAX, I bid farewell to my friend C as she headed back to Chicago.  I spent another half-hour or so there before leaving for my gate.

I'm not accustomed to boarding flights where there are large numbers of passengers with status so when they called for boarding for first class and those who had various levels of status with AA it was a little shocking to see how long the line was.  The good thing was that these were all experienced travlers so the boarding process was efficient and it was an uneventful flight to Dallas.

I had debated between booking a room at the Grand Hyatt DFW, which is attached to the terminal, vs. the Hyatt Regency which is located on the DFW Airport property.  The Grand Hyatt is a category 3 hotel (12K points per night) while the Hyatt Regency is a category 2 hotel (8K points).  While the convenience of the Grand Hyatt was a bonus, in the end I decided to save the 4000 points and booked the Hyatt Regency.

It was after 11 PM by the time I reached baggage claim - though of course my bags would be transferred to the plane to Memphis so I only had to deal with my carry-on.  The shuttle bus was over half-full and after another stop or two I found myself in line to check in.

I was a little disappointed at how long the line was, probably 7-8 people deep.  The three people at the front desk were all assisting weary travelers but after getting only semi-decent sleep on the flight from Fiji I was dead tired and didn't really want to wait any longer.

That's when I noticed the kiosk.  As I was only 3-4 people from the end of the queue, I decided it would be worth it to see if it was working.  I swiped my credit card and it spit out a room key and a receipt for me.  Presto! I was on my way to my room.

BDU: Flying to Los Angeles

BDU: Birthday Down Under - Trip Planning
BDU: Flying to Sydney
BDU: Park Hyatt Sydney
BDU: Sydney Activities
BDU: Sydney Opera House
BDU: Flying to Uluru and Back
BDU: Uluru and Kata Tjuta
BDU: Park Hyatt Melbourne
BDU: Melbourne Activities
BDU: Flying to Fiji
BDU: Hilton Fiji
BDU: Snorkeling Trip
BDU: Flying to Los Angeles
BDU: Hyatt Regency DFW

Our flight was scheduled to leave at 9:40 PM.  The folks from Rosie Holidays picked us up in plenty of time to make our flight.  In fact, there were very few people in line at the counter when we arrived.  Since C and I were flying in business class we were able to walk right up to the counter.  When the agent realized D was with us, she allowed her to use our line as well. Very nice!

The Nadi airport was undergoing a large renovation while we were there so there wasn't much to see once we got through security.  Even now, nearly a year later, the renovation is not complete but it looks much better than it did while we were there.  Ben, of One Mile at a Time, was there just last month and you can check out his post to see more up-to-date photos.

We made our way to the Fiji Air Tabua Lounge.  Our business class tickets afforded entry for C and me and my Priority Pass Select card (a benefit of having the Citibank Prestige card) allowed D to enter.

Fiji Air Tabua Lounge Entrance

BDU: Snorkeling Trip

BDU: Birthday Down Under - Trip Planning
BDU: Flying to Sydney
BDU: Park Hyatt Sydney
BDU: Sydney Activities
BDU: Sydney Opera House
BDU: Flying to Uluru and Back
BDU: Uluru and Kata Tjuta
BDU: Park Hyatt Melbourne
BDU: Melbourne Activities
BDU: Flying to Fiji
BDU: Hilton Fiji
BDU: Snorkeling Trip
BDU: Flying to Los Angeles
BDU: Hyatt Regency DFW

As we recovered from our overnight flight to Fiji we thought about what we might like to do in this island paradise.  We settled on a snorkeling tour that we were able to book through the hotel's activities desk.

We were booked with an outfit called Whale's Tale and the crew was a fun-loving bunch.  There were probably 20-25 of us on board as we sailed toward what I believe is a private island owned by the tour company.  There was a semi-permanent hut there with cooking facilities and picnic tables, several other grass-topped huts to provide some shade and a sand volleyball court all set up.  The name of this dot of sand? Snorkel Island, of course!

Yes, it's Snorkel Island

BDU: Hilton Fiji

BDU: Birthday Down Under - Trip Planning
BDU: Flying to Sydney
BDU: Park Hyatt Sydney
BDU: Sydney Activities
BDU: Sydney Opera House
BDU: Flying to Uluru and Back
BDU: Uluru and Kata Tjuta
BDU: Park Hyatt Melbourne
BDU: Melbourne Activities
BDU: Flying to Fiji
BDU: Hilton Fiji
BDU: Snorkeling Trip
BDU: Flying to Los Angeles
BDU: Hyatt Regency DFW

It was still quite early, around 7 AM, when we arrived at the Hilton.  The good thing is that the staff is quite accustomed to having folks arrive at all hours.  We did have to wait a little while to check in as several people on our flight were also staying here.  The open-air lobby was quite inviting and the seating was quite comfortable.

Hilton Fiji Lobby Seating

Hilton Fiji Reception Desk

BDU: Flying to Fiji

BDU: Birthday Down Under - Trip Planning
BDU: Flying to Sydney
BDU: Park Hyatt Sydney
BDU: Sydney Activities
BDU: Sydney Opera House
BDU: Flying to Uluru and Back
BDU: Uluru and Kata Tjuta
BDU: Park Hyatt Melbourne
BDU: Melbourne Activities
BDU: Flying to Fiji
BDU: Hilton Fiji
BDU: Snorkeling Trip
BDU: Flying to Los Angeles
BDU: Hyatt Regency DFW

Melbourne is very nearly at the very southeastern tip of Australia.  Fiji is northeast of the continent and it is one time zone earlier.  That meant our 5-hour flight to Nadi (pronounced NAHN-dee, even though there's no second "N"), which left around midnight, would land us in Fiji first thing in the morning.  This was the only flight with award space and we took the only three award seats that were available nearly a year in advance.