How Miles and Points are Getting me to Italy!

This year I’m taking a trip with my friend to Rome which I haven’t visited before. There is so much we want to do and see there but the first part of planning is booking the flights and hotels.

Flights to Italy with free one way
From IAH, we wanted a relatively short flight and it had to be with United miles since that’s what I have the most in now. I was able to find saver availability flying Lufthansa economy for 120k + $272 miles for 2 people. Considering that the cheapest flight on United was $1,364 per person, this is a huge savings of $2,456.

The awesome thing about booking awards is that I can add a free one way to another city because United allows a stop over and an open jaw. So I decided to add on IAH to DCA at a later date with no additional miles (My open jaw is that I’m leaving from IAH and ultimately arriving in DCA) . For more information about free one ways on United, check out MileValue’s post. This is a savings of at least another $150 per person.

Hotel Stay at Hotel Indigo St. George

This hotel is an IHG property and has recently gone through a renovation and I am excited to try it out. The hotel is suppose to be very modern and it is in the center of Italy.

The cost per night is 45k IHG points. Since we are staying 5 nights, the total points cost is 225k. The room cost for the time we want to go is $260 USD per night so we are saving $1,300 not including all the taxes and fees.

Radisson Blu in Rome

For 3 nights we decided to check out the Radisson Blu also in the center of Rome. Standard rooms go for 44k points/night but we wanted to spoil ourselves so we went with the Premium Award business room which costs 66k points/night. Since I have the Club Carlson Visa which gives you a free award night per stay, our 3 night stay only costs us 2 nights so a total of 132k points. The Premium rooms are located on the 6th floor and have a balcony. It also comes with breakfast buffet.

These premium rooms usually cost $248 USD per night so we are saving a total of $744 for the 3 nights not including taxes and fees.

Overall I am happy with all my bookings and can’t wait to fly Lufthansa for the first time and try these fun and modern hotels. In total, miles and points is saving 2 people almost $5,000 for the entire trip.