The initial plan was that we were only going to travel internationally (sorry not including Canada, but don’t make me laugh) once in 2023. That didn’t work for me. So, we had a bit of a conundrum. How could we add a luxurious international vacation on a budget? Let the game begin!

The Points Bank

Accruing miles and points is a balancing act as luxury usually requires a lot of them. However, airlines and hotels are constantly devaluating their awards so keeping your points/miles for the long-term is not the best strategy either. I have enough American Airlines miles for two, one-way business class tickets to Europe. That gets us to Spain, but how do we get back? Air France has us covered!

Airline Credit

We were supposed to go to France in October, but as you recall we decided to cancel it. As a result, we had just under 900 dollars of airline credit at our disposal from our Paris to Montpellier flight we never took! To choose our destination I started looking at random European cities we either loved or wanted to visit and see if we could literally travel home (sigh in Coach) for free on Air France. Luck was on our side when literally the only Western European city that met my requirements that we had enough AA miles AND Air France credit (that expires soon) for was one of our favorites, BARCELONA!

What About the Hotel?

Truthfully, we have enough Marriott points to stay in Barcelona for free, but we love the Axel Hotel and it is very reasonably priced. We truly appreciate the Axel is also quite progressive in that they areHeterosexually friendly and now we have Marriott points for a luxury vacation saved for another day.

Barcelona

We love Barcelona. The food, scenery, architecture, and people are all just wonderful. Matt will be so happy we are returning. I will write a blog post discussing my love for Barcelona soon.

Sitges Too

Sitges is a beach town just 30 miles or so away from Barcelona and it is very gay, gayer than Barcelona if that is possible. Unfortunately, the last time we were in Barcelona we tried to spend a day in Sitges and failed (that story for another day). This time I already booked a private car to take us to Sitges with our sea front room at the lovely Hotel Calipolis (Thanks to our awesome friend Eugene for the recommendation!) waiting for us. We will be spending a few nights there too!

I Kind of Lied to My Husband

I had to block time on his work calendar, so he knew he had to take some time off and I called it a New England Bday Activity. Well, we depart from Boston so there you go, no lies!

Full Itinerary

3/31 Boston-JFK/NYC AA Business class flight-spend all day in the American Airlines Flagship Lounge in JFK. I do love the Flagship Lounge!

3/31 JFK-BCN AA Flagship Business Class Flight

4/1-4/6 Axel Hotel Barcelona-Same room as last time @Matt

4/6-4/8 Hotel Calipolis Sitges-Beautiful sea front room with balcony!

4/8 BCN-CDG-BOS AF Coach ☹ but free 😊

Remember Don’t Tell Matt

It is a surprise for his birthday! Shh don’t tell him! But how awesome is this? Our flights are free, our hotels are lovely and because Barcelona is not very expensive, we are spending quite a bit less on hotel for a week than we did in Cancun for 5 days last year for his birthday, and that was with using Marriott miles! Cancun is lovely but way too expensive (for a hotel that meets our standards).

We (well I as Matt doesn’t know yet) are excited to return to one of our favorite cities in the world, with free flights and reasonably priced hotel rooms.

Bon Voyage,

Andrew

PS Dearest, if you accidentally see this blog post could  you please text me your AA Advantage number so we can get you on the reservation? Thanks!

PSS It is just a coincidence I served Matt a Catalonian dinner tonight.