After about a year of planning, I finally put Project Vienna into action. By combining airline and hotel points to action, I scored a free business class upgrade on round-trip flights to Vienna and five nights in a Marriott brand hotel.
Pay premium economy price, get business
The Air Canada companion pass is a credit card superpower. By spending $25,000 a year on the card, a plus one can fly with me anywhere in economy to Europe for a $499 base fare plus taxes and fees. There were no blackout dates, but we decided to travel just as the semester began to score instant upgrade availability to business class during shoulder season.
As an Aeroplan Elite member, I had eUpgrades to spend on complimentary cabin class upgrades. If I book the full latitude economy fare and there is reward space available, I can request an instantly confirmed upgrade. This round trip would cost 44 eUpgrades in total for two passengers.
The regular economy fare for our dates was $3,943 for two, $5,966 in premium economy and $17,532 in business class. I paid $5,838 in total for confirmed (as opposed to waitlisted upgrade) business class seats. In other words, I paid slightly less than the price of premium economy (for which we would have otherwise paid) for lie-flat transatlantic seats, making it a free upgrade.
I don’t know why the system wouldn’t let me choose the direct option between Ottawa and Toronto on the outbound flight and forced me to go through Quebec City, but in any case, it was also in business class and the extra distance flown will contribute to lifetime qualifying miles. No loss there.
Pay hostel price, get Marriott
Once in Vienna, we stayed at the Vienna Moxy, a modern, midscale Marriott brand hotel for five nights for free on 83,000 Bonvoy points. It originally cost $1,071 for the five nights. It was across the street from an U-Bahn station and we got to the old town in a single ride in 10 minutes.
Marriott lets members redeem a five-night stay for the cost of four nights (the cheapest night is free) if the entire redemption is in Bonvoy points. I’ve previously done this at the Sheraton Waikiki in Hawaii for 165,000 points for five nights, so it is a hefty redemption to make all at once.
To make points accrual easier, I have a Canadian Marriott Bonvoy credit card that earns 5x per C$1 spent at Marriott properties. Plus, my American Express Platinum card gets my Marriott Bonvoy Gold status, which earns 12.5 points per US$1 spent at Marriott hotels, or about 9.2 points per C$1. This adds up to an earn rate of about 14 points per C$1.
Almost all 83,000 points came from nine nights in upscale Marriott properties in Poland in a Westin, a Renaissance, a Luxury Collection and an Autograph Collection hotel. Getting five nights in a midscale hotel after nine nights in upscale hotels is a pretty good redemption ratio.
We still had to pay for three nights in a Renaissance to round out the vacation, but the $700 accommodation cost for the entire eight-night trip rounded out to a cool $88 per night. Hostels were selling private rooms for two with shared bathrooms for $110 a night.
We managed to stick to our original flights budget for the best service class and spend hostel money for fulls service hotels. It was worth the yearlong wait to cash in on the deals.
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