Italy: Viva Italia Meets Thread

[luckylady131]

Luckylady-- I went last week of May as well, and let me tell you: still warm and humid. You won't toally escape the heat, FYI.

Thanks! I know it will be warm, but it won't be July or August heat (hopefully). Still mulling it over. I can save $2,000 by going in May, which is a great motivator!

 

[Tayber90]

DH and I are on the 9/15-9/23/16 adults only trip! We cannot wait!!!

 

[silmarg]

it was hot in August.. but still a great trip. We had 50% kids.

I did do one other ABD (Back Stage Magic) and my kids were the only kids. And they love it - they were really treated regally by the ABD guides.

I would opt for the save $2000.

 

[Kgordonjazz]

Myself, my husband and 16 year old son have booked the Italy adventure June 29-July 9. We are coming from Carlsbad California. Anyone else on this adventure?

 

[luckylady131]

Myself, my husband and 16 year old son have booked the Italy adventure June 29-July 9. We are coming from Carlsbad California. Anyone else on this adventure?

Have fun! I went ahead and booked the May 23-30 timeframe. Would love to share experiences when you get back!

 

[CeCe50]

Looking forward to June 25, 2016 departure with our 12 yr old granddaughter.

 

[Controller]

Just found this website. Signed up for 08/18/17 trip.

There is a lot of information here.

 

[GAN]

Have fun! I went ahead and booked the May 23-30 timeframe. Would love to share experiences when you get back!

I've been in May, it's a wonderful time of year to visit!

 

[calypso726]

We are on August 18, 2017 trip and just got our flights booked! Woo Hoo!!!

 

[Tayber90]

We are leaving a week from Wednesday!!! It is so close. Cannot wait!! Any tips from those that have recently been on the trip?

 

[Rapunzellover]

Tayber90- comfortable shoes. Sunscreen. Also, you will need to cover shoulders and knees at the Vatican, so be prepared.

 

[carpenta]

...........A refillable water bottle(s). Besides the wine, the water that comes out of the communal city square water fountains ( for drinking NOT the display fountains lol) is quite good. Hard to find bottled water sometimes when you are on your own.

 

[Controller]

Calypso726 - did you use points to get your airplane tickets? If so, how many points did you use? I am still working on which credit cards to get, points, and airline to use.

Thanks.

 

[Tayber90]

Tayber90- comfortable shoes. Sunscreen. Also, you will need to cover shoulders and knees at the Vatican, so be prepared.

Thank you! Already have my Rome outfits picked out!

...........A refillable water bottle(s). Besides the wine, the water that comes out of the communal city square water fountains ( for drinking NOT the display fountains lol) is quite good. Hard to find bottled water sometimes when you are on your own.

That is really good advice! I wouldn't have thought to do that and I do go through a lot of water in a day!

 

[Rapunzellover]

Yeah, ABD provides water. But not when you are on your own. And water can be expensive! One place in St Mark's square charged me 8 euros for a bottle!!!

 

[Tayber90]

Yeah, ABD provides water. But not when you are on your own. And water can be expensive! One place in St Mark's square charged me 8 euros for a bottle!!!

At that cost you might as well just buy wine! It's way less expensive!

 

[calypso726]

Calypso726 - did you use points to get your airplane tickets? If so, how many points did you use? I am still working on which credit cards to get, points, and airline to use.

Thanks.

I did! We used British Airways points and the companion pass we earned for making the required spending on the card. I had DH apply for the BA card again last year when they were offering 100,000 miles. It was $30K spend to get the companion pass but we managed it through manufactured spending and 4 Bluebird accounts shut down LOL Since we were using the companion pass only one of us had to use points but we did have to pay the dreaded taxes and fees for both. First class from MIA-LHR and business from LHR-FCO since it is a 2 cabin plane and has no first class cabin was 115,000. VCE-LHR in business (2 cabin plane), LHR-MIA in first was also 115,000. My mom is also going with us and I got her tickets in business and those were 90,000 miles. BA charges an arm and a leg in taxes and fees when you connect through London. So it's like paying for your flights at a cost that is still less than an economy ticket but using your points to fly up front. We had 2 years to use the companion pass and and I figured our next ABD in 2018 would be to China so BA would not be the airline we'd be using. Therefore, we made use of it this year.

Alitalia flies to Rome from many places and they are in the Sky team alliance so they partner with Delta. Amex membership reward points transfer to Delta. Korean Air is also Sky Team and Chase Ultimate Reward points transfer to Korean.

 

[sayhello]

I did! We used British Airways points and the companion pass we earned for making the required spending on the card. I had DH apply for the BA card again last year when they were offering 100,000 miles. It was $30K spend to get the companion pass but we managed it through manufactured spending and 4 Bluebird accounts shut down LOL Since we were using the companion pass only one of us had to use points but we did have to pay the dreaded taxes and fees for both. First class from MIA-LHR and business from LHR-FCO since it is a 2 cabin plane and has no first class cabin was 115,000. VCE-LHR in business (2 cabin plane), LHR-MIA in first was also 115,000. My mom is also going with us and I got her tickets in business and those were 90,000 miles. BA charges an arm and a leg in taxes and fees when you connect through London. So it's like paying for your flights at a cost that is still less than an economy ticket but using your points to fly up front. We had 2 years to use the companion pass and and I figured our next ABD in 2018 would be to China so BA would not be the airline we'd be using. Therefore, we made use of it this year.

Alitalia flies to Rome from many places and they are in the Sky team alliance so they partner with Delta. Amex membership reward points transfer to Delta. Korean Air is also Sky Team and Chase Ultimate Reward points transfer to Korean.

What does "manufactured spending and 4 Bluebird accounts shut down" mean?

Sayhello

 

[tgeorge]

You used to be able to get an AMEX Bluebird card and load it with Gift Cards you could purchase at Walmart. You would use your credit card of choice to get the points with the purchase of the gift cards. The monthly max was $5000. Then, you would set up the Bluebird card to pay your bills and just pay off your credit card bill.

So, you get the 5,000 points and never pay anything except for the service fee on the gift cards ($4.95 or $5.95 per gift card. But, you find the Visa's that you can load up to $500 on to cut down on the service fee expense).

Voila...manufactured spending. You get all the miles and spend very little. The problem is they have all caught onto the scheme and they shut them down. It is much more difficult to manufacture spending now.

 

[calypso726]

What does "manufactured spending and 4 Bluebird accounts shut down" mean?

Sayhello

What @tgeorge said There are people who do this to manufacture points earning without spending much in out of pocket. We've done it to make a bonus spending requirement for a credit card like when AA had the 100,000 miles after spending $10,000 in 3 months. DH and I each did that one twice. The last time was to hit the $30,000 spending requirement for the BA companion pass. We still do some manufactures spending, when there is an opportunity to do if for $0 out of pocket but not anywhere near that volume.

You used to be able to get an AMEX Bluebird card and load it with Gift Cards you could purchase at Walmart. You would use your credit card of choice to get the points with the purchase of the gift cards. The monthly max was $5000. Then, you would set up the Bluebird card to pay your bills and just pay off your credit card bill.

So, you get the 5,000 points and never pay anything except for the service fee on the gift cards ($4.95 or $5.95 per gift card. But, you find the Visa's that you can load up to $500 on to cut down on the service fee expense).

Voila...manufactured spending. You get all the miles and spend very little. The problem is they have all caught onto the scheme and they shut them down. It is much more difficult to manufacture spending now.

Yup it sure is more difficult now. I still have a few more family members I can hit up to open Bluebird accounts but I will save those for a rainy day. If you have an Ink+ card and pick up the gift cards at an office supply store you'd get 5x points which resulted in 25,000 miles for the cost of the gift card service fee. I still do that but I'm usually picking up Disney gift cards for 5x points, loading them to the Disney Vacation Savings account and paying for our Adventures by Disney trip through there since we get a $20 gift card for every $1,000 we pay out of the account. Paying for the Italy trip this way will earn us nearly 50,000 airline miles and we will get back $180 in Disney gift cards.