This summer, my wife and younger daughter are going on a women’s group tour to Poland with some friends and acquaintances from Atlanta. While the six-day tour itself takes care of accommodations and transportation, it does not include airfare. They also want to arrive early and visit another place in Europe for a couple of days on the way since the tour starts midweek. The tour is a bit like the one in the movie “A Real Pain,” so if you saw that, you know the kind of places they will be visiting.

My assignment was as follows: Get them to a place in Europe they might want to visit for a couple of days that’s also within easy reach of Warsaw plus a hotel there, get them a hotel night in Warsaw at each end of the tour as it starts in the morning and ends in the afternoon, and get them a flight back to the US starting in Warsaw.

After some debate, they decided that Berlin would be a good initial city to visit. My wife and I were there about nine years ago, but we only had a one-day visit on a Baltic cruise so we spent a total of about seven hours in the city. We didn’t get to go inside any museums or major sites. We did have a great tour guide though and I was able to book him for a full day for them again this summer. He’s expensive, but he will put together a custom itinerary for them which they will enjoy.

Next, I decided to do my best to find them business class seats to make their trip together even more enjoyable. Our daughter lives in Washington, DC so after a quick search of Atlanta flight options during their fixed dates and finding nothing, I turned my attention to Washington Dulles as a potential gateway.

I initially found them a flight home from Warsaw. They need to leave the morning after the tour ends as it will be too late to leave and get back to the US on the last day of the tour. They were being dropped off at Warsaw airport around 4:30pm so I booked them a room using Marriott Bonvoy points at the Courtyard right across from the airport terminal assuming they would be tired. I booked them an itinerary from Warsaw to Washington on KLM via Amsterdam using Flying Blue for 60,000 points plus about $300 each. It’s not the greatest business class product on the long-haul flight (2-2-2 on an A330), but they can sit in the two center seats so they have direct aisle access. It was literally the only saver award for two available on Flying Blue for the whole month between those cities so we got very lucky. The flight from Warsaw leaves at 6am so staying right at the airport will help them with the early start. They will have about a five-hour layover in Amsterdam where they can visit the very nice KLM Crown Lounge.

Once they had decided on Berlin, I searched for decent flight options to get there. There weren’t too many options left for peak summer when I was looking in February. I eventually decided on a Lufthansa flight leaving Washington late Saturday night with a four-hour connection in Munich. The long-haul flight is on a A380 which should be fun (and quiet) for them on the upper deck despite another 2-2-2 configuration (where they again will be in the center seats for direct aisle access). There were a couple of other Star Alliance options using Swiss or Brussels Airlines, but these Lufthansa flights had the shortest layover and best times for them. These flights cost 70,000 Air Canada Aeroplan miles plus about $200 per person. I realized after the fact I should have looked at Avianca LifeMiles as the award seats were possibly available for fewer miles (and I still have a stash of LifeMiles from our rescheduled safari trip). Oh well. They will arrive in Berlin around 6pm on Sunday where they can hopefully get a good night’s sleep and then have their all-day tour the next day. They will then take the five-hour train ride to Warsaw on Tuesday afternoon to arrive in time for their tour on Wednesday morning. And yes, I will book the train tickets for them when the tickets open about 60 days out.

That just left me with a couple of nights in Berlin and one night in Warsaw needing hotels. For the Warsaw night before the tour, I initially booked the Warsaw Hilton using Hilton points, but I realized it’s not super convenient to either the train station or the old town. I remembered we had a $300 Capital One travel credit from a Venture X card and I searched using their portal to see what I could find. The Intercontinental looked really nice and is only a five-minute walk from the train station so I canceled the Hilton and booked it for them for about $260, well within the $300 credit. It doesn’t include breakfast, but they can grab something nearby before they Uber to the airport to meet the tour group. In Berlin, I booked the Hilton using 42,000 Hilton points per night. My wife is Diamond with Hilton so that should get them free breakfast and some other perks. It’s also in a great location for their tour and to help them get around Berlin easily.

The only remaining task was to get my wife to and from Washington Dulles. I booked her a flight home on Delta using 13,000 SkyMiles that leaves only about two hours after they arrive on KLM. Unfortunately, it’s the last Delta flight of the day to Atlanta so I couldn’t give her any more cushion. With Global Entry and Clear/Pre-Check, she should make it. I figured worst case, if she gets stuck, she can stay with our daughter overnight and fly home from Washington Reagan first thing in the morning. In fact, for her flight up to DC, I actually booked her into Reagan as the options to Dulles weren’t great. The best-timed flight on Delta was ridiculously expensive, so I asked if she would be willing to fly in earlier to Reagan and meet our daughter at her apartment. Then, they can travel to Dulles together for their transatlantic adventure and not have to worry about meeting up at the airport. The flight was only $123 and I used part of a large ecredit she had on Delta from a canceled trip to cover it.

As for lounge access in Dulles, in addition to the Lufthansa lounge which they will have access to as part of their business class ticket, they could also visit the Capital One Lounge which gets great reviews for its food and drinks. My wife can also visit there again at the end of the trip if she has time before her flight home. They can also visit the Lufthansa lounge in Munich and a priority pass lounge in Warsaw.

So, they are all set. It’s not the most luxurious trip I’ve ever booked, but I can assure you that most of their fellow group members will be jealous of the business class flights. This shows you that decent award seats to Europe can be found even a few months before peak summer travel. I hope they have a great time (despite the somber sites they will be visiting) and enjoy the flights and hotels I’ve booked for them. Meanwhile I’ll hopefully be on my YOLO solo trip.

If you have questions about this post, let me know in the comments or send me an email at emptynestermiles@gmail.com. If you are thinking about opening a new credit card, please use one of my links.