Last night, while we were watching TV and decompressing after a very long week, Fausto casually mentioned to me that he reserved tickets to Vienna, Austria on Halloween weekend. And when I say weekend, I literally mean weekend. We are going on another mileage run (a short trip that helps you accumulate more miles in your airline program and achieve status).

I am relatively new to this whole weekend travel business. Before, when I think of traveling, I usually think of a trip that lasts for at least a week (anything shorter doesn’t seem to be worth the airline ticket). You need time to acclimate and familiarize yourself with your new surroundings, not to mention you need time to relax and really enjoy being away. This past year, due to work and personal obligations, we were very short on time. That’s when Fausto convinced me to take a weekend trip to Tokyo and Seoul on Thanksgiving weekend. Two cities, across the other side of the world in four days, sure why not. I find that it’s usually not too hard to convince me to go somewhere, especially some place I’ve never been.

Was it worth the money? This is of course very subjective , but when you find low priced tickets, it might be worthwhile for you to take the trip and accumulate the miles. It’s a bonus if it helps increase your status (which also helps you earn additional miles when you fly). Last year, we spent about $600 on the flight to Tokyo, Seoul and back. It helped both of us attain Executive Platinum status on American Airlines, which in turn gives us many benefits while traveling this year.  

Hyangwonjeong Pavilion Seoul, South Korea

Even though we managed to pack in a lot of activities while we were in Japan and South Korea (waiting in line for sushi at 5 am, going overboard on beauty products in Seoul), we barely skimmed the surface.  The trip served as a glimpse into these two great countries. What we saw made us fall in love with these places even more and definitely made us want to come back for a much longer visit. Even though the trip was great, in retrospect, it would have been a lot less overwhelming and more fun if we only did one city instead of two.

So back to the original topic of this post: Vienna. The ticket was $398 (including all taxes and fees) leaving from LaGuardia flying to Vienna with stopovers in Philadelphia and Zurich on US airways.  This was found on Google Flights, if you are interested, you should book soon, before the deal expires. If you are unsure but interested, you can always put the flight on hold for 24 hours (American is the only airline that lets you do this) while you think about it. We leave Thursday afternoon, get there Friday morning, and are back home on Monday afternoon.  Three whole days should be long enough time to explore the city of music right?

New York – Vienna

I totally understand that this is not for everyone. It can be a very tiring experience.  We are both young and energetic people (when we want to be), so this works for us right now.  In case you still want to go to Vienna, but don’t want to do it for 3 days, the above price and itinerary works for longer trips (1 week, 2 weeks, or anything in between). 

Thank you for reading, have a great Memorial Day weekend to my American friends.  Drop me a comment to let me know if you have any fun trips planned this weekend. Happy traveling.