Introduction: The Very Long Way To Italy & Greece

Random question - did you take the final LAX-YVR flight or just no-show it?

@Lucky - I am curious of your experiences checking into hotels - particularly in the Middle East - with your male partner and requesting one bed. Have you ever had any pushback in Dubai, Doha, etc?

How much did he spend to stay at Amanzoe for 4 nights?

Man, JTR is absolutely trash. Looking forward to reading the hotel portions of this trip report.

Good review. I hope to do this route at some point. Greece is on our bucket list. We've done LAX - DXB - SGN (First/Business) with Emirates. The free connection stay at the Le Meridien, and other eligible properties, qualifies if the Emirates layover is more than 12 hours. If the layover to your next Emirates segment is less than 12 hours, one doesn't qualify and you're on your own. In any case, it's a great benefit for first and business class travelers. The Le Meridien morning buffet was pretty damn good IMO.

I had a horrible night at the Sofitel Athens airport in June. Hopefully yours was better.

Hah, we were both at LAX at about the same time - you ending your summer trip, me starting mine (flew in on BA First). If only I had known! Then again, actually seeing you in person would probably be just as surreal as it was for you to see the Mystique 😉

Also just had a one night stay at the Sofitel Athens Airport and I also was not impressed. Dated room and horrible mattress and pillows. Service in the restaurant on the first floor was average at best. Booked a superior room so it was not as nice as the one you show above,

" More money than sense ".... comes to mind.

"The fare was ~$3,100 per person. That’s of course a lot of cash" - Not really, considering first class on Emirates LAX-DXB is more than $20K....you got a hell of a deal! Even if it was $8K it'd be worth it.

This blog is slowly turning into TPG. Even when staying at points hotels, Lucky ends up spending cash justifying it as "fourth night free". Nothing against paying cash - just weird that the blog constantly pushes credit cards under the guise of redeeming points for travel, but the author seems to pay for flights (in F, no less) and for hotels, even when other options (using miles and points) are available.

@jettyboy

I see it differently.. I use this blog for objective reviews based on someone who has a lot of flights built up to use as reference for what business/first class flights and rooms at different price points SHOULD provide. As long as Lucky and other contributors give me the info on best booking options (whether awards or discounted cash rates), I could care less which methods they actually use themselves. I think for the most part this blog does that well.

I have to agree with Mark and Christian. The Sofitel Athens Airport is, in my opinion, one of the worst hotels out there, particularly when considering the rather high cash rate. I already stayed there twice (the second time only because I didn‘t have any other option), and the hotel is the reason why I generally avoid Acc properties like hell. If time permits (and the metro will already be available in case of an early departure), I would always recommend taking the 45 minute trip downtown and stay, for example, at the Crowne plaza which is close enough to Megaro Moussikis stop with a direct connection to the airport. Much better, and even slightly cheaper.

Has Westjet Plus changed since the non-review?

How do you identify the countless flight and hotel options ? Can you recommend good websites for both please ?

Am I the only subscriber finding the sniping comments distasteful? My travel is not predicated on the 'points' game but I delight in reading the travel reviews and take immense pleasure in discovering any travel hack that suits my purpose. Thank you to Ben and his contributors for all their insights and advice - we would be the poorer for the lack of your blog despite our travel perspective.

Another airport option is the Holiday Inn, although it must be about 10K down a freeway . However, they do provide a shuttle service to/from and the hotel itself is 'cheap and cheerful' but not too bad. But it's probably almost just as quick to get downtown as the K George and the other one next door are right at Syntagma Metro stop ( ie direct route to ATH), albeit significantly more expensive.

Was the Volotea flight really as bad as you make it seem? Only asking as I'm flying the same route in a couple months.

@Carrie I dunno. I guess some people think that you can travel indefinitely on points without ever paying a cent. This blog is by far better than some of the other tabloid blogs out there. I enjoy the trip reviews as well, since when I do redeem points I don't want to redeem them on a crappy product.

@ Josh -- The flight itself was totally fine, I wouldn't hesitate to fly them. It's just that Santorini Airport is a zoo/mess.