Questions and Answers

Awesome stories! As an infrequent contributor, I’ll share a quick one, since I am just returning from a trip to Europe. I did not redeem miles, as I jumped on the BA sale from last October on biz class flights. I’ve been to many of the “go-to” places in Europe, like London, Paris, etc., so decided to use the sale as way to venture out. Don’t ask me how, but I ended up choosing Romania and Bulgaria (with a focus on Dracula’s castle in Transylvania!). I was able to route on AA 777-300 on the outbound through London, and returning on a retrofitted 777-200

With OMAAT’s advice, I had the ticket priced out at around $1600 after the AARP discount trick. But, BA had the offer to pay a portion of the fare with Avios, which I transferred from Chase. So, I ended up booking for $835 and 30,000 Avios.

Anyways, I just returned this past weekend from the trip. The miles just posted to AA, 45,000 redeemable miles for the whole trip, not bad! And, I got to enjoy 8 days in Europe.

Figured I’d attach my favorite photo, this is Corvin Castle in Romania, built in the 1440s.
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Thanks for the great advice and reviews!

[USER=1436]@rickyw[/USER] — Thanks for sharing, and you have no idea how jealous I am of this trip! We were trying to go to Romania and Bulgaria last fall, but couldn’t get our lives calm enough for traipsing around the countryside to be reasonable.

Did you rent a car, or how did you manage the ground logistics?

[USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] Yes, the rental car was key. The only downside to booking a trip in October 2015 for May 2016 is you have 8 months to research and rethink specifics!
I ended up flying from Bulgaria to Cluj Napoca, which is one of the larger cities in Transylvania. Rented the car there and over 4 days drove through the Carpathians and returned the car in Bucharest, then stayed in Bucharest for another 3 (with no car).

There were some guided tours available to the more touristy places, like Draculas castle. But, I couldn’t find anyone to go to Corvin with (pictured), so I bit the bullet and rented the car.

I was honestly one of 6 people at that castle that afternoon, so definitely off the beaten path but worth the cost and the drive!