TRIP REPORT: My FREE MSC Cruise <$1,900 TOTAL Spend for a 17 Day Euro Trip! (MSC Poesia 10 Day Baltic Sea)
Updated November 15, 2024
First of my eight (so far) booked comped cruises is now officially in the books! The Casino Status Match JACKPOT has paid off handsomely for me (here’s the overview for how I did this). This post will be a broad outline of my trip and I will add links to the detailed posts for flights, cruise, and each locale as they are written.
I know that this can look intimidating but it’s because 1: I’m super extra AKA I tend to take things to the extremes and 2: I have been doing the miles + points thing for a LONG time so as with everything, practice makes perfect. Plus I believe in constantly learning and challenging myself so these trips are a reflection of this!!
People wonder how I travel so much so I just wanted to show you how I do this BUT really this game/hobby can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. So take what you can from this ~ I always say that travel hacking is simply a way to get out there and travel. Then if you can elevate it to be a way to travel better, more often or both, that’s just the icing on the cake 🙂
One thing to note is that the cash price is what I would have paid when I booked XX. Take those numbers with a grain of salt because some of the things especially the premium cabin flights or even the cruise are not things I would be choosing IF I had to pay the full cash amount. But they are included because they give you an idea of what travel hacking looks like in action.
We start with a look at the two typically most expensive parts of the trip: the flights and accommodations (now wondering if I should change the category from hotels but as normal, I digress). Then move on to the cruise then various other items that add to the bottom line.
FLIGHTS
DEN-LGA (UA Econ): $4.90 spend. Savings from United(UA) travel bank IYKYK. Note that $4.90 was put on my Ritz Carlton card purely for travel protection vs paying for entire flight
JFK-FRA (SQ Bus) + FRA-BER (LH Econ): 70.7K SQ miles + $75.90 spend. Savings from Singapore Airlines(SQ) spontaneous escapes fare. FYI: these ✈️ showcase why it’s important to keep up to date on miles/points expiry as it was a use or lose situation with my SQ miles. I would have chosen more convenient flights otherwise and definitely would not have spent 14K SQ miles for an intra-Germany flight but it is what it is.
CPH-PHL (AA Flagship Biz): 1 system wide upgrade (SWU) + $506 spend. I was able to apply a SWU to a basic economy ticket at booking! Having AA elite status made this easier as it was a very knowledgeable agent that forced things thru on the back end. Also being Executive Platinum meant that I could enter the first class lounges at LHR and may have a new favorite airport lounge.
HOTELS
Hyatt Place Flushing/LGA: 12K points + $10 (Housekeeping tip) Spend: Additional savings from upgrade room type (also included in other sections for savings: Shuttle from LGA and complimentary breakfast)
Lindner Hotel Berlin Ku’damm: 20K points + €15 (Housekeeping tip/my part of split) Spend: Additional savings 12K Hyatt points (booked nights before the hotel moved up to Category 2!) + upgrade to 1 King Bed Ku'damm View Deluxe room
MSC COMPED CRUISE:
MSC Poesia Baltics 11 day Cruise: $301.34 spend. Cruise fare and port fees/expenses for two were comped by MSC so only responsible for €12 daily staff gratuities (€108 in total). I did choose to give an additional €50 room attendant tip + €20 dinner waiter tip (my share for each) & $20 in other misc staff tips. Cruise was sold out so no upgrade with Diamond status.
At booking, I paid $59 for the Fantastica experience. This was actually not the original itinerary booked and change fee was waived (this cruise kept going from only balcony available to sold out when I was looking and finally had an oceanview become available in January!). I did have to pay a $400 deposit but that was credited back as nonrefundable onboard credit upon embarking.
Note: there will not be a separate post about the next few sections before the itinerary and any worthwhile mentions will be with the appropriate flights, cruise or location detailed posts.
FOOD
$456.42 spend. Savings of $294.17 on meals + drinks from MSC Diamond status and lounge access (biz class tickets and credit card benefits). I should really make a separate breakdown for how much I spend on desserts especially ice cream; I would venture to guess it’s 25-33% of this total.
TRANSPORTATION
$207.70 spend. Savings of $60 from Amex benefits + LGA shuttle. The great part about this trip and itinerary is that metros, rail, bus etc in these cities were readily and easily accessible. I was able to take a lot of public transportation but also took some Bolts/Uber due to my knee. Again it is what it is there – but if I was healthy, costs would have been a lot lower here.
ACTIVITIES
$265.50 spend. Savings of $16 from MSC Diamond ~ thermal spa visit on sea day. Mainly walking tour tips + a few museum entrance fees made up this category.
MISCELLANEOUS
Just realized that the data is wrong for this category and I put the MSC WiFi here so it’s actually $47.44 Spend consisting mainly of magnets and 💵 for my home display collections + some chocolate for my family (I only buy souvenirs if something is easily transportable + it will be enjoyed).
Also included for this category is a €9.10 DM supply run in Berlin. I am #teamcarryon all the way even with having airline status and flying biz class (and with the trip being 22 days long, I had a Philly trip added at the end)! One downside is the restriction on liquids so refillable containers are the key to success here + I buy some mini bottles to supplement. Even so it is absolutely necessary to buy conditioner, lotion and SPF for a trip of this length. But I would rather do this and spend a little more than having to deal with luggage delays or if it doesn’t arrive with the added complication of getting on a cruise.
Itinerary:
Days 1-2: New York City
Beautiful tip ~ consider repositioning. Sometimes the best deal for award flights ESPECIALLY when booking biz or first class involves you booking a flight from a city that isn’t your hometown. If you are flying to Europe, taking a flight from the east coast will normally have more business award availability. This is why it’s referred to as repositioning ~ in my case, flying from Denver to NYC (putting myself in place) for my flight outta JFK.
I had to reposition myself with one downside of booking SQ tickets using SQ miles is that they don’t add on partner flights. As with the carry on thing, if I have to fly out of another city, I plan for things going wrong ie the possibilities of thunderstorms and derecho delays/cancellations and will normally fly in a day before.
Reason being that since I booked the tickets separately, neither airline has a responsibility to get me from NYC to FRA if that first flight is delayed. If the flights had been on one itinerary, then I could have depended on SQ to re-book me.
Day 3: Travel Day/Berlin Germany
Worth it to fly SQ business class even if it meant that I had to connect thru FRA to BER. I briefly considered taking rail between the two cities but it was cheaper to fly, I didn’t want to lose SQ miles and was not sure how my knee would hold up.
Days 4-6: Berlin, Germany
Beautiful tip: flexibility + urgency are needed when booking award flights ~ ideally I would have flown in a day or two later but I took the award flight that was available when SQ released their promo fare to guarantee my flight.
Day 7: Berlin/Warnemunde port, Germany: Embark MSC Poesia
Day 8: Gdańsk/Gdynia port, Poland
Day 9: Klaipeda, Lithuania
Day 10: Riga, Latvia
Day 11: Tallinn, Estonia
Day 12: Helsinki, Finland
Days 13-14: Stockholm, Sweden
Day 15: at Sea
Day 16: Copenhagen, Denmark
Day 17: Copenhagen, Denmark/Travel Day
