Booked: Summer in Italy and Austria

Flights:

Originally, I had booked a flight to Istanbul with Turkish Airlines for four people in business class, planning to add a segment to Italy later. However, we invited another family member to join us, which led to rebooking with Swiss Airlines as I couldn’t find additional availability with Turkish Airlines. Our journey now starts from Toronto to Zurich. From Zurich, we will fly directly to Vienna, where we plan to spend a few days exploring both Vienna and Salzburg.

The Toronto-Zurich flight is a new route for Swiss Airlines and had plenty of business class availability on Aeroplan for the summer, often up to six business class seats. I have flown Swiss before from Montreal to Zurich on their A330-300 configuration. While the seats are a bit dated and lack some of the privacy of other business class configurations, they are adequate for a quick transatlantic trip. The biggest concern with this flight is that it departs Toronto at 4:25 PM. This timing is great for connecting in Zurich, as it arrives at 6:30 AM, but it’s not ideal for getting some sleep on the plane.

From Salzburg, we will fly to Rome via Frankfurt, and then return from Rome to Toronto with Swiss Airlines, again with a stopover in Zurich. This itinerary involves multiple stops, but securing five business class seats during the peak of summer requires a great deal of flexibility. While the entire journey is in business class, the intra-Europe segments typically offer economy seating with the middle seat blocked, which is a bit of a disappointment.

Points Used:

• Aeroplan Total Points: 825,000 in business flex.

• Breakdown: 80,000 points for each ticket to Vienna, and 85,000 points for each return ticket as Rome is listed as a stopover.

Hotels:

For our stay in Vienna, there are plenty of points hotels to choose from. One of my favorite Marriott brands is the Autograph Collection, and fortunately, there is a new one in Vienna that just opened. The Imperial Riding School, Autograph Collection, once served as a military riding school and is now a 342-room hotel. Rates for this trip are as low as 30,000 Bonvoy points per night, so I decided to use several Bonvoy certificates from my Bonvoy Amex credit card.

In Salzburg, being a smaller city, the options are more limited. We will stay at the Sheraton Grand Salzburg, which costs 55,000 Bonvoy points per night. It is located within walking distance of the old town, and I am looking forward to strolling through Mozart’s birthplace.

Colosseum in Rome

In Italy, we will be visiting family, so we will stay with them for many of our nights. However, at the end of our trip, we will stay at the Waldorf Astoria Rome Cavalieri, using a few free night certificates we have from our US Hilton credit cards. I stayed at this hotel back in 2022 and still dream of the breakfast spread. The hotel is a bit out of the city center but has a shuttle if you plan to head that way.

Additionally, I am planning a side trip to Lecce to try out a non-points hotel, the Patria Palace, which we will book using TD Rewards. This hotel has an associated beach club, so I’m looking forward to a mixture of beach time and exploring Lecce and the surrounding towns in Puglia.

Look for full flight and hotel reviews in future posts!