In November, I had the opportunity to visit Vienna. My husband was in the Czech Republic for work and we decided to take a couple days for ourselves. I had never visited Vienna (or Austria for that matter). My College had a study abroad program for the German language studies in Vienna, so many friends have spoken very highly of the City. Unfortunately, since I get only 3 weeks of vacation a year, I decided to take just a single day off from work. I left Chicago on Thursday afternoon and returned on Sunday – taking off only Friday.
The only direct flight from Chicago to Vienna was on Austrian Airlines. The fare was quite reasonable, but I found for 70,000 United MileagePlus miles I could fly one way to Vienna, in Austrian Airlines Business Class. I’ve been wanting to try Austrian Business for a very long time and this seemed like a great opportunity.

Classic Viennese Architecture Beautifully Lit at Night
I then had to find a way to get home. Booking a one way VIE-ORD was running about $3,400 in coach! Absolutely unreasonable. One way in Business was $4,800 – which is utterly nuts. So I decided to book a round trip from VIE-ORD-VIE, with the return to VIE scheduled for the Wednesday before Labor Day – yes 10 months out. This airfare – $505 including taxes and fees. It was in coach, which is perfectly acceptable to me. I decided to book the round trip – and if we decide to go to Europe again for Labor Day great – I’ve got a ticket, if not, I’m not really out anything.
I’ll provide some details on this trip from planning to execution over the next handful of blog posts, including:
- OS 66 ORD-VIE (Business Class)
- Hotel Bristol Vienna (SPG Luxury Collection)
- Vienna: Sights and Sounds
- Vienna State Opera (Weiner Staatsoper)
- UA 906 FRA-ORD (Economy Plus)
- Vienna: Final Thoughts
Have you been to Vienna? Where did you stay and what did you do? How did you get there?