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?