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Hello! As you may have noticed, I don't spend too much time here now. I am, however, spending lots of time writing for Airline Reporter (Twitter | Facebook), so please head over there for the latest in airlines, travel, and aviation. You can also see a list of my latest stories, as well as follow me on Twitter @FlyinaTube.

And as always, you can find my favorite promo codes and discounts below (updated on occasion). Enjoy!

Uber: Up to $20 off your first ride - click here or use the promo code "ubermatic"
(updated 6/20/16)

Airbnb: $20 off your first stay - click here or use promo code "johnn30"
(updated 6/20/16)

Silvercar: $25 off your first rental - click here or use promo code "BYGORKAM"
(updated 6/20/16)

Starbucks: First drink free - click here or use promo code "khu6m"
(updated 6/20/16)

Hotel Review: Park Hyatt Vienna

The Park Hyatt Vienna gets Kat's vote for best room on our trip, and it's tough to disagree. Overall, it was a great stay with great service from the staff. For whatever reason, a lot of people say the staff here are sometimes indifferent, but we didn't get any of that. In eBay speak: "A++ would stay again..."

Honeymoon Trip Report, Day 2 - Ich bin ein Weiner

In conjunction with AirlineReporter.com

Previously:

• Honeymoon Trip Report, Day 0 - A Day by the Bay; Reviews of Avis at SJC; Hyatt House Belmont/Redwood Shores
• Flight Review on AirlineReporter: SFO-CDG on an Air France A380 in Premium Economy
• Flight Review on AirlineReporter: CDG-SFO on an Air France A319 in Economy
• Honeymoon Trip Report, Day 1: Istanbul
• Flight Review on Airline Reporter: IST-VIE on a Turkish A321 in Economy

Hotel Review: Park Hyatt Vienna

Getting to the City

We arrived at the Vienna Airport, and right when we got off the plane, there was a small duty-free shop. I've never liked shopping for duty-free items, but Kat apparently gets drawn to them, so she looks through the gifts and trinkets while I hit the head.

I'm still here!

Greetings to my two readers (hi, Mom & Dad!),

Just wanted to drop a quick note to say that I'm still here and still alive. I know I've somewhat neglected this blog, but I've been doing a lot of fun things over at AirlineReporter, so check out what you've been missing, click the link below!

My AirlineReporter stories...

www.airlinereporter.com/author/john

Honeymoon Trip Report, Day 1 - A Taste of Istanbul; Review of Grand Hyatt Istanbul.

In conjunction with AirlineReporter.com

Previously:

• Honeymoon Trip Report, Day 0 - A Day by the Bay; Reviews of Avis at SJC; Hyatt House Belmont/Redwood Shores
• Flight Review on AirlineReporter: SFO-CDG on an Air France A380 in Premium Economy
• Flight Review on AirlineReporter: CDG-SFO on an Air France A319 in Economy.

Scroll down for a review of

• Grand Hyatt Istanbul

After escaping from the chaos of immigration control, we walk out of the terminal toward the bus stop area for the Havatas (pronounced "hah-vah-tash") airport bus operated by the local government.

Our hotel is near Taksim Square, and while my natural inclination was to use Istanbul's metro system (since I saw a Taksim station), I'm glad I found info on the Havatas bus, since it would drop us off just down the street from our hotel without having to make a transfer.

I was still hesitant about taking the bus, being on a foreign country where neither of us could speak the language nor could even figure out the root words, but fortunately we found most locals knew enough English and were very friendly.

Honeymoon Trip Report, Day 0 - A Day by the Bay; Reviews of Avis at SJC; Hyatt House Belmont/Redwood Shores

In conjunction with AirlineReporter.com

Previously:

• Trip Report Prologue: Our Honeymoon to Europe (or, We're Just Insane)
• Flight Review on AirlineReporter - LAX-SJC on an American CRJ-200

Scroll down for reviews of

• Avis San Jose Airport
• Hyatt House Belmont/Redwood Shores

Day 0: Our Day in the Bay Area

I do have to rewind a bit, since our day officially started at LAX, and I'm sure AirlineReporter's editor-in-chief David Parker Brown and airline guru Johnny Jet would get a kick out of hearing that our honeymoon started with them (and I hope my wife doesn't read this part!).

Trip Report: Our Honeymoon to Europe (or, We're Just Insane)

In conjunction with AirlineReporter.com

Background info: My wife Kat and I were married last October 2014. We met at an airport, I even proposed at an airport. We're both definitely travel nuts... I mean, just look at our cake!

One of our wedding cakes, courtesy of our amazingly talented friend,
Elly Artiz of Cakes by Elly!

We've already traveled short and long haul together, so it was natural that we wanted to go all out on our honeymoon.

We decided pretty early on that we'd postpone our honeymoon until this summer, because Europe was our first choice, but we didn't really want a depressing winter honeymoon. We had considered going to South America so that it would be summertime there, but some of the political and economic instability had made us hesitant, and the excess visa/reciprocal fees for US citizens (almost $1,000 just to be able to visit the countries we wanted) would eat into our budget. Finding a super deal on Air France's Airbus A380 in premium economy to Paris, then onto Istanbul, sealed the deal. We had to fly out of San Francisco, but that's no biggie for us.

Air France's Premium Economy section on their Airbus A380. Source: Air France

We really weren't going to spend too much time in Istanbul, but it got us close enough to travel to other parts of Europe, especially to where it would be "exotic" to us. Plus, our US passports gave us visa-free entry into most countries (the only exception was Turkey, and that was a mere $20/person fee for multiple entries).

Kat knew what she was getting into (#FFNerd- and #AVGeek-wise) by marrying me, and thankfully she trusted me enough to give me the green light and go along with building an insane flight itinerary.

It took about a month's worth of researching and planning on where to go and what flights were available, but we were able to use some United miles (gifted by my parents... thanks, Mom & Dad!) to book the following award flights on their Star Alliance partners:

• Istanbul to Vienna on Turkish
• Vienna to Budapest on Austrian
• Budapest to Hamburg on Germanwings
• Hamburg to Geneva on Germanwings
• Zurich to Paris on Swiss
• Paris to Dubrovnik on Croatia
• Dubrovnik to Athens on Olympic
• Athens to Istanbul on Turkish Aegean (I'll explain later)

Route map of our award flights, courtesy of Great Circle Mapper.

Eight flights for just 30K miles roundtrip, the intra-Europe "saver" economy level roundtrip award for each person. I definitely feel like I got a great return for the miles. Knowing the intricate rules for United's awards definitely helped, as I basically planned a "simple" open-jawed round-trip with multiple connections to get me to my "destination" and back to my origin.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a fan of United's MileagePlus program. I find the American AAdvantage and Alaska Mileage Plan programs to be more valuable and superior for accruing redeeming miles.

However, I was duly impressed with Star Alliance's coverage of non-Northern Europe. Oneworld isn't perfect, and quite frankly Star has superior coverage for getting around the rest of Europe, with plenty of hubs (and thus, non-stop flights) all throughout the continent.

A sampling of views from the window seat.

(I'll still need to have a talk with Mom & Dad about getting a different points-earning credit card, but that discussion will come later).

For those who know me, you may be wondering why we didn't book business class seats.  Unfortunately, "business" class in Europe (what we would call "first class here in the US) usually means the same coach seat, just up front and with a blocked middle seat.  Along with the short flights, I felt the extra miles wouldn't be worth it.

Row 1 in Business Class on a Turkish Airlines Airbus A320, for an intra-Europe flight.
At least this middle seat has a fold-down tray/armrest.

Along with our positioning flights from Southern California to the Bay Area, as well as flights to Thessaloniki that got flushed down the drain, we're looking at:

• 4 separate tickets, 16 flight segments (14 flown) between 13 different airports on 9 different airlines (and just 1 flight cancellation!);
• 14 nights at mostly-Hyatt hotels and Airbnbs;
• 3 car rentals; and of course,
• 8 European cities in 7 different countries, plus a couple days in the Bay Area and Napa Valley

This special honeymoon trip report will be split up into segments:

• Flight reviews will be posted as part of my coverage on AirlineReporter (.com | my articles). 
• Hotel reviews, foodie pics, and trip notes will be posted here on VNAFlyer.
• This entry will be constantly updated with links to individual segments as they post.
• You can also get updated when items post by following along on Twitter (@VNAFlyer) or Facebook (/VNAFlyer).

I'm excited to share our travels and experiences with you, so thank you for following along, and please feel free to post comments and questions any time!