I have 20,000 mileage points expiring in June 2014. I also knew that I wanted to go somewhere for the winter. Thus the beginnings for my winter vacation had been planted. My 20,000 miles couldn't get me too far from New York City; I wanted to go somewhere in Europe, and for that much miles, the furthest I could go without paying exorbitant prices was to Ponto Delgado, the Azores, in Portugal (PDL). And that 20,000 miles was only one way; As I researched for cheap ways to come back to America, I discovered a little new airline known as Norwegian Air Shuttle.
Norwegian Air is a low cost airline based in Scandinavia that mainly flies within Europe. They had just recently started flying long haul, and one of their first destinations was to New York City. For my January trip, I was randomly typing city pairs to scout for cheap and interesting destinations, when I chanced upon New York City - Oslo for just $152; the return trip was just a little more, at $187. For such amazing prices, I was hooked. I was definitely going to Oslo. Forget my 20,000 miles, they would be better spent for another day, for the taxes imposed when using the mileage redemption to Europe was nearly $100 already. Not worth it.
I really wanted to go, however, the idea of me going to Europe alone was just too lonely. I scouted my classmates, coworkers and old friends. Eventually, my old friend from my Disney days, Orlando, decided to join me. Great! We eventually agreed on Oslo, Berlin, Stockholm and Helsinki, where we would split and I would go back to NYC and he would continue on to Copenhagen.
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| The New Yorker & the Floridian travel to Europe. Image courtesy of gcmap. |
The next few weeks were spent with me abusing every printer in my sight, furiously researching and planning an itinerary. This had to be the best trip ever! It also had to be economic. My original goal was not to exceed $1000. Weeks of hard work and coordination with my travel buddy resulted in this beautiful itinerary:
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And all that's left now is to cram everything into a 10kg carry on and wait. Stay Tuned. ✈
