Even though I go to London at least yearly, my sister has never gone there with me. We had planned to go there last year but ended up going to Maui. We were determined to make that part of our travel plans this year. Here is my report on our sister’s trip to London.

 

Flight to London on Points/Miles

Our flight was on United Polaris, which is one of my favorite business class seats. We left at the crack of dawn (literally) from Newark to Dulles. That brief one-hour flight was in economy, and then we were in business class from Dulles to London. I can get over having to travel in a mixed class fare super early because we booked on ANA for 88K miles round-trip. That is only 44K miles each way for United Polaris business class seats—truly an amazing redemption.

I transferred American Express Membership Rewards to ANA to book these seats. ANA is not an instant transfer from AMEX, so I transferred my points and patiently waited two days to see the miles in ANA account. 😬. But it worked!

 

Lodging in London Using Points

My daughter lives in London, so we spent two nights at her house, and she took us around some smaller towns outside of London. Previously, she lived in central London but recently moved to Gerrards Cross.

 

 

We spent our last two nights in London at the Hyatt Regency Churchill. I stayed there on my last visit to London and kept going back and forth about trying out another hotel, but I REALLY enjoyed my stay there, so I went with the option that I knew was good. Plus, they are good about upgrading to suites!

True to form, they upgraded us to a suite! My sister fell in love with this hotel and kept talking about how gorgeous it was. It was also in a great location for public transportation or walking. We booked this Category 6 hotel for 25K Hyatt points/night. This included Globalist breakfast in the lounge and snacks/appetizers in the evening. We made a meal of the evening snacks, so we only paid for lunch daily.

 

Activities on a London Trip

My daughter Lindsey came in daily to be our unofficial guide, and she kept these two 60+ year-olds running. One day, we clocked over 20K steps from sightseeing. Here is the list of places we went to on day one:

• Notting Hill
• Portobello Road
• Kensington Palace and Gardens
• Hyde Park
• Knightsbridge/Harrods
• Regent St
• Carnaby Street
• Piccadilly Circus
• Leicester Square
• Covent Garden
• Trafalgar Square
• Parliament/Big Ben
• Westminster Abbey
• Downing Street
• St. James’s Park
• Buckingham Palace

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whew! My feet hurt that day! The second day was a little rainy, so we were glad we did so much the first day. Here is our agenda for the second day.

 

• Leadenhall Market
• Tower Bridge
• Tower of London
• Borough Market
• St. Paul’s Cathedral
• Les Miserables

 

 

 

Bottom Line

Our sister’s trip to London on credit card points and miles was equal parts fun and non-stop sightseeing. It was my sister Julie’s first trip there, and she fell in love with it. London has so much to offer and many hotels to stay at with credit card points and miles, making it the ideal destination for travel hackers.