After spending last Christmas in Europe, my husband and I decided to get a special gift for our mothers this year: a festive trip to Germany’s legendary Christmas markets. What better way to spend quality family time than by eating our way through stall after stall of traditional German treats, like marzipan and stollen, while getting tipsy on hot gluhwein (mulled wine) beneath the glow of thousands of fairy lights?
(Just kidding. It’s impossible to get tipsy on gluhwein because it’s served in tiny, adorable boot-shaped mugs.)
Christkindlesmarkt in Nuremberg, Germany. HARALD NACHTMANN/GETTY IMAGES
Our mothers, of course, loved the idea. They live across the country and don’t always get to see us over the holidays; plus, they don’t get to travel very often, and one of them has never even gone overseas.
But they’re both living on tight budgets as they plan for retirement, and they couldn’t afford to spend a week or more in European hotels during the peak holiday season — nor could we afford to pay for all four people. Thankfully, points and miles saved us thousands of dollars on flights, lodging and transportation so we could share the magic of the German holiday season with two of our favorite people.
Airfare
Delta Comfort+ on the Airbus A350. ZACH GRIFF/THE POINTS GUY
If you and your family (or friends) live close together, booking airfare with points shouldn’t be too hard — assuming you all collect the same currencies, especially ones that allow you to pool your points and miles.
If you and your loved ones are scattered around the country, you have a couple of options. You could book separate flights and meet at your destination, or have some people book a positioning flight to the others’ location so you can all travel together.
Our little family is spread across three cities: My husband and I live near Denver International Airport (DEN), while our moms live near the smaller Asheville Regional Airport (AVL) in North Carolina and Bradley International Airport (BDL) in Hartford, Connecticut.
We considered having our moms fly to Denver so that we could all travel to Germany together, since DEN offers direct flights to multiple German cities. However, most of the direct options are on United Airlines, and neither of our moms had United MileagePlus miles available. My mom had access to around half a million Delta SkyMiles (amassed over decades of my dad flying Delta Air Lines for work), while my mother-in-law had around $1,000 in cash-back rewards on her Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card.
Our mission? To find flights from three different airports, with three different types of rewards, that arrived in Germany on the same day (and preferably around the same time).
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Ultimately, here’s where we — forgive the pun — landed:
- My husband and I used United miles (and Chase Ultimate Rewards points transferred to United) to book a United flight from DEN to Frankfurt Airport (FRA) and a Lufthansa flight from Munich Airport (MUC) to DEN. Total cost: 80,000 miles (we saved 30% by having a United credit card, which provides access to award discounts) plus $196 per person.
- Using my dad’s hoard of Delta miles, my mom splurged on Comfort+ seats for her flights from AVL to FRA and MUC to AVL, both of which connect at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL). Total cost: 136,800 miles (she saved 15%* automatically with her Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card) plus roughly $152.
- My mother-in-law found Delta flights from BDL to FRA and MUC to BDL that also connected in Atlanta — allowing her and my mom to travel together on their transatlantic flights. Total cost: $1,449 for a main cabin seat. She used her cash-back rewards to offset roughly $1,000 of the cost, and we upgraded her to Comfort+ as our Christmas gift.
Booking flights from different airports with different rewards was challenging, but it helped that we started our search early (seven to eight months in advance) and kept our dates and destination cities flexible.
Germany has several large airports, offering a variety of options for flights. Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin are good places to start your search, but you might also consider Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Stuttgart, which have direct flights to select U.S. cities. And don’t forget that many other European destinations host fabulous holiday markets as well.
European Christmas markets typically open in mid-to-late November and remain open until late December, offering a wide travel window. Just keep in mind that most German Christmas markets close for the season Dec. 23 or 24. We realized this too late, after booking our flights between Christmas and New Year’s — but thankfully, because we hadn’t booked basic economy tickets, we were able to reschedule our flights at no cost.
*Cardmembers save 15% when booking Delta flights with miles through delta.com and the Fly Delta app.
Related: How to fly to Europe using points and miles
Lodging
A standard room at the Kimpton Main Frankfurt. KIMPTON
Although we considered sharing a vacation rental, my family opted to book multiple hotel rooms so that we’d each have our own space to retreat to after a long day of togetherness. This would probably cost more than a single Airbnb, but it was worth it to us — after all, we wanted to still love each other at the end of the trip.
So, we searched for reasonably priced hotels and used points where possible to offset the cost.
We’ll start our nine-night trip with two nights at the recently opened Kimpton Main Frankfurt, which I’ll be reviewing for TPG. My mom used the cash-back rewards from her U.S. Bank FlexPerks® Travel Rewards Visa Signature® Card to cover her stay, while my mother-in-law paid cash (524 euros total, or about $607).
The information for the U.S. Bank FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signature Card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Next, we’ll spend three nights at the Category 4 Hyatt Regency Cologne, where basic rooms cost 247 euros ($286) or 15,000 World of Hyatt points on our dates. That comes out to an above-average value of 1.9 cents per Hyatt point.
My mom had recently added the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (see rates and fees) to her wallet, earning a big pile of Chase points from the welcome bonus (and giving me 10,000 points as a referral bonus). After I showed her how easy it is to transfer Chase points, she set up a World of Hyatt account and transferred 45,000 points to book her stay.
I had accumulated plenty of Chase points as well, so I used them to book my own room and my mother-in-law’s. I used the annual free night certificate from my World of Hyatt Credit Card (see rates and fees) to cover one night and redeemed a combination of 75,000 Chase and Hyatt points for the rest.
Since Hyatt doesn’t charge taxes or fees on award stays, we paid nothing out of pocket.
We’ll round out our trip with four nights in Munich. The capital of Bavaria has plenty of points hotels, but few are conveniently located around the central Christmas markets. We opted for an independent hotel called Stay Kooook Munchen City, which offered a central location, reasonable rates and full kitchens. (I love a hotel with a kitchen.)
Even better, Stay Kooook was available on Capital One Travel, where I can earn 10 miles per dollar spent with my Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. I booked my room and my mother-in-law’s for $656 each, earning over 13,000 miles in the process. My mom booked her room on Hotels.com, and since she clicked through the Rakuten shopping portal, she’ll earn some cash back at the end of her stay.
Exploring Christmas markets on points is relatively easy in larger European cities, where you’ll find plenty of points hotel options. Some hotel programs — including IHG One Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy and World of Hyatt — let you transfer points to friends and family, allowing you to combine your rewards. On the other hand, if one of you has all the points, you can usually book stays for others with your own points.
However, if you’d rather explore Christmas markets in smaller towns or stay at boutique properties, you might consider leveraging cash-back rewards to save money. You can also redeem points through credit card travel portals to book independent hotels — or, if you pay with cash, to earn bonus rewards on the purchase.
Related: I rarely stay at major hotel chains — here’s how I maximize my reward travel anyway
Transportation
QUERBEET/GETTY IMAGES
If you’re hoping to hit multiple Christmas markets (and maybe other sights), there are a few ways to plan your itinerary. You could rent a car and explore the countryside, hitting markets in various towns along the way. Or you could base yourself in one big city, which will have multiple markets to choose from, and take day trips to nearby towns and attractions.
For our trip, we decided to visit three cities and take Germany’s excellent train system in between.
Since we only needed two long-distance train tickets, it made sense to purchase them a la carte from Deutsche Bahn’s website (where you’ll find the best prices). Tickets are priced dynamically based on factors like time of day, train station and demand, and you can save significant money by buying your tickets in advance. We opted for direct itineraries, which cost a little more, but saved by choosing cheaper stations and departure times. We paid approximately $150 per person in total for our tickets, including the senior discounts for our mothers.
If you’ll be traveling by train for at least three days (consecutive or not), you may want to consider a rail pass, which starts at $265 per adult for three nonconsecutive days in a month. You can check a la carte train ticket prices and rail pass prices to determine which makes the most sense.
We also booked a rental car for one day in Munich because I was determined to visit Neuschwanstein Castle — the inspiration behind Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle — roughly a two-hour drive outside the city. We considered booking a full-day bus tour to the castle, but the rental car was much cheaper than four tickets, and we could pick it up very close to our hotel. I booked the car for $163 through Capital One Travel with my Venture X’s travel credit, so I didn’t have to pay a dime.
There are ways to book rental cars with points and miles, and you can leverage cash-back travel rewards to cover public transportation costs. Or, if you’d rather pay cash, be sure to use one of the best cards for general travel purchases.
Another (albeit costlier) option is a Christmas market river cruise.
Related: Best European routes where you should take a train instead of a plane
Bottom line
Traveling with your extended family — or a group of friends — can be uniquely rewarding, and points and miles can help make it happen.
For my husband and me, it was a way to share our love of travel with our mothers, who couldn’t have afforded this magical trip without the help of points and miles. And now that they’ve dipped their toes into the world of travel rewards (and learned the value of transferable points), they’re excited to unlock future trips.
All told, the four of us saved around $8,000 with a combination of airline miles, hotel points, free night certificates and credit card rewards. Our nine-day trip to Germany during peak holiday season cost a grand total of $1,042 per person — leaving plenty of room in our budgets for Christmas market snacks and souvenirs.
If you need me, I’ll be at the gluhwein stall.
