Trip Overview: Paris and Brussels

Summary:

Round trip flights and 7 nights hotel for $296 per person

My girlfriend and I flew economy from Philadelphia to Paris on USair, stayed 1 night in Reims, the capital of the Champagne region, stayed 4 nights in a suite at the Park Hyatt Paris Vendome with free breakfast daily, took a bus from Paris to Brussels, and stayed 2 nights at the Novotel Brussels off Grand Place.  We then flew home on USair from Brussels.

For our flights we used miles from our credit card sign up bonus.  Off peak round trip flights to Europe can be had for 35,000 miles.  In addition, if you have the us air MasterCard you get a 5,000 mile discount on award flights.

For the 4 nights at the Park Hyatt we used free nights from our credit card sign up bonus.

For the other nights we took advantage of a 50% off promotion that Accor Hotels was running

Pre trip prep/ What you need:

Before this trip I signed up for the USair MasterCard which gave me 40,000 frequent flyer miles. 
I also signed up for the Hyatt visa credit card which gives you 2 free nights in any Hyatt in the world.
For the Novotel bookings i took advantage of a 50% off sale.
I had also emailed Hyatt to ask for a "Diamond Challenge" using my Hilton Gold status.  This meant that our free nights would be in a suite and that we would get free breakfast daily.

Total cost per person (transportation and hotel):

Flights:                 Free + $130 in taxes and fees
Reims hotel (1nt):             $32
Train in France:                 $56
Paris hotel (4nts):             Free
Bus to Brussels:                $8
Brussels Hotel (2nts)        $69
                                                          
                                        $296





From the top of Notre Dame



The Louvre

Sacré-Cœur

Le Grand Place, Brussels