The South of France always holds a special place in my heart. The Rhônes Alpes Region was my home to business school residencies in Grenoble, France. During that period in my early thirties, I was able to spend some time exploring the Cote d’Azur region, including travels through Nice and Monaco. I am happy that I get to return to this region for a repeat visit.

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This post is one chapter on a trip to the South of France and Cinque Terre, Italy. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status and Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan. For information on how this trip was booked, please see our introduction. For parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Trip Introduction: Cote d’Azur, France & Cinque Terre, Italy via British Airways Club Suites Business Class

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Planning the Trip:

MrsWT73 and I have always had an affinity for France. We met there when we were both attending the Grenoble Graduate School of Business for a post grad Diploma in Management Consulting. Although this was over fifteen years ago, aside from our initial time there, we had never had the opportunity to return to the region.

After a deeply discounted business class fare came up on British Airways for departures out of Vancouver, we ended up deciding to return for a little exploring. MrsWT73 had Cinque Terre, Italy on the travel list for quite some time. While we had previously booked a visit to this region in summer of 2020, that trip was completely shelved and cancelled as a result of the pandemic.

Planning Flights:

Flights from Canada to France

Continuing my love affair with Alaska Airlines as a result of it’s generous Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan frequent flier program, we ended up booking onto British Airways in discounted business class.

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan offers a very generous mileage accumulation for paid business class fares. Most discounted business class fares earn 250% Redeemable Miles and 150% Elite Qualifying Miles with an MVP Elite Status Bonus of 50 – 100% on top of that.

This is a much more competitive earn rate as compared to Air Canada’s Aeroplan frequent flier program that offer a basic 150% Redeemable and Elite Qualifying Miles. Competing Starr Alliance partner’s Lufthansa Airlines offered discounted business Class fares earn a paltry 100% Redeemable and Elite Qualifying Miles with most Air Canada Aeroplan carriers offering a 25 – 100% Elite Status bonus on top of that.

MrsWT73 had done quite well over the past few years earning several hundred thousand Alaska Mileage Plan miles as a result of work travel from Vancouver to Germany. When we discovered this British Airways fare for a little over three thousand Canadian Dollars, when it usually commanded five thousand or up, we jumped on the opportunity.

Our discounted fare would have us connecting through Seattle Tacoma International Airport onwards to London Heathrow. From London Heathrow, we would connect down to Nice Cote D’Azur Airport on British Airways Club Europe aircraft. This was booked about 6 months in advance of travel. We credited these flights to Alaska Mileage Plan.

We have flown this route between Vancouver and London several times in British Airways First Class Boeing 747, British Airways Business Class Airbus 380 and British Airways First Class Airbus 380.

Our travels this time would have us in the newest British Airways aircraft – the Airbus 350-1000. This particular aircraft featured the British Airways Club Suite, a Collins Aerospace Business Class Suite featuring a much more spacious environment including a privacy door.

Our intra Europe flights were on the less exciting British Airways Club Europe product on Airbus 319 and 321 aircraft.

About three months before travel, we received a schedule change notice for our Alaska Airlines Vancouver – Seattle partner flight. As we had booked through American Express Travel Canada, I contacted the travel agency as instructed. The resolution of the schedule change was not to be placed on an Alaska Airlines flight, but rather British Airways elected to open up space on the non stop Vancouver – London Heathrow flight in a higher fare earning “D” class. This allowed us to earn 350% miles on this overwater segment instead of our booked 250%; a great inadvertent score.

The routing ended up looking like this at the time of travel.

YVR- LHR – NCE – LHR – YVR (paid)

Planning Trains:

Planning Trains from Nice France to Cinque Terre, Italy.

MrsWT73 was keen on getting to Cinque Terre, Italy. Since it is located a short 300 kilometres away from Nice, France on the Italian Riviera, we thought that this would be a fairly easy trip. It ended up being a little more complicated and difficult than we initially imagined.

The trip involved two separate train companies: SNCF in France and TrenItalia in Italy. With no actual method to purchase a singular through ticket plated by one company, we ended up going through Rail Europe- an online travel agency of train tickets.

We ended up with one SNCF Train Ticket from Nice St Augustin to the Italian Train Border town of Ventimigilia, followed by a second TrenItalia ticket from Ventimigilia to Manarola, Italy. Since most major train travel within Europe is between major city to major city, this “rural to rural” connection left few good options.

This local train journey would end up being about 7 hours and involve 41 stops. The whole thing fell apart during the journey as a result of several missing and cancelled trains. Overall, it wasn’t the smoothest way to travel.

Planning Hotels:

With my Marriott Bonvoy account well on track for Titanium status re-qualification this year, I had no particular travel objectives on this trip. MrsWT73 happened to be short a few nights for her Marriott Bonvoy Platinum re-qualification. As a result, we structured our travel to take advantage of earning a few Marriott Bonvoy Elite Qualifying Nights and placed all reservations in her name.

With a five day stay in Nice, France, we had Marriott Bonvoy options between the Le Meridien Nice, the AC Hotels by Marriott Nice, and the Sheraton Nice Airport. We ended up staying at the perfectly located Le Meridien Nice for a five night stay. While we considered the AC Nice, we were seeking a more full hotel experience during our longer week long stay. Given the aim of exploring the area, we didn’t particularly care for the idea of staying out at the Sheraton Nice Airport and travelling into Vieux Nice on a daily SNCF train.

We would end up staying at the brand new Sheraton Nice Airport for two nights on two separate stays. We would end up staying there prior to travelling by train onwards to Cinque Terre, Italy as a result of it’s exceptionally close proximity to the Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer (SNCF) Nice St Augustin station. We also stayed for one night after returning from Cinque Terre, Italy, on our way out of town before our British Airways flight. We really enjoyed this property as a result of their spacious new world rooms, outstanding airport views, it’s available Sheraton Club Lounge and convenient location to Nice’s SNCF transportation networks.

With two days in Aix en Provence, we ended up at the value oriented on Marriott Bonvoy points Renaissance Aix en Provence. With its base rooms available normally at under 35,000 points, I ended up redeeming two free night certificates from the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card for a two night stay. These rooms go especially quickly. When I booked almost five months in advance, the room had limited rooms available during our fall travel dates. I ended up having to top up this redemption by 10,000 additional Marriott Bonvoy points as a each night came to 45,000 points.

Our travels took to Grenoble, France in the Rhone Alpes for one night. With no major hotel chain options int he area, we opted to stay with Accor Hotels at the well located Novotel Grenoble adjacent to the SNCF Train Station and close to the Grenoble Ecole to Management.

For our longer time in Cinque Terre, Italy, we booked at the independent La Toretta Hotel in Manarola, Italy. We had initially chosen this hotel for our past trip during the pandemic. As a result of excellent goodwill on the part of the hotel, they honoured our forfeited first night deposit on our stay in the future.

Our points and miles redemption summary:

With mostly paid tickets, we ended up earning a number of miles on this trip. In addition to the miles earned, we topped up on the hard to accumulate Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles.

In summary, we earned and redeemed:

• Earned: 38,426 Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Miles (18,896 + 2,589 + 2,589 + 14,172) on British Airways Business Class as an Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan MVP
• And a whole stack of Marriott Bonvoy points on an earn and redemption basis.

Overall, I was pretty happy with this combination of earning versus redemption. The set up also allowed us to save some Marriott Bonvoy points for the more aspirational Marriott properties.

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If you visit Europe on a leisure basis, what tips do you use to get outsized value ?

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