Middle East in the Winter

We very much enjoyed our New Year's trip in 2014, so we wanted to see if we could line something up again and start 2015 off right.  As has been the case with most of our travel since we moved to Tokyo, this one was driven solely by trying to find seats on a new airline in a premium cabin.  After some research, Abu Dhabi moved to the top of the list since Tokyo to Abu Dhabi on Etihad is one of the sweet spots on the American Airlines award chart.

We had a long layover in Dubai coming back from our honeymoon and thought it was a fun place, so we were excited to bring the girls back and experience more of United Arab Emirates with them.  Dubai and Abu Dhabi have a number of nice hotels that a very reasonably priced in the summer when it is 130 degrees, but even in the winter they are a pretty good value for what you get.

We continue to focus our stays at Starwood and Hyatt properties because we have had good success with those brands and there were a number of great options in the UAE during our dates. After spending a significant amount of time trying to make all the pieces line up, we settled on the following itinerary:

• Holiday Inn Abu Dhabi -  2 nights at 5,000 points per night
• Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Saadiyat Island -  2 nights at 10,000 points plus $125 per night, used Diamond Suite Upgrade
• St. Regis Abu Dhabi Saadiyat Island - 2 nights at 6,000 points plus $110 per night, used Suite Night Upgrades
• Sheraton Mall of the Emirates - 1 night at 12,000 points, the second at 6,000 points plus $110, used Suite Night Upgrades
• Park Hyatt Dubai - 3 nights at $310 per night, used Diamond Suite Upgrade

In order to get all of us the opportunity to experience Etihad First Class, we had to split up on the way to Abu Dhabi.  Joe and Lizzy were going to fly on New Year's Eve and Annie and I were going to follow up on New Year's Day.

The First Class seats were 45,000 American miles each way with about $18 in taxes.  Since we have never flown American and didn't have enough miles to make this trip happen, we had to borrow some of Uncle Ace's to get this once in a lifetime trip booked.  Thanks again!  Maybe someday we will return the favor and pay back the miles we borrowed.  We ended up getting a few nice surprises close to departure that made this leg even better.

On the way home, in order to get on the same flight, we booked two seats in Business Class at 30,000 miles each, and two more seats First Class.

Not that we could ever in a million years pay cash for flights like this, but the airline tickets were over $40,000.  Still blows my mind there are people out there who would/could pay cash for these.

About a month before we were supposed to leave, there was a murder of a Western woman in a mall in Abu Dhabi that spooked us a bit and made us reconsider the trip for a moment.

Ultimately, we decided to go and are glad that everything worked out since this was one of the best vacations we have ever had!  A few days before our departure, availability opened up and we were all able to travel together which made everything so much easier than anticipated.