June 5, 2014

Award Trip Breakdown: Long Weekend in Paris for $181!!

For Christmas this past year, I gave Andrea a lock for Christmas. Yup, that exact one below.  Instead of being cliché and giving the plane tickets as the gift, I gave her the lock and led her through hints to what the lock was for – the Pont des Artes, the famous bridge in Paris. This was the very beginning of a romantic long weekend in Paris and here is how I did it for almost nothing.

Andrea's Christmas Gift

Andrea’s Christmas Gift

Flights: Departure – JFK-London-Paris, economy class on American/British Airways. Return – Non-stop Paris-JFK flight on American Airlines.
Retail Cost: $1,000-$1,500 per person.
My Cost: 36,000 American miles + $181 in taxes per person.

American Airlines usually charges 30,000 miles each way for an economy class ticket to Europe. However, during the off-peak season, as defined by American Airlines to be October 15th to May 15th (that’s over half the year!), a one way flight to Europe is only 20,000 miles. For a nice fall trip or spring weekend in Europe, that is a bargain! You will notice my taxes were quite high at $181 and that is because I could not find award space on AA’s direct JFK to Paris flight, thus requiring me to make a connection on British Airways, who charges high taxes on all flights (both award and cash). If I could have eliminated that flight, the total taxes would have been~  $95 per person.

However, I said my net mileage cost was 36,000 miles, not 40,000. How? One of the benefits of the Citi American AAdvantage Platinum Select card is a 10% rebate on miles redeemed each year with American Airlines if you pay the taxes and any fees with this credit card when making the award reservation. So when I redeemed 40,000 miles for my award flight, a few days later I saw 4,000 miles added back to my account to make my net mileage cost  36,000 per ticket.

I obtained these miles via signing up for various American Airlines credits card. I’ve had 3 different cards (and my wife has had 3 as well) that offered anywhere between 50,000 to 100,000 miles as a signup bonus. Currently there is a 50,000 mile offer for the Citi American AAdvantage Platinum Select mentioned above but the better offer is a 100,000 mile signup bonus for the Citi Executive World Elite Mastercard. That’s enough for two tickets to Europe and you would still have 20,000 miles leftover towards your next trip!

Lodging: Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome.
Retail Cost: $800-$1,000 per night.
My Cost: 2 Free nights from Hyatt Credit Card + 22,000 Hyatt Points per night (for last 2 nights).

For this romantic weekend in Paris, I wanted to stay in one of the top  hotels in the city and I settled on the Park Hyatt which right near the Palace Vendome. However, with rates usually hovering around 600-900 EUROS per night,  a stay here was only possible on points. The Hyatt Visa by Chase offers 2 free nights at ANY Hyatt in the world as its signup bonus so I planned my application for the card to coincide with this trip.

With a signup bonus like this, it makes sense to maximize the redemption at high end luxury hotels (if that’s your thing). My thinking is simple – at these high end properties around the world, there is no chance in hell I could ever afford to pay cash for them. Sure I might get enough points for them but when the bonus is simply two free nights anywhere, I want to stay at a place I can’t normally otherwise. For the additional two nights, I transferred some of the points from my Chase Ultimate Rewards account which were achieved with my Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card. This redemption highlights the flexibility of transferable bank reward points I discussed last week. 

In the end, my long weekend in Paris cost me $181 out of pocket per person for flights and hotels. And the icing on the cake was Andrea loved seeing the bridge and adding our lock to it.

Lock 2

I think a long weekend at a top end hotel in Paris for under $200 is something we all could afford. Want help in making it happen? My consulting services and award booking services will do the work for you.

Stay tuned for more award trip breakdowns!

 

May 30, 2014

Points & Miles 101: Different Types of Points & Miles

To recap thus far in the Points & Miles 101 series, we have discussed:

Today’s topic will discuss the different types of points and miles out there. As you will learn shortly, all points and miles are not equal.

101

1. Airline Miles – Ever hear the word “Skymile” or phrase “frequent flyer miles”? Airline miles are probably the most well-known type of points or miles out there. Every major carrier has them and calls them something different. Examples include Delta SkyMiles, American Airlines AAdvantage, United MileagePlus, JetBlue TrueBlue etc..

As the name suggests, these miles are best for flights but not much else. The old school way to earn airline miles is by flying paid tickets but I and many other travel hackers now primarily earn airline miles through credit card signup bonuses and spending on these credit cards.  For perspective, I could either earn 50,000 miles for signing up for a Citibank American Airlines Credit Card or by flying 50,000 miles in the air on American Airlines on tickets paid for by myself or others. I think I know what I would choose 🙂

2. Hotel Points – All major hotel chains have hotel loyalty programs such as Hilton HHonors, Marriott Rewards and Starwood Starpoints. Hotel points are generally more flexible then airline miles as you could use them for free hotel nights or convert them to airline miles. In some programs this can be very beneficial – for example Starwood will allow you to convert 20,000 Starpoints into 25,000 airlines miles. In others though, the ratio isn’t as great and the best use remains towards free nights at hotels.

3. Bank Reward Points  – There are two types within this category with one being significantly better than the other.

• Transferrable Rewards Points – These points are my favorite types of points and they include Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express Membership Rewards. There are so many options on what to do with these points. You could book any flight or hotel room with these points directly and just pay the total cost in points or you could transfer these points to many different airlines or hotels. I personally love the 2nd option most because it gives me the most options for my trip and doesn’t lock me into one specific program. If I have 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points, I could transfer 25,000 points to United to book my flight and 50,000 points to Hyatt to book 3 free nights at a hotel and still have 25,000 left over to top off an account or save for a future trip. The flexibility here is what makes them so valuable.

• Fixed Value Rewards Points – This is the more traditional bank reward points and this is also what I’d guess many people have as this covers Capital One, Barclays and Bank of America points. These points are generally worth .01 each and they allow you to book any flight or hotel. So for example a $400 domestic flight will require 40,000 points but with United or Delta or American Airlines, a domestic flight is only 25,000 airline miles. Many people also redeem these points for cash back or merchandise which I personally would never do nor would I recommend. I generally stay away from these points as I can get a lot more value out of flexible points or even airline miles and hotel points.

What kind of points or miles do you plan to collect?

May 22, 2014

AMAZING DEAL ALERT: One Way Flight to Italy for $130!!!

There is currently a huge mistake fare on Alitalia that is offering a way one ticket from JFK to Italy for $130!  The best dates seem to available in October or November – use Priceline.com to book this and choose a multi-city itinerary. This will go fast!

 

$130 Flight!!

$130 Flight!!

Per Mighty Travels, you can also go to other cities for a little more money – more details here.

Step 1: Click on multiple destination.
Step 2: Search for a one-way flight for example from NYC to Milan on 11/25 for example. Then click the + sign to add a 2nd leg. Make it from Prague to Tokyo for example on 12/03.  You won’t actually have to take that 2nd leg.

You will need to buy a return ticket but you could possibly use miles or find another cheap one way ticket.

This will not last – GO GO GO!