To keep track of how I’m using my points and the value that I’m getting them from I’m going to log the various trips that we take using miles and points here. I won’t be logging small trips that are just Southwest points + cash hotels, but I’ll do my best to log as many of our trips as possible. For trip expenses I’ll just be keeping track of flights, hotels, and rental cars. It’s too much work to keep track of other expenses like Ubers and food and these expenses are all cash anyways so they’re no fun.
For the values listed below I use what the item sells for and not necessarily how much I’d pay if I were paying cash. We use points and miles to allow us to travel more often and in greater comfort than if we were paying cash. Some of these trips represent “value” equal to what we’d pay (i.e. flying in economy, staying at an average hotel) while others have outsized “value” that we’d never pay for, like first class flights.
Peru and Galapagos Islands – Summer 2015
In the summer of 2015 we traveled to Peru and stayed there for over a month. I consider this to be the trip that started it all because it’s the reason I first got into miles and points in any meaningful manner. We largely made this trip so that my wife could spend a month learning Spanish in Lima, Peru. As part of this trip we made our way to Machu Picchu and spent a few days in the Galapagos Islands. Machu Picchu was very cool and a great bucket list item to accomplish, but the real highlight was the Galapagos Islands. I think swimming with penguins and sea lions will go down as a top 10 lifetime experience. For this entire trip, including over a month of accommodations, we spent $2,836 for $9,243 of trip value.
Trip Breakdown: Peru + Galapagos Islands (Summer 2015)
| Item | Cash Cost | Points Type | Total Pts | Value | Value/Point | Source of Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trip Total | $2,836 | $9,243 | ||||
| 2x one-way coach flights on United SFO-LIM | $44 | United Airlines | 40,000 | $1,507 | $0.037 | Chase United Explorer Card |
| 32 days at AirBnB in Miraflores, Lima | $1538 | $1538 | ||||
| 2x round-trip coach flights on LAN LIM-CUZ | $60 | LAN | 20,000 | $736 | $0.034 | U.S. Bank LANPASS Card |
| 1 night at Sonesta Hotel Cusco | $106 | $106 | ||||
| 2 nights at Tierra Viva Machu Picchu | $234 | $234 | ||||
| 2 nights at Tierra Viva Cusco Centro | $120 | $120 | ||||
| 2x round-trip business class flights Copa/Avianca | $255 | United Airlines | 80,000 | $3,020 | $0.035 | Ultimate Rewards |
| 3 nights at Hotel Ninfa, Puerto Ayora | $371 | $371 | ||||
| 1 night at Courtyard Guayaquil, Ecuador | $0 | Marriott | Category 1-4 Cert | $154 | Chase Marriott Card | |
| 2x one-way coach flights on AA LIM-SFO | $108 | American Airlines | 70,000 | $1507 | $0.020 | Citi AA Cards |
Ireland & London – Thanksgiving 2015
For this trip we knew we wanted go somewhere where we could use our United miles and effectively utilize the benefit of a free stop-over on a United round-trip award flight. We were also up against time because we basically only had a week for this trip. So we decided to spend a couple of days in Dublin and a couple of days at Ashford Castle.We can’t afford the summer Ashford Castle rates (which usually start at $750/night) but we could swing $245/night in the winter and we had a blast. From Ireland we went to London for a few days where I had the best Indian food of my life for Thanksgiving dinner at Dishoom. We were both worried that the trip would be too short for the travel time it would take, but since we were able to snag non-stop flights in both directions it really didn’t feel too short at all.
Trip Breakdown: Ireland + London (Thanksgiving 2015)
| Item | Cash Cost | Points Type | Total Pts | Value | Value/Point | Source of Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trip Total | $1,022 | $5,546 | ||||
| 2x round-trip coach flights on United SFO-DUB-LHR-SFO | $428 | United Airlines | 120,000 | $2,840 | $0.02 | Chase United Explorer Card |
| 2 nights at Radisson Blu Royal Dublin | $0 | Club Carlson | 70,000 | $618 | $0.009 | U.S. Bank Club Carlson Card |
| 2 nights at Ashford Castle | $490 | $490 | ||||
| 3 days Hertz rental car in Ireland | $104 | $104 | ||||
| 2 nights at Radisson Blu Edwardian Mercer | $0 | Club Carlson | 50,000 | $750 | $0.015 | U.S. Bank Club Carlson Card |
| 2 nights at Radisson Blu Edwardian Hampshire | $0 | Club Carlson | 50,000 | $744 | $0.015 | U.S. Bank Club Carlson Card |
New Orleans – Mardi Gras 2016
While I’m not a huge fan of bucket lists since it turns destinations into checklists and is typically a list of “maybe one day” rather than “why not now” destinations, I think attending Mardi Gras and Oktoberfest are both events that would be on my “bucket list.” We had an absolute blast and we lucked out because the Wyndham French Quarter was extremely well located and made for a great use of 15,000 points per night.
Trip Breakdown: New Orleans (Mardi Gras 2016)
| Item | Cash Cost | Points Type | Total Pts | Value | Value/Point | Source of Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trip Total | $11 | $2,140 | ||||
| 2x round-trip coach flights on Southwest | $11 | Southwest | 42,890 | $1,360 | $0.032 | Chase Southwest Cards |
| 2 nights at Wyndham French Quarter | $0 | Wyndham | Wyndham | $780 | $0.026 | Barclay Wyndham Card |
Japan – Spring Break 2016
We needed to find a destination where we wanted to stay in a single Marriott for 7 nights due to the Marriott travel award we had redeemed for which allowed us 7 nights in a single hotel. Beach destinations were an obvious choice, but we also wanted to explore somewhere rather than just hang at the beach for a week so we settled on Japan. We thought it was the perfect place to go for a week plus they had some great Business and First Class airlines I wanted to check out. Up until this point our points were mostly allowing us to travel more frequently than if we were paying cash but this was the first time we redeemed for airline options or accommodations that were significantly more expensive than we would pay cash for.
Trip Breakdown: Japan (Spring Break 2016)
| Item | Cash Cost | Points Type | Total Pts | Value | Value/Point | Source of Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trip Total | $840 | $27,365 | ||||
| 2x one-way business class Cathay Pacific SFO-HKG-KIX | $60 | Alaska Airlines | 100,000 | $5,096 | $0.051 | Alaska BoA Cards |
| 2x one-way first class JAL SFO-HND | $78 | American Airlines | 125,000 | $18,383 | $0.147 | Citi AA Cards |
| 1 night at Sheraton Osaka | $0 | Starwood | 3,000 | $240 | $0.080 | Amex SPG Card |
| 1 night Kyoto Hotel | $195 | $195 | ||||
| 7 nights Prince Sakura Tokyo | $0 | Marriott | 218,000 | $2,944 | $0.014 | Chase Ritz Cards |
| Japan Rail Pass | $507 | $507 |
Check back soon for additional trip breakdowns, including:
- Turkey, Greece, and Egypt – Early Summer 2016
- UK, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany – Late Summer 2016
- Thailand, Cambodia and Singapore – Christmas 2016
