Hi Rick,
I started following your blog only a couple of months ago but I found it a great inspiration and filled with a lot of useful information.
I have the type of work where I can't always plan vacations far ahead as I can always get swamped, especially in fall. So sometimes we do not seek for the cheapest way but for the most convenient and time efficient.
But this time around, about couple of weeks prior to Thanksgiving, it looked promising at work and my wife and I started to put plans together. We love to do road trips but we have to fly to some as we don't have much free time to get there. This time we chose Florida as I have wanted for awhile to drive over the sea bridge into Key West. Here is what we had to play with: I have a Delta account with some miles, as well as Delta Amex Platinum; Chase Ultimate rewards; and I recently opened Amex Starwood Preferred Guest prior to Thanksgiving. My wife doesn't have a long and established credit history but she has been offered Amex Blue with a $500 sign-up bonus towards travel, which she took advantage of.
Because it was just two of us, we were flexible as to when to leave and when to come back, where to fly into, and when and where to stay. First we had to figure out our flights. We live in the suburbs of New York City and we can pick most of the airports around the tri-state area. Looking at the maps and sampling fares on Delta.com and Chase UR site, we figured out that Thanksgiving night will have the lowest price with Tampa being the cheapest on that night. Plus, late departure still allowed us to share a meal with our family on Thanksgiving day. As a date to come back we picked Monday, Nov, 28th, not because it was the cheapest but because it allowed us to conclude our road trip and be at work in time. Interestingly, flying back was also cheapest from Tampa and we didn't have to worry about one-way car rental penalties.
So, while searching for the flights, I had always thought that round trips should be cheaper. But then, trying to think outside of my normal box, I did a search for one-way trips. What do you know -- it was cheaper to have two one-way trips than one round trip. We ended up booking flights on Delta using Skymiles from JFK to Tampa, and on JetBlue from Tampa back to JFK using UR points. The interesting kick was that JetBlue has awarded us their points for the flight taken even though we had it for free via Chase UR. That's nice to know for the future.
Anyway, our next item to figure out was where we stay and when. Since my wife had $500 to spend on any travel and I just joined the SPG program, I decided to try to take advantage of that. I searched on the SPG site for interesting promos and stumbled upon an 11-11-11 promo that basically gives you 1111 SPG points bonus PER STAY. We were on the road trip and every night is a new stay at the new city -_ perfect! And to sweeten that promo, hotels were including breakfast. Even better -- no need to search for breakfast places in the morning prior to embarking on the next few hours' drive.
It took me a few hours to put hotels together but it was worth it: first night in Four Points in Punta Gorda, second night in Sheraton Suits in Fort Lauderdale, third night (exception) double tree hotel in Key West, and last night Four Points in Orlando, Fl. By the way, we planned out departure late from Tampa, which allowed us to spend one day in Orlando because the drive was only a couple of hours.
In the end we had a great trip, perfect stays where we could rest after long but beautiful drives, while saving $600 on airfare, $500 on hotels, and receiving 3333 bonus SPG points. Also, thanks for the heads up on AmEx Small Business promo for which I registered all our AmEx cards (even two on the same Delta Platinum accounts), which gave us $100 for gifts and dinner while spending time in Key West, FL.
I know for some it may not be the perfect way to use miles, but it worked for us and our busy schedule.
Thank you for your blog and keep it up and running.
Regards,
Slava L
New Ink Bold with Ultimate Rewards Card- see the link below
•50,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 in 3 months – that's $500 in rewards of your choice, or $625 towards airfare when you redeem online through our Ultimate Rewards booking tool
•No limit to the number of points you can earn – and points do not expire
•5X points per dollar on the first $50,000 spent annually on eligible business purchases
•No foreign transaction fees and Free Employee Cards
•No interest or over limit fees
•No Annual Fee in the first year – that's a $95 savings
I started following your blog only a couple of months ago but I found it a great inspiration and filled with a lot of useful information.
I have the type of work where I can't always plan vacations far ahead as I can always get swamped, especially in fall. So sometimes we do not seek for the cheapest way but for the most convenient and time efficient.
But this time around, about couple of weeks prior to Thanksgiving, it looked promising at work and my wife and I started to put plans together. We love to do road trips but we have to fly to some as we don't have much free time to get there. This time we chose Florida as I have wanted for awhile to drive over the sea bridge into Key West. Here is what we had to play with: I have a Delta account with some miles, as well as Delta Amex Platinum; Chase Ultimate rewards; and I recently opened Amex Starwood Preferred Guest prior to Thanksgiving. My wife doesn't have a long and established credit history but she has been offered Amex Blue with a $500 sign-up bonus towards travel, which she took advantage of.
Because it was just two of us, we were flexible as to when to leave and when to come back, where to fly into, and when and where to stay. First we had to figure out our flights. We live in the suburbs of New York City and we can pick most of the airports around the tri-state area. Looking at the maps and sampling fares on Delta.com and Chase UR site, we figured out that Thanksgiving night will have the lowest price with Tampa being the cheapest on that night. Plus, late departure still allowed us to share a meal with our family on Thanksgiving day. As a date to come back we picked Monday, Nov, 28th, not because it was the cheapest but because it allowed us to conclude our road trip and be at work in time. Interestingly, flying back was also cheapest from Tampa and we didn't have to worry about one-way car rental penalties.
So, while searching for the flights, I had always thought that round trips should be cheaper. But then, trying to think outside of my normal box, I did a search for one-way trips. What do you know -- it was cheaper to have two one-way trips than one round trip. We ended up booking flights on Delta using Skymiles from JFK to Tampa, and on JetBlue from Tampa back to JFK using UR points. The interesting kick was that JetBlue has awarded us their points for the flight taken even though we had it for free via Chase UR. That's nice to know for the future.
Anyway, our next item to figure out was where we stay and when. Since my wife had $500 to spend on any travel and I just joined the SPG program, I decided to try to take advantage of that. I searched on the SPG site for interesting promos and stumbled upon an 11-11-11 promo that basically gives you 1111 SPG points bonus PER STAY. We were on the road trip and every night is a new stay at the new city -_ perfect! And to sweeten that promo, hotels were including breakfast. Even better -- no need to search for breakfast places in the morning prior to embarking on the next few hours' drive.
It took me a few hours to put hotels together but it was worth it: first night in Four Points in Punta Gorda, second night in Sheraton Suits in Fort Lauderdale, third night (exception) double tree hotel in Key West, and last night Four Points in Orlando, Fl. By the way, we planned out departure late from Tampa, which allowed us to spend one day in Orlando because the drive was only a couple of hours.
In the end we had a great trip, perfect stays where we could rest after long but beautiful drives, while saving $600 on airfare, $500 on hotels, and receiving 3333 bonus SPG points. Also, thanks for the heads up on AmEx Small Business promo for which I registered all our AmEx cards (even two on the same Delta Platinum accounts), which gave us $100 for gifts and dinner while spending time in Key West, FL.
I know for some it may not be the perfect way to use miles, but it worked for us and our busy schedule.
Thank you for your blog and keep it up and running.
Regards,
Slava L
New Ink Bold with Ultimate Rewards Card- see the link below
•50,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 in 3 months – that's $500 in rewards of your choice, or $625 towards airfare when you redeem online through our Ultimate Rewards booking tool
•No limit to the number of points you can earn – and points do not expire
•5X points per dollar on the first $50,000 spent annually on eligible business purchases
•No foreign transaction fees and Free Employee Cards
•No interest or over limit fees
•No Annual Fee in the first year – that's a $95 savings
1 comments:
Is it possible to have 2 AMEX cards or am I just mistaken?
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