Book A European Vacation For Almost FREE!

Here's the dilemma: You want to take a European vacation next summer with your family of 5. BUT you have maxed out your 5/24 rule on Chase, you have enough miles for 3 one way tickets on United, and lots of Starwood points, but those have a terrible transfer ratio to United.
So what do you do?

Here's my plan:

1. My husband and I each applied for the American Express Premier Gold card for a bonus of 40,000 miles for a $2000 spend. He added me as an authorized user.
2. Transfer those American Express membership rewards to Krisflyer (The frequent flier club for Singapore Airlines). I chose Krisflyer because they will let you book one way tickets on Star Alliance partner airlines including United. Since I'm an authorized user on my husband's Amex, he can transfer his rewards to my Krisflyer account.
3. Top off my KrisFlyer account with Starwood points which transfer 1:1 with a 5,000 bonus for every 20,000 Starwood points, Spouses can share Starwood points so to maximize the bonus, my husband transferred 35,000 Starwood points to my account. Then I transferred those to my Krisflyer account.

And fingers crossed, if all works out and the transfers go through, we will have 9 one way tickets on Star Alliance partner airlines booked with points.

So did it work? YES! BAM! 4.5 round trip flights from LAX to Europe for almost FREE! We paid taxes and fees plus a $25 booking fee from United because I booked 2 tickets by phone to make sure we were all on the same flights. Did it take a little bit of work, yes. Was it worth it? Of course, we are headed to Europe for almost FREE. If we had paid for these flights, they would have cost us at least $5000 probably more. Woohoo!

Point Break IHG Hotels List Is Out!

Every quarter IHG releases a list of hotels you can book for just 5,000 points. It's called the point break list. The new list was just released today and you can start booking these hotels on Monday.
Sometimes you can get a great deal, but other times the list is just plain strange in my opinion.
But here's the link  so you can check out the whole list. If there is something that interests you, book it fast because they do sell out quickly.

Here are the North American hotels:

ARIZONA CANDLEWOOD SUITES SIERRA VISTA ARKANSAS HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS & SUITES MAGNOLIA-LAKE COLUMBIA CALIFORNIA HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS CALEXICO COLORADO CANDLEWOOD SUITES CRAIG-NORTHWEST MISSOURI HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS KIRKSVILLE

NEBRASKA HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS & SUITES NORFOLK NEW JERSEY HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS HASKELL-WAYNE AREA SOUTH CAROLINA CANDLEWOOD SUITES SUMTER SOUTH DAKOTA HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS & SUITES ABERDEEN TEXAS CANDLEWOOD SUITES MOUNT PLEASANT WEST VIRGINIA HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS & SUITES LOGAN

The Secret To Taking An Almost FREE Family Summer Vacation

Washing elephants in Thailand. Once in a lifetime experience! 

So you want to take a big family vacation next summer? And of course, you want to take that trip for almost FREE, right? Well, the secret is planning early.

Here are the things you need to figure out now.

1. Where do you want to go? Europe, South America, Hawaii, Asia?
2. Which airlines fly there? Who are their partner airlines? And what points can you use to get miles on those airlines?
3. How many miles do you need for free tickets? And how can you gather the rest of the miles quickly?
4. Put the plan in action

The plan takes a bit of research. For example, we would like to go to Europe next summer. We are a family of 5. Currently, I have 3 one way tickets on United. So the question is how can we get the rest of the tickets we need to get all of us to Europe for FREE.
Since we want to fly together, I am targeting United Airlines which is part of the Star Alliance. Starwood Points can be transferred to United, but the ratio is 2:1 so it's not a good option. BUT Starwood Points can be transferred to Singapore Airlines at a 1:1 ratio with a 5,000 point bonus for every 20,000 points you transfer. You can also book one way tickets and use less points than United charges for the same flights. Hmmm, now we are getting somewhere.
If you want to go to South America, American Airlines will probably be your best bet. Starwood points transfer at a ratio of 1:1 with the 5,000 point bonus. Plus British Airways is a partner with LAN Airlines and offers ridiculously cheap flights for Avios points within South America.
If you want to go to Asia, you may need to look at United or American who partners with Japan Airlines.
Sometimes you have to act like a detective to try and figure out the best scenario and then just go for it. Be flexible, reach your minimum spend quickly and transfer the points and book your flights.

Maui With Kids For Almost FREE!

Road To Hana - Amazing!

Think you can't travel to Maui on the cheap with kids? Think again. We spent more than a week in Maui for almost FREE. That's right. Here's how we did it and what we did while we were there. We are a family of 5, but for this trip we just took our 8 year old.

The other two kids went on separate trips, one went to Sweden with her cousin and one went on a baseball trip with his grandpa. 

So when we asked our 8 year old where do you want to go? She said Maui. We booked 3 round trip tickets on American Airlines with miles. 25,000 points each. Easy. 

Then we booked an airbnb.com for 3 nights in Kihei. There are tons of available rentals and since there were only 3 of us, we booked a one bedroom, one bathroom with full kitchen across from the beach. The unit had a pool too. Very convenient. Safeway was down the street so we ate most of our meals at home. We did dine at Coconut's Fish Cafe in Kihei and had probably the best fish tacos ever. And we are from San Diego so that says a lot.

Coconut's in Kihei, Maui - Yummy fish tacos

We took a full day and drove the Road To Hana. This is something we would never do with all 3 kids, but with just 1 it was totally doable. My advice start early like 6am. It is a long drive and day. Think like 12 hours long kind of a day. Bring changes of clothes, towels, snacks, couple pairs of shoes and check out the app tours on itunes or android. They will talk you through the drive and tell you exactly where to stop and where to skip. Be sure to pick up some banana bread along the way.

While in Kihei, we took a one day snorkeling trip to Molokini. We like to spend money on experiences and then use miles/points for travel and hotels. Snorkeling was a bit cloudy as it was very windy that day, but enjoyable. 

Snorkeling in Molokini

After a few nights in Kihei, we moved to Kanapali. Both my husband and I opened Chase Hyatt credit cards so we each had 2 FREE nights at any Hyatt. We cashed them in for 4 nights at the Hyatt Kanapali. Usually you have to pay for parking, but the machine was broken so Hyatt comped our parking for all 4 nights too. Nice. 

Hotels at Kanapali

While staying at the Hyatt, we drove to Lahaina for breakfast, a bit farther north is a nice hike to the geyser and of course, Ululani's for shaved ice. 

Great breakfast place in Lahaina

Nice walk in northern Maui to see the geyser

Otherwise, we just hung at the Hyatt, enjoyed the activities and the beach. The problem with the big hotels is that you are captive to the high prices in the restaurants. We utilized the happy hour at the Hyatt for dinner one night and stocked the in room fridge with sandwich makings and breakfast items. We also attended the luau one night which included dinner. Expensive, but our daughter had never attended a luau so it was totally worth it.

Hyatt Kanapali offers bird visits, daily crafts, penguin and koi feeding

Our favorite, shaved ice at Ulelanis

So total cost of the trip:
Flights 75,000 miles on American for 3 round trip flights LAX-Maui
Hotel   3 nights in airbnb for $100 each night, 4 nights at the Hyatt FREE
Car - rented from Budget for $350 for the week
Food/Activities $1000

We rent out our home while we are on vacation so we probably made money on this trip. Not too bad. 

Southwest drops fares to Havana!

If you are thinking about heading to Havana on Southwest Airlines, book now! The airline just dropped the price of flights to $54 one way or 1,872 points. The return cost $86, but the same 1,872 points. The website says taxes are just $5.60, but when you total the cost of the flight, it calculates taxes and fees at $47.
Southwest is starting flights to Varadero on November 12th and flights to Havana on December 12th.
Exciting!

Woohoo! Southwest opens flights to Cuba

Southwest Airlines announced today that flights will begin Dec. 12th to Havana, Cuba. And right now, you can reserve a one way flight for just 2,232 points + $41.46 in fees. If you choose to pay for the flight, it's just $91 each way. Wow!
Add in your companion pass and BAM!
I booked a round trip flight on Southwest from San Diego to Fort Lauderdale anticipating flights opening to Havana. I booked my Florida flight for just 8,800 points round trip and I can add my husband on the companion pass.
So for 11,000 points, my husband and I can fly from SD to Havana round trip. Awesome!
However, I booked our Florida trip for Dec 1-9. Oops, I am a week early.
But I'm finding flights from Fort Lauderdale to Havana on Spirit Airlines for $150 round trip. Jet Blue anticipates flights to Havana this fall, but they are not open yet. 
I'll keep you posted on how we solve this!

Answer To Reader's Question Re: Southwest

A friend told me the other day that she is 35,000 points short of earning a companion pass this year. She earned the first 50,000 points by opening a Southwest credit card and then the rest she earned through spend.
So she asked me what she should do.
Even though the end of the year is not the best time to earn a companion pass, she is so close that I thought she might want to go for it.
But she has to act quickly so the points post before the end of the year or she will be starting over in Jan.
When you earn the companion pass in January, it is good for the entire year you earn it and the following year. So you are essentially getting 2 years to use the pass.
If you earn it in December, you get it for the remaining time in the year you earn and the following year. So you are essentially getting it for 1 year and a few weeks.
But the flip side is that it is better to earn it for 1 year than no years.
So I advised her to open the second personal Southwest card (Southwest offers a premier and plus card). The cards have a 40,000 bonus with $1,000 spend.
OR she could open a small business Southwest card. The current offer is 50,000 points with $2,000 minimum spend.  Any small business qualifies you for the business card. So if you sell something on Etsy or Ebay or rent your house, you can qualify by using your social security number.
It's a good idea to separate business and personal expenses anyways.