Basically, the Southwest airlines Companion Pass is a level of status within Southwest’s Rapid Rewards program that allows the holder to bring their designated companion on any flight with them for free (plus taxes starting at $5.60). This is a buy-one-get-one-free pass wherever Southwest flies, even international flights (taxes are higher for these flights, but it is still an amazing deal). But wait, it gets better! Your flight can even be booked on points, and your companion can join you just for taxes. The Companion Pass also lasts for the entire year in which you earn PLUS the following year. That means if you time it right, you can get almost two years of BOGO flights from one pass!
Why you should want your own campanion pass
Being able to bring a friend, spouse, child, etc. on any flight for free is a game changer. It opens up the entire US for weekend getaways since the cost is now so cheap. Living in Colorado makes this great for us. Southwest has (at last count) 77 different destinations from Denver. But even if you don’t live in a major Southwest hub, you are still one stop away from dozens of destinations.
Southwest Airlines destinations
We’ve also used Southwest to connect us to international gateway airports for award flights. Sometimes either the award your booking doesn’t allow you to connect to your home airport, or there isn’t availability. That’s where Southwest and the Companion Pass can step in. You can now build you own connection before or after your award trip to make your award trip complete.
How to get your companion pass
Now for the hard part. It does take a little work to get your own Companion Pass, but I do mean a little. You’ll need to earn 125,000 eligible Southwest Rapid Rewards points in one calendar year. That may seem like a ton, but it is well within reach. 2021 will mark the eighth consecutive year my family has held a Companion Pass. All of those passes were almost entirely due to accruing credit card points. Almost all points you earn with Southwest are eligible for a Companion Pass. The main exceptions are points transferred in from outside programs (Chase Ultimate Rewards and hotel loyalty programs). What IS eligible is more important. Points earned from paid flights, using their shopping or dining programs and points earned from their Rapid Rewards Credit Cards. The last one is the major way to earn them because sign-up bonuses also count towards your Companion Pass!
Our 2020/2021 Companion Pass
The current bonus on the personal cards will earn you 80,000 points and the business cards will earn you 100,000. We’ve always earned the pass by combining one business card sign-up with one personal card sign-up bonus, when the bonuses were much lower. Now by completing one sign-up bonus along with a few partner offers you could get your companion pass much easier. Once you’ve earned your Companion Pass, the points are still yours to keep and use for flights. Since the points are worth about 1.5 cents each, you’ll have about $1875 in points with which to book flights. If you always fly with your companion you’ll have an astounding $3,750 in free flights!!!
Timing your companion pass
As I stated earlier, your Companion Pass is valid for the year in which you earn it and for the entire following year. By earning the pass early in 2021, you would have it all the way through 2022. If you sign up for both the Performance Business card and any of the personal Rapid Rewards credit cards, and then meet the minimum spend for just the first tier on both cards early in 2021, you would have your companion pass for almost two full years. This is how we plan our pass every two years, alternating between myself and my wife for the past eight years. It is best to apply for the “Performance” business card first, then any of the personal cards (we recommend the Priority version for its annual perks). As always, we would love it if you used our links to support the blog. All versions of the Chase Rapid Rewards credit cards can be found here.
By completing the first tier of the Performance Business credit card ($5,000 in spend in three months) you will receive 70,000 points. Any of the personal cards will award you an additional 50,000 points (after spending $2,000 in three months). Combined you’ll get 120,000 points in bonuses and at least 7,000 more points for the spend on the cards. You’ll then have your Companion Pass for the rest of 2021 and all of 2022. You’ll also have at least 127,000 points to spend on flights. Even with the current lack of travel, there is a lot of hope that things will return later in 2021, and you’ll still have all of 2022 to use the pass.
What is the first place you want to fly, once you feel it is safe to do so? Let me know in the comments!
As you can imagine, it’s been a slow year for us here at Peak Award Booking. The good news is that travel is slowly returning and a vaccine is on the horizon. We are very hopeful for a few trips we personally have planned in 2021 and we’d love to help you get something put together as well. With most award programs you can book trips out for 11 months in the future, which means you can book now for October of 2021 (like we just did for our African Safari). We also provide rebooking services if needed. If your trip needs to be rescheduled, for any reason, we will help with the cancelation and rebooking process. Many airlines are offering free cancelation and/or changes for award bookings. This makes now a great time to try to put together a great points booking!
For Small Business Saturday we will be offering two different specials. One needs to be taken advantage of now, and the second allows for plans well out into the future (with no commitment). Either option will provide great value as you plan to return to travel in 2021 and beyond.
Special #1: $50/ticket bookings
Lock in this special rate by contacting us by the end of the year. Mention the Small Business Saturday special and any and all tickets booked by 12/31 will be only $50/ticket, a savings of up to $75 per person! This can even include complex around the world itineraries! Use our Contact Us page to reach out and we will start putting this together now. Remember that our services include complimentary rebooking assistance if you are unable to take your trip (within the rules of the program that you book through). Payment just needs to be completed by the end of the year, so that gives you through November of 2021 to take your trip.
SPECIAL #2: freeFirst ticket booking with freepoints consultation
We always offer a free Points and Miles Consultation. This is the perfect way to get started in collecting points and miles. We look at your individual goals and provide you with a unique one year roadmap of credit card sign-ups to help you meet those goals. Now we are happy to add one free award booking at the end of your year (additional tickets at regular price). This option requires absolutely no commitment other than to contact us by the end of the year to get started. Now is a great time to get started as there are some amazing limited time offers to take advantage of!
If you’d like to take advantage of either of these offers, please just use the contact form below to get started. We can’t wait to get flying again, once it is safe and responsible to do so, and we hope to help you take that trip of a lifetime in 2021 as well!
When people ask advice about starting in travel hacking, I almost always recommend they start with Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR). Our clients and ourselves have taken some amazing bucket list trips using UR. Let’s take a quick look at why people should almost always start here.
Chase Ultimate Rewards are easy to obtain
There are seven main cards (four business and three personal) to gain Ultimate Rewards, including four without annual fees. Sign-up bonuses alone could get you over 300,000 points! For the personal cards, they include the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve (these are basically sister cards, you can only hold one at a time and they have similar benefits), Chase Freedom Flex and the Freedom Unlimited.
Chase Personal Cards
On the business end there are the three Ink Cards; the Ink Business Preferred, the Ink Business Unlimited and the Ink Business Cash. In order to fully unlock the value in these points, you will need the Ink Business Preferred or either the Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve (we will get into this in just a bit).
Chase Ultimate Rewards Business Cards
With the right combination of cards you can really maximize your ongoing spend as well. You will be able to earn a minimum of 1.5 points per dollar on any purchase up to a maximum of 5 points/dollar! Depending on how you use these points, that could be a value of 3-10 cents back in travel for every dollar spent (I value UR at 2 cents a point). Between my wife and I, we have 12 different Ultimate Rewards cards to help us rack up UR points each and every month.
Chase Ultimate Rewards are easy to redeem
While the Freedom, Freedom Unlimited, Ink Cash and Ink Unlimited are billed as cash back cards with points worth one penny each, if you have either of the premium Sapphire cards and/or the Ink Business Preferred their potential is much higher.
With a premium card they are worth either 1.25 (Sapphire Preferred and Ink Preferred) or 1.5 (Sapphire Reserve) cents per point. This is when you redeem for travel through Chase’s own travel portal. Through the portal you can book flights, hotels, rental cars, and even cruises or tours. While this is nice, it is always the bare minimum for which you should redeem them. But if you want simplicity, it doesn’t get any easier than this.
Chase Ultimate Rewards has some great partners
The real value with UR (as well as any transferable points) is with their transfer partners. Points can transfer to 10 different airlines all at a 1:1 rate. They are Aer Lingus, British Airways, Air France/KLM, Emirates, Iberia, JetBlue, Singapore Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic. Each of these programs provides value in different ways ranging from cheap domestic flights to outlandish international premium redemptions. Personally, we’ve booked using United, British Airways, Singapore, and Southwest. I’ve also used the others to help clients book amazing trips.
Some of our favorite flights booked with Ultimate Rewards
Some of our favorite flights booked with Ultimate Rewards
Some of our favorite flights booked with Ultimate Rewards
Some of our favorite flights booked with Ultimate Rewards
Some of our favorite flights booked with Ultimate Rewards
Some of our favorite flights booked with Ultimate Rewards
Some of our favorite flights booked with Ultimate Rewards
Some of our favorite flights booked with Ultimate Rewards
Some of our favorite flights booked with Ultimate Rewards
Chase also has three different hotel partners; Hyatt, IHG and Marriott. Out of these three the only one I would transfer to is Hyatt. The other two will most likely cause a loss in value by transferring rather than booking through the portal. Using Hyatt points we have helped our clients book $850+/night rooms for 30,000 points, a value of over 2.8 cents per point!
All 13 of Chase’s Transfer Partners
Why Ultimate Rewards to Start
Chase Ultimate Rewards are the best points for beginners, because of their ease of use. Between the travel portal or some of the simpler transfer partners, it is almost always easy to get great value out of the points. United may not have the best value for transferring, but they have an easy to use search tool and low taxes and fees on flights for themselves and their partners. Southwest and JetBlue are fixed value and extremely easy to redeem. They also have the only truly useful hotel transfer partner, Hyatt. Some of their foreign airline partners are where you can really find crazy value. These redemptions are always a little more difficult to unlock, which is where Peak Award Booking can help. Through the month of June, we are offering half-off all award bookings to help you get your amazing trip planned and booked!
How to start collecting Ultimate Rewards
Help the blog by using this link!
The first card I recommend to beginner travel hackers is the Sapphire Preferred. It is the best way to get your feet wet and get you on your first rewards based trip. The current sign-up bonus is 100,000 points after $4,000 spend in the first three months (the $95 annual fee is not waived the first year). These 100,000 points would be enough for three nights at some of the nicest hotels in the world (values of over $1,000 per night), a round-trip business class flight to Europe, or $1,250 in travel on Chase’s travel portal. If you would like your own personalized plan, based off of your goals and individual circumstances, please reach out to us and we will develop your own very own credit card application strategy.
If you are a Chase Ultimate Rewards expert, what were your favorite redemptions? Share in the comments below
We already have two international trips booked and a third
on the way for 2020. At Peak Award
Booking we always advise to book early to find the best award flights. One of our trips was planned about 15 months
ahead, this allowed us to get the credit cards and points we needed for this
trip in time to be able to book at exactly 11 months out. Doing so allowed us to plan an amazing trip
at the high-demand time of spring break.
Cancun all-inclusive
Our first trip is a long weekend to the Cancun area for a friend’s wedding. This will be just for my wife and myself, no kids!!! The wedding is at an all-inclusive resort that isn’t affiliated with any rewards program. We could’ve booked this using our Chase Ultimate Rewards through their portal at 1.5 cents/point, but we tend to find better value for these points by transferring to airline partners. Instead we paid cash through a third-party booking company that had a very discounted rate available. We try to book direct whenever possible, but this deal was too good to pass up. We will be using Southwest points and our companion pass (earned via sign-up bonuses on Chase’s Southwest cards) for our flights down to Mexico. We’ve been able to book Southwest flights at buy-one-get-one free for the last six years, and as soon as my wife’s points post in January we will have it again for another two years. This perk has saved us thousands of dollars. The return flights on Southwest didn’t really work for us, so we will be flying United on a basic economy ticket. Luckily (or by planning), we have the United Explorer credit card and we can check one bag each, take a full-size carry-on and board early. This negates most of the issues of booking basic economy.
maldives and singapore in luxury
Our next trip is almost exactly a month later. Spring Break 2020 will take our family of three to Doha, the Maldives, Singapore and possibly Malaysia. We booked our outbound flights using American Airlines miles gained from several of their credit cards. They have both personal and business cards from both Citi Bank and Barclay. The four options with bonuses that occasionally reach 70k miles, give lots of options to build up your balance. Anywhere in the US to the Maldives will cost you 70k miles per person, plus taxes. We completely drained my AA balance to get three seats. The first leg is just a regional jet on American in domestic first class, but our 2nd and 3rd flights will be business class on Qatar Airlines in their amazing QSuite configured business class. We will be spending one night in Doha before our flight to the Maldives. We had a free night award at any Marriott hotel worth a maximum of 30,000 points that we earned with the Chase Marriott Bonvoy Card. The St. Regis Doha was exactly 30,000 points, making this a no-brainer decision for a quick stay. One more QSuite flight and a seaplane trip will get us to the Maldives. Here we will be using points we gained from American Express Hilton branded credit cards as well as one free night certificate from the Hilton Aspire credit card to stay at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island. The Conrad Maldives considers their Overwater Bungalow a base room redemption, this allows us to use points and book five nights for the price of four! We will be splitting our time between the Overwater Bungalow and the Beach Villa. We’ve heard that with children that the beach villa is a much better option, but we still couldn’t pass up the option to stay in an over-water bungalow for free. Not only will we be staying for free for six nights, we also will get $500 off our seaplane flights and diamond status from our Aspire Card. Diamond status will most likely not get us any upgrades, but we will get free breakfast, happy hour (free drinks and snacks) and afternoon tea (more free snacks). The savings on food alone really adds up!
We will then depart from the Maldives and head to Singapore aboard Singapore Airlines in business class. We booked this flight as part of a one-way flight from the Maldives to Los Angeles with a stop-over in Singapore. The total cost of these flights was 109,000 miles each plus $100/person for the stop-over. We transferred points from Chase to Singapore Airlines to book these flights. Most of the points came from business card sign-ups from their Ink line (Ink Preferred, Ink Cash or Ink Unlimited). These two flights will be on their lie-flat equipped planes. We’ve already selected our meals for the flight from Singapore to Los Angeles using their “Book the Cook” menu, where you can select your meal ahead of time from a large menu of options (lobster thermidor, anyone?).
Singapore Airlines Lobster Thermidor
In Singapore for our “stop-over”, we will be staying at the
Conrad Centennial Singapore for five nights.
Again, we will be using points we earned from either new Amex Hilton
cards or from upgrade offers from American Express. We used the fifth night free option again to
get an extra night free. Diamond status
will get us a possible upgrade, free breakfast and lounge access. While in Singapore we took advantage of an
Expedia promotion that offered 50% off activities to get a lot of excursions we
had already planned. We will be visiting
the Singapore Zoo, Night Safari, Bird Park, River Safari, Aquarium, Singapore
Flyer and more at a nice discount. We
may also take a day trip over to Malaysia for the LegoLand Park. After an exhausting five days in Singapore,
we’ll fly in Singapore Airlines business class to Los Angeles. Hopefully, we will have enough diversions to
keep a six-year-old busy for 15 hours in a metal tube.
Upon landing in Los Angeles we’ll spend a night at the Crowne Plaza LAX Airport. We redeemed a free night from our IHG credit card to book the closest hotel to the airport. The next morning, we will trade the luxury of Singapore business class for the simplicity of Southwest. We’ll be using points and our companion pass to once again get us back home for the cost of just taxes on the flight.
african safari and victoria falls
Our last currently planned trip will be my 40th birthday trip. It’ll be just my wife and I again. After cycling through about eleventeen different options (Venice and Rome, Hawaii, Tokyo, Bora Bora and Easter Island…), I finally found what I wanted all along… Perfect flights to Southern Africa. We will spend two weeks going through Botswana to Victoria Falls. We’ll have eight days of insanely expensive luxury safaris and three days of adventure activities in Victoria Falls. What better way to celebrate turning 40 than jumping off a bridge or rafting one of the world’s most dangerous rivers?
Victoria Falls
Our only points usage will be for flights, but they are nice
flights indeed. We will have a second
turn in one year on Qatar QSuites flying into Johannesburg. This is another 150,000 AA miles being used,
which will leave us with only about 50,000 left (time to build those back
up!). Our return was booked using United
miles, from Victoria Falls back home.
The long-haul segments will be on Kenyan Airways on angled flat business
class seats. Not the best business class
product in the world, but it made it a much quicker journey than any other
options. The total of 140,000 United
miles were raised from their Chase MileagePlus credit card as well as a
transfer from some more Chase Ultimate Rewards.
I’m sure we will add a few more trips using our companion
pass to domestic locations. We will
probably try to get to Chicago to eat non-stop for a weekend, or someplace
south to warm-up when it is cold (looking at Maui and the Grand Wailea). Visiting family in Wisconsin is also on our
short-list too.
If your New Year’s resolution is to travel more, reach out to us here at PeakAwardBooking.com to get started. We can help you build your points, or use them to the fullest, so that 2020 can be the year you get to see the world!
Some travel expenses are harder to hack than others. In more remote places, many merchants will only take cash or charge an exorbitant fee to use credit. Food stalls and tips might also be cash only and getting cash overseas can be a struggle. US banks charge fees or give horrible conversion rates to get foreign cash in advance, and you never know exactly how much you’ll need. Airport exchanges can be even worse, sometimes taking more than 10% just for the convenience. Using an ATM with your bank card could cause you to get hit with fees from both the ATM and from your bank.
For the past several years we’ve been using debit cards to withdraw cash from ATM’s, but we don’t use our normal bank cards. We’ve opened checking accounts from banks that specifically don’t charge fees for foreign withdrawals, but also reimburse for ALL fees that the ATM charges. We have accounts with both Charles Schwab and SoFi and these accounts take all of the hassle out of getting cash on arrival. We find the nearest ATM, don’t worry about the fee, and pull out some money. We don’t even pull out all that much, because we know if we get low, we can hit up another ATM for a little more. We don’t use these accounts for our day-to-day banking, we just deposit some cash before any trip, so we know it will be available, and then pull out anything leftover afterward to return to our everyday accounts.
SoFi checking bonus
Right now SoFi has an amazing sign-up offer. The amount itself isn’t extraordinary, only $50, but the effort is minimal (five minutes time and one $100 deposit). It is also amazing easy to refer a friend (or spouse) to get an extra $100 per referral. If you sign-up using my link (thank you) and then refer your partner, you’ll be up $200 ($50 for your first account, $50 for your partner’s account, $100 for referring your partner). Your total time investment will be about 15 minutes. You will also have a new account from which you can pull money at any time, for no fee. Even better is that SoFi is currently offering 1.8% on your checking account balance, so it’s not a terrible place to park some money.
One of the questions I get most often is “how do you meet the minimum spend on all those cards?” My first answer is “have a five year old.” Just after that is “put all of your spend on your credit cards.” Anything you can charge (cell phone, groceries, childcare, insurance, etc.) should be charged, and debit cards should only be used to get cash out of ATM’s. Lastly, I encourage people to get creative. Sometimes there are ways to spend more money without actually spending any money. This is called “manufactured spend” or MS. I don’t engage in high volumes of MS, just dabble here and there, especially when it can be profitable as well. Yes, you can occasionally make money by spending money. I won’t get super deep into this, but there are resources out there for people who want to learn more.
Today I’m going to introduce a program that I’ve been using for a few weeks, Rebatest.com. Rebatest is a product trial website. They have specific products that they offer 100% cash back if you complete their review process. Basically, you sign-up (if you use my link we both will receive $5 after your first completed review), pick one of their products, get approved, purchase the product and complete your review. Seven days later they will send you 100% back via paypal (unfortunately, paypal charges a 4.4% fee plus 30 cents per withdrawal to receive your money). Even though I just started I am averaging over $200 in products a week. This makes a serious dent in any minimum required spend. If you order products you want and/or need you can think of it as a 95.6% discount. Once you factor in the value of the points you will come out way ahead. You could also pick and choose products you think you’ll be able to resell and come out way ahead (and now you’re operating a business, so get those Chase Ink Cards!).
There are a lot of junk or overpriced products, but there are a few gems. We’ve gotten our son a few toys, multiple electronic/cell phone accessories, and even some clothes. So far we have actually come out about $10 ahead (without counting referrals), plus we get to keep all the junk stuff. You can get bonus money by either referring new members or by meeting certain benchmarks of reviews during specific periods (currently $30 for doing 20 reviews). My biggest bonus was purchasing a power bank that had a 20% off offer on amazon. Rebatest does not take into account these promos when calculating your cash back, this allowed me to make $10 and get a 20,000mAh power bank!
A power bank plus $10! Thank you very much
If you’re looking for a way to slightly increase your spending, without actually increasing your spending, Rebatest.com could be for you. It’s also great if you just want some free or greatly reduced stuff. Just understand the risk of floating anyone your money and don’t spend more than you could afford to lose if things went belly up.
Few places can match the sheer romance of Europe. There’s a little bit of something for anybody; food, culture, architecture, history and so much more. What better way to celebrate an upcoming anniversary than to visit a few of the iconic European cities?
With Peak Award Booking, not only can we help you get there (and back, if you really want to), but we can get you there in style. This plan includes going a little less extravagant than our previous post (Maldives for Two). Unfortunately, no business class flat-bed seats and no over-water bungalows on the Seine. This time we are saving some points, and seeing as much as we can. Accommodations will still be great, as we will stay in one of the top hotels in the world. Out-of-pocket expense for this trip would be $1,080 whereas retail would be over $7,600. I’ll detail these as we go through the booking and I’ll show a breakdown at the end.
Getting you There
In the past we’ve booked tickets on Qatar QSuites, Singapore business, EVA Royal Laurel Class, Asiana Business Class, Cathay Pacific first class and more of the world’s top products. Today I would like to introduce you to United Economy!
Oops, wrong photo
United’s economy class gives you the opportunity to make new friends as you fight for arm rests. You can also experience new cuisines as you think to yourself “I thought I ordered chicken, what is this?” Plus you can drink all the house beer, wines and soft drinks that the flight attendant can be bothered to bring you (usually two). They offer live entertainment such as games of “What is that smell” and bathroom line potty dance competitions!
The reason we are choosing United is that they offer a ton of award redemption opportunities from almost any city in the US, they have good award rates, don’t pass on fuel surcharges, have lots of European partners on which you can redeem your miles, offer the “Excursionist Perk” and are a partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards giving you lots of ways to earn points.
The Excursionist Perk is a benefit that only United offers. It is basically a free one-way flight, within one region, when you book a round-trip flight. There are a few more rules involved, but we aren’t going to get bogged down in that right now. European examples are almost endless. For example, you could fly from Fargo to Paris (not currently offered as a non-stop), then from Paris to Lisbon, and finally return home from Lisbon for the same amount of points as just a round-trip flight to Europe. If you provide your own transportation in between cities you could really visit a ton of places. Another example is to fly from Appleton, Wisconsin to Venice. From Venice you can take a train to Rome. Then fly from Rome to Brussels (for taxes only). Take another train from Brussels to Paris and then fly to visit your grandson in Colorado Springs. Total number of points needed for the three flights is 60,000 miles and you got to visit four major European cities and watch your grandson for his parents while they are on an African safari. You’ll have to buy train tickets between Venice and Rome as well as Brussels to Paris ($50-$80 each ticket), but if you were to price out the airline tickets for those three legs it may run about $1700 during peak season.
Our anniversary couple for this trip will be flying round-trip from Kansas City (thank you random city generator) and let’s say they want to visit Paris and Vienna during late July and early August of 2020 for a total of 10-14 days. I was able to find an outbound to Paris on July 25th with just one stop in Chicago (five hours, so just enough time to sneak out of the airport and grab some pizza). The overseas leg is an overnight flight, so the plan is to get some sleep and hit the ground running in Paris. After five days in and around Paris, they’ll fly non-stop to Vienna on July 31st. There were five different options, but I chose the mid-day flight to make checking out of the hotel in Paris and into the hotel in Vienna easiest. They will then have five romantic days in Vienna to see and experience all the city has to offer before returning home on the 5th of August. The return flight is just one short stop in Washington DC, and, best of all, the flight is operated by Austrian Airlines instead of United.
Kansas City to Paris, Paris to Vienna and Vienna to Kansas City
ACCOMMODATIONS
Our couple will be splitting their time in Paris between the Hilton Paris Opera for two nights and the Park Hyatt Vendome for three nights.
The Hilton Paris Opera is a beautiful hotel located in the 8th arrondissement, known for its high end shopping and dining. It is also convenient to just about any location in the city either on foot or by metro (there is a station located only 80 meters from the hotel). Both nights at the Hilton Paris Opera will be covered using points and a free night from credit cards. Rates at the Hilton Paris Opera for our dates would be around $385/night (including all taxes), saving them $770!
With our plan they will also be visiting with the highest level of Hilton loyalty status, Diamond. This will grant them access to the executive lounge as well as free breakfast . Upgrades are also a possibility, but unfortunately not very likely during high season.
After two nights at the Hilton, the couple will relocate to the Park Hyatt Vendome. The Park Hyatt Vendome is possibly the ultimate travel hacking hotel. This gorgeous, extravagant and over-the-top hotel is located just a few blocks from The Louvre. Using points you’ll be booked into their lowest level room, but it is still beautifully done. If you happen to know a top tier Hyatt elite, they can even book the room for you as a “Guest of Honor”. This grants you all the benefits of a Hyatt Globalist, which include upgrades and free breakfast (which sounds amazing). During their stay the cheapest cash rate is over $875 per night. Using Hyatt (or Chase Ultimate Reward) points will save the couple $2,627!
The Louvre is just blocks away from the Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome
After departing Paris our couple will make their way to Vienna for more culture, food and sights. They will again be utilizing their Hilton points and status at the Hilton Vienna Plaza. This hotel is centrally located within walking distance of the stunning Hofburg Palace, St. Stephen’s Cathedral and many other popular city sites. Upgrades for diamond members are common here, even up to suites. Again, breakfast and executive lounge access are included which provide even more value. The cash rate is really reasonable at around $175/night. Using points will save our anniversary couple a total of about $870 over the five nights.
the details
For the flights you will need 120,000 united miles. Luckily there are a few credit cards to earn these miles. Chase is our go-to issuer for United miles. They offer both the United Explorer credit card as well as the United Business Explorer. For this trip though, we will focus on Chase’s Ultimate Rewards points. These points come from Chase’s own brand of cards; Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve and the Ink Business Preferred. These cards all allow their points to be transferred to several partners, including both United and Hyatt. If you have one of the three “premium” cards, then you can combine your points from any of their fee-free cards to also transfer to partners. These fee-free cards include the Freedom and Freedom Unlimited personal cards and the Ink Cash and Ink Unlimited business cards.
From here on out I will refer to the two people traveling as P1 and P2. The order you apply for cards is somewhat important, and I can provide more details in a personalized plan, just send me a message through our “Contact Us” page. In our example P1 qualifies for business cards based on some part-time tutoring they do on the side. Many people qualify for business cards and don’t know it. Besides the obvious traditional business models things like selling products through marketing programs (Pampered Chef, Rodan + Fields, Herbalife, etc.), driving for Uber, listing your home on Airbnb, and many more will qualify you for a business card.
Airline miles are the most important factor as dates are much more limited for good flights than for hotel awards. P1 will start off with the Sapphire Preferred. Currently chase is offering 60,000 points with $4,000 spend in 3 months ($95 annual fee not waived). Once P1 is close to completing their minimum spend, they will refer P2 to the same card. P2 will earn the same 60,000 points and P1 will get 15,000 for referring them. This will bring their total to at least 143,000 points. They will combine those points into one account and transfer 120,000 points to United to book their flights.
P1 will first apply for the Hilton Aspire (this is a referral link, thank you for supporting the site by using it). This card currently offers 150,000 Hilton points after spending $4,000 in 3 months. It does come with a $450 annual fee, but it carries a number of great benefits including automatic Hilton Diamond status for as long as you hold the card. Hilton Diamond gives you free breakfast at all hotels, 5th night free on award bookings, space available upgrades up to a one-bedroom suite and executive lounge access. The Hilton Aspire also gives you a free weekend night certificate after approval and then an additional free night each year when you pay the annual fee. You will also get a $250 airline incidental fee credit each calendar year (can be used to upgrade your United flights to Economy+) and a $250 resort credit each card member year.
Once P1 has met the spend on their Aspire they can refer P2 to the Hilton Honors Surpass Card. P2 will earn 125,000 points after spending $3,000 in three months, while P1 will earn 15,000 for referring their partner. This will bring their total number of points to at least 308,000 and one free weekend night once we factor in the points earned from their initial spend. This will be more than enough for the five nights in Vienna and the two nights in Paris.
The last card application will be P1 applying for their Chase Ink Business Preferred. They will earn 80,000 points after spending $5,000 in three months. Once combined with the left-over Chase Ultimate Rewards points after booking the United flights they will have at least 108,000 points. They will transfer 90,000 over to Hyatt to book their three night stay at the Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome.
Booking
Now the hard part… If you’d like you can leave this up to us here at PeakAwardBooking.com so that we can find you the best routing, with the best connections and the best service. Best of all, there is no fee unless we find you a routing you want. We know some tricks to find the best award flights that may not show up on a simple search through United.com.
We almost always start with booking flights. Often, we will do this even before we have the points for our hotels as we know rooms are almost always available. Once you’ve gotten your dates from the flights, then you can switch gears to book your hotels. (There are rare exceptions to this rule, places like Tahiti or Fiji where hotel availability may dictate your flights.)
As we detailed in the beginning, our couple will be flying from Kansas City to Paris, then on to Vienna before returning home. This can all be done from the united.com multi-city booking tool. Be aware that this tool has its limitations and doesn’t always spit out the best options, especially on complicated itineraries like this. The flights we found carry taxes and fees for a total of $110 per person.
Now that we have their dates, they can book the hotel rooms. Our couple will use the free weekend night certificate earned from the Hilton Honors Aspire Card for Sunday the 26th of July at the Hilton Paris Opera. They can follow this up by booking a single night at the same property for 80,000 points.
The last three nights will be booked using Hyatt points that were transferred from their stash of Chase Ultimate Rewards. 30,000 points a night is very steep for Chase points, but the cost of the hotel gets you great value. 90,000 points saves you about $2,600, a value of 2.8 cents per point! I always shoot for at least 2 cents from Chase, so this is a tremendous value.
For Vienna we will utilize Hilton’s 5th night free benefit for elite members booking award stays. Currently, the five nights will cost 216,000 Hilton points. The couple have about 228,000, so they will have more than enough. The cost of the stay would be $870, giving a value of .4 cents per point. I generally value Hilton points at a little over a half cent each, and we fail to reach that threshold here. If you wanted to, you could book a cash stay and earn points instead of using points. Since this example is all about not spending money, we will burn the points.
the final numbers
This European anniversary trip would cost over $7,600 to book without points and miles. Using miles your cost would be $220 for airline taxes on award flights and $830 in credit card annual fees. You will also have $250 in 2018 and 2019 to reimburse possible economy plus upgrades from your Hilton Aspire Card. Total out of pocket expense (before food, tours, souvenirs, etc.) would be $1,080 resulting in a savings of $6,520!
This is just a specific example of a trip that Peak Award Booking can help you plan and book. We can build you a personalized European anniversary vacation or any other trip you can dream up. We will do the number crunching and searching to get you the absolute best value for your points and miles.
Last fall my family was able to take a trip to Disney with my parents (who graciously financed the operation (thank you)) and my sister’s family. There were 10 of us total (6 adults and 4 kids), and we all stayed on-site at the Polynesian for eight days. We had dining plans and park-hopper tickets. We lived it up while we were there and found ways for my parents (thank you) to save thousands of dollars with points and miles, but they still spent thousands (thank you).
Loved the Epcot Food and Wine Festival!
However, this post is not about that experience. This is about how to do it as cheap as possible! While you won’t be onsite at a luxury Disney hotel, you’ll be near the grounds with transportation to the parks. You won’t have a dining plan, but you will have a kitchen in your room and free breakfast. You also might be packing everything you can into a carry-on and meeting some new friends on the plane, but hey, you’re going to Disney World for cheap!
Flights
What you do here will largely depend on what flights are available from your local airport. If you have the option of non-stop flights with Frontier, it is really hard to beat their prices. Allegiant, Spirit, Sun Country and Southwest are other lower-cost options.
Right now, Frontier Airlines has a great deal for family travel, “Kids Fly Free”. As long as one adult is a member of their “Discount Den”, one child can fly free for each paid adult on flights on select days. The “Discount Den” also gives discounts on paid fares. I found tickets from several airports for as low as $34 to Orlando that also qualified for “Kids Fly Free”. The “Discount Den” does cost $59.99/year, but using it even once will more than cover the cost.
If we assume $49 each way, with two free kids tickets, plus the $60 for the “Discount Den”, your total for four tickets to Orlando would be $256! Yes, Frontier makes you pay for everything, but with just a little planning you can avoid most extra charges. In sunny and warm Orlando, you may be able to get by with just the personal item for five days. But if you can’t make that work, then pay to check one bag and load that sucker up and it’s $60 round-trip. You can choose to pay for seats (starting at $6 each) or play the lottery and see what you get. Since this is “Disney World on the Cheap”, we are going with no checked luggage and no seat assignments.
Frontier Tail Animals
accommodations
Since this is the cheap plan, we aren’t staying on property, but that doesn’t mean you are far from the magic of Disney. There are a number of points hotels at various tier levels near the grounds. I’m going to focus on budget options, as that will give you the most bang for your buck. These are still very nice hotels with quite a few amenities. At each of the hotels I suggest, you’ll find free breakfast, free transportation to the parks and other great amenities.
hilton brand hotels
My top two choices both fall under the Hilton brand portfolio and both offer separate sleeping areas with 1-bedroom suites. You can get a 1-bedroom suite with either a king bed or two queens and either set-up you choose you will also have a queen pull-out in the living area.
The Homewood Suites by Hilton Lake Buena Vista-Orlando is my first recommendation. Like the other hotels listed below it also includes a free shuttle to a Disney park and free breakfast. In addition, it includes a full fridge, a two burner stove-top, microwave and a dishwasher. The current standard rate is 40,000 points/night. You can also get a fifth night free making a five night stay cost 160,000 points.
The Embassy Suites by Hilton Lake Buena Vista-Orlando has the same basic lay-out as the Homewood Suites, but doesn’t have a full kitchenette (just a microwave and mini-fridge). It does, however, have a nicer pool and an evening reception with snacks and drinks. It comes at the same 40,000 points/night and also has a fifth night free option for 160,000 points for five nights.
Embassy Suites Pool area
Hilton points are fairly easy to acquire. Right now with a referral you can get 100,000 points with $1,000 spend in three months on their American Express no annual fee Hilton Honors card (use this link, as our offer is better than the public offer). Each partner can apply, and then pool their points. This would give you over 200,000 points with no fee, enough for six nights. There are other two other credit card options, the Hilton Ascend and the Hilton Aspire (again these are our links, but are better than the public offers). These two cards would earn more points (150,000 after spend requirements), but since they carry an annual fee that isn’t waived, I’m going to disqualify them from my Disney World on the Cheap protocol.
Marriott Bonvoy properties
The second option isn’t quite as cheap for hotels, but can be useful. The Marriott Bonvoy group has several hotels in the Disney area. I was able to locate three that meet my free shuttle and free breakfast requirements. These hotels can be done with one credit card application, but that card does come with an annual fee in the first year.
The Firfield Inn and Suites Orlando-Lake Buena Vista, The Springhill Suites Orlando-Lake Buena Vista at Marriott Village and the Fairfield Inn and Suites Marriott Village are all fairly similar. They all have free breakfast and a free shuttle. They all will also cost 25,000 points/night with a fifth-night free for 100,000 points total. The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless credit card comes with 100,000 points after spending $5,000 in 3 months. The card carries a $95 annual fee which, unfortunately, is not waived the first year.
To get the points for five nights it will take an extra $3,000 in spend and $95 in annual fees vs. going the Hilton route, but you’ll have one less credit card application. For people who are concerned about the number of accounts on their credit report, this could be important.
Park tickets
This is the hardest area to save money for Disney. There are techniques to save 5-10% by buying discounted gift cards, but since are going for cheap here, 5-10% won’t cut it. So instead, we are going to use a “travel eraser” credit card and a discount ticket broker.
My favorite Disney discount ticket broker is Undercover Tourist. They offer slight discounts over purchasing directly from Disney, about $100 in our example. The real benefit of buying them from these brokers is that they will code as a travel agent with your credit card companies, which allows us to use purchase erasing cards to offset the price!
Travel eraser cards allow you to redeem points at a fixed rate for certain purchases. They are nice because you can use them on expensive travel items (like Disney park tickets) that you can’t otherwise discount. Unlike miles with specific airlines or hotel groups, though, you can’t get out-sized value. They are always worth a fixed value (usually 1¢ each).
The current best offer for a travel eraser credit card is the Barclay Arrival Plus. You will earn 70,000 miles after spending $5,000 in three months, and best of all, the annual fee is waived for the first year. The card also earns 2 points per dollar spent and each point is worth 1¢. After meeting the spend you’ll have 80,000 points, worth $800. In this example, each adult will apply for the card therefore giving them $800 in value each.
Doing separate transactions, each parent will purchase one adult and one child five day admission, which will total $865.19. You’ll be able to erase at least $800 for both of these. This brings your total out of pocket cost of four park tickets for five days down to $130.38!
I wasn’t brave enough to raise my hands
Application guidelines
I’ve recommended four total credit cards for this family’s Disney Trip. I would get your hotel points first, so that you can nail down your dates based on availability. Depending on your spending habits you can apply for both American Express Hilton credit cards at the same time. The sooner you meet your spend, the sooner you can book your hotels and flights. Fortunately (or unfortunately), the $2,000 in required credit card spend shouldn’t take too long for most families of four. You’ll have your points rather quickly and can move on to booking rooms and flights.
Once you know your dates for your trip you can work on the two Barclay Arrival Plus cards. These will probably take a little longer to complete the $5,000 in spend. I wouldn’t apply for the second until you’ve completed the first card. The best part is that you don’t need to have the points in your account when you make the purchase you want to erase. After you’ve made your park ticket purchase you have 120 days to redeem your points. This means you can buy your park tickets even before you’ve earned your sign-up bonus. Then once your bonus posts, you’ll go back and erase the charge.
Your total spend for the four credit cards will be $12,000, but by spacing out the credit card applications this should not be a big problem. To meet high minimum spend requirements in the past, my family has pre-paid bills like utilities, phone, cable or internet. As long as you are able to pay off your credit card each month this can be a great way to get your points quickly.
total costs
By following this plan. the family will be able to get five or six nights in a hotel with a shuttle to the parks and free breakfast (completely free!), four round-trip air tickets (about $256) and five nights of Disney World park tickets ($130.38) for under $400! If you’d like help building your own Disney World trip or any other family vacation, please contact us at Peakawardbooking so we can get you on your way for cheap!
Five days of Disney Park magic for about $100 each!
There is one great airline award sweet spot that I haven’t had the opportunity to book for myself yet, that I really want to do. It isn’t flying Singapore Suites or The Apartment on Etihad. In fact, it’s not even first class at all (don’t worry, it is still business class). I love this award because of the extreme value and the opportunities involved. You can fly around the world, in business class, stopping in up to eight cities, for as little as 105,000 miles per person.
Introducing the ANA “round the world” award
ANA, a star alliance member based in Japan, is one of the few airline programs that maintains an RTW (“round the world”) chart. Even better than just having a chart is that it is a great value. The number of miles required is based on the total distance of the flights you’ll be taking. I’ll get into the rules in a bit, but here is the basic chart:
Total Basic Sector Mileage
Required Mileage
Economy Class
Business Class
First Class
4,001～7,000
38,000
63,000
90,000
7,001～9,000
43,000
68,000
100,000
9,001～11,000
55,000
85,000
120,000
11,001～14,000
60,000
90,000
140,000
14,001～18,000
65,000
105,000
160,000
18,001～20,000
75,000
115,000
180,000
20,001～22,000
85,000
125,000
200,000
22,001～25,000
100,000
145,000
220,000
25,001～29,000
120,000
170,000
260,000
29,001～34,000
140,000
200,000
300,000
34,001～39,000
160,000
220,000
340,000
39,001～44,000
180,000
270,000
390,000
44,001～50,000
200,000
300,000
450,000
You can ignore the first few rows as I have no idea how you would get around the world in under 7,000 miles. I think the sweet spots are from 14,001-22,000 miles. These would allow you to see quite a bit of the world instead of just taking the most direct route around the globe. It also starts getting a bit mileage expensive after that point.
EVA “Hello Kitty” business class, bookable on your ANA RTW ticket
ANA RTW rules
There are, however, a number of rules that you’ll need to be aware of when booking these awards:
You must fly either east to west or west to east. Backtracking is forbidden.
You must cross both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
You must touch each of the three “areas” according to ANA:
Americas (North America, Central America, South America and Hawaii)
Europe, Middle East, Africa
Japan, South Korea, China, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Southwest Pacific
Up to 12 segments and four ground transfers are allowed.
Up to 8 stop-overs (ground transfers and airport changes will count as 2 stop-overs) are allowed.
Flight must be operated by ANA or Star Alliance members.
Trip must span at least 10 days.
You must return to the “area” of your original departure (but not necessarily the same city or airport).
The only rule that really makes this type of itinerary difficult is the “no backtracking” rule. This tends to make Australia and New Zealand a lot more inconvenient to get to, but not impossible.
Besides the rules listed above, there is one other consideration. You will be responsible for paying taxes and surcharges on these flights. The best way to keep your costs down is to fly on airlines with low or now surcharges.
Getting ANA Mileage Club miles
ANA Mileage Club is not as well known as most US based frequent flyer programs, but there are still a number of credit cards that can help you build up your points balance. The best partner for this is American Express Membership Rewards (MR), Amex’s main point currency. Points can be transferred at a 1:1 ratio from American Express to ANA. Cards that earn MR’s include:
The other option is to transfer Marriott Bonvoy points. These transfer at a 3:1 ratio with a bonus of 5,000 ANA miles when you transfer blocks of 60,000 Bonvoy points. Both Chase and American Express offer Marriott Cards:
First you’ll have to find award space on each leg. This is where an experienced award booker can be a huge benefit. If you want to give it a shot yourself, I find that using Aeroplan’s website to search for award space works best, and then search ANA itself for their own flights. First, you’ll search each leg independently to confirm award space, then write down the date, time, airline and flight number for each segment. You’ll also want to use Great Circle Mapper to calculate the distance for your itinerary.
As soon as you’ve built your award, you’ll want to transfer your miles to ANA. This usually takes two days. However, availability may disappear between when you transferred and when they arrived so this is where being flexible is a huge advantage. You may have to adjust your dates slightly or visit a different city, but there will always be something available.
Once you’ve built your entire itinerary, you’ll then call ANA directly to book. You’ll need to inform the agent the you are booking a “Round the World Ticket” and feed them the details for each segment. Agents can search for these segments as well, but it is a lot easier if you have your entire itinerary built before you call.
sample itinerary
This is just a small taste of what you can do as there are almost an infinite number of routes available. I confirmed availability of all of these flights, in order, on random days in the future.
I used gcmap.com to plot a course and find the total distance
Seattle (SEA) to Tokyo (NRT)-Stopover #1
Tokyo (NRT) to Singapore (SIN)-Stopover #2
Singapore (SIN) to Bangkok (BKK)-Stopover #3
Bangkok (BKK) to Delhi (DEL)-Stopover #4
Delhi (DEL) to Cairo (CAI)-Stopover #5
Cairo (CAI) to Istanbul (IST)-Stopover #6
Istanbul (IST) to Venice (VCE)-Stopover #7
Venice (VCE) to Lisbon (LIS)-Stopover #8
Lisbon (LIS) to Newark (EWR)-End
This routing is a total of 19,091 miles, which will then cost 115,000 ANA miles plus surcharges and taxes to book.
final thoughts
This is a great way to see a lot of the world flying on some of the best business class products around. Try putting together a routing with a few places on your bucket list. If you need help booking an ANA RTW (or any other award), or just need a little help to get started collecting points for your next trip, contact Peak Award Booking and we will get you there!
In my last post, “What can a year of credit card sign-ups get your family”, I showed what a targeted credit card sign-up strategy can get a family. Today, I’m going to take that one step further and show you what those points earned can do for you. Again, this is a hypothetical situation. Every family is different and has different wants, needs and abilities but I want to show you some of the possibilities. If you’d like a specific plan for you and your family, please reach out to us at peakawardbooking.com.
This fictional family of four (children aged five and eight) want to take one big family trip to an all-inclusive resort, a long couples get-away, and several smaller family trips over long weekends. We were able to cover all of their flights and their all-inclusive hotel stay for just the cost of taxes. They will however, be on the hook for most of their lodging on their couples trip and their weekend getaways. They could apply for more cards as the year progresses to cover these, but we’ll assume any new points they gain will go to future trips.
montego bay jamaica
Hilton Rose Hall Jamaica
Their first big trip will be to Montego Bay, Jamaica. Southwest flies there from Baltimore, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Houston, Orlando and St. Louis. and you can also reach it from almost any city that Southwest serves in one stop. For example, flights from Denver were running at 19,032 points round trip. Unfortunately, Caribbean countries charge huge taxes on flights so you will have to add an extra $142 per person. Starting out, for the four people in our family, it will cost them 76,128 miles and $568 in taxes. However, they will use the $500 in gift cards they received from the Hilton Aspire and one flight will cost no points from the companion pass they earned. The family’s total cost is now down to only 57,096 miles and $68. Compare that to the $438 per person for the cheapest flight (also on Southwest) and they are saving almost $1700!
Sugar Mill Falls Water Park
Jamaica is filled with resorts perfect for families, but for this trip we’ve decided on the Hilton Rose Hall due to the fact that the resort is all-inclusive and boasts the largest water park in Jamaica! For younger children there is also a kids club so the adults can enjoy some alone time while the kids play. There are also seven different restaurants on site, so the food will not get tiresome during their stay. Combine that with their beautiful, private, white sand beach and you can’t ask for much more. As diamond members, they will be eligible for room upgrades, free room service and one day free cabana rental (discounts available for extra days).
Rates for a family of four will generally start at $340 per night. Points rates, however, start at 56,000/night, so by using all of their points (plus the free weekend night they received with the Hilton Aspire card) they can get a total of four nights. Unfortunately, the hotel does charge an additional $75/night for children between the ages of 6-14, but our family can use the $250 resort credit from the Aspire card to bring this down to $350 total. Compare with paying out of pocket, their total savings is still over $1000 for the hotel and about $2700 for this trip alone!
Australia and new zealand
After four days in Jamaica with their two kids, our hypothetical parents want to take a wonderful anniversary trip away from the little ones. There isn’t much farther away than Australia and New Zealand.
They transferred 107,000 of their Chase Ultimate Rewards over to United. When combined with the 53,000 United miles from their MileagePlus Explorer signup they have enough for two round-trip tickets to Australia or New Zealand. One of the great things about United MileagePlus is their “Excursionist Perk”. The basic idea is that you can add a short one-way trip in the middle of a round-trip award ticket. This will allow our couple to visit both Australia and New Zealand on one ticket. The sample routing I found was from Colorado Springs to Los Angeles, then on to Sydney. After their time in Australia, they can then fly from Sydney to Auckland and stay there as long as they’d like before flying back to the US. The return routing was Aukland to San Francisco to Denver to Colorado Springs. The total taxes on this route were $162.13 each, whereas similar flights are running about $1600 or more if hey had to pay cash.
Park Hyatt Sydney
While in Sydney they decided to use the last little bit of their Ultimate Rewards points. For 30,000 points they can stay at the Park Hyatt Sydney. This may seem like a lot of points, but with rooms routinely running for over $800/night it is well worth it. The hotel is right on the harbor and some rooms have amazing views of the Sydney harbor or the opera house.
Now, even though they will be responsible for their hotel stays (besides the one night), they will have saved over $3,600 on their dream trip to Australia and New Zealand between the hotel stay and flights. Their total savings for both of their trips so far is now $6,300!
Quick trips
Despite having already gone to Jamaica, Australia and New Zealand our family still has almost 58,000 Southwest points and their companion pass. This is good enough for about $1,200 in Southwest flights if everyone travels together (or more if they decide to ditch the kids again). They could really stretch this by booking cheap flights, for example, from Denver they could go to San Diego, Chicago and Orlando as a family of four and Las Vegas as just a couple for one more weekend away from the kids.
Final tally
From one year of credit card sign-ups this family was able to take a trip to Jamaica at an all-inclusive resort, flights to Chicago, San Diego and Orlando and two trips as a couple, one to Las Vegas and then Australia/New Zealand. They received over $8,500 in flights and accommodations, while spending only $713 in annual credit card fees and $743 in taxes. Their total savings for these sample trips is over $7,000! Let Peakawardbooking.com know about your dream trips and let us help make them happen for you!
