A Different Perspective
The millions of readers of this blog are used to my ramblings and writing style which I am thankful for. I'd initially started writing a post about our latest European adventure and it occurred to me that since Tracy handles most of the logistics and accommodations I thought I'd ask if she'd lend a hand with this blog entry. She agreed and put her thoughts down about how we did our Europe trip and I feel like you'll find value in her writing.
Our points/miles story and Europe 2024
In June 2023, after getting back from an unbelievable vacation in Spain, Mark started researching how to travel with less out of pocket costs. Both of us tend to go down a rabbit hole when we discover new things. Mark came across a group called 10x Travel on Facebook, where he learned about traveling using credit card reward points. After numerous YouTubes, following Facebook posts, and both of us taking a course, we decided to jump into the world of credit card rewards.
Our first credit card was the American Express Platinum card. This card comes with a higher annual fee but has benefits we thought far surpassed the $695 + $195 to add me as an authorized user.
My first experience with having an AmEx Plat was on a work trip. I was able to use the Delta Lounges since I was flying Delta and had the AmEx Plat Card. I'll admit that I didn’t think it would work and they would tell me nice try, go to your terminal. To my surprise, not only did I get into the Portland Delta lounge, but my layover in LAX was amazing! For 90 minutes, I was able to relax, eat, and enjoy a glass or 2 of wine before boarding my flight to Tucson. At LAX food/drink can easily be more than $50. At that point, I was hooked! The card has other perks that offset the annual fees: Uber credits, Saks 5th Avenue, streaming credit, Hotel Perks, rental car upgrades, and earning 5x pts of flights to name a few. If this interests you let us know and we’ll send you a link to get your own points journey started!
During this time Mark made our first point redemption with his AmEx Platinum sign up bonus. A sign up bonus (SUB) is the amount of points a card will reward you for applying and using the card, which we’ve found to be 60,000 to 125,000pts. You must spend a certain dollar amount on the card during the first few months of activation to get the SUB, most of the time it’s about $4,000 in 3 months. Note this ONLY works when you pay off your card each month. Mark and I have used credit cards to pay our monthly bills for a while using cash back cards instead of travel points. We have no credit card debt. With the sign up bonus and a special redemption, 1pt = 1.3pts that Iberia airlines had with Amex, we were able to book two round trip tickets to Madrid from LAX for 97,000pts and $518 in Premium Economy, this would be approximately $5,700 if we would have paid cash.
Our next step was to figure out how to get to our long flight. We live in Portland but our Madrid flights were through LAX. We used another redemption, my American Express Gold card points. For 17,000pts and $356, we booked two First Class tickets PDX to LAX on Delta through a Partner Airline - Virgin Atlantic. Part of the points game is learning that booking directly with the airline is not always the best redemption. Delta First Class one way from Portland To Los Angeles for two can be 96,000 pts plus $$! Using only 17,000 is a way better deal, keep in mind you may not get your first choice of flight times or day. Partner Airlines tend to have limited seats. I’ve used Virgin Airlines to book several Delta flights since then, including a flight roundtrip trip for a family emergency in January. That ticket would have been $800+, with pts I paid $22. It’s not just about being able to travel more but to travel affordably when you HAVE to.
On the way home, LAX to PDX, we used a United Airlines credit that we had from a canceled trip during the COVID shut down in 2020. We had enough of a credit to fly United Economy+ and prepay for our checked bags. We got lucky and no one sat in the row with us this flight so it was like having First Class without any wine.
With our framework of flights planned we started to fill in the 15 days that we’d be traveling. In Portugal we visited Douro Valley, Porto, and Lisbon before heading back to Spain to see Seville and Madrid.
Our lodging was a mix of AirBNBs and 4 star hotels. The total lodging was $2,189 for 15 nights (averaging $145 nt), including a night in Los Angeles prior to our long flight and another after our flight back, which was recommended in case we had any issues with flights.
Other transport:
- For the Douro Valley we rented a car for 3 days, which was $180 plus $15 for tolls.
- We took two trains: Porto to Lisbon (in coach) and Seville to Madrid (first class, because why not!). The trains were $200 in total cost and highly recommended. Trains are the best way to travel in Europe.
- We had two short flights:Iberia Madrid to Porto and Lisbon to Seville on Ryanair. The two flights were $456 for our flights/bags/seat assignments.
When I was checking into our flight back to the states-Madrid to Los Angeles; Iberia offered us an upgrade to Business Class for $420pp. Business class can easily be $7,000 per person one way! We took this as an opportunity to splurge and take the upgrade for a total of $840. For a 12 hour flight it was worth every penny! The seats were comfortable, food was delicious, and the ability to sleep in a lay flat seat was an incredible experience. Mark may be ruined for all our international travel. I am thankful we are into travel points to offset this going forward. It won’t be the last time!
The final numbers for our trip: 114,000 points, $1,902 for our First Class, Premium Economy, Business Class, and economy flights, a total of 6 flights: PDX to LAX (first class), LAX to MAD (Premium Economy), MAD to POR (Economy), POR to SEV (Economy), MAD to LAX (Business), and LAX to PDX (Premium +). Lodging for 15 nts $2,189 (8 AirBNB/7Hotels). Trains and rental car $446. Total of $4,537 for an unbelievable trip.
