Let’s use this hashtag for consistency: #FranciscosGoneEurope4
- Fall 2007 – Nancy and I went to Paris and Rome – no hashtags back then
- Spring 2015 – Italy (Milan, Florence, Pisa, Venice, Lake Como), France(Paris)#FranciscosGoneEurope
- Fall 2015 – London, Budapest, Prague #FranciscosGoneEurope2
- Summer 2016 – back for more #FranciscosGoneEurope4
So most of you may be wondering, “I thought they weren’t going anymore?” Well, you guessed partly right. The original plan was to bring ALL six of us to Europe. But back in May, when Ethan and Madison said they couldn’t go to Europe due to football and cheer, we quickly changed our plans and we landed on Maui instead. We were in Hawaii just over a month ago, and we pulled off a last-minute vacation to Maui. Here’s the link to the very first entry which explained how in the world did we pull off a last-minute getaway to Maui and paid an insane amount for our airfare – $11/person! Click here… #FranciscosGoneMaui2.
Ok, so here goes. After I booked our Maui trip, it dawned on me that I still had enough points left to pull off a 2nd vacation this summer. Since Maddie and Ethan couldn’t go, the points I had remaining were good enough to bring me, Nancy, Caitlin, and Evan to Europe. Once I got everything planned for our Maui trip, I flipped the switch, and had to think of how to get us to Europe in the summer of 2016.
If you know me, you should know that we’re able to go on these vacations and NOT spend an arm and a leg. How? Mostly from the points gained via credit card sign-up bonuses. Some credit card companies reel you in by offering low interest rates, attractive balance transfer options, while others offer enormous sign-up bonuses once you meet the minimum spend requirement.
#FranciscosGoneEurope4 Factoid
- 4 Travelers (2 adults, 2 children)
- 19 days exploring Europe
- 3 countries (Portugal, Spain, France)
- 4 major cities (plus other planned day trips)
- 4-5 days stay per country/city
- 5 major hotels (4-5 star hotels)
- 4-5 major airlines
- Overall cost: $528 TOTAL…yes TOTAL!!!
These are the two receipts from United Airlines when we booked the flights from US to Europe, and flights around Europe.
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| Nancy and Caitlin’s Reservation |
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| Jason and Evan’s Reservation
How much if we paid for our flights and didn’t use points?
If we paid for our flights in cash, it was valued over $14,000 yet we only paid $528. |
I’m still in disbelief! We’re about to explore new places, 4 of us altogether, and it only cost us $528 total. I’m sure there might be other ways to use our mileage, but I was definitely thrilled. Here’s breakdown of how we paid for our 2016 Summer vacation (Maui and Europe) valued at $25,000 summer vacation, and only paid $600.| 2016 Summer Vacation | Value | Amount Paid |
Points Program |
| Maui Vacation (June/July 2016) | |||
| Airfare to Maui for 6 passengers | $4,500 | $67 | Chase Ultimate Rewards |
| 3 days, 2 nights Wailea Beach Marriott |
$1,500 | $0 | Marriott Rewards |
| European Vacation (Aug 2016) | |||
| Airfare for 4 Passengers (3 countries, 4 cities) |
$14,209 | $528 | Chase Ultimate Rewards |
| 19 days hotel accomodations (Doubletree, Sheraton, IHG, Hyatt, Radisson Blu) |
$4,800 | $0 | Multiple programs (American Express, IHG, Hyatt, SPG, Club Carlson) |
| $25,009 | $595 |
What are the goals for this trip:
- Minimize paying out of pocket cash expenses(check)
- Maximize our stay by picking the best of the best properties(check)
- Utilize the airline routing and stopover rules(check)
- Go somewhere new (check)
- Visit/Revisit a dream destination by request(check)
I started getting in to the points game in the Spring of 2014. While I have traveled quite a bit using points, I still have a lot to learn. Back in the fall of 2014, I started to share my knowledge with my immediate family members. I told them which cards I signed up for, how I planned to use the points, etc. They weren’t all that thrilled. None of them signed up with any of the credit cards that I shared. I, on the other hand, stuck with what I knew. Since I started earning points in 2014, we’ve gone on these vacations:
Summer 2014 – Maui,Hawaii
Award: 3 free roundtrip tickets to Maui (valued at $2,100)
Award Used: Hawaiian Airlines points earned via Hawaiian Airlines World Elite MasterCard
Spring 2015- New York, Italy and France
Award:
- 3 free roundtrip tickets from LA to NYC (valued at $500/person)
- 4 discounted roundtrip tickets from NYC to Milan ($399/person)
Award Used:
United Airlines Miles via United Mileage Explorer
Award: 4 Free Roundtrip tickets from LA to Kauai (valued at $750/person), only paid $44.
Award Used: Chase Ultimate Rewards
Fall 2015 – London, Budapest, Prague
Award:
- 2 Free Roundtrip tickets from LA to England, to Hungary, to Prague, back to LA (valued at $7,000), only paid $349
- 14 days of free hotel stays (valued at $3,300), paid ZERO
Award Used: Chase Ultimate Rewards and United Airlines Miles
Award: Six (6) FREE Roundtrip tickets from LA to Maui
(Valued at $750/person or $4,500 total), we only paid $11/person
Award Used: Chase Ultimate Rewards
- Maui – 8 travelers
- Kauai – 11 travelers
- Oahu – 2 travelers
I’d like to call this elite group as my Eleven Dollar Club. Imagine that! A roundtrip ticket to Hawaii for $11 per person! Holy cow!
All Roads Lead Back To Europe
It’s now Wednesday, Aug 10, our flight is at 5:45pm out of LAX. Instead of parking at LAX for nearly 3 weeks, we decided to take an airport shuttle instead.
Caitlin and Evan are excited. They’ve never been to Europe. Ethan has to stay due to football, Madison, on the other hand will also stay, but she’ll be going to Kauai next week with the rest of my family, my Eleven Dollar Club.
As expected, things at home were quite hectic. Lots of last minute errands and packing. This is our first time to go to Europe in the summer time frame. The last 3 times were in the heart of the fall/early winter, and tail end of Winter. So layers of clothing were a must. Not this time. I expect it to be in the 80s or even warmer, or shall I say, hotter. Aaaahhhhh, whatever!!! We simply cannot wait. What’s our first stop? Lisbon, Portugal. None of us have ever been to Portugal, and we’re thrilled that this is a new adventure for all of us to experience.
I’ve got a long plane ride ahead. I’ll be blogging while on board. This is DaddyTravels signing off….see ya in Portugal!
For a change, we started packing a week earlier. We had our luggage in the master bedroom. This would be Evan and Caitlin’s first visit to Europe. We were thinking of using four carry-on luggage, but we decided that since our flights included free check luggage, might as well take advantage of it. We ended up taking 3 carry ons and 1 regular sized luggage. We checked in 3 of them at no charge…why not?
So what’s in my backpack?
- Macbook Air
- iPhone 6 Plus
- SIM Card (I’m using T-mobile’s unlimited international data and texting plan for this trip)
- My new Nikon DSLR
- Sony point and shoot cam
- GoPro and mini tripod
- Lightning cables
- International Power adapter
- Beats Headphones
The 12:15pm shuttle pick-up meant we’d be at the airport by 2pm, more than enough time for our 5:45pm flight. But I’m a man with a plan. First, I still had to work. I was working, sending, replying to work-related emails en route to LAX. I also had to join a 3:00pm conference call. So when we arrived at LAX before 2pm, it all worked out. I was not frantic. We took our time to drop off our luggage with United Airlines located in Terminal 7. We also walked over to Terminal 6 and hung out at Alaska Airlines Boardroom Airport Lounge. Why not United? Nancy and I have free Priority Passes (thanks to American Express Platinum Card) that allowed us free access at multiple airport lounges worldwide. I’ve already used our United passes, and was glad to know there was another lounge that was about a 10-minute walk away. That’s where I took my conference call whilst sipping a hot cup of minestrone soup. Nothing uber fancy about the lounge, lots of chairs, a bar, just about what you would expect in an airport lounge. Because of our Priority Pass, we got in for free.
Finally, it was time to board. We, the passengers, we corralled in different boarding groups. We were one of the first ones to board. We found our seats and got settled.
United Airlines surprisingly great service
As I mentioned before, I don’t expect much from “american” airlines like United. But I gotta tell you, we had excellent service from the time we boarded, to the time that they served food. It was non-stop!
Our nearly 10-hour flight was at times turbulent. I believe it happened while we past through the Midwest, storm perhaps? Other than that, we arrived in London’s Heathrow Airport around 11:30am (local time).
Weren’t we just here?
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| Where’s our flight to Lisbon? |
Yes, we were just in Heathrow a few months ago during our Fall getaway to Europe. Upon landing, I turned on my cell phone and received a welcome text from T-Mobile.I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. What a huge airport! We walked a good 20 minutes to get through the UK Border, and then we had to get to Terminal 2, that’s where we will catch the plane going towards Lisbon. Nancy looked at her Priority Pass app, and sure enough, there were 2 airport lounges for us to choose from. We chose the one closest to security. I went directly to the hot food. Chicken Tika Masala? Thai Coconut Chicken Soup? What???? Yes….that was among the many selections. Thank you, American Express Platinum!
Ok more later….morrrrreeeee later!! We’re getting ready to board for Lisbon 🙂
Great work on getting so much value our of your points! Great photos too!
Thank you, Benjamin!! We’ve only been doing this points hobby for a couple of years, and with such a big family, we are very fortunate to take all of us to different destinations.
I just visited your site. Man, I’m not worthy!!! You have lots of good content. I can surely learn from you.
Many thanks! I appreciate the kind words. Keep in touch! Maybe we could collab some day!
Most definitely. Would like to learn from folks like you!!!
Kudos to you…it seems you are one of those smart travellers who make optimum use of reward points and deals etc, to save wherever possible on unavoidable costs. More power to you..have many happy trips all over the world.
Thank you so much. It took a little bit of work to organize but it was all so very worth it…thanks so much for reading 🙂
Wow, that’s really cheap! I like your “points” hobby 😉 Don’t forget to add Amsterdam to your Europe itinerary next time :p
For sure….I’m hoping to make it to Amsterdam one day…..thanks for reading 🙂
it’s almost unbelievable that you can SAVE SO MUCH with points.. I wouldn’t even know where to start and more important: When! It seems to take a lot of time but seems as well SO worth it! Well done! 🙂
Thanks for reading this entry….I know it was quite long…but there was so much to write about. If you want to get started, I highly suggest starting with the Chase Sapphire Preferred, by opening a card the annual fee is FREE the first year, you have to spend $4K within the 1st 3 months, and they will reward you with 50K bonus points which is good enough (as an example) for 2 roundtrip tickets to Hawaii and all you will pay is $11/ticket. You can use it for other places too. https://daddytravels.wordpress.com/2016/12/11/the-hamilton-tickets-of-credit-cards/
i find that really interesting, tbh I never considered getting a credit card for the bonus.. in fact; I did not even know that there are bonuses! I will definitely have a look into it 🙂 Thanks for sharing, really !
@fouronworldtrip….I visited your site, and looks like you can benefit from points earning cards as well….any questions, please let me know…I love this stuff!!!
thank you! i might come back to it 🙂
I dont know if it’s a coincidence or what. That I stumbled upon your post. I am headed to Europe in 2 weeks. We are going for 19 days. We are 4 people… 🙂 you see. Although our itinerary is different, we sure can pick some valuable tips from your account
Hi….how cool…where exactly are you going? We love, love, love Europe…we’ve been to London, Budapest, Prague, Paris, Milan, Florence, Venice, Lake Como, Rome, Pisa, Lisbon, Barcelona, Madrid, Iceland, and Sweden……I have documented our adventures, too. Enjoy!!!