I wanted to share some of the details of our most recent trip booking to illustrate the value you can expect when playing the points game the way we do.
Normally we book our trips one year in advance to capitalize on low points cost for flights, however, with Covid it was harder to plan that far ahead. We had a safe-bet cruise booked already for Summer 2022 that leaves from Vancouver, just in case international travel wasn’t possible (we’re in Canada), because we’ve been aching to travel again after so long in lock down. We were planning to do a trip to Australia in December 2022, but based on how slow they’ve been to reopen, we figured a safer bet for international travel would be Europe in summer when Covid is probably going to be low. A recent graph I saw of vaccination rates in EU countries showed Portugal as one of the most vaccinated (and, presumably, lowest risk) countries, so I decided to book a week there right after our we disembark from our cruise in Vancouver.
Because this trip is now just 8 months away, many of the cheapest seats are gone. Air Canada typically only release 2 seats per flight at the lowest point rate and they get snapped up fast. However, because we have Aeroplan branded credit cards, we earn something Air Canada calls “EDQ points”, which stands for Everyday Qualification points. If you earn 100,000 of these EDQ points during a calendar year, you earn Air Canada 25k Elite status. What’s that, you say? I’m glad you asked! Allow me to elaborate…
Until recently, Air Canada “status” was only achievable through flying on Air Canada. It would take 25 actual take-offs and landings (or 25,000 actual flown miles) to achieve the lowest tier: 25k elite. While there are many tiers with various benefits, the most consistent perk is something called eUpgrade points. These points are used to upgrade you from economy class to business class. Now, I’m going to go into eUpgrade points at length in a different blog post, but for this post, I’ll just tell you, having the ability to earn status without actually flying is a fantastic perk.
The flights to Portugal were well over 100,000 points per person one way (for Business Class of course). Typically, by booking well in advance, you can get those seats for 60k-70k points. But with the eUpgrade points I had earned by having Aeroplan branded credit card, I was able to purchase a special type of economy seats for as little as 50k points on these particular flights and then upgrade them right away to BizClass seats. This special type of booking is also fully refundable, so if plans change even at the last moment, you can cancel and get all your points back.
This allowed me to get BizClass seats for the elusive far-advance rate (or better) just 8 months out. A fabulous perk!
On reward bookings there is a small tax fee you need to pay, but on this particular occasion I chose to pay the taxes with points too. Normally it’s not something I’d do as it isn’t the best use of points, but we’re trying to save cash as much as possible this month so it made sense this time.
So total cost for the outbound flights for 2 people from Vancouver to Lisbon, Portugal in lie-flat beds was: $0.00.
It so happened that for the return flight, the cheap BizClass fares were still available, so I just snagged those without having to use any eUpgrade points. I did pay a small premium in points to be able to have a fully refundable ticket as you just never know these days with Covid. Again, I paid the taxes with points.
Total cost for the return flights for 2 people from Lisbon to Calgary in lie-flat beds across the Atlantic (and regular domestic business class on the connection from Toronto to Calgary) was: $0.00.
Next came the hotel bookings. Due to holding the Amex Platinum card, we have instant status to Gold Elite with Marriott Bonvoy branded hotels. And because during the pandemic they had some promotions which we capitalized on, we obtained the next highest tier; Platinum Elite. This tier provides some excellent perks so we looked exclusively for Marriott brand hotels. What perks exactly, you say? What excellent questions you ask! Well, let me tell you…
There’s a number of perks, but the best are:
- Early Check-in
- Late Check-out
- Access to “Club Lounge” which provides free booze and food
- Free high-speed Internet
- Upgrades to higher class room, including suites (when available)
Now, we also have AAA (CAA) membership. This is the auto club that gives free towing if your car breaks down and so forth, which is a nice perk, but the reason we have this membership is for hotel bookings. Almost every major hotel brand in the world offers AAA rates which are typically as cheap as the pre-paid rates, but which offer no advance payment and are cancelable up to the day before the stay for no charge.
So we booked 4 of the 7 nights using the cheapest available AAA rate rooms. When we get there though, we’ll likely be upgraded to better rooms, possibly even fancy suites worth many times more, with all the perks mentioned above!
Cost for these 4 nights: $838 Canadian dollars.
Now, if you have a Marriott Bonvoy branded credit card, you get a free night certificate each year when you renew. We had 4 of these credit cards and so earned 4 free night certificates. We had used one already this year, but still had 3, so the final 3 nights were booked using those. We’ll of course get the same perks due to our status.
There was a small fee that wasn’t covered, so total cost for those 3 nights was: $17 Canadian Dollars.
So to summarize:
Flights from Canada to Portugal in Biz Class for 2 people (fully refundable)
7 Nights hotel with free booze, free food, early check-in, late check-out, free internet and likely upgraded room (fully refundable)
Flights from Portugal to Canada in Biz Class for 2 people (fully refundable)
Total Cost: $855
There’s the cost of earning the points, which is hard to determine precisely as the points came from a pool which were earned from cards with different fees and different earn rates on spending, but typically the cost for sign-up bonus points is around $0.005/point and points earned on normal spending (groceries, gas, etc..) are free, and earned at rates from 1 per dollar spent to 10 per dollar spent. I’d estimate the free points make up about 25% of the points we have, so I’d estimate the cost to earn all the points used in this trip to be between $600-$1,000. There’s a credit card offer out now that has a sign-up bonus cost of $0.002/point, which if you could earn all the points at that rate would bring the cost for all the points used in this trip to just $388 (if you know me, I’ve already told you about this card offer).
So, for about $1855 (or less) we got 2 fully refundable, round trip business class transatlantic flights and 7 nights hotel stay with perks. This includes the costs to get the credit cards, earn the points, pay the taxes, everything.
By comparison, the cheapest, non-refundable ECONOMY fare for 2 people on the same flights costs: $2300. That’s just the flight. A fair estimate for hotel cost would be at minimum $200/night or $1400, bringing a minimum cost for even the most basic trip at $3700. No lie-flat bed in the sky, no free booze, no upgrades, no perks.
This is why do this. A far superior flight experience, better hotels, free food and drinks, perks, upgrades and more. Fully refundable. For roughly half the cost or less of a bare-bones, no-perk, non-refundable trip paid with cash.
This is but a single example of the types of trips we’ve been taking for over 20 years. I hope I’ve shown the value inherent in collecting points and earning status. I’ve got other posts in this blog that attempt to walk you through how exactly I get there, and how you can too.