Cara sent us this heartwarming story that you will love!! Points and miles helped her return to some cities with special meaning to her family.

 

 

Hey Pam!  I shared a bit about this in the Facebook group when I got back, but there is so much more to the story.  I hope this trip inspires more families like ours to take trips they never thought they’d take.

 

In 2008, after being married a few years, my husband and I found out that we would struggle to have children without medical intervention.  After much research, we found an IVF clinic in the Czech Republic that would cost us a fraction of what it would in the US.  We had already made VERY cheap plans to backpack Europe that winter, so we rearranged some things and spent time in hostels in Europe. 

Our miracle twins were born in September of 2009.  Since then, we’ve undergone IVF a few more times and have had two more children.  We even named our daughter, Vienna, and our son, Camden, after some of the incredible places we visited during that time.  We have always promised them that we would take them back to the places that meant so much to us during that trip.  We had started slowly saving a few years ago for that trip, but had only saved a few thousand dollars.

 

I learned about points and miles from my cousin in 2023.  Luckily, I quickly found Points Talk Squad and have been a loyal podcast listener and blog and Facebook follower ever since.  I dove in headfirst.  There was no easing in for me. We started in August of 2023 with the Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, and after referring each other back and forth with other Ink cards, we had almost 1,000,000 points by January 2024. 

 

I had heard that Flying Blue had some business-class flights from Houston (where we live) to many places in Europe and back for 50k points each at the time.  I realized we might be able to make our dream trip happen more quickly than we had originally thought, and I immediately dove into travel searches and planning.  Also of note: my husband completed the Hyatt Globalist Challenge in February of 2024 and reached Globalist status.  Like I said, no easing in for us. We left the day after Christmas and were away for 12 days before school started.  Our family decided to hit three cities: London, Paris, and Vienna.  We made sure to include our kids’ namesake cities in our first trip.

 

Here is the breakdown of our general trip for my husband and I and four kids (ages 15, 15, 11, and 8).  All of our Air France/KLM and Hyatt points were transferred from Chase.  Total points used: 933,800.  Total cash used for transportation and lodging for all six of us: $5,221.57. Business-class flights from Houston to Vienna on KLM cost us 50k points + $231.10 taxes and fees each, though the two younger kids were only 37.5k points because of the Flying Blue discount for kids 11 and under.

Two nights at an Airbnb in Vienna cost $609.37.  We looked at hotels in Vienna, but it made more sense for us to get a nice Airbnb that would fit all of us than to have to get multiple hotel rooms and pay more. 

 

 

 

 

Economy-class flights from Vienna to London on Austrian Airlines cost 8.8k miles + $48.30 in taxes and fees each.  My husband and I both had some United miles from business travel over the years and used those to book with United’s Star Alliance partner, Austrian Airlines.

Four nights (2 rooms of 3 each night) at Hyatt Regency London Blackfriars, we used 234k points total. We also booked a Eurostar train for the six of us from London to Paris for about $600 total.

 

 

 

Three nights (one room of 2 and one room of 4) at Hyatt Regency Paris Étoile was 87k points, plus we used category 1-4 free night certificates received from my husband’s business stays and Hyatt’s Brand Explorer promotion.

One night (one room of 2 and one room of 4) at Hyatt House Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport was 10k points.

Business-class flights from Paris to Houston on Air France cost 50k points plus $389.30 taxes and fees each, though again, the two younger kids were only 37.5k points because of the Flying Blue discount for kids 11 and under.