Amanda’s reader success tory about a family trip to London and Paris includes a cautionary tale! đź‘€
My story is a cautionary tale of why everyone should have at least one solid travel card with insurance!
Getting Started with Points and Miles
We unknowingly started with points and miles back in July 2023. My husband opened a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card with me as an authorized user (do as PTS says, not as I did) to have a card to take to Italy with no foreign transaction fees. We spent over $4,000 on our Italy trip, not knowing we could have used points to pay for anything.
A year later, an incredible deal popped up for flights to Hawaii. I remembered seeing a reel about how to use points to book hotels for free and that Hyatt was supposed to be a good one. I look back and laugh. I was able to use our accrued points to stay at the Hyatt Regency Maui for four nights and $0. I struck up a conversation with a mom at the pool and we somehow started talking about points and credit cards. She asked if I followed PTS and told me how she had just been to Italy for two weeks and now Hawaii for two weeks, all basically free. I couldn’t believe it. When we got home, I immediately binged the entire Points Talk podcast. I was hooked.
After deciding we were ready to jump head first into points and miles in October, I had my husband refer me and opened a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card of my own (adding no authorized user this time). I then had my husband open a Citi Strata Premierâ„ Card. We had used a Citi Double Cash Card for years and had accrued many points, but weren’t able to use them for much more than a 1:0.8 transfer.
After earning these points, I was itching to take our first trip. We were able to book an eight-day trip to London and Paris with our ten- and eight-year-olds in March.
London Trip
I booked direct flights on Virgin Atlantic for 25k points per person, round-trip, from Tampa to Heathrow. There was a transfer bonus, so I only needed to transfer 77k points to have the points we needed. The taxes were pretty high-flying at $382.79 per person, round-trip, to and from Heathrow, but this is something I’ve learned about now through following PTS, and I will look for other options for next time.
Our hotels in London were all booked through the travel portals. At the time I signed up for my CSP, there was a $300 travel portal credit along with the standard $50 credit per year, so we paid $270 out of pocket for three nights and four people in central London.
Paris Trip
We took the Eurostar to Paris and stayed at the
Hyatt Regency Paris Étoile. This was the highlight of our trip! I had booked two rooms at 15k points per night for three nights with my Chase Ultimate Rewards®. I used
Pam’s template to ask the hotel if there was a possibility for close or connecting rooms for my family, and let them know that I’d be celebrating my birthday while we were there. Now I know this doesn’t happen every time, but the hotel upgraded us to the family room which would have cost close to $900 per night—and we paid $0. They also surprised us with a birthday cake and local treats. How ridiculously special!
We took the Eurostar back to London and stayed at a hotel with cash to be near my birthday present: Apollo Victoria Theater to see Wicked! Little did we know that this would be the last stressful moment for the next few days.
The Need for Travel Insurance
We woke up the next day, bags packed, ready to grab breakfast and head to the airport. We turned on the television to find out that the London Heathrow airport had closed due to a fire and power outage. We were stuck! But I wasn’t completely panicked. I knew that because I booked the flight taxes on my CSP, I had trip-delay insurance. I quickly googled what making a claim entailed, called Chase to set up a claim, and booked a hotel for that night. Without a rebooked flight, we had no idea how long we’d be there, so I had to book each night one at a time.
I used this opportunity to hotel-hop like Pam and see the London Hyatts. I booked our first night at the Andaz London Liverpool Street. The rooms are HUGE and so fun and bright. I highly recommend the breakfast at Rake’s Cafe. Still not having a way home, I booked another night, this time at the Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill. This was completely different, but another stunning Hyatt property. We finally received confirmation of a flight out, so decided to stay close to the airport at the Hyatt Place London Heathrow.
Once we got home, I sent Chase all of my hotel and meal receipts for reimbursement. We received $500 per person for our delay. I was so extremely grateful that I had learned about the travel insurance and how to best utilize this travel card through PTS. I’m not sure what we would have done if we had to pay for four extra (last-minute) nights in London.
Bottom Line
All in all, we spent 12 days in 2 European cities. What should have cost $10,000 cost us 173,000 points and $1,970. And if I were to plan it again knowing what I know now, I could have paid less in cash. I’m so glad everything fell into place—that we unknowingly opened our CSP on a whim, that I found that cheap flight to Hawaii, and that I ran into the mom who introduced us to Points Talk Squad because it has literally changed our life.
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