Australia and Singapore for $177

Australia, like Iceland as we wrote about yesterday, is an expensive place to fly to. While Iceland is expensive because not a lot of airlines fly there, Australia is expensive because it’s just so darn far away. Luckily for us points collectors though, this doesn’t matter. Using miles to travel to Australia is one of the most valuable redemptions available. Plus, with many airlines, we can add in a free stopover somewhere else on the way! Here’s our proposed itinerary:

Chicago to Sydney

Sydney to Singapore

Singapore to Chicago

And the credit cards we’ll be signing up for:

Chase United Explorer

35,000 points after $1,000 spend in 3 months

No annual fee first year

Chase Ink Bold

50,000 points after $5,000 spend in 3 months

No annual fee first year

The Chase Ink Bold is a business credit card, but even if you just sell things on eBay sometimes, you technically have a business. You can sign up using your social security number as the federal tax ID that the application requires. Million Mile Secrets has a great post on the details of having a business even as an individual.

Total Miles: 31,000

Total General Points: 55,000

Total Cost: $0

Flights

My favorite thing about Chase Ultimate Rewards points is the ability to transfer to transfer them to United Airlines, since I love United miles. They transfer at 1:1 ratio, and a ticket to Australia costs 80,000 miles, so we’ll need 49,000.

United allows a free stopover on any international trip, which means I can stop somewhere on the way to or from Sydney. One of the nicest airlines in Star Alliance happens to be Singapore Airlines, so I figure why not add in a stopover there. United’s website is very good at showing me their and most of their partners’ award availability. I can search all three segments of this trip at once too:

After a bit of looking around for good flights, I come up with this itinerary:

And the price?

Not bad for two different continents! Plus I get a 10-hour layover in Beijing which would probably give me about 6 hours in that city if I wanted it.

Total Points Used: 80,000

Total Cost: $176.60

Granted, you’re going to have to pay for your own hotels, but those pale in comparison to the cost of actually getting to these two continents. You could also sign up for the Barclays Arrival card or the Amex Gold card to get points towards hotels. However the two credit cards mentioned above will be enough for your flights.

Here’s a look at the actual price for flights on the same days:

Flights

$3002

Total Savings: $3,002

Need help thinking about the right credit cards for you, or how to book this kind of trip? Head over to www.wennecorp.com and we’d be happy to chat with you.

Credit Card Links

United MileagePlus Explorer (make sure to add an authorized user in order to get to 35,000)

Chase Ink Bold

4 nights in Iceland for $124

Iceland is one of the hardest places to get to on the cheap. From the U.S., only two carriers fly to it, Icelandair and Delta. Delta SkyMiles are pretty useless for going to Iceland, as most dates have no low-level seats available. As for Icelandair, it is very hard to earn miles on this airline due to its lack of partnership with any alliance or U.S. airline.

We’re gonna take a shot at getting there on the cheap anyway, though. Here is our desired itinerary:

• Washington, DC to Reykjavik, Iceland
• Reykjavik to DC

And the credit cards we’ll be signing up for:

Chase Sapphire Preferred

40,000 points after $3,000 spend in 4 months

No annual fee first year

Chase Ink Bold

50,000 points after $5,000 spend in 3 months

No annual fee first year

The Chase Ink Bold is a business credit card, but even if you just sell things on eBay, you technically have a business. You can sign up using your social security number as the federal tax ID that the application requires. Million Mile Secrets has a great post on the details of having a business even as an individual.

Total General Points: 98,000 (90,000 signup plus 8,000 from meeting minimum spend)

Total Cost: $0

Flights

These general points can be redeemed at 1.25 cents apiece for travel, so I’m going to look into flights for a 4-night stay using the ITA Matrix, a special travel search engine that allows you to customize your flights. I’m going to search a flexible 4 nights during the entire month of August:

Looks like I can head out on Friday the 30^th for cheapest. I go ahead and look for flights on the Chase travel site on those dates.

Perfect! Even though it costs 50,000 points for these flights, I can pay partly with cash as well. I have 43,000 points from Chase Sapphire, so I’ll use those here, and pay the $87.50 with my credit card.

Total Points Used: 43,000

Total Points Remaining: 55,000

Total Cost so Far: $87.50

Hotel

Iceland is famous for its high prices. Lodging is no exception. Even the most basic of hotels can be pricey. Chase’s travel site lists a good number of options, but there is one that I think is a good compromise between price and quality, the Hotel Cabin (3.5 stars on TripAdvisor):

The total cost would be 58,000 points, but I only have 55,000. So I’ll use those and pay the remaining $36.35 out of pocket.

Total Points Used: 98,000

Total Cost: $124

$124 is pretty reasonable for four nights in one of the most expensive countries to get to and stay in. This certainly is not the most efficient use of points out there, as you can often get much more than 1.25 cents of value out of these points by transferring them to airline miles, but if you’re trying to minimize your cash expense and maximize your travel to Iceland, this is one of the best ways to do it.

Here’s a look at the actual price for flights on the same day and the same hotel:

Flights

$625

Hotel

$724

Total Savings: $1,349

Need help thinking about the right credit cards for you, or how to book this kind of trip? Head over to www.wennecorp.com and we’d be happy to chat with you.

What the heck is: a stopover?

As promised, on weekends we’ll go over concepts that may be unfamiliar to miles newbies but can be very important to making the most of your miles.

Stopover – A stop along the way to your intended destination

Stopovers are important because they can allow you to visit more than one destination for the price of just one roundtrip ticket. Here’s an example of a regular roundtrip and the same roundtrip with a stopover, one that I have personally done:

Regular roundtrip – DC to Cancun

Airline: United

Routing: DCA-DEN-CUN, CUN-SFO-DCA

Cost: 35,000 miles

Roundtrip with stopover – DC to Denver to Cancun

Airline: United

Routing: DCA-DEN, DEN-IAH-CUN, CUN-SFO-DCA

Cost: 35,000 miles

You can see that even though they cost the same, United allowed me to add in a stopover in Denver for free. Instead of just going to the beach, I was also able to ski.

Different airlines have different rules for stopovers. Most airlines vary their rules based on whether your itinerary is domestic or international. International tickets tend to give a lot more flexibility with whether you can stopover, where, and for how long. Here is a list of major airlines and their rules for stopping over:

Airline Stopover Rules

Delta

Domestic

One free stopover

Delta is the only airline I’m aware of that allows stopovers on domestic flights. Unfortunately you can’t just stop anywhere, it has to be on a routing they consider valid. If I’m flying San Francisco to Seattle, I can’t make a stop in Boston. Usually Delta hubs along the way or close by are good candidates for stopovers. For instance, if I’m flying from Los Angeles to San Francisco, I can stop in Salt Lake City for free because that is a close-by Delta hub. Here’s an example of a roundtrip with a stopover that costs the same as a roundtrip (25,000 miles):

As always with Delta, make sure to search each segment separately, and not as a roundtrip, on the website.

To take this a step further, if you live in a Delta hub, you could turn this free stopover into a free one-way either to your home airport before your trip, or from your home airport after your trip. If you live in Atlanta, for instance, you could fly a roundtrip to Saint Louis and then add on a flight to Miami after you come back. In this case Atlanta would be considered your stopover city, according to Delta.

International

One free stopover

The same rules apply for international award tickets as far as I can tell. You can stopover pretty much anywhere Delta or one of its partners has a direct flight to or from the U.S. For instance, roundtrip from Boston to Moscow costs 60,000 miles on Delta. I can add in a stopover in Paris for no extra cost:

Easy as pie!

United

Domestic

No stopovers

United doesn’t allow stopovers on domestic tickets.

International

One stopover

United allows one stopover on international tickets, and is very flexible with what you’re allowed to do with this stopover. For instance, you can use it as a free one-way ticket from your home airport later on. A trip from the U.S. to Europe costs 60,000 United miles. If I add in a stopover at my home airport, you can see that for three legs, it prices out the same:

American

Domestic

No stopovers

American doesn’t allow stopovers on domestic tickets.

International

One stopover in North American gateway

With American, the only stopover you can have on an itinerary is at the point you leave the U.S. So if I’m flying Saint Louis to London and back, I can only have a stopover at my layover airport (probably O’Hare or JFK). Here’s an example:

Three legs for 60,000 miles, the same price as STL to LHR roundtrip.

US Airways

Domestic

No stopovers

US Air doesn’t allow stopovers on domestic tickets

International

One stopover at a Star Alliance hub, but really you can do whatever you like

US Airways is known for having agents that have little to no idea what they’re doing. If you feed them the flights you want and tell them how much the mileage cost should be, it is not unheard of for them to honor the request. I’m not sure the US Air stopover rules are published anywhere (definitely could be wrong), but basically you can stopover in any Star Alliance hub (there are a ton of Star Alliance partners with off-the-beaten-path hubs).

I can’t show an itinerary on here because US Airways doesn’t show its partners’ availability on its website, but you can search United.com for the flights you want and then call US Airways to book it. Make sure to ask them to waive the booking fee because you can’t book it online.

Nothing Toulouse: 4 nights in the South of France and back for $170

On the request of a reader, today we will spotlight a roundtrip flight to and stay in Toulouse. For those of you not in the know, Toulouse is the fourth-largest city in France. Far more importantly, in my opinion, is the fact that Toulouse is the headquarters for Airbus, maker of the world’s largest jet, the Airbus 380.

Yes, that is a double-decker plane. A few years ago, Air Austral (national airline of the island of Reunion) proposed to buy one of these planes and make it all coach class. To give you some idea of the plane’s size, in this configuration it would have held 840 people.

Anyways, I digress. Today we will be signing up for three credit cards to get us on our trip to Toulouse. Here’s our itinerary:

• Washington, DC to Toulouse
• Toulouse to Washington, DC

And the credit cards we’ll need:

Barclays US Airways Mastercard

35,000 miles on first purchase

No annual fee first year

Use: Flights to Europe on a Star Alliance partner

American Express Starwood Preferred Guest

10,000 points on first purchase

15,000 points after $5,000 spend in 6 months

No annual fee first year

Use: Transfer points to US Airways miles to have enough for flights to Europe

Chase Sapphire Preferred

40,000 points after $3,000 spend in 3 months

No annual fee first year

Use: Pay for hotel

Total Airlines Miles: 60,000 (35,000 US Airways plus a transfer of 25,000 from Starwood)

Total Hotel Points: 10,000 (remaining from Starwood after transfer and minimum spend)

Total General Points: 43,000 (40,000 from CSP plus minimum spend requirement)

Flights

US Airways charges 60,000 miles to fly from the U.S. to Europe in coach. We only got 35,000 miles from their Barclays credit card. Fortunately, Starwood points are transferable to U.S. Airways at a 1:1 ratio. In addition to U.S. Airways, check out the other partners they transfer to:

That’s a pretty ridiculolus list. Just don’t transfer to Air New Zealand. It costs 65 points per mile.

Another nice thing about Starwood points is that, in order to get 25,000 airline miles, you only need to transfer 20,000 points. Starwood gives you the other 5,000. So by transferring 20,000 Starwood points to US Airways, we end up with 25,000 US Airways miles, and 10,000 Starwood points remaining.

Now we have enough to fly to Europe. But US Airways is a small airline that definitely does not fly to Toulouse. Fortunately they are part of the Star Alliance, which has many airlines that fly to Toulouse. US Airways’ website doesn’t allow searching for partner availability, so we’re going to use United’s website to search, and then call US Airways to book. We’ll have approximately enough Chase points for 4 nights at a very nice hotel, so let’s go ahead and book for a long weekend, flying out Thursday (arriving Friday) and leaving Tuesday.Here’s what United’s site has:

If you’re an optimist you might say that you get to stop in Philly for only an extra $2! If you’re more normal, you would probably say that you’d be happy to take one stop for $37 instead of two for $39. Let’s choose the second option connecting via Frankfurt. Write down your dates and flight numbers so you can call US Airways to book. Remember these flights are on Lufthansa, not United.

Next let’s find our return flight Tuesday. One option, but it’s a good one:

Make sure to write down these flight numbers as well. When you call US Airways to book the tickets, they may try to charge you a phone booking fee. Politely ask them to waive this, as you were not able to book these flights online since they were on a partner airline.

I’ll be honest I’m not very familiar with US Airways’ taxes and fees on miles tickets, but I assume they will be similar to United. Plus US Airways charges a $50 award booking fee (ridiculous). So the total for flights would be about $170.

Miles Used: 60,000

Cost: $170

Hotel

The great thing about Chase Sapphire Preferred is that you can use the points in two ways. One is to transfer them to airline miles or hotel points (or even Amtrak). The other is to use the points as currency to purchase travel. If you do it this way, each point is worth 1.25 cents apiece. Chase has a travel website that you can access by logging into your account. In downtown Toulouse, it looks like there are two 4 or 5 star hotels that you can book using your points:

Or you can scroll down to see the list of hotels:

That last one, the Novotel Toulouse Centre Wilson, is really nice. In fact, it’s the second-highest rated hotel in all of Toulouse on TripAdvisor. And four nights comes in just under our budget, at 41,268 points.

Miles Used: 60,000

General Points Used: 41,268

Cost: $170

Not bad for four nights in the south of France! Let’s take a look at our savings:

Flights

$1,416 (Lufthansa via Munich each way)

Hotel

$516 (for 4 nights)

Total Savings: $1,190

Credit Card Links

Starwood Amex

Chase Sapphire Preferred

Barclays US Airways Card

Need help thinking about the right credit cards for you, or how to book this kind of trip? Head over to www.wennecorp.com and we’d be happy to chat with you.

How to churn points (or how to meet minimum spend without spending money)

The great thing about credit cards is that when you sign up for them, you’re eligible for large amounts of bonus points/miles. For instance, when you sign up for the Starwood American Express card, you can earn up to 25,000 points, which is enough for 2 nights at a very nice hotel.

The not-so-great thing about earning these bonus points is the amount of money you have to spend in order to get them. To get those 25,000 points you need to spend $5,000 in 6 months.

For those on a tight budget, this can be a little daunting. $5,000 in 6 months is probably doable for full-time professionals, but students may not find it as easy to accomplish. Plus, if you sign up for other cards at the same time, you have multiple minimum spends to meet. Luckily, there is an option available that, while a bit complex, can end up earning you lots of points while minimizing your cost.

The simple version: Bluebird at Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart and American Express have teamed up to create Bluebird, which is basically a bank account without a bank. It’s also completely free. After signing up, you receive a Bluebird American Express card, which is a pre-paid debit card. It can be used like a debit or credit card for purchases anywhere that accepts Amex. Your Bluebird account can also be used to pay off your credit card bills, rent payments, other bills, or to send a check to pretty much anyone, anywhere. At Wal-Mart, you can load your card with funds either using cash or another debit card. Million Mile Secrets has a great post here about loading the card.

The way you load your Bluebird card is where you can meet your minimum spend (and earn some points!). Yes, you can load it using a points-earning debit card, such as the Bank of America Alaska Airlines card, the UFB Direct American Airlines card, or the SunTrust Delta card. That is a fine way to earn some points. But thanks to some recent legislation, you can now essentially use your credit card to load Bluebird.

Without going too much into the details, a lawsuit between retailers and Visa, MasterCard and large U.S. banks has made Visa and MasterCard gift cards required to have PINs, much like your ATM or debit card currently has. So these gift cards now act like debit cards, meaning you can use them to load your Bluebird like you would load it with a debit card. Not all gift cards have this functionality yet, but the Vanilla gift cards you can find at Wal-Mart have been working, according to other blogs. So here’s what you would do:

1. Go to Wal-Mart
2. Buy a Visa Vanilla gift card with your credit card
3. Set the PIN by calling the number on the back
4. Go to a MoneyCenter and load your Bluebird
5. Log onto the Bluebird site and pay off your credit card

Easy peasy!

The only cost to this is the $3.95-$6.95 activation fee per gift card ($500 each), so you’d end up paying $39.50-$69.50 to meet $5,000 in minimum spend.

The slightly more complex version: GiftCardMall via TopCashBack

GiftCardMall.com offers Visa gift cards worth up to $1,000 for a $3.95 fee and $1.99 shipping. That’s $1,005.94 for $1,000 to load onto your Bluebird. Here’s the catch. You can go to TopCashBack.com and go through their portal to purchase the GiftCardMall Visa card. Currently TopCashBack offers 1.5% back on GiftCardMall. So suddenly you’ve gotten $10.05 back on that purchase.

$1005.94 - $10.05 = $995.89 for $1,000 to load onto your Bluebird

For $5,000 spend, you would earn $20. You are literally getting paid to meet your minimum spend. Once you receive your Visa gift card in the mail, you go to Wal-Mart and load it just like you would have in the last scenario.

This second scenario can be a bit complex for first-timers. I recommend testing it out using the first scenario and then graduating to the second scenario once you’re comfortable.

Caveats

There are a few things I would make sure to either do or not do with this Bluebird minimum spend trick:

1. Don’t send yourself a check

If you’re loading money onto your Bluebird and then sending yourself a check to cash, that looks bad. American Express could easily shut down your account

2. Do use Bluebird to pay bills

The point of Bluebird is to use it like a bank account. So pay your credit card, mortgage, rent, electricity, or any other bill with it. Don't abuse it by sending checks.

3. Don’t load more than $5,000 in a month or $1,000 in a day

Bluebird has a $5,000 monthly limit and a $1,000 daily limit.

4. Do use your credit cards and Bluebird for other purchases too

A credit card company may get suspicious if you’re only spending money at GiftCardMall or Wal-Mart. Spread your spending around. Same goes for Bluebird. Use it once in awhile for something other than paying bills. Again, don't abuse the system.

5. Do start small

Don’t go out and buy thousands of dollars worth of gift cards. Take it slow at first. Learn how it works. My first load was with a $25 gift card I bought at CVS. Figure out the game first, then grow to larger amounts.

Links

Bluebird

GiftCardMall Visa

TopCashBack (this is a referral link that earns me a few bucks if you sign up!)

3 nights in Hawaii for -$140 (yes that’s a negative sign)

Yesterday we looked at going on a Eurotrip. Today we’ll take a more relaxing vacation. And this time, we’re going to include the hotel along with your flight. Not only that, but this trip only requires two credit cards. First, a look at our itinerary:

• New York to Kona, Hawaii
• Kona, Hawaii to New York

And the credit cards we’ll be signing up for:

American Express Starwood Preferred Guest

10,000 points on first purchase

15,000 points after $5,000 spend in 6 months

No annual fee first year

Citi American Airlines AAdvantage

50,000 points plus $150 statement credit after $3,000 spend in 4 months

No annual fee first year
Note: This is an unpublished offer, but reports on this FlyerTalk thread say that the application link below works)

Total Airline Miles: 53,000 (50,000 signup plus 3,000 from meeting minimum spend)

Total Hotel Points: 30,000 (25,000 signup plus 5,000 from meeting minimum spend)

Total Cost: -$150

Flights

Although the big island of Hawaii is not nearly as popular a flying destination as Honolulu (Kona Airport has only 8 year-round direct routes from the continental U.S.), it is still possible to use your miles to fly there. American Airlines, the airline we’re going to fly, offers a daily flight from Los Angeles.

It gets cold in New York by October, so I figure that is as good a time as any to get away to a beach spot. Let’s do a three-day weekend towards the end of the month. A quick award search reveals a bunch of dates we could head out there for cheap: 

I want to head out on a Thursday and come back Sunday, so let’s match up a cheap Sunday return flight:

Looks like we can do Thursday the 24^th to Sunday the 27^th. Let’s dive deeper. At the SAAver award level (35,000 miles roundtrip), American has only one option:

Kinda brutal having to go through Los Angeles and Seattle, plus having to change terminals at LAX, but hey, I’m willing to take a long day of travel in exchange for three days in paradise. Note that the reason you have to change terminals is because the Seattle to Los Angeles flight is actually on Alaska Airlines, a partner of American’s. I select this itinerary and move on to the return flight:

On the way back there aren’t a ton of options either, but there is one I really like. The KOA-LAX-EWR option is a 930pm redeye from Hawaii to LA, and then a 2.5 hour layover before continuing on to Newark. This means I get the whole Sunday in Hawaii before I have to go home. Plus, one-stop from Hawaii to New York is very reasonable. The option to go through LAX and Raleigh doesn’t seem entirely appealing (no offense to Raleigh). I move to the booking screen:

$10 and 35,000 miles? I’ll even have enough left for a one-way flight on American within the lower 48 later on!

Total Miles Used: 35,000

Total Hotel Points Used: 0

Total Cost so Far: -$140

Hotel

Okay we’ve gotten to the island. Now we need a place to stay. I will go ahead and search the SPG website for hotels:

Starwood found 11 hotels for that weekend. One is in my price range. Sheraton Kona Resort & Spa gets a 4 out of 5 on TripAdvisor and costs only 10,000 points a night, giving me exactly enough for three nights after meeting the minimum spend on my SPG Amex. The options for 10,000 points a night are mountain view rooms:

  

Hey, that’s fine, I like mountains. Plus, the direction my window faces has nothing to do with how much time I spend on the beach. Booked!

Total Miles Used: 35,000

Total Hotel Points Used: 30,000

Total Cost so Far: -$140

So there you have it. Two credit cards and negative $140 gets you to Hawaii. Okay so you still have to pay for transportation from the airport and also for food, but to give you some idea of the money you’re saving, here’s a look at the actual price for flights on the same day and the same hotel:

Flights

$763 (US Airways via Phoenix each way)

Hotel

$597+ ($199/night plus tax)

Total Savings: $1,360+

Credit Card Links

Starwood Amex
American Airlines Visa (unpublished offer, meaning it takes you straight to the application page)

GIVEAWAY TODAY!!!

We still have a few AwardWallet Plus subscriptions and AwardWallet OneCards to give away. Leave a comment below and we’ll pass you one of each (until we run out)!

Need help thinking about the right credit cards for you, or how to book this kind of trip? Head over to www.wennecorp.com and we’d be happy to chat with you.

A 5-city trip to Europe for less than $300

Today we’ll look at an example trip a lot of young’uns out there might want to take after college. But we’re going to do it nearly for free (at least the flight piece anyway). First, a look at our itinerary:

Chicago to London

London to Amsterdam

Amsterdam to Helsinki

Helsinki to Berlin

Berlin to Paris

Paris to Chicago

Now here are the credit cards we’re going to sign up for:

United MileagePlus Exporer (Chase)

30,000 miles after $1,000 spend in 3 months

No annual fee first year

American AAdvantage (Citi)

50,000 miles after $3,000 spend in 4 months

No annual fee first year

British Airways Avios (Chase)

50,000 miles after $1,000 spend in 3 months

$95 annual fee

Total Miles Earned: 130,000

Total Cost: $95

Assuming you can meet the minimum spend on these cards without having to pay extra money (I’ll do a later post on how to meet minimum spends without doing any out-of-pocket spending), so far all you’ve paid for with these three credit cards is the British Airways annual fee, which is charged immediately when you activate the card.

Chicago to London

American Airlines

Europe in the summer is an expensive place to visit. A roundtrip fare could easily cost you $1,000. Fortunately, we’ve got a better option. To get there, we’re going to use our American miles we just earned.

American’s cheapest flights to Europe are 30,000 miles each way. From Chicago to London the availability looks fantastic:

Look at all that green! Unfortunately a lot of these flights are on British Airways. Why is that a bad thing? Because British Airways charges exorbitant fuel surcharges. This route would cost something like $250, and that’s on top of the 30,000 miles you used! But there are some options on American, which will cost you all of $5. Here’s how you can spot American flights:

See how some of the options say “BA” for the second flight? Those are British Airways flights. See those two middle ones on flight 106? Those are American flights. So let’s pick one of those.

Not bad!

Total Dollar Cost so far: $100

Total Miles Cost so far: 30,000

London to Amsterdam

British Airways

Okay you’ve seen Big Ben. Time to get to the mainland. Flying within Europe on miles is cheapest on British Airways because of their distance-based miles chart. Instead of paying 10,000-12,000 miles per flight on another airline, you could pay as little as 4,500 or 7,500 on British Airways. It just so happens British Airways has direct flights from London to Amsterdam:

Look at all that availability! I chose June 17^th randomly, and it gave me two flight options:

Either one works for me. Here’s how much it is going to cost:

Since I’m low on cash and high on points, I’m going to choose the 4,500 miles option.

Total Dollar Cost so far: $122.50

Total Miles Cost so far: 34,500

Amsterdam to Helsinki

Finnair on American Airlines or British Airways miles

The oneworld alliance has a few carriers within Europe. Of course there is British Airways, but there is also Finnair, Iberia, and Air Berlin. Since they’re all in the same alliance, I can use my British Airways miles on any of the other airlines. Finnair has a base in Helsinki, and it just so happens they have direct flights from Amsterdam:

What?! Uh oh! It looks like there are no available flights. Well this isn’t quite true. Because Finnair is a partner, British Airways’ website isn’t very good at displaying a whole calendar of its availability. But if we search an individual day, flights do show up:

Unfortunately it costs a ton of money in addition to the miles:

Definitely not worth spending $100 when an actual ticket costs only a little more. Lucky American Airlines miles can also be used on this flight, and the fees are way cheaper:

Problem solved!

Total Dollar Cost so far: $161.90

Total Miles Cost so far: 44,500

Helsinki to Berlin

Air Berlin on British Airways miles or American Airlines miles

Again we have a choice here. Let’s see the costs of each:

4 cents difference, but 2,500 miles difference. Let’s use our Avios.

Total Dollar Cost so far: $178.54

Total Miles Cost so far: 52,000

Berlin to Paris

Air Berlin on British Airways miles or American Airlines miles

Again a very small fee difference, but this time the mileage difference is way greater. Winner: British Airways.

Total Dollar Cost so far: $213.25

Total Miles Cost so far: 56,500

Paris to Chicago

United miles, but which airline?

So we’ve had our amazing trip all over Europe, but it’s time to go home. We don’t have 30,000 miles left on American to finish the journey, and British Airways, with its miles being distance-based, would be way too expensive. Luckily we signed up for the United credit card, which gives us 30,000 miles to work with.

Any day with a green or dark green box definitely has Saver (30,000 mile) availability. Sometimes the blue boxes do too, and even once in awhile you’ll find a white day with Saver availability. I chose July 8:

There’s one flight available! It’s on Lufthansa, a fantastic airline, going through Dusseldorf. Unfortunately there are some fees for this set of flights, but nothing astronomical.

Total Dollar Cost: $286.75

Total Miles Cost: 86,500

$300 to fly 5 places in Europe and back? I’ll take that.

For questions please comment below or visit our site, www.wennetravel.com.