Last minute "mooching" vacations thanks to points: Andrea's success story and trip to the Caribbean
After publishing the story of stebianconi and his business vacation between the United States and Canada, we received [...]
After publishing the story of Stebianconi and his business vacation between the United States and Canada., we received other reports both on our group dedicated to Italian frequent flyers and directly in our inbox.
Destination Caribbean
In this article:
Andrea can be ascribed to early readers, probably because of his working background in New York, he was looking for a site "like the American ones dedicated to the world of stitches, but with an Italian twist."
I also had the pleasure of meeting him and "touching" his Centurion. In recent months we have been writing to each other often, and in recent days he asked me for advice, and I was happy to help him.
The chat started like this. Of course, we discussed whether we should stay in different facilities and/or pay for some pieces of the journey cash, but in the end he opted to go all in and make the most of the value of the points.
How it turned out
A few days later Andrea wrote me that she had completed everything. Transferred points from a card to the Flying Blue profile, and on the other toward Marriott Bonvoy.
Of course, we always start with the airline ticket first, for one simple reason: If you don't find the ticket, you won't reach the hotel.
Andrea transferred 219k MR equal to 145,000 Flying Blue points, this was the first time making a transfer from this card to the Air France and KLM loyalty program, so usually slower than normal. Points transferred at about 1 p.m. on August 1 and found in the account upon waking the next morning.
Ticket cost me 145,000 miles round trip in Business Class, plus 441€ tax, the cash price for this ticket would have been over 3,750€.
In terms of savings, our reader obtained a value of 3 times higher To the use of points in Shop with points mode. Having no status, however, he had to pay for the choice of place, which he would have paid for anyway no longer being included in the ticket price when flying AF or KLM.
For this booking he transferred 468k MR equal to 375,000 Marriott Bonvoy points which added to the 30,000 points already in his Bonvoy account, again this was the first transfer from MR to Bonvoy from this card. Points transferred at about 7 p.m. on August 1 and received in the account around 1 p.m. the next day.
Stay 11 nights at the Curacao Marriott Beach Resort, a 5-star beach resort. Curacao, along with Aruba and Bonaire only Caribbean islands not affected by potential summer hurricanes. The cash cost of this 11-night stay would have been €3,527
Final considerations
Of course organizing a last-minute vacation is not easy, but it is proof that using points is not only and only possible months and months in advance, or with great stress. Once you understand the rules of the game and learn the various steps, it is no more time-consuming than a traditional search.
Overall, therefore, a trip in the middle of August and booked a week before departure, which would have cost me roughly €7,000 cash, came to cost me €441 in airport taxes and 685,000 MR points. The same points would have had a hypothetical value of €2,742 if used simply to discount charges from the statement
