Amanda’s reader success story about trips to Iceland and Greece combines two amazing points and miles destinations. Here’s her story:

 

I came from a “one vacation a year” family that slowly turned into “no vacations a year,” and I grew up around a bunch of “we’re taking our kids to Europe or the Caribbean” families. I also spent hours and hours consuming mystery books and movies like Nancy Drew, the Mandie series, and Murder, She Wrote, in which our gutsy amateur detectives traveled the world solving crimes that had stymied the police. Those things all started within me an insatiable desire to see the world that, even as I got older and started to plan vacations for my husband and myself, was left unmet because we were a young couple with a mortgage and a distinct lack of disposable income left for international travel.

Enter the Travel Mom Squad (and points and miles) in 2023.

I, like many people, was initially skeptical, but after starting to listen to the TMS podcast, my dreams of overseas travel suddenly became more attainable. So I figured, if I’m going to do this points and miles thing, I should really lean into it. I didn’t start off with a particular trip in mind, but with the help of my husband as my Player 2, we started opening cards. We started with one card_name each, then the card_name, then all three of the Chase Ink business cards, getting referral bonuses for my P2 on each card (except one, because I forgot, and that galls me to this day :P). With those points in hand, I started planning, and in 2024, my husband and I were able to book a week-long trip to Iceland.

Using Points and Miles

First Trip: Iceland

At the time, I still felt too nervous and unsure of myself with airline sites to book flights with points and miles, and we were booking with less than a year of notice, so I opted to pay for the flights with cash. We paid $1,351.20 for round-trip economy flights from Baltimore to Reykjavik in September.

 

 

Here’s where it gets good:

• 2 nights at Hotel Rangá (a luxury four-star SLH hotel with an expansive free breakfast that was booked on Hyatt points before SLH switched their partnership to Hilton in Hela, Iceland
  • Cost: 65,000 Chase points transferred to Hyatt (Note: one night at this hotel runs $500-$600 per night) 
• 3 nights at an adorable little cottage Airbnb called Kaldbaks-kot in Húsavik, Iceland
  • Cost: $684.62 up-front that we then erased with 68,500 Capital One Venture Miles
• 1 night at Apotek by Keahotels (a luxury four-star boutique hotel) in Reykjavik, Iceland
  • Cost: $233.27 booked through the Chase Travel Portal in order to use our $50 Chase travel credit (so the total cost would have been $283.27)

Thanks to points and miles and the Travel Mom Squad, we were able to save almost $2,000 on our trip to Iceland! But wait—there’s more!

 

 

 

Second Trip: Greece

The more I’ve learned about this hobby, the more confident I’ve become in booking trips with points and miles, and this year, my husband and I (along with some friends that I coached through booking flights and Hyatts with points and will be handling half of the points cost with for the AirBnB) are taking a trip to Athens in September! (I can’t provide photos for this one since it hasn’t happened yet, but I figured the details would be worthwhile to share!)

So, for a two-for-one deal:

• Economy flights from Philadelphia to Athens and Athens to Philadelphia
  • Cost: 129,000 British Airways Avios points total transferred from Chase + $514.60 in fees for departing flight + $202 in fees for returning flights
• 5 nights at the Grand Hyatt Athens
  • Cost: 72,000 Hyatt points, both from the Chase World of Hyatt card and transferred from Chase
• 3 nights at an Airbnb cave house in Oia, Santorini, with a heated tub
  • Cost: $2,166.85 that we cancelled out with 216,700 Capital One miles (I know this one isn’t the most points-cost-effective, but our friends will be splitting the cost with us, making our payment only 108,350 Capital One miles, and this place has free breakfast)

This hobby really is the gift that keeps on giving. On this trip, we’re saving over $4,000! Many, many thanks once again to the Travel Mom Squad for helping to make this travel dreamer’s visions a reality!

 

 

Thank you for sharing your two amazing reader success stories to Iceland and Greece, Amanda!

 

Related Posts

Reader Success Story to Iceland

Friday Family Vacation to Greece

Review of Canopy by Hilton Reykjavik City Centre

Podcast 137. Iceland & Ireland with Points: Jess’s 10-Day Family Adventure