How I Used Points and Money to Travel to Galapagos

Galapagos has been a dream for years. We have put it off forever because of cost. Well, we did it! And we did it for under $1500 for 2. Yay!! I can show you here how to do it for even less.

 

For this trip, I opened a few credit cards that I knew I would use to pay for airfare and hotels.

I started with the United Business Card. (referral link) This card gave me 80K miles after spending $5000. I then used those points to purchase flights from SLC to Baltra on United.  The first 2 legs are on United metal. Then you switch to Avianca, which is a Star Alliance Partner. It is all one reservation. 

We got a super saver deal for 29K points each way in Economy. I was super happy with that redemption. I used some of my other 80K miles to send my son to Kauai.

With the United Business card came 2 passes to the United Club.  We had a 7 hour sit in Houston so we enjoyed that benefit and ate lunch and dinner there. 

We arrived in Quito after midnight. I made a bit of a goof and booked the wrong Wyndham. This was a costly mistake as we had to take a $25 taxi each way instead of a free bus to the airport hotel. Darn. 

Our next flight was with Avianca at back at the Quito airport at 10 am. We got up early for our trek back. I will love to go back and spend time in Quito. Our drive was lovely. 

When you get to the airport, you need to get in line to purchase a Galapagos transfer card. Just show your passport, pay $20 each and they will set you up. Then go put your bags in a special screener. Next, go to Avianca and check in. You then go through security like normal. 

We have priority pass privileges with a Hilton Card, so we visited the lounge for breakfast and a soft place to wait for our flight. 

My other point redemptions were 20,000 points transferred from AMEX rewards to Avianca for our flight to Guayaquil. This came to 9500 Life miles each, plus some change. 

I also used the chase travel portal to book our snorkel trips, I could have saved even more money if I booked hotels with points, but I chose airbnb and VBRO instead...I can't really say why. They were just cheap enough, I guess. 

How to use the Chase Travel portal to book activities:

 I hope you can make this dream become a reality.

How to Maximize the Chase Travel Portal

 If you read at all about Travel Hacking, you will get more than a few nay sayers when it comes to booking anything with a third party. This is certainly the case with Chase Travel Portal. I have an unpopular opinion on the subject. But I have never been burned...so there is that. 

Chase has many awesome transfer partners. But they also have a travel portal which has some amazing deals. I have used it for activities like Viator and for hotel redemptions. Both have saved me points and money and worked out wonderfully. 

I have been planning a trip to Tokyo. There is a Sheraton by Tokyo Disneyland where I am interested in staying. I have 30,000 Bonvoy points and 1 free night award stay. Guess how much that gets me at this Marriott property? 

This is for the middle of the week, off peak:

My points certificate allows one room worth 50,000 points. So that, plus my extra points will allow me to stay here one night. Yay! Not. 

I want to stay 3 nights, however, so let me zoom over to the Chase travel portal and Check out the same hotel and see how many points it will cost me. Watch this video to see how to use this portal for hotels. You will be amazed!

Points Collector tip: Always call or email to confirm your booking when you use a 3rd party site. That way there are no surprises when you show up to the hotel. 

You need these Chase points!  I would be honored if you would use my link to sign up. You can learn more about Chase Sapphire here! 

Make Tax Time Reward Time!

 Do you owe taxes this year? Credit card rewards make it almost a joy to pay them! 

If you owe taxes, do yourself a favor and DO NOT pay with cash. Reward yourself with travel miles to take away some of the sting.   

Here are the cards which currently have the highest sign up bonuses:  Check out this post for why I prefer bank cards to co-branded cards. 

Chase Sapphire Preferred. There is an amazing sign up bonus right now of 80,000 points after you spend $4000.  (you need to sign up in a Chase branch to get this offer) To see all the transfer partners for Chase, check out this post.

Chase Ink Business Cash. 75,000 points after you spend $6000. If you have any type of business, I recommend this card. This bonus is worth 3 great hotel nights at Hyatt or a sweet first class airplane ride. (here is my link)  *note that to use these points for travel, you do need a Chase Sapphire product to transfer to, otherwise it is cash back which is not the best value of the points you can earn.

Amex Gold or Platinum. These have a high annual fee, but if you can use the perks, they more than offset the fee. They both have high sign up bonuses right now that you can google. Try to find at least 90,000 for gold, and 150,000 for Platinum.  I do not have a referral offer for that much, but I have seen them around. (hint: check out Travel Freely)  To see the transfer partners for Amex, check out this post.

Capital One Venture  or Venture X Card: 75,000 points after spending $4000. Capital one has many awesome transfer partners and some cool perks. 

One last thing to note is that you will get a fee when paying your taxes with a credit card. Here is the IRS page  with a breakdown. You can pay as little as 1.85% which is a small price to pay for the value of the points earned. 

Need more convincing? Check out what 80,000 points can get you when you meet the sign up bonus (SUB) with Chase.

Portugal!

Imagine landing in LAX and rather than sitting at the gate for hours, waiting in a lounge with free food and drink, comfy seats, showers, and quiet. Then you board a plane to your business class, lay flat seat.  The only down side of which is:  do I sleep?  Or stay awake just to see if I  really am dreaming?

I always thought only the wealthy (or lucky few standby travelers) could have such an experience, but turns out, all you need is a good credit score, a little education, and some organization skills. 

This was my first international redemption.  PORTUGAL!

Here is what I did. 

1. Opened an Amex Gold card, spend $3000 in 90 days to earn 95,000+1/ points. 

2. Opened a Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, spend $4000 in 90 days to earn 80,000+ points. 

3. Began a search for flights to Lisbon by looking for transfer partners with Amex and Chase. Iberia and Flying Blue (KLM) are the two I chose. 

4. I wanted to make sure that flying in the night, I had a Biz Class seat, and was willing to reposition to another city to get the best deal.  I bought a confirmed ticket on Delta for $130 to reposition to LAX. 

5. Found a flight from Los Angeles to Lisbon on Iberia and transferred 49000 points from my Chase points to Iberia. (Plus taxes around $150 USD)

6. Missed a few good deals coming home because I hesitated. But ended up transferring 62,000 Amex points to KLM for Premium Comfort direct to SLC. (Plus taxes $184)

A few notes:

My total out of pocket was $464. Foreign carriers often cost less points, but taxes are higher than the big three. It could have been much less had I used points to reposition to LAX, but I didn't know what I was doing at the time. Lessons learned. I will know next time. 

My flight on Iberia would have been a cash price of $5000. My flight on KLM, $2000. I was able to sleep all the way to Madrid and never had any jet lag. I was comfortable on my 11 hour flight home which also gave me the opportunity for a stopover in Amsterdam to attend the Tulip festival. 

I am super happy with this awesome redemption that gave me lounge access, priority boarding, free food, and premium comfort. 

American Express Membership Rewards

 My first card in the points and miles game was the AMEX Gold. I got an amazing sign up bonus offer and jumped on it. Membership Rewards have great transfer partners and are easy to earn due to generous sign up bonuses. 

There are 3 main Personal Amex Cards which will earn points that can be transferred.

The Green Card

The Gold Card 

The Platinum Card

The green card has the lowest sign up bonus, and the lowest annual fee. The fee is always 150 a year, the sign up bonus varies. The best thing about this card is that the $150 annual fee is offset by a $189 Clear credit each year. So if you can utilize this, the annual fee is more than covered. 

The Gold Card is a mid-tier card. It has a $250 a year fee and the points vary from 60,000 (my link) to 100,000 depending on promotions. Right now, you can find some great promos for this card if you google it. This card has a $120 Uber Credit per year as well as $10 back each month on Grub Hub, Shake Shack, or Cheesecake Factory. If you use all these credits, it also offsets the yearly fee. 

The Platinum Card offers the most MR (membership reward) points (150,000 is the current offer) and carries a yearly fee of $695. There are many benefits that the card offers including hotel credits, airport lounge access, and more. Many people say they use all the benefits to make up the yearly fee. Also google best offers. 

**Note, AMEX gives generous sign up bonuses that you can only get once in a lifetime (or more like every 7-8 years) so grab them when they have an elevated bonus and never cancel before one year. They will likely take back your points and put you in AMEX prison. 

Click here for a complete list of transfer partners. 

Complete List of American Express Transfer Partners

 The best use of Membership Rewards earned with American Express Green, Gold and Platinum cards is to transfer to travel partners. Here is a list of partners that you can transfer to. Most are instant, but some will take a few days to complete. 

To check for award space on these partners, you will need to create an account. It is free. 

Points Collector Tip: Make a spreadsheet of all your airline and hotel accounts and keep a record  of your log in and passwords as well as any points you have already in those accounts. 

Delta Airlines Rewards

Delta has some great sweet spots for traveling domestic. I love this tool to look for what has been reported by other users. 

Put in your city and see where miles can take you. Then go to Delta and see if you can find the same fare. I have found that Delta Economy tickets to anywhere in the US, except Hawaii are pretty sweet.

To make things even sweeter, if you have a Delta Amex card, you can get 15% off award booking as well. For those in a Delta Hub, this is awesome news. 

The example below is an award search from SLC to Houston. I can look at the calendar to find the best day to travel. I found that April 12, it will be 16,500 miles, but with my Gold Card discount, it is 14,000 one way. 

Look at this search from SLC to LAX on the same day! 3800 miles in Basic Economy. It is a short flight, so I will take it.

Delta Gold Business Card has no fee for the first year and a current sign up bonus of 50,000 points after $2000 spend. I picked one up because of these benefits:

Annual Fee Waived first year ($95 after that)

Sign up bonus!

One Free Checked bag!

15% off award bookings.

Can board with main cabin one, even when you buy the cheapest ticket. Makes you feel just a little bit important. 

This card will not be my go to for everyday spend but just paying off the card and putting it away will still give me the benefits listed above. A great card if you live in a Delta hub. 

**Note, AMEX gives generous sign up bonuses that you can only get once in a lifetime (or more like every 7-8 years) so grab them when they have an elevated bonus and never cancel before one year. They will likely take back your points and put you in AMEX prison. 

If this card makes sense to you, go ahead and apply. If you use my link, I would be especially grateful.