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.