My grandmother turns 80 years old this year, and still lives in the town where both she and I grew up, population 20,000. She has never had a passport, and never been outside the United States.
Since my grandfather passed away about a year ago, she has been stretching her wings a bit. She’s since been to California and Florida to visit a couple of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren
There are about 30 of us grandchildren in total, and another 30 or so great-grandchildren (I’ve lost count.) That’s a lot of kids, but it seems she is still excited to add one more, probably because I am her favorite ;) It would be a shame for her to be unable to see and hold GCCjr because of cost and distance, so I’m flying my Grandma and my Mother to Taipei to see GCCjr in May
With a total price tag of $457.40, why not?
Travel Hacking Award Tickets
It’s been awhile since I booked a flight this complicated, and the airline website tools don’t make it any easier
The idea was for Grandma to fly from Minneapolis to San Francisco, visit my sister and her kids for a couple days on a stopover, and then fly together with my Mom to Taipei. They would return together to San Francisco and my Grandma would go solo on the final leg back to Minneapolis.
A normal Saver Award from the US to Asia is 70k miles round-trip. These are limited, and a so-called Standard Award requires 160k miles. The Saver Award is definitely the way to go
But no matter what I tried, there were no Saver Awards between Minneapolis and Taiwan with a connection in San Francisco. Flights were either $1,400+ dollars, 160k miles, and/or had ridiculous connections. Who wants to make a connection in Chicago and Denver en route to San Francisco?
Since airline computers are dumb (on purpose?), I simplified things by looking only at the San Francisco to Taipei flights. By choosing to fly on a Monday instead of a weekend, I found great Saver Award flights. Even better, the flights were on Asia based partner airlines, which I find provide a much better level of service
At this point, I decided to book two tickets for my Grandma, one for the international flights using miles and another for the domestic flights using cash. I could do this on the airline website, but instead I called the airline
By doing so, I could guarantee that the flights were on the same itinerary. Since international flights allow for 1 free checked bag, my Grandma can now check a bag in each direction. Total savings: $50
Had I gone with the default the airline wanted me to chose, I would have had to pay 70k miles for my Mom and 160k miles for my Grandma
I like the option I chose better
Mom’s ticket: 70k miles + $41.60 in tax
Grandma’s ticket: 70k miles + $41.60 in tax + $374.20 for the domestic flight
Total cost: 140k miles + $457.40
Valuing Miles
Why pay for the domestic flight instead of use miles?
I could get a Standard Award ticket for the domestic flight for 50k miles, and a Saver Award ticket for the international flight for 70k miles. This would have saved 40k miles over the Standard Award international flight and saved us $374
But that isn’t good value for our mileage. Using 50k miles to save $374.20 would value the miles at less than 1 cent each (0.75 cents/ mile)
I would rather use those miles at a later date when they can provide greater value
Mileage Value and Savings
I could have just paid cash for this itinerary. The airlines would certainly prefer this option. There were even some convenient flights available at reasonable prices
Mom’s ticket: $1,074 (includes $72.40 tax)
Grandmas’s ticket: $1,425.44 (includes $91 tax)
Total: $2,499.44
But using miles saved us $2,042.04 out of pocket.
With these prices, those 140k miles were worth 1.5 cents each, twice as much as if I had used miles for the domestic flight.
This is near the low end of what I like to get for $/mile, but I prefer this to paying $2k out of pocket
What’s not to like, when most of these miles were free. Using an Airline credit card as our main spender, it is possible to get a free trip or two a year
Want to score your own free flights? Check out these offers
But where will they stay?
We have a great apartment in the center of Taipei, just a short walk to the hospital where all of the excitement will begin. It has 1 bedroom. For a newborn baby and 4 adults. 2 of them jet-lagged and the other 2 sleep deprived
In many of our longer term stays, we rented apartments with an extra bedroom to entice visitors. It’s hard for people to get away though, and it was seldom used… so we stopped. It didn’t make sense to pay extra for unused space
Instead we are looking on Airbnb.com for a small apartment nearby. Nice studios just 1 minute away are available for $50 – 60 a night, and I’ve contacted a few of them to see about longer term discounts. We looked at one this morning, with the owner offering a rate of $40/night
Adding a temporary bedroom to our place for 20 days should cost less than $1,000, definitely cheaper than renting a 2 bedroom apartment for a year and substantially cheaper than a hotel
By having my Mom use our referral link for Airbnb, we will receive a $25 discount on the room and a $25 credit of our own for future use. I haven’t decided which credit card to use yet, but by paying for the room with a card we will also get up to 1,000 airline miles for future use or 1.5% cash back.
Conclusions
Trying to get airline award tickets for two people flying from different cities is a horrible pain. By being flexible, we were able to get the best return for both our miles and our money
Although 1.5 cents per mile is not the best rate ever, it did save us over $2,000. There is nothing better than getting something for free that you were going to buy anyway
Our Airbnb strategy also looks like it will pay off, paying less rent each month for everyday life and a few extra dollars for extra space when people visit.
It’s been too long since I’ve seen my Mom and Grandma. I can’t wait to introduce them to GCCjr, show them Taipei, and feed them all of the “delicacies” Taiwan has to offer :)
What kind of value have you received for your miles? We’d love to hear your travel hacking success stories
Nice. I was the de facto travel agent for my in-laws when they visited their peeps in Cambodia (I know how to use a computer is the main reason, not due to any special travel knowledge). Raleigh to Phnom Penh, Cambodia was crazy, like $1800 per ticket (back when flights to Asia were barely over $1000). But Raleigh to LAX was $250 and LAX to Cambodia was $800. Almost cut the price in half by getting them across the country then flying them from a major Asian gateway (LAX) to their final destination in Cambodia. Airline miles seem to work the same way as you mention.
That’s cool that family is coming to visit you. It’ll be a very special time for your grandma (best trip of her life?). We have a hard enough time getting my last remaining grandparent to catch the train 3 hours across out state. I can’t imagine getting her to fly around the world.
Travel hack on!
I hear Grandma is really excited, she is telling everyone she sees about her upcoming trip.
In her mind everything in Asia is stuck back 100 years ago (“do they have washing machines there, or do they wash clothes on rocks in the river?”), so it will be interesting to see her reaction to a city of 12 million people, the 2nd tallest building in the world, and weird food
When I try to explain the big Asian cities, I describe them as “Like New York City, but nicer, cleaner and more advanced”. :) It will be quite a shock. Make sure to take her to a rustic village at some point.
And some parts of Asia are still living in the 1900’s. My in-laws in the jungles of Cambodia just got a toilet in the last few years. No running water at their house yet, but it’s coming soon (got to run to the village manual pump well for the water). Other than the cell phones and motor bikes, you would think it was 1900-something. Lots of rice farming, chickens running around, hammocks, thatched roofs, etc. My sister in law who just came to America didn’t know the world was round until she got here and saw a globe. Mind. Blown. Heck, that’s like 1400’s.
Haha, that reminds me a real story of a hubby’s friend. He dated a girl from a real rural mountain area in China. The girl got into a big argument with him because he said the earth is round. She thought he was crazy. Put laugh aside, this also makes me feel grateful for the education i had. But at the same time, being better informed is not neccessarily a good thing. Many of our worries and confusions come from being in the know.
Sorry for jumping into your discussions.
Life is just one long conversation, so don’t feel bad for jumping in! We take our educations for granted, but we really do learn important stuff that helps us function better as adults.
Proof that education does not necessarily make one wise:
http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/cms/
Almost 2500 facebook followers!
I understand the confusion. When you look out from ground level, the earth certainly seems flat. And if you grow up and live your whole life in a village and never travel more than 10-20 miles from home in your lifetime, that’s all you know. A flat earth.
My Cambodian in laws live 50-75 miles from Angkor Wat and I don’t think any of them have visited the ruins in their lifetime until my parents in law and bro in law visited them from the US and provided the funds to get them to Angkor Wat. As in they rented a minivan.
I completely understand that
I understand less how those with Facebook accounts struggle with the concept. But hey, look at the Kansas school board…
At least they are probably lots of fun at cocktail parties
Jump right in! That’s what we are here for :)
Sweet! Those points definitely work better for international travels than domestic ones. We did well for travel hacking in 2014. Used points for $17,000+ worth of travel:
Six round-trip tickets to Buffalo: converted Chase ultimate points to Southwest points, about 9500 points per ticket, >3 cents per point);
Two business class round-trip tickets from China to US: 110,000 AA miles + 150,000 United miles; >3 cents per point if not more;
Two coach class round-trip tickets from China to US: 70,000 AA miles + 75,000 Air Canada miles (converted from American Express points); about 2.5 cents per point;
One round trip to Atlanta: a last minute trip, worst mile value, but I did not want to pay $550 for an hour flight, 45,000 delta miles, about 1.2 cents per mile;
One round trip to New York: again a last minute trip, the cost was over $1000 round trip. I used 45,000 delta miles for this, a little over 2 cents per mile.
One round trip to Dallas: from American Express to British Airways, 9000 points, >2 cents per point
That is a ridiculous amount of flying for one year
Back in my working days, I once flew over 300k miles between January and August. It was horrible
The $/mile value is definitely better in Biz class
Well done
Hehe, forgot to mention that these are trips for a family of four plus a few inlaws. I also don’t like too much travel, especially air travel. I wish there are more high-speed trains. Ideally, like this one: http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/12/tech/innovation/elon-musk-tube-hyperloop/
Elon Musk is the man, I love everything he is doing
And trains. Love trains. The 300+ km variety in Japan and Taiwan are fabulous ways to travel
Your post timing, at times, is eerie. This made headlines last week, in terms of public outrage over the airlines audacity: http://tinyurl.com/ofo7khr
We haven’t traveled a lot this year. Marc had a horrible experience on Delta traveling for an interview. Overall, we stick to Alaska, or Virgin when we do travel, because of the service and comfort level. Back when I regularly booked travel on behalf of others, the main thing I learned was that the airlines REALLY want you to use the website. They maximize their return on what meager rewards they offer–because a website isn’t going to think,”wow, this guy is really nice, I can fiddle the miles this way”. Human customer support costs them more, in terms of budget, rewards cashed in, and time.
Tips from me: Look for fares on a Tuesday evening. Look to see if booking one-way tickets saves money (though this can cause potential security issues, as you might imagine). Be flexible, if possible, on your departure and return day-of-the-week. And above all, if you can’t find what you want, grit your teeth and call the airline directly.
Thanks for a great post, GCC!
Those are some good tips. While in Seattle, I found Alaska and Virgin to be the best too. Most of the big airlines in the US though seem to try to intentionally make you suffer
http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/airlines-want-you-to-suffer
I may have contributed to the skiplagged legal fund. With my airline credit card
https://www.gofundme.com/skiplagged/
You’re a such sweet and fascinating human being who I like to meet someday. I hope that your grandma and mom have a wonderful time with you guys in Taipei. Travel hacking is like foreign language to us but we sure will try to learn. We used to hesitate having so many credit cards for free mileages but times are changing, so got to accept incredible offers and probably rack our brain to hack it right way.
Thank you Young, that is very kind of you
There are some incredible offers out there. You can check through the link in the post if you like :)
As for meeting up, we are always available for afternoon tea :)
Awesome travel hacking, thanks for sharing! I’m curious, you’re able to accumulate so many miles while living in Taipei? I rarely used my credit card there (plus I’d assume the rate with these cards aren’t as good)
We use a No Foreign Transaction Fee card for everything we can: https://gocurrycracker.com/free-money-a-guide-to-international-money-management/
Some of these miles are from spending, some from flying, and some from bonus points for applying for a new card (sometimes 50k or more)
We’ve been pretty lucky with travel hacking so far. We’ve used miles to fly out to San Diego for a vacation two years ago, We got the Southwest Companion Pass for the past two years, that allows you to get two tickets for the price of one, even when paying with miles. We’ve used that for trips to Denver for skiing, and florida for a family trip.
The best use so far though has been our trip to Europe and the UK. We used United miles and Chase points transferred to United to book flights to there and back. Flying over we flew in business class, b/c with miles it’s not that much more expensive, and it was fantastic. We also used the “free one-way” trick to add a one way ticket to Hawaii to the end of our trip for only an extra 2,500 points. We’ve been able to push this flight back and we are now taking it in the coming November. All we have to do is book the return flight, again using points.
Travel hacking is one of those hobbies that is rewarding when you start dipping your toe in and getting the first few rewards. And then when you start going a little deeper you can really get some awesome value from your points.
Nice score on the trip to Europe and Hawaii! Also congrats on the win against Oregon
We almost always fly coach, preferring to use miles to fly more times rather than in a bigger seat. I’ve flown hundreds of thousands of miles in business and many times internationally in first, but when it is my own $ or miles I don’t really see the value (personal preference)
When we were in Seattle we had the Alaska Airlines credit card, which provided a companion ticket for $99. We would use that every year for one of our trips. Pretty sweet deal
Travel hacking is awesome! It takes time to plan and research, and of course apply for the right reward CC’s. However, once all the pieces of the puzzle are in place, it makes traveling to new places even more exciting and rewarding. I’ve flown to China for less than $100, Peru (Lima and Cusco) on miles (airfare tallying less than $100 in taxes and fees for the int’l and the domestic leg), and Australia (Sydney) for less than $150 (bus/eco). Frankfurt and Japan are up next. :)
By leveraging reward CC’s, it really makes traveling (domestically and internationally) much more accessible and affordable for ordinary people. And of course, one has to be responsible in managing their credits and finances in order to reap the travel hacking benefits properly. There are a tons of miles/points sites that people can learn from (i.e. millionmilesecrets, thepointsguy, onemileatatime, etc). Read up, execute, and have fun!