PointsPursuit

London/Paris Trip Report

I wanted to do a quick write-up of our $37,000 London/Paris trip that cost us ~$100. Many people were interested to see the breakdown of actual costs and points needed to take a similar trip. Here we go!

Hotels

We stayed a total of 11 nights in hotels

Total cost per night - $41.82

Flights

We flew business class from Phx > London, took the Chunnel from London to Paris, and then flew First Class from Paris > Phx. The main reason we did it this way was to compare first class with business to see if it is worth the extra points. The only real differences that we could see were a slightly bigger seat, slightly better food, and some pajamas you can take home with you. Wow. Note to future self, always fly business class!

Total cost per person round trip - $272.67

*Additional note – 80% of the cost of these tickets were just the taxes for flying through London Heathrow. For future trips I plan on flying direct and skipping London, which would significantly reduce the cost of the airline ticket.

Comfy in First

Extras

The best part of using miles/points for traveling is it allows you to spend a bit more on the fun stuff. Granted, we in no means went overboard. We still traveled via the metro, purchased meals from the grocery stores when we could, and stuffed ourselves on free hotel breakfasts. However, everything is just so much more expensive in Europe even with the current favorable USD exchange rate. Below is a breakdown of our costs over the 12 days.

Total Cost

In the end, the total cost of our trip out of pocket was $2,264.84. This includes all food, souvenirs, transportation, hotel/flight taxes, and the cost to generate all the points we used. The retail value of what we had was almost $37,000! Granted, if I were paying out of pocket I would never fly first class or stay in the nice hotels we were in. But it sure was nice to be able to do it and not pay out the nose.

How I Earned the Points

In all it took 9 credit card applications and $25,000 in manufactured spend to earn the necessary points. This left me with lots of AA, IHG, and Hyatt points to use on future adventures as well. 9 cards may sound like a lot, but remember you can have many, many credit cards without it hurting your credit score drastically. See my other posts on credit scores for more info.

Points Needed	Card	Issuer	Required Spend	Signup Bonus	Total
210,000 AA Miles	4x Platinum Aadvantage	Citi	$12,000.00	60,000	240,000
45,000 Wyndham	1x Wyndham	Barclays	$1,000.00	45,000	45,000
80,000 SPG	2x SPG	Amex	$10,000.00	35,000	80,000
2 Free Nights Hyatt	1x Hyatt	Chase	$1,000.00	2 Free Nights
1 Free Night IHG	1x IHG - Annual Bonus	Chase	$1,000.00	80,000 + 1 free night annually

Additionally we used bank signup bonuses to cover the cash cost of our trip. We have done many in the past, but for simplicities sake I will show the most recent 3 that almost covered our entire trip.

	Chase Personal	Chase Business	BMO Harris
Alex	$300	$500	$250
Allie	$300	$500	$250

Totaled, these bank account bonuses add up to $2100 cash which basically covered the whole trip. Yes, it’s kind of annoying to go into a branch and open up new checking accounts, set up direct deposits, and then close them down before they start accruing fees. But having this extra cash to cover our travel expenses is very nice.

Conclusion

After 9 credit card applications, a few hours buying/liquidating gift cards, and 6 checking accounts, Allie and I were able to take a wonderful 12 day European vacation for practically free. We traveled for pennies on the dollar in first class, not wanting to get off the plane when we landed because we were enjoying the entertainment, free food, and comfy chairs.

Most of the cards I mentioned above are no longer offering very good signup values. That is why it is important to jump on the signup bonuses when they are temporarily increased. Please please please make sure that when you sign up for a card it is during a promotion! Sometimes you can only get the card once every 2 years, or even once a lifetime so it is important to maximize the value from each application.

If you would like to do the same I would be happy to help point you in the right direction so you can start pursuing those points!