As points-and-miles enthusiasts, once we have accumulated a lot of points, we naturally start thinking about how to get good value from them and arrange satisfying trips for ourselves or our families. I have already taken my family on multiple domestic and international trips, and I have picked up some experience using points along the way. Today I want to share how to use UR, MR, Marriott, Hyatt, IHG, and other points to plan trips that are organized, cost-effective, and definitely not shabby.

First, let me show you the travel map for me and LD over the years. At the very least, it proves that I am not giving advice for no reason :)

Now that the showing off is done, let’s get to the main topic: how to use points to arrange travel step by step and with a plan.

Personally, I think preparation is necessary before traveling. A “just go” trip sounds romantic, but it often leads to needless spending, or leaves you without a backup plan and not knowing what to do when problems come up.

There are several key elements to planning a trip: flights, hotels, local activities, and good food. Let’s break them down one by one.

Booking or Redeeming Flights with Points

Flights are usually the most important part of a trip and are generally the first major issue to consider. When you have a large number of points and many different options, you need to think about which redemption offers the best value and the least hassle — or the kind of hassle that makes you very happy.

Take my 2017-2018 New Year trip with LD as an example:

Based on our interests: for winter travel, our first choice was somewhere warm by the sea. We also wanted cultural depth, natural scenery, and food that would not disappoint. In the end, we settled on several cities in Andalusia, Spain.

After choosing the destination, we first started looking at flights. Before booking, I had a fair amount of Delta, United, AA, MR, UR, and US Bank Altitude points. Since it was over New Year’s, and round-trip cash fares to the destination were already over $1,000 per person in economy, I ruled out using MR, UR, or USB points directly. Even with the AMEX Business Platinum, Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR), and US Bank Altitude, the required points would have been more than 65,000, while using airline miles could keep the cost under 60,000 miles.

After deciding on the ticketing principle, I cast a wide net and searched award tickets on Delta, AA, and UA. All three airlines had itineraries that reached the destination with two connections, and the taxes and fees were only about $20 per person. After weighing the options, we decided to use Delta miles for the outbound flight first. Also, LD and I were Delta Gold and Platinum members respectively, so Delta became the first choice. Once that was set, we used the Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR) to pay the $36 in total taxes and fees, because the travel protections offered by the CSR gave us fewer worries. For the return, since the date was after January 10, it happened to fall within AA’s off-peak award period between Europe and the U.S. Flying from Europe to the U.S. required only 22500mile. I also held a Citi AA credit card, which gave a 10% rebate, or 2250mile, so the final cost was only 20250mile per person. For two people, that was just a little over 40,000 miles. We again used the CSR to pay the $160 in taxes and fees for two people to ensure effective travel insurance coverage.

In the end, the flights worked out.

Outbound: DEN-MSP-AMS-AGP, 60,000 Delta miles + $36 in taxes and fees, covered by CSR travel insurance, with Delta Gold and Platinum status as added support.

Return: AGP-MAD-DFW-DEN, 40,500 AA miles + $160 in taxes and fees, also covered by CSR travel insurance. In addition, the Citi AA card and the CSR’s PP benefit provided some modest extra perks.

Redeeming Points for Hotels

Using points for hotels includes direct redemptions with programs such as Marriott, IHG, and Hilton, as well as options such as transferring UR to Hyatt. It also includes using MR, UR, and USB Altitude points to book hotels directly, although with these methods you generally do not receive the various elite-status benefits. You can also book through Hotel.com using discounted gift cards; sites such as eBay often have hotel.com gift cards, usually at 10% -15%off. In addition, you can use Priceline’s express deal and name your price options to bid on hotels. The downside is that it is harder to know the exact hotel in advance, though you can also use third-party decoding sites such as https://expdealshotel.com/ to identify the specific hotel. Priceline’s express deal will occasionally release 10% -20% off coupons, so it can still be very worthwhile. The annual travel credits from CSR and USB Altitude can both be used on priceline.com.

For my New Year trip with LD, I first checked all the chain hotels (Marriott, IHG, Hilton, Hyatt). In Europe, these U.S. hotel chains are not always that useful, especially Hyatt and Hilton, which were not very helpful in this case. In the end, the options came down to Marriott and IHG. While searching, I found that the Marriott in Malaga was a new Category 4 hotel (old Category 5). That meant a Marriott Cat1-4 travel package could be used for maximum value. So at the time, we did not hesitate to use the 7-night certificate at this hotel. If booked through the official website, 7 nights would have cost more than $1200 at the time, so this was extremely good value. Many people redeemed multiple 7-night certificates before the 2018 Marriott and SPG merger. For these new Category 4 (old Category 5) hotels in Europe, I personally think this was the best use of a lower-tier 7-night certificate.

Some people may say that staying in one place for 7 days would get very boring, but European cities are close to each other, and there are many places well suited for day trips. In that context, 7 nights in one place may not even feel like enough :)

Planning Local Itineraries and Activities

After deciding to use the 7-night certificate, I started looking into local activities and planning. Since we were not going to spend the entire trip inside the hotel — and a Category 4 hotel would not offer that much to do anyway — we needed a relaxed, simple itinerary suited to a vacation pace. The first idea was to balance rest and activity, with a rhythm of “one lazy day, then a fuller schedule the next day.” So the 8-day, 7-night itinerary was arranged as follows:

Day 1: arrive, rest, and eat at a good local restaurant. Day 2: free city tour (almost every larger city in Europe has this kind of free city tour, usually around 2 hours, with a tip at the end; the amount is up to you) + wandering around wherever we feel like going. Day 3: day trip to Ronda. Day 4: local food and shopping. Day 5: day trip to Granada. Day 6: lazy seaside day in Malaga. Day 7: day trip to Seville. Day 8: rest in the morning and leave in the afternoon.

The vast majority of these activities can be booked with UR points. There is no need to pay real cash; you can simply pay with UR.

First, log in to your own Chase UR travel portal. There you can see the Activities option, which includes many tour and activity choices.

After arriving on the first day and checking in at the hotel, pick a nicer dinner spot based on Yelp or the hotel staff’s recommendation. If you are interested, you can also watch an easygoing show, such as a Flamenco show that costs just over 2200 points when holding the CSP; if you hold the CSR, the cost is even lower. It even includes one drink.

On the morning of the second day, check the time and location of the free city walking tour before leaving the hotel. Also bring the Picasso Museum ticket you booked earlier. After the free city tour, you can visit the museum. It only costs 900UR per person, which is also a good deal.

On the morning of the third day, we were ready to head to Ronda. I had already booked the tour with UR beforehand, and it cost just a little over 5,000 points per person. The 9-hour itinerary was also very full.

The fourth day was for a local city tour, which could include food, sights, and all kinds of shops. At this point, you can use UR to book a one-day hop-on, hop-off bus. This kind of bus, where you can get on and off at different attractions, is the most convenient way to do a relaxed city tour, and it costs only 2,000 UR points.

The fifth day was a day trip to Granada, another packed 10-hour itinerary. Spending a little over 9,500 UR points did not feel too painful.

For the sixth day, lounging on the beach did not require spending much of anything. You just need to check the hotel’s location carefully when booking it. After a few days, you should already be very familiar with the route from the hotel to the beach, and everything else becomes easy.

The seventh day was a day trip to Seville, with beautiful scenery everywhere.

Summary

Putting together this itinerary actually did not take a lot of time. Most of the effort went into searching for flights, looking up hotels, and arranging local activities. Below are a few thoughts and opinions I have about this fairly successful trip.

  • Many people say Marriott’s 7-night certificate is hard to use. In fact, if you pair it reasonably with day trips to nearby cities, it is still very useful. This is especially true in European countries, where cities are close to one another, so you do not need to stay in one city for 7 days until you get bored.
  • Chase points are really useful. When traveling, in addition to flights and hotels, local activities often cost quite a bit as well. Using the Chase points you have accumulated can provide very good value, and you do not need to pay cash out of pocket. Currently recommended Chase points credit cards include: Chase Freedom, Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve. For how to use Chase points, see: Credit Card Points: Ultimate Rewards
  • When buying flights, compare and rule out multiple options to find the best route and method. The prerequisite is that you should have prepared miles with airlines such as UA, AA, and Delta in advance, or have UR and MR points ready in case you need to transfer points.
  • Finally, try arranging itineraries yourself more often and get more hands-on practice. Then you will be able to handle these points and miles with ease. I hope everyone can put together the itinerary that is the most suitable, economical, and enjoyable for them.