‘How we made trip of a lifetime reality with just $3k’
THIS couple has mastered the art of luxury, round-the-world trips for a fraction of the cost. Here’s what they’ve learnt.
WHEN Alex Miller set about planning the trip of a lifetime to surprise his wife, he took things to the extreme.
The 33-year-old frequent traveller who owns the website UpgradedPoints.com, planned a round-the-world trip where they would try out some of the best first and business class products in the world. Even better, they would be doing it on the cheap.
He says the key lay in taking advantage of credit card points and frequent flyer miles, which can allow you to experience some incredible flights that would otherwise have been well out of reach.
Doing this — and with a lot of planning — he managed to spend just $2827 for a trip worth a whopping $71,793. He also used 622,000 miles.
“Interestingly, the same trip without using points but flying in economy would have cost approximately $6000 for both of us,” Alex told news.com.au. “So, it was way under half of that.”
THE TRIP:
Award flights flown (two seats on each flight):
• Three first class flights: Singapore, Etihad, Emirates
• Two business class flights: Singapore A330 and 777
• Butt-in-seat flying: 54 hours and 28,000 miles
• 311,000 miles plus $US1086 taxes and fees paid per person: $US2173 ($AU2827) total
• Typical total retail price of these first/business flights for two people: $71,793
• Typical total economy price of these flights for two people: $6006.
BOTTOM LINE: The out-of-pocket cost of flying in these premium cabins came to less than half the price of economy tickets for the same flights.
ITINERARY OVERVIEW (OCTOBER 2017):
• Oct. 2-3: Flying AUS > JFK — cash flight (relaxed in Virgin Atlantic Lounge). JFK > FRA > SIN — Singapore First Class Suites
• Oct. 4: Bintan Island. Arrived in Singapore and took ferry to Bintan, Indonesia for 24 hours
• Oct. 5-9: Singapore, stayed at Mandarin Oriental
• Oct. 9-15: Vietnam. SIN > SGN — cash flight. Stayed at Liberty Central Saigon CityPoint
• Oct. 15-19: Melbourne. SGN > SIN > MEL — Singapore Business Class (A330 and 777), stayed with friends in Melbourne
• Oct. 19-21: MEL > SYD. Stayed with friends in Sydney
• Oct. 21: Flying SYD > AUH — Etihad First Class Apartment
Oct. 22-25: Dubai. Etihad chauffeur from Abu Dhabi to Dubai. Stayed at Sofitel in the Palm Resort
• Oct. 25: Flying DXB > LAX — Emirates First Class (my 33rd birthday)
LAX > AUS — Cash flight back home.
THE PLANNING
It took Alex nearly 18 months to earn enough points to turn his dream into reality. The idea for the epic trip first came when he decided to visit his older brother Stu, who lives in Vietnam. They then decided to see friends in Singapore and Australia.
“There’s no denying the trip took a lot of thought — and just a few seat availability searches — but I had a blast piecing it all together,” he said. “After all, this was going to be the trip of a lifetime with the number of different places we would visit, and of course ... together we were going to try some of the best first class products in the world.
“What made it even better was the fact that Erin only knew part of what I had planned, and I had one hell of a surprise in store.”
Alex said that for a trip so big, you need to allow plenty of time to put it all together.
“One of the best things about credit card points and frequent flyer miles is that by using them, you can experience some incredible and luxurious travel that would otherwise be totally unaffordable,” he said.
“The catch is that it usually takes advance planning (and some flexibility), but it’s easy to find the availability you need with enough lead time for a big trip.
“Although I started planning the trip more than a year in advance (in September 2016), I had all the award flights booked by the end of January 2017. That meant everything was done and dusted about nine months in advance.”
ADVICE ON USING MILES FOR FLIGHT UPGRADES?
Alex emphasises the importance of ensuring you collect points that carry the most value.
“I strongly recommend earning ’transferable points’ such as Chase Ultimate Rewards or Amex Membership Rewards. These are easy to earn and can be transferred to a number of different airline and hotel partners — making them extremely valuable,” he said.
“Miles earned directly with an airline are tough to earn and they cannot be transferred which means they have less value due to a limited number of redemption options. Once you’ve accumulated enough points for a redemption, just transfer them from Chase or Amex for example over to the airline direct and make your award booking.”
So how did he score so many points?
“We needed just over 300k each and earned a lot from sign up bonuses — e.g. Chase Sapphire Preferred with 50k, Amex Platinum with 100k — they do add up.
“The rest was by putting on all our personal and business spend on credit cards and using category bonuses as much as possible (e.g. 2pts/$1 on travel and dining purchases, or 3x points on online advertising or 5x points on phone and cable bills etc — they do start to pile up when you’re making the most out of every $1 you spend).
“It certainly takes a lot of effort to pull off a trip that big, but what I’d love to explain to people is that you can take just one part out of that trip and still have a trip of a lifetime; e.g. you could fly Etihad Apartment for around 100k points per person and have an unforgettable experience.
“I just took it to the extreme I guess.”
TIPS WHEN BOOKING YOUR AWARD FLIGHTS
1. There are a few different approaches to planning a small or a big trip. Either you can decide that you really want to try a specific product and see where they fly, or you can pick your destination and then work the flights around it (I like to do this).
2. Take stock of your points and miles and think about what you’re capable of earning between now and when you need to book your trip. You obviously want to avoid situations where you’ve booked one or two flights already, but can’t make that final booking as you’re short on points.
3. If you’re looking to make a booking soon and don’t have time to collect additional points, make sure you understand exactly what you can get for your stash. For example, if you have Chase points, then do your research on what they can get you (and which airlines they transfer to).
4. Picking the destination first reduces your options, which you actually want to do, otherwise it can all be so overwhelming and very time-consuming. If you want to fly a specific product, you must initially check which plane model that product is on.
For example, the Etihad Apartment flies only on the A380, and by looking at Etihad’s website I could see their A380 routes.
After I discovered that Etihad doesn’t fly an A380 out of Melbourne (but they do from Sydney), that meant that we would fly from Vietnam to Melbourne first (to see our friends) and then on to Sydney to see our other friends before taking off to Abu Dhabi on an A380.
That made the journey much more efficient, rather than flying to Sydney initially, then to Melbourne, and then back to Sydney!
5. I use Google Flights a lot to see which airlines are travelling on specific routes. From there, I can make a decision on booking award flights.
For example, when looking at how to get from Vietnam to Melbourne, I just put that route into Google Flights and within seconds saw that Singapore Airlines was an option. That’s when I decided to book business class on that flight — it really was just that easy.
Here’s more information on the six cards Alex used to book the flights.
Emirates’ huge $160m Aussie move
A popular international airline has resumed direct flights to this Aussie city for the first time in four and a half years.
Qantas plane you won’t ever see again
Aussies will no longer see this iconic Qantas plane as the last remaining aircraft recently took to the skies for the final time.
New Qantas chair addresses big Alan decision
A Qantas shareholder who was cut off from the microphone at last year’s annual general meeting has come back again.