was just thinking about travel coming up in the next 12 months and wanted to show which programs/miles I used to show how great this stuff is:
Kauai
8 nights at Grand Hyatt Kauai - 176k Hyatt miles
Got these from 100K Chase Sapphire signup and mrs. dave's 50k Sapphire sign up as well as some spend on my card. Will be a Hyatt diamond while there using the Hyatt diamond challenge so we will get free breakfast and probably a very elite room as well as misc. other benefits.
$1,050 in Hyatt gift cards - 105,000 Citi Thank You points
Got these via the Citi Thank You preferred cards for myself and mrs. dave. 50k citi miles after $2,500 in spend. Could have used the points for airfare or anything else but with this trip coming up wanted to be able to spend it at the resort spa, bar, etc.
2 Round Trip coach tickets from Omaha to Kauai. 80k United Miles
Been accumulating these for awhile and had gotten the original Chase United 50k card.
Chicago
Round Trip coach ticket from Omaha to Chicago. 9k Avios
Remaining from the original 100k Chase BA Visa offer
Suite upgrades for 4 rooms at the Hyatt. 4 Hyatt suite upgrades
I got 4 suite upgrades on paid stays by doing the Hyatt Diamond challenge. We are paying to stay but we got a really great rate and I can only use the suite upgrades on paid stays so this was a good opportunity.
Vegas
Round Trip coach ticket from Omaha to Las Vegas. 25k Frontier Miles
Have about 75k Frontier miles from flying them quite a bit and some leftover from a 50k Frontier mastercard offer from a few years ago. Mrs. dave has a conference at the Cosmo so I'm staying free and her flight is paid for.
London/Paris
2 First Class tickets from Omaha to London. 125k AA Miles
Had accumulated quite a few from various Citi 100k/75k visa offers.
5 nights at the Crowne Plaza London Kennsington. 125k PC points
Got an 80k PC Chase Visa and had been accumulating the rest from mostly stays at the Manhattan Holiday Inn.
5 nights at the Hilton Arc De Triomphe Paris. 200k HH points.
Have been accumulating these for awhile and got the last 70k with a Hawaiin Airlines card where I transfered the miles at 2:1 to Hilton. Have a Hilton Amex and Visa which both have no annual fee.
2 Coach tickets from Paris to Omaha. 40k AA Miles.
Same place as the flight to London
New York
2 Round Trip Coach tickets from Omaha to New York. 50k United Miles.
Same as trip to Kauai. Still have 100k United miles left.
4 nights at the Hyatt at 48th and Lex in NYC. 2 Hyatt free night certificates and 30k Hyatt points
mrs. dave and I each have the Hyatt Visa. Every year you get a free cat. 1-4 stay. This hotel is a cat 4. The rest of the ponits we got from my Chase Sapphire spend.
After spending all of those points my awardwallet account (it's combined with mrs. dave's so some of these are hers too) still shows a balance of 366k miles/points among various programs. You can add up what all of that travel would cost someone if they paid for it OOP and it would be a huge figure. Hell, the 2 first class tickets to London would be over $10k and maybe closer to $20k. Obviously I'm not flying first class anywhere and probably not staying at some of these places if I'm paying cash but it blows the mind anyway.