March 17, 2025 • 23 mins
We break down exactly how we booked our entire family of five for a two-week European adventure across Paris, Barcelona, and Madrid using points and miles. This trip demonstrates how strategic credit card usage, elite status benefits, and advance planning can transform an expensive dream vacation into an affordable reality.
• Booked 5 economy seats on Air France for 85,000 Flying Blue miles with 25% discount for kids under 11
• Leveraged Hyatt Globalist status to secure club access and connecting rooms at multiple properties
• Used suite upgrade awards to enhance accommodation experience for the family
• Booked high-speed train from Barcelona to Madrid using the Omio app
• Secured premium economy return flights through Virgin Atlantic using 150,000 transferred Amex points
• Communicated with hotels 6-8 weeks in advance to confirm connecting rooms and family accommodations
• Used free night certificates and airline credits to minimize out-of-pocket expenses
• Total cost under $2,000 for round-trip flights to Europe for a family of five
If you have questions about planning your own family trip using points and miles, find me on Instagram and say hello! I'm happy to answer them.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do you want to take your family to Europe, but
you're not sure how.
In today's episode, I ambreaking down exactly how I
booked our family of five fortwo weeks in Europe, all on
points and miles.
Listen in Hi, I'm Raya and I'mDwayne, and we are your hosts of
(00:29):
the Travel Party of Fivepodcast, where we share how we
travel as a family of fivearound the world.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
We will also share how we use points and miles to
travel as affordably as possibleand sometimes even completely
free.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
So if you're wanting to travel more with your family
but you're not sure how, we'dlove for you to listen in.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn
a thing or two to get youcloser to your next trip.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Hey guys, welcome back to Travel Party of Five
podcast.
My name is Rhea, I am one ofyour hosts and thank you so much
for joining us.
Thank you for listening.
I appreciate you very much.
At the time that this episodeairs, we will hopefully be
living our best livesgallivanting across Europe with
(01:21):
our kids and we will be backnext week to share the first of
probably several episodes aboutthe trip itself.
But in today's episode, beforewe dive into that, I'm going to
share exactly how I booked thistrip.
It has been a full year in themaking, if not a little bit
longer, and we are so excited.
(01:41):
But I want to share all thebooking details now so that if
you have a Europe trip on yourmind, I'm going to tell you
exactly how I planned and bookedthis.
And, as a side note, two orthree episodes back, I also
walked through my entire tripplanning process, from like
opening the cards and decidingwhere to go and which cards to
(02:04):
open, all the way through to theday of departure and kind of
how I plan things when I booktours, activities and all that
sorts of things.
So if you are new to travelingwith a family in general, it
doesn't even really have to beusing points and miles.
I would go back and listen tothat episode as well, especially
(02:28):
if you're feeling overwhelmedabout how to plan a trip like
this for so many people.
I also put in the show notes ofthat episode a link to like a
checklist.
So it's basically my entireprocess that I go through in the
episode in a checklist formthat you can print out and look
at and write on if you want.
So I would highly recommendthat, if you are maybe have a
(02:50):
trip in mind.
That's not Europe, but we aregoing to jump into the details
of the trip.
So first I'm going to give youthe full overview of the trip
itself and then I will breakdown each piece, meaning each
flight, each hotel, etc.
So we are going to be gone fora full two weeks and we will
(03:12):
leave out of Phoenix, we willfly to Chicago and we have an
overnight in Chicago, and thenwe fly out of Chicago nonstop on
a flight to Paris.
We will spend four nights inParis and then we will fly to
Barcelona.
We will spend four nights inBarcelona, Then we will take the
(03:34):
train to Madrid.
We will spend four nights inMadrid and then we will fly from
Madrid back home, we fly backagain through Paris and we
actually have one more overnightin Paris, and then we take a
nonstop flight from Paris backto Phoenix.
So that will take us a full twoweeks and let's break it down
(03:57):
so our flight to actually let meback up one step.
So, on this trip we're doingParis, barcelona and Madrid.
The original plan for this tripwas Paris, portugal and Madrid,
and my plan knowing thatPortugal is right next to Spain
was that we could take a trainfrom Portugal to Madrid and it
(04:19):
would be easy.
However, in fact, I even hadthe Hyatt Regency Lisbon booked
originally, but when I startedlooking into how to get from
Lisbon to Madrid, I realizedthere is no high speed train,
and if we were going to take atrain, it was a bunch of local
trains and it was going to takelike 13 hours, and so obviously
(04:41):
we could fly right, you can, wecould take a plane, but I didn't
want to get on a plane everyfour days for the entire trip.
I wanted to at least take thetrain from one city to another
at least once, and so I realizedthat Portugal was not going to
make that possible, and so wepivoted, and that's how we ended
(05:05):
up on Barcelona and Madridinstead of Portugal and Madrid.
So sometimes that happens whenyou're planning a trip.
One thing that I like to keepin mind for me personally is I
imagine myself, you know, theday of like.
Am I going to dread having toget to the airport or am I going
to, you know, xyz, if I bookthis?
(05:26):
And I try to really be honestwith myself and keep that in
mind Because, again, this is avacation and, yes, we're
traveling with kids and, yes,it's going to be a little bit
stressful at times, as anytraveling is really, but my
ultimate goal that I'm keepingin mind is this is a vacation
(05:46):
and what's going to feel easiestand most seamless to me, and
that is always in the back of mymind when I'm making these
decisions.
So, could we have flown fromPortugal to Madrid?
Yes.
Could we have taken a 13 hourtrain ride?
Yes.
Do either of those things makeme feel excited?
No, so we will do Paris andSpain, and we will save Portugal
(06:11):
for another time.
But let's go back to our flightsfrom Phoenix to Chicago.
So currently, air France has anonstop flight from Phoenix to
Paris.
However, that flight pathdidn't open until last summer,
so the summer of 2024.
And I booked this trip in thespring of 2024.
(06:34):
So this trip has been bookedfor a full year, and that is why
we are not flying directly outof Phoenix, because if I could
have done that, I would have,but I was impatient, and if
you've listened to this podcastlong enough, that is a theme
that you will notice is that Iam impatient and sometimes that
(06:56):
causes problems.
However, we are going to fly onSouthwest to Chicago.
We had a bunch of Southwestcredits for all five of us from
delayed Southwest flights lastyear, and so I use those credits
that covered most of the costof the flights.
We will stay overnight inChicago for one night.
(07:18):
We are going to use my IHG freenight certificate that comes
from holding the IHG one card, Ithink it's called and we are
going to stay at theIntercontinental Magnificent
Mile, which I've heard is areally nice hotel.
I also understand they have anindoor pool and I'm looking
forward to using that for thekids to get some energy out
(07:40):
before our long flight to Paris.
And so we fly over on a Friday.
We have a good amount of timein Chicago, so we'll be able to
get some Chicago pizza.
We'll be able to do some funthings before we leave.
We are going to fly on AirFrance, and I was able to book
all five of us in economy for85,000 flying blue miles, flying
(08:03):
blue transfers from all fourmajor banks, and so it's super
easy to earn miles for that.
And they also offer 25% offkids tickets if your kid is 11
or younger.
Fortunately, this year myoldest is 11.
And so this is our last year ofgetting the discounted fare for
him.
(08:23):
But 85,000 points for a familyof five to fly to Paris is
incredible.
The flight is a nonstop flightand we land in Paris around 8am,
I think, on a Sunday morning.
We are staying in Paris at theHyatt Regency Paris Etoile.
I've stayed here before.
(08:44):
It's a fantastic hotel forfamilies coming to Paris.
It's a great points option.
Unfortunately, this like withina few days of this episode
airing the category is going togo up from a category four Hyatt
to a category five Hyatt, whichmeans you can no longer use
your free night certificateshere, your category one through
(09:06):
four free night certificates.
That is.
So that is disappointing, butit's not surprising given how
popular this hotel is, and so,for a family of five.
I have booked two rooms at thisproperty.
One is in my name, one is in myhusband's name.
Again, I have status with Hyatt.
I have globalist status, myhusband does not, and so the
(09:30):
primary reason for having thestatus at this hotel
specifically, in my opinion, isfor use of the club.
You can book a club access roomif you'd like, but it costs
more points.
So instead, what I did was Iapplied one of my club access
awards that I earned throughachieving globalist status last
year to his reservation, so thatway, all five of us can get
(09:53):
access to the club.
The other thing I did was Ireached out about six weeks
before our visit and I confirmedthese are the two reservations
that we have, can you pleaseconfirm if we can have
connecting rooms.
And they were able to do thatfor us, and I was also able to
confirm the club access for allfive of us.
(10:15):
So we will spend four nightsthere and we will report back
from there.
After four nights in Paris, wewill fly to Barcelona.
It's about a two hour flight,maybe hour and a half, it's not
long.
We are again flying on AirFrance.
I actually paid cash for thisflight.
It was around $700 total forall five of us.
(10:38):
The points cost was notterrible, but I just didn't want
to waste the points, so I paidcash for this flight, and again,
it's a nonstop flight.
It's not a very long flight,and so then we will arrive in
Barcelona.
We have four nights booked atthe Grand Hyatt Barcelona, and
(10:59):
again, one room is in my nameand the other room is in my
husband's name.
If you're wondering why I'm notbooking both rooms in my name,
there's there's one main reason,and that is is that if I were
to book two rooms in the samehotel on the same night, I would
only receive one qualifyingnight for that, even though it's
(11:21):
two rooms, because one personcan technically only physically
be in one room at a time, and soI don't want to waste the
second night, if that makessense.
So Dwayne will also get aqualifying night for his room,
and that's why I did that,because if you hit a certain
number of qualifying nights in ayear, you can earn awards
(11:44):
through Hyatt, and those awardsstart at 20 nights and go up
from there, and it also helpshim get to his brand explorer on
Hyatt.
Every five Hyatt brands youstay at, you earn a free one
through four free nightcertificate, and so that's why
we're booking one in my name andone in his name, so that we can
(12:04):
take advantage of basicallydouble the benefits, if that
makes sense.
And so we have four nightsbooked at the Grand Hyatt
Barcelona.
Sense, and so we have fournights booked at the Grand Hyatt
Barcelona.
This hotel also has a club.
So, very similar to what I didfor Paris, I applied a club
access award to his reservationas well and then again emailed
(12:26):
about six weeks prior justasking if we could have
connecting rooms and if all fiveof us would, confirming all
five of us would have the clubaccess.
The other thing that I did forthe Grand High at Barcelona is I
applied a suite upgrade to myreservation, so we will actually
(12:46):
have a junior suite and a thatwill be connected to a premium
twin room and, like I said, Iconfirmed all of this before
arrival.
So we will spend four nights inBarcelona and then we will take
the train to Madrid.
So a little note on trainreservations I like to use the
(13:10):
app Omeo train reservations.
I like to use the app OmeoO-M-I-O.
This is how I was able to bookour reservations for Italy last
year for my mom and my sisterand I, and I use them again to
book the train from Barcelona toMadrid.
They do charge a smallsurcharge per ticket, I think,
(13:31):
but I find the app very easy touse and I will pay a little bit
extra for that versus trying tounderstand.
You know a train website inSpanish.
You can also choose your classof service when you book a train
, and I did pay an upgrade toget a higher, like a first.
(13:54):
It's called a first classoption.
Um, the seats are morecomfortable, there's wifi, that
sort of thing, and it's about athree hour train ride.
I don't have high expectationsfor a first class Again, I'm
putting that in air quotes but Ijust want it to be a little
more comfortable because, again,we're on vacation and I want it
(14:15):
to feel like a vacation to me.
So if I get on and I have tosit in a dingy seat, that's
uncomfortable and I'm shoved inwith a hundred other people, is
that going to feel relaxing tome?
No, it's not.
So, again, I think it wasaround like $95 total for all
five of us for the upgrade, notper person but total and so I
(14:37):
felt like, yes, fine, that'sfine to me.
It also allows us to bring onluggage because we will each
have a suitcase and a backpack.
So, again, the app is omeo o-mI-O.
Okay.
And so then, once we arrive inMadrid, we are staying at the
Hyatt Centric Gran Via in Madrid, and same with Paris and
(15:01):
Barcelona.
I booked two rooms, one in myname, one in Dwayne's name, and
then reached out beforehandmiddle of January, so again
about six to eight weeks beforeour trip wanting to confirm that
we would be able to again fitfive in the two rooms that we
have and that we could have themconnecting.
(15:21):
This is why you reach out,because they said hey, the rooms
that you have booked have amaximum of two people each and,
unfortunately, that you havebooked have a maximum of two
people each and unfortunatelythey cannot accommodate you.
So they said these are theoptions we recommend.
So the options were number onebook a third room, which is not
an option.
(15:42):
Number two change one of therooms to a double room.
They said our double rooms canaccommodate two adults and one
child up to 12 years old,accommodate two adults and one
child up to 12 years old, orcancel both rooms and rebook a
family suite, and so I went backand forth a bit because I
didn't want to book a third roomand I this is what we settled
(16:08):
on I asked if I could apply asuite upgrade award to my
reservation and that would thengive me the upgrade to a
standard junior suite, and thenthey could connect that junior
suite to a second room, and hesaid yes.
The person I was working withsaid yes, that would be fine,
(16:31):
and so that is what we settledon.
So I used a suite upgrade, Icalled and had that applied, and
then that suite will beconnected to a second room, and
that is what they call thefamily suite.
Because once we got it allsettled, they said I will make
all the notes and changes toreservations, so a family suite
(16:53):
will be guaranteed for your stay.
We wish you a great experience.
And so I am not sure how theglobalist benefits are going to
work at this particular property, because there is not a club,
and when I asked if my globalistbenefits could be extended to
my husband's room, originallythey said no.
Now that we have a quote familysuite, I'm not sure if they
(17:18):
will honor the benefits for allfive of us or not, and so that's
just kind of we're just goingto see what happens and whatever
, maybe they will, maybe theywon't.
I'm not going to lose sleepover it, but I will report back.
And so we have four nights inMadrid and then we leave to fly
back to Paris.
We leave on a Friday, we fly toParis in the afternoon and we
(17:42):
have an overnight layover inParis.
Our flight, again, is booked onAir France.
So all flights for this tripare on Air France, with the
exception of our Phoenix toChicago flight, which is
Southwest.
So all flights are on AirFrance, except the flight from
Madrid to Phoenix is on AirFrance, but I did not book
(18:04):
through Air France.
I booked through VirginAtlantic, and so the way the
flight works is we fly out ofMadrid, we fly to Paris, we have
an overnight in Paris and thenwe fly straight from Paris to
Phoenix the next day.
Again, I booked through VirginAtlantic and we're actually
flying in premium economy on theway back.
So our flight from Madrid toParis is economy, but our flight
(18:26):
from Paris to Phoenix ispremium economy, and so I'm
excited for that.
I think that will be a nicelittle upgrade.
Because it is a daytime flight.
I want to be more comfortable,because I don't know if we're
going to be able to sleep or not, and I booked this for the cost
for five people in premiumeconomy on Virgin Atlantic was
(18:48):
it was 195,000 points.
However, there was a transferbonus happening at the time, so
I transferred 150,000 Americanexpress points to Virgin
Atlantic in order to book theflight, and that gave me 195,000
miles that I needed, and so,again, I was able to book all
five of us in premium economy.
(19:09):
The only downside to this isthe taxes and fees were very
high.
Virgin Atlantic did adevaluation actually not a
devaluation.
They switched over to a moredynamic pricing model a month or
two ago, and we've noticed thatthe taxes and fees have seemed
to go down a bit since thathappened.
However, again, this was bookeda full year ago, and so that
(19:32):
was before any of this happened.
So we are paying roughly $1,600for all five of us for the
taxes and fees, but again we'regoing to be able to fly in
premium economy.
I didn't use that many points.
I use 150,000 American Expresspoints, and is it a little bit
more out of pocket?
Yes, Am I okay with it?
(19:54):
Yes, I am, and so that stillbrings our total for flights to
under $2,000 for round tripflights for all five of us to
Paris, and again, one of thoselegs is in premium economy.
So that's fantastic.
Keep in mind that amount doesnot include the flight from
Paris to Barcelona.
(20:15):
I'm not including that inbecause you know that that's a
choice.
You don't have to do that, okay, so anyway, so we will fly in
premium economy.
For the overnight layover, Ibooked us two rooms at the Hyatt
House Charles de Gaulle, whichis the Hyatt hotel right by the
Paris airport, and I actuallydid not use points for that
(20:37):
because it was very cheap.
I think it was $100 a room,maybe even less, maybe $90
something, and so I just paidcash for those two rooms at that
hotel for just the one night.
So we will fly back from Madridin the afternoon, we land in
Paris in the evening, we willlikely just have dinner in the
hotel and then go to sleep andwake up and fly out the next
(20:59):
morning and fly straight backhome.
So that is our trip to Europein a nutshell.
Again, are we using a lot ofpoints?
Yes, we are, but we are goingto have free breakfast most
places we go, and in the twohotels.
With the club, we're also goingto have free snacks and like
(21:22):
light appetizers for dinner.
So overall, I think staying inhotels while, yes, it's a lot of
points, it's still going tosave us a ton of money on food.
Food is our biggest expensewhen we travel because there's
five of us and my 11-year-oldeats like a full-grown adult, so
we are super excited.
We also love the amenities thata hotel offers and kind of the
(21:44):
service and the luxury of it,versus staying at an Airbnb,
which to me, just feels a littlebit more cold.
I don't generally feel asrelaxed and taken care of when
we stay in an Airbnb.
I think that that's because I'mthe mom and I'm the one who
does all the cooking andeverything, and I feel more
pressure to do that when we havea kitchen and stuff.
(22:05):
And when we have a hotel and wedon't have a kitchen, I can't
cook, so I feel no pressure.
So we are just a hotel family.
Could you stay at an Airbnbinstead and save your points?
Yes, if you want to flybusiness class and save your
points for that and then paycash for an Airbnb, 100%, yes,
you do you, but this is whatworks for us and we are super,
(22:29):
super excited.
So I hope that kind of breakingdown how I booked this was
helpful and kind of reaching outbeforehand to the different
properties to make sure thatthey understand what I'm
thinking and what I'm expecting.
I think that's a reallyvaluable tip because they're not
mind readers and they need toknow.
And so I also now have writtenconfirmation because this was
(22:51):
all done via email of all ofthese room, you know, connecting
rooms and all that.
So those are my tips.
That is how I booked two weeksin Europe for our family of five
, almost completely using pointsand miles.
If you have questions, come,find me on Instagram, say hello,
I'm happy to answer them, andthen next week we will be back
(23:14):
with Duane and me and we will besharing all the details of our
Europe trip.
So hopefully no one gets sick.
Cross your fingers, say aprayer, okay.
Thank you so much for listening.
We appreciate you and I willsee you on the next one.
Bye.
Do you want to take your family to Europe, but
you're not sure how.
In today's episode, I ambreaking down exactly how I
booked our family of five fortwo weeks in Europe, all on
points and miles.
Listen in Hi, I'm Raya and I'mDwayne, and we are your hosts of
(00:29):
the Travel Party of Fivepodcast, where we share how we
travel as a family of fivearound the world.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
We will also share how we use points and miles to
travel as affordably as possibleand sometimes even completely
free.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
So if you're wanting to travel more with your family
but you're not sure how, we'dlove for you to listen in.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn
a thing or two to get youcloser to your next trip.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Hey guys, welcome back to Travel Party of Five
podcast.
My name is Rhea, I am one ofyour hosts and thank you so much
for joining us.
Thank you for listening.
I appreciate you very much.
At the time that this episodeairs, we will hopefully be
living our best livesgallivanting across Europe with
(01:21):
our kids and we will be backnext week to share the first of
probably several episodes aboutthe trip itself.
But in today's episode, beforewe dive into that, I'm going to
share exactly how I booked thistrip.
It has been a full year in themaking, if not a little bit
longer, and we are so excited.
(01:41):
But I want to share all thebooking details now so that if
you have a Europe trip on yourmind, I'm going to tell you
exactly how I planned and bookedthis.
And, as a side note, two orthree episodes back, I also
walked through my entire tripplanning process, from like
opening the cards and decidingwhere to go and which cards to
(02:04):
open, all the way through to theday of departure and kind of
how I plan things when I booktours, activities and all that
sorts of things.
So if you are new to travelingwith a family in general, it
doesn't even really have to beusing points and miles.
I would go back and listen tothat episode as well, especially
(02:28):
if you're feeling overwhelmedabout how to plan a trip like
this for so many people.
I also put in the show notes ofthat episode a link to like a
checklist.
So it's basically my entireprocess that I go through in the
episode in a checklist formthat you can print out and look
at and write on if you want.
So I would highly recommendthat, if you are maybe have a
(02:50):
trip in mind.
That's not Europe, but we aregoing to jump into the details
of the trip.
So first I'm going to give youthe full overview of the trip
itself and then I will breakdown each piece, meaning each
flight, each hotel, etc.
So we are going to be gone fora full two weeks and we will
(03:12):
leave out of Phoenix, we willfly to Chicago and we have an
overnight in Chicago, and thenwe fly out of Chicago nonstop on
a flight to Paris.
We will spend four nights inParis and then we will fly to
Barcelona.
We will spend four nights inBarcelona, Then we will take the
(03:34):
train to Madrid.
We will spend four nights inMadrid and then we will fly from
Madrid back home, we fly backagain through Paris and we
actually have one more overnightin Paris, and then we take a
nonstop flight from Paris backto Phoenix.
So that will take us a full twoweeks and let's break it down
(03:57):
so our flight to actually let meback up one step.
So, on this trip we're doingParis, barcelona and Madrid.
The original plan for this tripwas Paris, portugal and Madrid,
and my plan knowing thatPortugal is right next to Spain
was that we could take a trainfrom Portugal to Madrid and it
(04:19):
would be easy.
However, in fact, I even hadthe Hyatt Regency Lisbon booked
originally, but when I startedlooking into how to get from
Lisbon to Madrid, I realizedthere is no high speed train,
and if we were going to take atrain, it was a bunch of local
trains and it was going to takelike 13 hours, and so obviously
(04:41):
we could fly right, you can, wecould take a plane, but I didn't
want to get on a plane everyfour days for the entire trip.
I wanted to at least take thetrain from one city to another
at least once, and so I realizedthat Portugal was not going to
make that possible, and so wepivoted, and that's how we ended
(05:05):
up on Barcelona and Madridinstead of Portugal and Madrid.
So sometimes that happens whenyou're planning a trip.
One thing that I like to keepin mind for me personally is I
imagine myself, you know, theday of like.
Am I going to dread having toget to the airport or am I going
to, you know, xyz, if I bookthis?
(05:26):
And I try to really be honestwith myself and keep that in
mind Because, again, this is avacation and, yes, we're
traveling with kids and, yes,it's going to be a little bit
stressful at times, as anytraveling is really, but my
ultimate goal that I'm keepingin mind is this is a vacation
(05:46):
and what's going to feel easiestand most seamless to me, and
that is always in the back of mymind when I'm making these
decisions.
So, could we have flown fromPortugal to Madrid?
Yes.
Could we have taken a 13 hourtrain ride?
Yes.
Do either of those things makeme feel excited?
No, so we will do Paris andSpain, and we will save Portugal
(06:11):
for another time.
But let's go back to our flightsfrom Phoenix to Chicago.
So currently, air France has anonstop flight from Phoenix to
Paris.
However, that flight pathdidn't open until last summer,
so the summer of 2024.
And I booked this trip in thespring of 2024.
(06:34):
So this trip has been bookedfor a full year, and that is why
we are not flying directly outof Phoenix, because if I could
have done that, I would have,but I was impatient, and if
you've listened to this podcastlong enough, that is a theme
that you will notice is that Iam impatient and sometimes that
(06:56):
causes problems.
However, we are going to fly onSouthwest to Chicago.
We had a bunch of Southwestcredits for all five of us from
delayed Southwest flights lastyear, and so I use those credits
that covered most of the costof the flights.
We will stay overnight inChicago for one night.
(07:18):
We are going to use my IHG freenight certificate that comes
from holding the IHG one card, Ithink it's called and we are
going to stay at theIntercontinental Magnificent
Mile, which I've heard is areally nice hotel.
I also understand they have anindoor pool and I'm looking
forward to using that for thekids to get some energy out
(07:40):
before our long flight to Paris.
And so we fly over on a Friday.
We have a good amount of timein Chicago, so we'll be able to
get some Chicago pizza.
We'll be able to do some funthings before we leave.
We are going to fly on AirFrance, and I was able to book
all five of us in economy for85,000 flying blue miles, flying
(08:03):
blue transfers from all fourmajor banks, and so it's super
easy to earn miles for that.
And they also offer 25% offkids tickets if your kid is 11
or younger.
Fortunately, this year myoldest is 11.
And so this is our last year ofgetting the discounted fare for
him.
(08:23):
But 85,000 points for a familyof five to fly to Paris is
incredible.
The flight is a nonstop flightand we land in Paris around 8am,
I think, on a Sunday morning.
We are staying in Paris at theHyatt Regency Paris Etoile.
I've stayed here before.
(08:44):
It's a fantastic hotel forfamilies coming to Paris.
It's a great points option.
Unfortunately, this like withina few days of this episode
airing the category is going togo up from a category four Hyatt
to a category five Hyatt, whichmeans you can no longer use
your free night certificateshere, your category one through
(09:06):
four free night certificates.
That is.
So that is disappointing, butit's not surprising given how
popular this hotel is, and so,for a family of five.
I have booked two rooms at thisproperty.
One is in my name, one is in myhusband's name.
Again, I have status with Hyatt.
I have globalist status, myhusband does not, and so the
(09:30):
primary reason for having thestatus at this hotel
specifically, in my opinion, isfor use of the club.
You can book a club access roomif you'd like, but it costs
more points.
So instead, what I did was Iapplied one of my club access
awards that I earned throughachieving globalist status last
year to his reservation, so thatway, all five of us can get
(09:53):
access to the club.
The other thing I did was Ireached out about six weeks
before our visit and I confirmedthese are the two reservations
that we have, can you pleaseconfirm if we can have
connecting rooms.
And they were able to do thatfor us, and I was also able to
confirm the club access for allfive of us.
(10:15):
So we will spend four nightsthere and we will report back
from there.
After four nights in Paris, wewill fly to Barcelona.
It's about a two hour flight,maybe hour and a half, it's not
long.
We are again flying on AirFrance.
I actually paid cash for thisflight.
It was around $700 total forall five of us.
(10:38):
The points cost was notterrible, but I just didn't want
to waste the points, so I paidcash for this flight, and again,
it's a nonstop flight.
It's not a very long flight,and so then we will arrive in
Barcelona.
We have four nights booked atthe Grand Hyatt Barcelona, and
(10:59):
again, one room is in my nameand the other room is in my
husband's name.
If you're wondering why I'm notbooking both rooms in my name,
there's there's one main reason,and that is is that if I were
to book two rooms in the samehotel on the same night, I would
only receive one qualifyingnight for that, even though it's
(11:21):
two rooms, because one personcan technically only physically
be in one room at a time, and soI don't want to waste the
second night, if that makessense.
So Dwayne will also get aqualifying night for his room,
and that's why I did that,because if you hit a certain
number of qualifying nights in ayear, you can earn awards
(11:44):
through Hyatt, and those awardsstart at 20 nights and go up
from there, and it also helpshim get to his brand explorer on
Hyatt.
Every five Hyatt brands youstay at, you earn a free one
through four free nightcertificate, and so that's why
we're booking one in my name andone in his name, so that we can
(12:04):
take advantage of basicallydouble the benefits, if that
makes sense.
And so we have four nightsbooked at the Grand Hyatt
Barcelona.
Sense, and so we have fournights booked at the Grand Hyatt
Barcelona.
This hotel also has a club.
So, very similar to what I didfor Paris, I applied a club
access award to his reservationas well and then again emailed
(12:26):
about six weeks prior justasking if we could have
connecting rooms and if all fiveof us would, confirming all
five of us would have the clubaccess.
The other thing that I did forthe Grand High at Barcelona is I
applied a suite upgrade to myreservation, so we will actually
(12:46):
have a junior suite and a thatwill be connected to a premium
twin room and, like I said, Iconfirmed all of this before
arrival.
So we will spend four nights inBarcelona and then we will take
the train to Madrid.
So a little note on trainreservations I like to use the
(13:10):
app Omeo train reservations.
I like to use the app OmeoO-M-I-O.
This is how I was able to bookour reservations for Italy last
year for my mom and my sisterand I, and I use them again to
book the train from Barcelona toMadrid.
They do charge a smallsurcharge per ticket, I think,
(13:31):
but I find the app very easy touse and I will pay a little bit
extra for that versus trying tounderstand.
You know a train website inSpanish.
You can also choose your classof service when you book a train
, and I did pay an upgrade toget a higher, like a first.
(13:54):
It's called a first classoption.
Um, the seats are morecomfortable, there's wifi, that
sort of thing, and it's about athree hour train ride.
I don't have high expectationsfor a first class Again, I'm
putting that in air quotes but Ijust want it to be a little
more comfortable because, again,we're on vacation and I want it
(14:15):
to feel like a vacation to me.
So if I get on and I have tosit in a dingy seat, that's
uncomfortable and I'm shoved inwith a hundred other people, is
that going to feel relaxing tome?
No, it's not.
So, again, I think it wasaround like $95 total for all
five of us for the upgrade, notper person but total and so I
(14:37):
felt like, yes, fine, that'sfine to me.
It also allows us to bring onluggage because we will each
have a suitcase and a backpack.
So, again, the app is omeo o-mI-O.
Okay.
And so then, once we arrive inMadrid, we are staying at the
Hyatt Centric Gran Via in Madrid, and same with Paris and
(15:01):
Barcelona.
I booked two rooms, one in myname, one in Dwayne's name, and
then reached out beforehandmiddle of January, so again
about six to eight weeks beforeour trip wanting to confirm that
we would be able to again fitfive in the two rooms that we
have and that we could have themconnecting.
(15:21):
This is why you reach out,because they said hey, the rooms
that you have booked have amaximum of two people each and,
unfortunately, that you havebooked have a maximum of two
people each and unfortunatelythey cannot accommodate you.
So they said these are theoptions we recommend.
So the options were number onebook a third room, which is not
an option.
(15:42):
Number two change one of therooms to a double room.
They said our double rooms canaccommodate two adults and one
child up to 12 years old,accommodate two adults and one
child up to 12 years old, orcancel both rooms and rebook a
family suite, and so I went backand forth a bit because I
didn't want to book a third roomand I this is what we settled
(16:08):
on I asked if I could apply asuite upgrade award to my
reservation and that would thengive me the upgrade to a
standard junior suite, and thenthey could connect that junior
suite to a second room, and hesaid yes.
The person I was working withsaid yes, that would be fine,
(16:31):
and so that is what we settledon.
So I used a suite upgrade, Icalled and had that applied, and
then that suite will beconnected to a second room, and
that is what they call thefamily suite.
Because once we got it allsettled, they said I will make
all the notes and changes toreservations, so a family suite
(16:53):
will be guaranteed for your stay.
We wish you a great experience.
And so I am not sure how theglobalist benefits are going to
work at this particular property, because there is not a club,
and when I asked if my globalistbenefits could be extended to
my husband's room, originallythey said no.
Now that we have a quote familysuite, I'm not sure if they
(17:18):
will honor the benefits for allfive of us or not, and so that's
just kind of we're just goingto see what happens and whatever
, maybe they will, maybe theywon't.
I'm not going to lose sleepover it, but I will report back.
And so we have four nights inMadrid and then we leave to fly
back to Paris.
We leave on a Friday, we fly toParis in the afternoon and we
(17:42):
have an overnight layover inParis.
Our flight, again, is booked onAir France.
So all flights for this tripare on Air France, with the
exception of our Phoenix toChicago flight, which is
Southwest.
So all flights are on AirFrance, except the flight from
Madrid to Phoenix is on AirFrance, but I did not book
(18:04):
through Air France.
I booked through VirginAtlantic, and so the way the
flight works is we fly out ofMadrid, we fly to Paris, we have
an overnight in Paris and thenwe fly straight from Paris to
Phoenix the next day.
Again, I booked through VirginAtlantic and we're actually
flying in premium economy on theway back.
So our flight from Madrid toParis is economy, but our flight
(18:26):
from Paris to Phoenix ispremium economy, and so I'm
excited for that.
I think that will be a nicelittle upgrade.
Because it is a daytime flight.
I want to be more comfortable,because I don't know if we're
going to be able to sleep or not, and I booked this for the cost
for five people in premiumeconomy on Virgin Atlantic was
(18:48):
it was 195,000 points.
However, there was a transferbonus happening at the time, so
I transferred 150,000 Americanexpress points to Virgin
Atlantic in order to book theflight, and that gave me 195,000
miles that I needed, and so,again, I was able to book all
five of us in premium economy.
(19:09):
The only downside to this isthe taxes and fees were very
high.
Virgin Atlantic did adevaluation actually not a
devaluation.
They switched over to a moredynamic pricing model a month or
two ago, and we've noticed thatthe taxes and fees have seemed
to go down a bit since thathappened.
However, again, this was bookeda full year ago, and so that
(19:32):
was before any of this happened.
So we are paying roughly $1,600for all five of us for the
taxes and fees, but again we'regoing to be able to fly in
premium economy.
I didn't use that many points.
I use 150,000 American Expresspoints, and is it a little bit
more out of pocket?
Yes, Am I okay with it?
(19:54):
Yes, I am, and so that stillbrings our total for flights to
under $2,000 for round tripflights for all five of us to
Paris, and again, one of thoselegs is in premium economy.
So that's fantastic.
Keep in mind that amount doesnot include the flight from
Paris to Barcelona.
(20:15):
I'm not including that inbecause you know that that's a
choice.
You don't have to do that, okay, so anyway, so we will fly in
premium economy.
For the overnight layover, Ibooked us two rooms at the Hyatt
House Charles de Gaulle, whichis the Hyatt hotel right by the
Paris airport, and I actuallydid not use points for that
(20:37):
because it was very cheap.
I think it was $100 a room,maybe even less, maybe $90
something, and so I just paidcash for those two rooms at that
hotel for just the one night.
So we will fly back from Madridin the afternoon, we land in
Paris in the evening, we willlikely just have dinner in the
hotel and then go to sleep andwake up and fly out the next
(20:59):
morning and fly straight backhome.
So that is our trip to Europein a nutshell.
Again, are we using a lot ofpoints?
Yes, we are, but we are goingto have free breakfast most
places we go, and in the twohotels.
With the club, we're also goingto have free snacks and like
(21:22):
light appetizers for dinner.
So overall, I think staying inhotels while, yes, it's a lot of
points, it's still going tosave us a ton of money on food.
Food is our biggest expensewhen we travel because there's
five of us and my 11-year-oldeats like a full-grown adult, so
we are super excited.
We also love the amenities thata hotel offers and kind of the
(21:44):
service and the luxury of it,versus staying at an Airbnb,
which to me, just feels a littlebit more cold.
I don't generally feel asrelaxed and taken care of when
we stay in an Airbnb.
I think that that's because I'mthe mom and I'm the one who
does all the cooking andeverything, and I feel more
pressure to do that when we havea kitchen and stuff.
(22:05):
And when we have a hotel and wedon't have a kitchen, I can't
cook, so I feel no pressure.
So we are just a hotel family.
Could you stay at an Airbnbinstead and save your points?
Yes, if you want to flybusiness class and save your
points for that and then paycash for an Airbnb, 100%, yes,
you do you, but this is whatworks for us and we are super,
(22:29):
super excited.
So I hope that kind of breakingdown how I booked this was
helpful and kind of reaching outbeforehand to the different
properties to make sure thatthey understand what I'm
thinking and what I'm expecting.
I think that's a reallyvaluable tip because they're not
mind readers and they need toknow.
And so I also now have writtenconfirmation because this was
(22:51):
all done via email of all ofthese room, you know, connecting
rooms and all that.
So those are my tips.
That is how I booked two weeksin Europe for our family of five
, almost completely using pointsand miles.
If you have questions, come,find me on Instagram, say hello,
I'm happy to answer them, andthen next week we will be back
(23:14):
with Duane and me and we will besharing all the details of our
Europe trip.
So hopefully no one gets sick.
Cross your fingers, say aprayer, okay.
Thank you so much for listening.
We appreciate you and I willsee you on the next one.
Bye.
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