During spring break this past year, we finally made it to a bucket-list place: Costa Rica.  What’s interesting to note is that this trip had been rescheduled twice prior.  Now I’m always looking at flights and destinations on my favorite airline – Southwest Airlines, especially because we regularly earn those points from spend and travel.  It was one of our first loyalty programs we joined when we started using points and miles, and my husband tends to fly the airline often for work.  Our strategy has changed since those early days, but it’s definitely our go-to airline for domestic (and some international) travel.

I had originally booked this trip for the first time in the fall of 2021.  That didn’t really work out, and so I booked it again for January of 2022.  During the winter holidays of late 2021, and early 2022, the Omnicron virus was on the rise.  A week prior to our scheduled trip in January, we decided to postpone once again.  The possibility of catching covid while traveling, and/or possibly even getting stuck in a foreign country, sick, and then having to quarantine – I mean, there were too many unknown factors and we didn’t want to take the risk.  And then shortly after canceling – my older two kids caught covid – the same week that we had originally scheduled to go in January.

So you can say things worked out just as they should, and I rescheduled it this time for spring break.  That’s the good thing with Southwest Airlines – no change/cancellation fees, and I was fortunate enough to find award availability for four tickets during a busy travel time! I used points from my husband’s account to book four tickets (baby is still currently free as she’s under 2).  It cost me 19k points/person to fly into Liberia, Costa Rica and less than $400 in taxes for all of us.  Umm, yes please!

Now as you can imagine, just flights for four would easily cost us a few grand – over $2500 to be exact.  Also for this trip, we were staying in an Airbnb – but a one-time $200 vacation rental from my husband’s Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, helped minimize out-of-pocket costs, as well as my sister chipping in who was also traveling with us.  (I’ve taught her a thing or two about award travel, so she also used Southwest points to get on our same flight!).  My husband got the offer when it was at 100,000 points, and at that time, it also came with this one-time vacation rental credit (the current offer is at 75,000 points and doesn’t include it).  There is an annual travel credit of $300 though.

After becoming a family of 5, we’ve especially preferred staying at Airbnbs while traveling.  We prefer the space and additional rooms with three kids – one who is now an 18-month old toddler.  We had just the cutest Airbnb in the village of El Castillo – the owners were very accommodating, in that they even got us a new highchair to use while there upon request!  It was a two-story home, so my husband and I had the top floor – which included enough sitting area in addition to the bed.  Downstairs there were enough rooms for the kids and my sister to sleep comfortably.  The timing of getting this card was just perfect – just in time for us to apply the one-time vacation rental credit towards our stay.

Sometimes, you may not be able to cover both hotel and flight costs, but there are almost always other ways to cover travel expenses – Capital One cards also have a “purchase eraser” option.  If we had wanted, we could have applied Capital One points to help “erase” the cost of the Airbnb – though in this case we choose not to.  My sister was pitching in, we had allocated for this particular out-of-pocket expense, and frankly speaking, we were saving those points for an award redemption of greater value (Hello flights to London during Spring Break 2023!).

We love being active and exploring the outdoors with our family – so Costa Rica was just breathtaking in that to say the least!  We had four days to explore and even with a little one we were able to do so much: Sloth Watching Trail, Rainforest Chocolate Tour, Mistico Arenal Hanging Bridges Park, La Fortuna Waterfall, and ended our trip with a few hours-long hike at Arenal 1968 Volcano Views & Trail Park.  You’re probably wondering how we did all this – we took turns wearing the baby in a carrier when we could, and stopped a few times as feasible to let her run around open areas to get that pent-up energy out.  If you had told me a few years ago that I’d be traveling like this, I would have called you crazy!

Cards like the Capital One Venture X  offer you flexibility when it comes to covering travel-related expenses.  The “purchase eraser” option when it comes to the Capital One family of cards, make this card or even the Capital One Venture – a must-have in your wallet.  If you’re new to this family of cards, the Capital One Venture is a great place to start.  With a lower annual fee of $95, but still a higher offer of 75,000 points (normally it’s 50,000 points) – this is a great starting point, and this card makes a great companion to the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, if you already have that one.  When it comes to award travel (travel using points and miles), flexibility is the name of the game, and with the right card(s), you can achieve just that to assist you in your travel lifestyle!