[10/4/2024: Card offers shared have since changed.]

We recently returned from our spring break trip to the UK…..and are looking forward to our early summer trip to Lisbon, Portugal!  It’s always exciting for me to look forward to another family trip – all thanks to points and miles!  Just when I thought I had things somewhat squared away for our second Europe trip this year…..I made some changes this week.  Because sometimes, less is more.  Let me explain.

Last fall, I found award rates on Air France that would accommodate our family of 5 from New York to Lisbon.  So the original plan was to spend a few days in New York, and then fly to Lisbon for the week after.  (We’ll fly Southwest Airlines to get to New York.)  Our kids haven’t visited New York before, so it made sense to spend a couple days there if we could.  School would have just gotten out, the weather would be great, and I had planned to spend some time with my cousin who lives there as well.  I was able to book a suite at the Andaz 5th Avenue for all of us:

If you’re curious, here’s what the cash rate would have been for those dates:

I used points earned from my Chase Ink Business Cash® Credit card for this hotel stay.  I actually got this card last fall when these 90k offers first came out.  The Chase Ink Business card 90k offers are ending 3/21/2023 at 9 AM EST, so if you are interested and eligible, don’t wait!  This is the highest these offers have ever been, and you don’t want to miss out on earning Chase Ultimate Rewards for future travel.

After returning home from our U.K.trip – where we spent a lot of time in transit, I realized that by trying to visit two places in one trip (New York & Lisbon) – we would just be exhausting ourselves, again.  You see, it’s one thing to take a positioning flight because you are finding a better award deal from another city (outside of your home airport).  For our spring break trip, our tickets were out of Houston.  So we drove from DFW to Houston the morning of our flight, and then flew out to Manchester from Houston.  Even then Manchester wasn’t our final destination; we took the train into London just 2 days after landing in Manchester.  

We don’t mind positioning flights, sometimes as a family of 5 – that is just the reality of award travel.  (It’s still better than paying cash out of pocket, which we couldn’t have afforded as a family of 5!)  But we don’t necessarily need to add on additional travel on top of a positioning flight.  You see, my husband can’t take off from work for the time we are in New York and Lisbon.  So initially we agreed I’d keep the kids busy during the day in New York, and he’d join when feasible later in the afternoon.  Because we’ve done work-ations before, I know how exhausting they can be, for the both of us – especially with a toddler.  So I decided to cancel our stay at Andaz 5th Avenue  – and I have no regrets.  I actually feel relieved!

Instead, I used the points that had been allotted for our (intial) New York stay, to book a Deluxe Suite for a week-long stay at Hyatt Regency Lisbon, as well as cover two nights in New York (shown below).  (I always ask the respective property if they will allow the 5 of us in a suite, before I book 2 rooms.)  Initially, we were thinking of booking an Airbnb in Lisbon – which would have been an out-of-pocket cost.  By canceling the New York portion of our trip, we are saving time, energy, and money.  Instead, we’ll fly to New York the night before our flight to Lisbon, and aim for a good night’s sleep.  

Hotel Stays

We’ll stay one night at Hyatt House Jersey City (the night before our flight out to Lisbon):

I did a points + cash booking here, easily on the Hyatt website.

Then in Lisbon, Portugal we’ll stay the week at Hyatt Regency Lisbon – also in a suite!  I booked this particular reservation over the phone through the Hyatt Customer Service line:

(Ignore the number of individuals/rooms shown in both these images as it isn’t accurate.  I always let the respective property know either by phone and/or email that there will be 5 of us, and give the ages of all 3 kids so there’s no confusion at the time of check-in.)

On the return end, once we land back in New York, we’ll stay at Hyatt Place Flushing/LaGuardia Airport.  (We’ve actually stayed here before, back in May of 2022.)  We’ll stay here for one night, and then fly back home to Dallas the next day on Southwest Airlines.

Flights

For the flight from DFW to New York (the day before our flight from New York to Lisbon) I used $200 vouchers (x5) that we had received due to flight delays on our way home from The Bahamas back in October of 2022.

For the flight from New York to DFW (after we return back to New York from Lisbon) here’s what it cost us:

I’m free as my husband’s companion thanks to the Southwest Companion Pass, so the only cost for me was the $5.60 in taxes/fees.

So here’s what we’ve spent so far:

Taxes on Air France award flight from New York to Lisbon (for the 5 of us): $922.35

Taxes on Southwest Airlines for return flight home from New York to DFW: $28 ($5.60 x 5)

Cash spent for Hyatt House Jersey City 1-night stay: $121.84

Total out-of-pocket costs so far: $1,072.19

While the taxes on our Air France flight were slightly high, having spent around $1,000 on all flight legs and hotel stays for a family of 5 – thanks to points and miles – is unbelievable!  We couldn’t have afforded a trip to Portugal otherwise, as it would have been thousands of dollars more.  It’s also important to keep in mind, we are flying to Europe during the summer – which is peak travel season.  So yes, taxes/fees, award deals, and/or even cash rates will be higher, generally speaking.

By canceling the New York portion of our stay, I was able to cover all flight segments and hotel stays that are needed to help us get to Lisbon, Portugal – our main destination for this trip.  Rather than trying to add in more, which would have meant increased out-of-pocket costs, and of course more time off, and overall more energy – I focused on minimizing to what’s only necessary.  We can always accumulate more points, and make a separate trip to New York with our children.  Because doing less is sometimes actually much, much more <3.

 

Picture: Spring Break – March 2023, Manchester, U.K.