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Popular posts

How To Book American Airlines Flights With Amex Membership Rewards Points (Etihad Miles)
How We Booked Our Maldives Trip With Miles And Points
How To Book American Airlines Flights With Chase Ultimate Rewards Points
How To Book Delta Flights With Chase Ultimate Rewards Points
How To Search For American Airlines Award Space To Book With Partner Miles
How To Book American Airlines Flights With British Airways Avios
British Airways and Iberia Award Charts

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How we booked our Maldives trip will be published

How we booked our Maldives trip will be published on the blog tomorrow but I wanted to share our grand totals because it’s a little shocking!
🏝Total value: $23,567
🏝Our total: $2,394 (and miles and points of course)

✈️Now, this total is just our flights, including seaplane, and hotel stay. We redeemed a total of 553,000 miles and points.

💳I want to be clear that the Maldives isn't a cheap destination by any means. While we were able to get most of our flights and hotel stay covered with points, food and activities are expensive and this trip was nowhere near free once you factor all of that in. There are definitely other destinations where your out of pocket expenses can be minimized. This isn't one of them. That said, redeeming miles for fantastic business class flights to and from, plus redeeming points to cover most of our hotel stay definitely helps make a trip like this feasible.
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#maldivestravel #milesandpoints #pointsandmiles #lemeridienmaldives #marriottbonvoy #emiratesbusinessclass #qatarqsuites #aadvantagemiles #chaseultimaterewards #amexmembershiprewards

💔 The world lost a good one this past week. My

💔 The world lost a good one this past week. My father in law passed away peacefully after a battle with cancer. He was such an interesting man who loved nothing more than traveling the world and then teaching all of us about different cultures. He and my mother in law even took the Viking inaugural 5 month cruise around the world a few years ago. The first photo is him in Christchurch, New Zealand on said cruise.
I wanted to share some of Ryan’s eulogy.

“When I was 5 and Dustin was 7, my dad was walking by the Palm-Aire tennis courts in our neighborhood and saw a junior tournament going on. He watched a young solid player and was very impressed. My dad was a basketball, football, baseball, and track star in high school and had only dabbled in tennis in college. He asked the kid’s parents how many tennis lessons he took and they said one private and one clinic per week. He went into the pro shop and asked the pro at the club how much it would cost to do a clinic and a private per week. He then realized that if he quit smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, he could afford the lessons for us. He quit smoking that day for good and started my brother and I on a journey that led Dustin and I to play college tennis at SMU...”

I just love that story. He taught Ryan to put his family and his kids first. But it was this part of Ryan’s eulogy that really got me:

“…He took us on trips to Europe that he could barely afford because he wanted us to broaden our horizons and become well-rounded. Some of these trips he sat out and sent us with mom to save money…”

He was a teacher, but he was a huge advocate of “not all classrooms have four walls”. We will continue his legacy by showing our kids the world. We’re forever grateful for the impact he had on so many lives 💔😢 RIP, Bill.

If you have a Capital One Venture card, this is im

If you have a Capital One Venture card, this is important. If you don’t, I’m about to give you several reasons to consider one. I have a new Chase Sapphire Preferred vs Capital One Venture comparison on my blog. Check it out!
Capital one has made all airline partners 1:1 with the exception of EVA, which is 2:1.
✈️
The possibilities are endless but here are some redemption options for Europe. All are subject to availability
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1️⃣Avianca Lifemiles to book Star Alliance routes between US-Europe. Economy is 30k each way. Business is 60k or 63k each way, depending on your airport/destination. No fuel surcharges
Example:
ORD to Rome on Turkish is 63k
LAX to Zurich on Swiss is also 63k

2️⃣Turkish Miles to book Turkish US-Europe. Economy starts at 22,500 each way. Business class starts at 45k each way. There are fuel surcharges, but for business class, it may still be worth it. For example:
Chicago to Rome is 45k plus $224.

3️⃣Air Canada can also book Star Alliance, but Avianca will likely have better redemption pricing for US-Europe. One thing to keep in mind about Air Canada, however, is that you can call and add a stopover for just 5k more miles. If you’re trying to build a more complex itinerary, Air Canada may work better than Avianca

4️⃣Airfrance/KLM miles to book AF/KLM or Delta US-Europe from 56k each way.
If AF/KLM operate the flight, there are fuel surcharges. Not necessarily a deal breaker, especially in business class. Example:
DFW-Paris nonstop on AF in business-56k and $286 each way

5️⃣Etihad miles to book AA operated US-Europe routes. Economy is 20k/30k (off peak/peak). Business is 50k. No fuel surcharges.

6️⃣Emirates miles to book either of the 2 Emirates fifth freedom routes between the US and Europe.
JFK-Milan starts at 90k plus ~$160 roundtrip
EWR-Athens starts at 90k plus ~$160 roundtrip #awardtravel #milesandpoints #pointsandmiles #capitaloneventure

Our dream trip is coming to an end but I have tons

Our dream trip is coming to an end but I have tons of photos and lots of info to share! Maldives isn’t a cheap destination by any means but redeeming miles and points for flights and a hotel stay certainly softens the blow! Le Meridien did not disappoint.✌️🏝🐠🦈#lemeridienmaldives #marriottbonvoy #emiratesairline #qatarairways #maldivesresorts

Good morning from the set of our Cialis commercial

Good morning from the set of our Cialis commercial 🏝🥂#lemeridienmaldives #maldivesresorts #happyanniversary #notsponsored 😜

I’m just as excited about this flight as I am ab

I’m just as excited about this flight as I am about where we’re going! Ever since I got into the world of miles and points 8 years ago, flying on an A380 on the upper level has been at the very top of my list and we are finally taking a trip where it made sense to book this. The upper deck is probably less than 30% full on this flight and I’m pretty sure there’s more staff than passengers. We can’t imagine a more enjoyable flight, but based on reviews, the way we’re getting home may be even better. We paid ~$200 each out of pocket for these tickets and I’ll explain everything in the next few weeks. For now, I’m going to try to get my circadian rhythms in order and take a nap. See y’all on the other side of the world 🌎✌️ #emirates #a380 #awardtravel #milesandpoints #pointsandmiles

On #nationaldaughtersday I have to post my favorit

On #nationaldaughtersday I have to post my favorite photo of us. For the longest time we joked that Ryan would probably never have girls. He only has a brother. Our first is a boy, and his brother has 3 boys. Then we managed to get a 2 for 1 👯‍♀️. At the time I couldn’t imagine life with TWO girls but now I couldn’t imagine life without them. We can’t wait to show them the world as they get older 🌎

Just realized I never posted our family update to

Just realized I never posted our family update to Instagram. This is our new beagle, Miles. If you’re new here, we lost our beloved 14 year old beagle Beau in May 💔 I still get really sad about Beau but shortly after he passed, a beagle who was up for adoption came across our radar and we felt like he was a gift hand picked by Beau. They have a lot of similar personality traits and he’s been so great with our kids. We have our yellow lab Doc, obviously representing Ryan’s career, so the kids felt like the only appropriate name for our new dog is Miles. He came from a good home and we will keep the details private, but we’ll keep his other name as a middle name! 🐶 #adoptdontshop #beaglesofinstagram #beaglegram

Happy #nationaltwinday to these two 👯‍♀️

Happy #nationaltwinday to these two 👯‍♀️ the 3rd pic is my favorite… Livvy has a blankie she takes everywhere and when she fell asleep, Taylor held it to make sure it didn’t fly off the boat 💜

Injured wrist and Jack still beat me the other day

Injured wrist and Jack still beat me the other day! Love how he ties a sweat towel to look like a Federer headband 🤣 @rmauck1

Staying here until I forget all my passwords 🌊☀️

Sunday sweet spots: roundtrip business class to Eu

Sunday sweet spots: roundtrip business class to Europe for as little as 88k Amex points on Star Alliance airlines such as United ✈️

You can also book US-Europe roundtrip in economy for as little as 55k. This is a good deal if paid fares are high, but always do the cents per point point math to make sure you’re getting a decent redemption value 🧮

Photos courtesy of @gillianrn

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