As
I write this blog I am on a plane headed toward South Carolina. This trip is one of the few I did not
plan myself. It was not easy for
me to let go and have someone else plan the trip. For me planning is half the
fun, while I try to get the lowest price possible. This time my friend, Sherri, did all the planning. There are five of us headed toward
Hilton Head. We are not staying at
a hotel, so no reward points being earned. Sherri booked us a four-bedroom
condo in Hilton Head right on the beach using Craig’s List. She got a full-size car through Priceline. The hardest part was trying to find
inexpensive plane tickets. I
was hoping to fly American Airlines so I could use my platinum status and get
all the benefits I mentioned in this week’s earlier blog. It was not to be, tickets to Hilton Head
on AA were $850 …way too expensive. In order to save money we are flying in a
day early and spending the first night in a hotel. We also are not flying into Hilton Head but into Columbia,
SC. The cheapest flight was a
United Airlines flight.
I
originally used ITA Matrix (see July 5th, blog) to find the cheapest
price and selected the nearby airports in my search. The beach house is reserved from Saturday to Saturday. Generally Saturday is cheaper to fly
than Friday but not on this occasion.
Since we are arriving a day early I at least had a role in finding the
hotel for our one night stay in Columbia.
Holiday Inn has a wonderful program called “PointBreaks” where they
offer certain hotels for 5,000 points versus the normal 20,000
points. The list changes every
quarter. I was lucky, the Columbia
Airport Holiday Inn was on the list. It is an extremely well furnished hotel. We have a large King suite. I have a Priority Club credit card which refunds me 10% of my award
points so it really only cost me 4500 points. I figured the points equal approximately
$30 a night. The regular cost is $149 per night. This is my kind of deal!
I
am a big fan of multiple credit cards.
Credit cards sign-up bonuses can earn you lots of travel rewards. Some people are scared that applying
for lots of credit cards will hurt their credit score. Last week I got a new credit card and
my Experian credit report showed a score over 800. I pay off all my credit cards every month and have different
credit cards for different purchases. I will explain in another blog how I use multiple credit
cards but for today’s blog I am going to explain all the benefits of the
Citibank Thank You Premier credit card and how it came in handy for this trip. What I like about this credit card is
it offers a complimentary domestic companion air ticket every year when
you book air tickets through Citi’s travel benefits provider, Spirit
Incentives. You’ll have to pay for all fees, taxes and charges associated with
the companion ticket though. The
problem with using the companion ticket is the travel provider finds the lowest
price and only provides one or two flight choices. You can’t pick the time or airline but remember the name of the
blog is Travel for Less. Two tickets to Columbia, SC would have cost $748 yet I
only paid $503 and saved $245.
I use this card
whenever I fly because it is a way to earn “flight points” based on the number
of miles flown between the city of origin and the city of destination. I
have earned enough Thank You/Flight points to fly to Africa for free and get
this computer that I am typing this blog on for free.
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