Morgan Patton 6/23/23 Morgan Patton 6/23/23

Gran Canaria, Spain

A breakdown of our trip to Gran Canaria: flights, hotels, itineraries, and how I booked it all.

Where We Stayed

We spent four nights at Salobre Resort and Serenity. This resort was situated on the southern half of Gran Canaria with views of both the ocean and desert-like landscape. Our biggest takeaway was that it was so incredibly peaceful. The environment, decor, landscaping, bounty of pools, and spa all contributed to a very relaxing few days. We loved the wellness circuit at the spa so much, we booked it two of the four days we were there. We also spend a lot of time at the very top of the resort - a sprawling piece of plants, pathways, cabanas, and the Sunset Pool and restaurant. The views of the sunset were incredible and the burrata pizza and gin & tonics brought us back multiple days for lunch.

How We Got There

I booked two seats on Air Europa’s Business Class MIA-MAD-LPA. We flew from Miami to Madrid in lie flat business class seats. We had a three hour layover in Madrid, where we got to visit the Sala Puerta De Alcala lounge. We had drinks, snacks, and my husband took a shower at the lounge. We then took a short flight to the island of Gran Canaria in standard business class.

What Points We Used

We booked our hotel nights with AMEX points through the AMEX portal that we earned from our Amex Gold card. We booked our flights with 140,000 Citi points and $47 transferred to Flying Blue. Air Europa is part of Star Alliance which means any of their flights can be booked through other Star Alliance airlines, like Air France. We earned our Citi points through the sign-up bonus from the Citi Premier card. Check out my free guide for more information on cards and transfer partners. If you’re interested in signing up for any of the cards I mention, please send me a message and I’ll send you my referral link. I don’t get paid - It just helps me earn a small amount of bonus points and you get to earn the full sign-up bonus.

Value

Salobre (4 nights)97,000 AMEX + $900 = $1,800, plus Free Breakfast

MIA-MAD-LPA 140,000 Citi Points + $47 = $3,600, Business Class

Itinerary

Gran Canaria (11/20 - 11/25)

11/20 21:45 - 12:05 (11/21) Flight UX098 MIA - MAD
- MIA - Centurion Lounge
11/21 15:05 - 17:00 Flight UX9164 MAD - LPA

MAD - Sala VIP Puerta De Alcala Lounge (T2 - opposite Gate D59)

Hotel transfer to Salobre
Salobre Hotel Resort and Serenity (11/21-11/25)
- Breakfast included
- Address: Urbanización Salobre Golf calle Swing s/n, Maspalomas, Las Palmas

Email for Referral

Morgan Patton 5/29/19 Morgan Patton 5/29/19

How to use Points & Miles to Travel & Experience

An Introduction to Travel Hacking

Travel hacking simply means using points and miles to make travel accessible and affordable. Whether you’re interested in traveling to experiencing food, wine, and culture all over the world, or to be able to travel as a family, utilizing points and miles can make travel nearly free. The “points” refer to credit card and hotel brand points. Miles refers to airline miles. The beauty is that they work together and can transfer between each other to maximize value to allow you to buy flights and hotel stays.

An Introduction to Travel Hacking

Now, some people understandably have reservations about credit cards, usually for two reasons. One, that credit cards end up costing you a lot of money if you don’t pay off your balance each month. This is very much true, so it’s important to only spend what you can pay off each month. Two, that opening credit cards hurts your credit score. This is actually a little bit of a misconception. Yes, the credit check that happens when you apply for a credit card does cause a small ding initially, but beyond a couple of months and over the long-term having a credit card(s) actually improves your score significantly because it increases your credit limit, which decreases your credit utilization each month Additionally, consistently paying off a credit card each month raises your score significantly. I always tell people there are only three real “requirements” for being able to travel hack are:

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A good credit score
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Most of the travel credit cards require a credit score of 700 or above.

Average monthly spend of $1000 or more to meet minimum spends for signup bonuses

OR having a big purchase or multiple big purchases coming up, like a wedding, home project, etc.

Transitioning all or most of your daily spend on food, utilities, clothes, etc, will help you meet your sign-up bonus and then continue to earn points to continue to travel.

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Pay off your card(s) on time!
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As with anything, paying off what you spend is very important. These cards can be so valuable when used correctly, but not paying off you card each month will cost you interest that diminishes the value of the point you’ll earn.

Now that we have those ground rules, let’s talk about the fun stuff - points and miles. Points are earned through signing up for and using certain Chase, AMEX, Capital One, Citi, or Bilt Credit Cards. My free cheat sheet, here, has my top recommend travel credit cards that allow you to earn points and miles. There are two sources of points from these cards - sign up bonuses and earning points from your normal spend.

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Sign-up Bonus
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Each of these major travel credit cards have point sign up bonuses when you meet the minimum spend within the first few months of opening the card.Each card is a little different, but on average, you can earn the sign up bonus by spending by $3,000 in the first 3 months of opening the card. To see a summary of the cards and their signup bonuses, download my free cheat sheet.

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Everyday Spend 
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Every dollar you put on any of these recommended cards earns you points for that program - Chase points, AMEX points, etc. Each card also has bonus categories to maximize the amount of points you earn for each purchase you put on your card. For example, the Chase Saphire Preferred card earns 3x points on restaurant spend.

Once you earn these points you can redeem them and maximize their value for flights and hotels through a few different methods.

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Portals
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The major credit card companies have portals where you can take the point you earned and redeem them for flights, hotels, rental car bookings, or statement credit.

Co-branded cards to earn Airline Miles or Hotel Points directly

Certain credit cards allow you to earn airline miles or hotel brand points directly. For example, Marriot, Hilton, Delta, and American Airlines commonly have cobranded cards.

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Transfer Partners 
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The BEST way to maximize your points. 
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The Chase, AMEX, Citi, Capital One, Citi, Bilt points you earn through the credit cards can be transferred to other airline and hotel partners to book hotel stays and flights. Each credit card program has different partners, and I have a free cheat sheet you can download here with the full list of partners. For example, Chase points transfer to Hyatt points, and allowed us to book 2 nights at the Paris Park Hyatt for 65,000 points and $0, where it would have been $1200 a night if we had paid cash for it. For more on how we booked this and the rest of our honeymoon, check out post.

Free Guide

Morgan Patton 5/28/19 Morgan Patton 5/28/19

Our Points Process - How I Began

When I first got engaged and was reading and listening to everything wedding related, I heard whisperings of the points and miles world and how much value you can get out of the extra spend you have to put out while planning a wedding. Without knowing much, I opened a card that had a high minimum spend requirement because I at least knew we would be spending a lot of money and would be able to get some points for it. With the help of podcasts and blog posts, I then realized just how valuable those points would be.

Abadia Retuerta Hotel, Spa, & Winery in Valladolid, Spain

Planning a wedding is one of the best times to get into travel hacking because there is so much spend that takes place while planning a wedding. If you maximize your points earning just by simply using some of these recommended cards to pay your vendors, you can absolutely earn enough points to book yourself an incredible honeymoon.

My husband and I were lucky enough to be able to spend two weeks traveling through Spain and France on points and miles for our honeymoon. There are so many different options and levels to choose from when booking a trip with points and miles, but we were really looking for a luxury experience that allowed us to visit some bucket list hotels and restaurants – see the details here.

I started with the Capital One Venture card. This card earned us a 100,000 point sign-up bonus plus 2x points on every dollar spent, which made it great for paying vendors. Over the next 18 months of our planning process, I dove into the travel hacking world and leared as much as I could so that we could turn our wedding spend into a trip of a lifetime. My husband and I then opened up the Chase Sapphire Prefered card, which was instrumental in booking flights like our Business class return flight and hotels like the Park Hyatt Paris Vendome. Over the 18 months we also opened up a couple AMEX and Citi cards. Check out my favorite cards here. Here’s how the points we earend from these cards become so valuable:

How these cards earned us points:

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Big Sign Up Bonuses 
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Each of these cards had a 100,00 point signup bonus or higher when we applied for them. Signup bonuses do fluctuate, so keep an eye out for the big ones.

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Points on All Spend
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- Using these cards to pay bills, buy groceries, and pay vendors earned us thousands of points.

My husband also owns a small business, so he was able to open up a couple of Marriott Bonvoy business credit cards along the way. Over these past two years we’ve utilized credit cards to earn points and book some incredible trips. Check out my blogs on each of our trips to see where we stayed, how we got there, and how we booked it with points and miles.

Morgan Patton 5/26/19 Morgan Patton 5/26/19

How We Honeymooned on Points & Miles

We were able to have over a $25,000 honeymoon for less than $2,000 in cash and everything else in points & miles. We flew business class and stayed in some of my bucket list, luxury properties. Here’s how I did it.

Salobre Hotel Resort & Serenity, Gran Canaria, Spain

We were able to have over a $25,000 honeymoon for less than $2,000 in cash and everything else in points & miles.

There are so many ways to honeymoon, but we really wanted to prioritize food, wine, and a bit of luxury. Once we decided on Spain and France, I knew we needed to earn a majority of Chase and AMEX points. The Chase points would allow us to book some incredible Hyatt hotels in Paris and allow us to fly home on United Polaris Business class. The AMEX points would allow us access to some boutique and unique hotels that aren’t part of the major hotel brands. I really wanted to visit specific restaurants and spas, which were at some of these fairly exclusive hotels. But thanks to AMEX’s Fine Hotels and Resorts program, we were able to book them without having to spend a dime. This is a feature of their portal that allows you the option to pay with your AMEX points instead of cash, and it one of my favorite features. Aside from giving you access to some of the best hotels in the world, it also includes free breakfast for two, complimentary room upgrade, and a $100 credit to be used at the hotel. You also get a annual $200 FHR credit with the AMEX Platinum card. For example, I booked two nights a boutique hotel that was $450 a night. At checkout in the portal, I put 70,000 AMEX points toward the cost, which brought it down to $200. I then charged my Platinum card that remaining balance, which was then credited back to my on my card thanks to the FHR credit.

I break down each stop of our honeymoon in detail in my other blogs (Canary Islands, Madrid, San Sebastian, and Paris), but we really did take a $25,000 honeymoon. We ended up paying about $500 in taxes and fees on our flights, $1500 on a few hotel nights, and certainly some $$$ on food and drinks, but everything else was completely paid for with points and miles.

The cards we utilized to get us our points and get us our luxury honeymoon:

AMEX Platinum: Highly recommend for access to the high sign up bonus and access to the Platinum portal and the FHR, as well as numneroud other travel benefits.

Chase Sapphire Preferred: Great sign up bonus easily used for booking Hyatt hotels and United flights.

Citi Premier: Transfer to Flying Blue Air France that gives you access to Star Alliance.

Cobranded Hotel Cards (World of Hyatt, Marriott): Perfect for getting points needed specifically for hotel stays.

Abadia Retuerta Le Domaine Hotel, Spa, & Winery, Valladolid, Spain

During our engagement, we also used some of these points to take a trip to Greece. Check out my detailed post of how we did Greece including my itinerary of the trip, here.

Gran Canaria, Spain

How to use Points & Miles to Travel & Experience

An Introduction to Travel Hacking

Our Points Process - How I Began

How We Honeymooned on Points & Miles

We were able to have over a $25,000 honeymoon for less than $2,000 in cash and everything else in points & miles.

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