My Travel Blog
I know, that expression is way overused and can be filed away along with 'You reap what you sow' and 'Good things come to those who wait', but there must be some ounce of truth to them or they wouldn't be said so often. That's all fine and dandy, but why am I talking about this?
Backstory - we had a great house lined up in Holland that was close to our family, an amazing price, and much bigger than we could've even hoped for. I was in communication with the owner and when I went to confirm I was told that it had just been rented to someone else. I was quite disappointed, but my husband said that it must be because there is an even better place for us and now we just have to find it. Quite the optimist and you can't knock the attitude, but I knew by 'we' it was really 'me' that would look for it and I felt like I'd already scoured everything in the area. But, I plodded on and continued the search even though it felt like I was looking at the same places over and over again. One night as we were watching tv I had my laptop on and was idly scrolling away, not even trying very hard. Voila - a mirage appeared before me that was so perfect it couldn't be true! It was more money than the other place but the location was even better, and it had a garage and a sauna to boot! Okay, so he was right. (Hear that honey? I'm telling the entire world that you were right!)
So now we have our plane tickets and both our Paris and Holland accommodations booked. It feels quite strange because usually there is so much planning to be done with these European trips, but this year we are only going to two places so there is a lot less to organize. Less places, less trains, less cars... We still need to rent a car for our two weeks in Holland but I first have to locate a parking ticket that we need to pay from last summer. It took Europcar 5 months to send us a parking ticket from Italy, but seeing as we usually rent from them we should probably pay it before attempting to rent a car from them again. Lastly, we need to book the Yotel for our stopover in Amsterdam on the way to Paris. The Yotel is right in the airport and it was a total lifesaver last year. Now that we understand the system a bit better we've actually planned a long stopover (7 hours) in Amsterdam so that we can grab a few hours sleep before catching our connecting flight. None of us slept a wink on the plane last year (we arrived at 8 am Amsterdam time, but midnight Calgary time) so getting a bit of sleep in the hotel was really nice. We only had about 2.5 hours last time so this year we're hoping for a bit more by having a longer stopover. It appears that you can't book more than 6 months in advance so I'll try again in a few weeks.
So that's about it for now. With pretty much everything done there isn't any excuse for me to not tackle that pile of laundry, is there?
Okay, so maybe not shenanigans per se as that would imply some sort of deceit or prank, but when I booked our tickets for Europe I internally rubbed my hands together with glee while a slight cackling giggle escaped my lips.
Background - we use our visa points to book our airline tickets each summer. We are lucky enough to acquire enough points throughout the year to subsidize a major portion of our trip. We don't live like rockstars but we do charge everything that we can - even a $2 coffee. We pay off our balance each month and the points really add up. My husband also has his own business which allows us to use the points from his business visa in conjunction with ours which obviously adds a lot to the pot. What I love about our card is that it is geared towards travelers; for every dollar we spend that is travel related we get more points than we do for regular purchases. My husband travels a lot for work and every time he pays for a hotel or rental car the points (quite literally) fly in! I can't recommend enough using your credit card to it's full potential, if you have one and pay a yearly fee you might as well get the perks!
Our card doesn't have blackout dates - we simply find the flights we want and call the number on the back of the card. They book it for us and pay the airline directly for whatever the listed price is. As far as the airline is concerned the ticket is paid for with cash. We 'pay' a set number of points for each type of flight, which in the case of an overseas flight is 65000 points. Those points cover a base fare of $1300, so if we find a cheap ticket with a base cost of $800 we still use the same number of points. Obviously it isn't to our advantage to take a cheaper flight, unless of course that flight is better for us. In researching flights for this summer's trip I compared KLM, Air Canada, British Airways and the charter company Air Transat. Air Transat was the cheapest by a few hundred dollars but they only flew to select cities on certain days meaning our trip would be two days shorter than we would like. KLM had the best times and flights while British Airways was disproportionately expensive. No matter what airline it was they all had close to the same taxes (about $450) which is never covered by our visa points. If we were paying for the tickets out of our pocket Air Transat would be the best choice as their multi-city ticket (flying into Paris and out of Amsterdam) was $300 cheaper than KLM and Air Canada. However, when I chose the multi-city ticket with KLM (into Paris, side trip of Paris - Amsterdam, then home from Amsterdam) the base ticket price was $1302. Excellent! Essentially that meant (aside from the taxes) we had to pay $2 each for our tickets on the perfect dates with perfect times. That's what I call maximizing our points - we are flying during the most expensive part of the year on a major airline with a multi-city itinerary for $2 each. Satisfying.
So with that job done I'm free to concentrate on planning the rest of the trip. This morning I paid the deposit on a Paris apartment and now I need to finalize our Holland plans. I have about 5 little scraps of paper scattered around with random numbers and websites listed as well as a zillion tabs open on my computer. Time to make some decisions! (Luckily I have a bunch of salty Dutch licorice on hand to help fortify me during my endeavors...)
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