2023 Award Travel Recap – How much our family saved using points and miles in 2023

2023 FAMILY VACATIONS WE TOOK

• January – Skiing, no points/miles used (we drive to Breckenridge and stay in condos)
  TIP: Booking condos is a great way to earn extra points! If you are booking VRBO, you could earn 3 United Airline miles per dollar by starting your search here. Or, if you are booking an Airbnb, you could earn 3 British Airways Avios per dollar from your Airbnb stay.
  Money saved $0 🙂

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• March – 5 night Disney cruise out of Miami
  Money saved $3150 (roundtrip flights to Miami for 3, 1 Hyatt Place night, 1 Ritz Carlton Biscayne Bay night)

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• April – 4 nights at Dreams Riviera Cancun Resort & Spa
  TIP: We paid for our stay with The World of Hyatt Credit Card to earn lots of Hyatt points (this is where having a hotel credit card is key, NOT daily spend)
  Money saved $1180 (roundtrip flights to Cancun for 3)

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• June – 5 nights in Orlando with 2 days at Disney
  Money saved $2270 for roundtrip flights to Orlando on Southwest, 1 night Hyatt Regency Orlando Airport, 4 nights Hyatt Grand Cypress Resort

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• June – We spent 13 nights in Europe. We always travel as a family and to be honest, it’s tough to use points for hotel stays in Europe. Usually you have to book a suite and that means using a TON of points. So we opted to pay for all of our hotel stays and then just use points for our flights.
  Money saved $15,000 for 3 business class flights to/from Europe (obviously, I would NEVER pay that… but that is what tickets would have cost… height of the summer, premium airfare)
  *TIP: I knew we’d be spending a lot of money for our hotel stays, so this was the PEFECT time to open a new card for a sign up bonus! Don’t sleep on your big spends! Make them work for you.

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• September – 3 days at Universal Orlando
  TIP: Do you have the Platinum Card® from American Express? This card comes with an annual $200 credit at hotels in Amex’s Fine Hotels & Resort program. Which includes Loews Portofino Bay Hotel. With a family, this is the PERFECT place to stay because you get front of the line access at Universal Orlando and Islands of Adventure (worth $100+ per person, EACH day!). AND booking via the Fine Hotels Program also meant we had breakfast included, room upgrades, 4pm check out AND $100 food/bev credit (which we used at the pool for lunch both days). My husband used his $200 credit for the 1st night, I used mine for the 2nd. We did have to check in/out (2 different reservations), which I didn’t mind at all because we saved a ton of money.
  Money saved: $1200 for roundtrip flights to Orlando, 1 night at Hyatt Regency, $400 off Portofino Bay

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• October – 9 nights in Japan
  Money saved: $35,000 for 3 business class flights to/from Japan, 3 nights at Andaz Tokyo, 1 night at Park Hyatt Kyoto, 2 nights at Hyatt Place Kyoto (we would never have spent this amount of $$!!!)

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• November – 4 nights in New York City, during Thanksgiving break which meant prices were VERY high and this trip wouldn’t have happened without using points!!
  Money saved $5,000 for roundtrip flights for 3 to NYC, 1 night at SpringHill Marriott Times Square, 2 nights at Park Hyatt New York, 1 night at Thompson Central Park

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• December – 1 night at the Hyatt Regency Orlando Airport – we stayed here 4 times this year. We always fly super late into Orlando to save vacation days so this fabulous hotel is our go to. We used a category 1 – 4 Hyatt Free night certificate.
  Money saved $428
• December – 3 nights at Hyatt Regency Orlando over Christmas break. We luckily booked this hotel in early 2023 before Hyatt bumped it up a category. That meant we only paid 9K points per night. We booked 3 nights for us (27K Hyatt points total) and 2 nights for my dad (18K points total).
  Money saved $1800 (for both hotel rooms)
• December – 3 nights at Hyatt Regency Clearwater.
  You guys! This is SUCH a cute hotel! Directly on the beach. Walkable to every thing. And every room has kitchens! We used 25K Hyatt points/night.
  Money saved $4386 (holiday pricing! whew!)
• Flights for this trip were booked with Southwest using points + 1 companion pass.
  Money saved $1700 for 3 tickets

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• I didn’t include our Spain vacation in January 2023 on this list (since we started the vacation in 2022 and ended it in 2023, I really count it was a 2022 vacation 🙂

TOTAL SAVINGS (so far) $71,114

We have always prioritized travel and always set aside money for travel. But even with that said, we’d never ever spend $70K+ on vacation in one year. The amount of trips and the luxury of the trips is all because we can use points and miles.

EARNING POINTS FOR THESE VACATIONS

I’ve outlined exactly what cards we opened in 2023, although MANY points from 2023 vacations were earned in 2022 since we book our International flights 1 year out.

As you can see, we rely HEAVILY on Southwest Companion Pass and Hyatt stays.
I would honestly say, if you are just starting out and can master these 2 elements, you can start saving thousands every year by offsetting the costs of travel with your points.