We’re getting ready to embark on another European adventure, although this time we will be on separate vacations. Jenn is visiting Munich and Dublin with our daughter, her sister, and our niece. That was planned as a girls’ trip to celebrate our niece graduating from High School.
Meanwhile, my son Alex and I will be visiting Dresden and Berlin, and spending a significant amount of time hiking in Saxon Switzerland National Park on the border of Germany and the Czech Republic.
It’s getting a little weird, this being our fourth trip to Europe in three years, since I thought that a European vacation was out of reach for us a decade ago. Knowing how and where we can save money on these trips makes all the difference.
For instance, for Alex and me to go on our trip, the round-trip flight cost $264 in taxes and fuel charges on top of the 81,600 Delta Skymiles. We will be taking Flixbus from the airport to Dresden and then from Dresden to Berlin the following week. Those bus tickets will cost a total of $80. We will spend about $140 for two Deutschland tickets, which will cover all of our public transportation while we are there. That means that our transportation costs are a total of $484.
Knowing that we would spend only a little time in our Airbnb, we rented a small apartment near a train stop in Dresden for $490 for 6 nights. We also have two nights in the Holiday Inn Express Alexanderplatz, where we will use two IHG free night certificates.
That means that, outside of food and activities, we will spend less than $1,000 on the trip. I get a lot of odd looks from people who can’t believe that we can afford to keep going to Europe, but it’s absolutely possible if you know what you’re doing.
IHG Bonus
Jenn earned the first of her bonuses on the IHG One Rewards Premier Business Card. She signed up for the card when there was a 140,000 point bonus after $4,000 in 3 months and an additional 60,000 points after $9,000 spent in 6 months.
IHG isn’t a luxury brand, but it offers many affordable options and has locations worldwide. I’ve especially been pleased with its footprint in Europe. Plenty of hotels are available wherever I look in Europe on the IHG app. Having a stash of IHG points will be nice to have when planning trips in the future.
On to the Point Check!
Most of our spending was done on the two cards for which we are working on signup bonuses. That would be my Chase Sapphire Preferred and Jenn’s IHG Business Card. There was some spending done on cards that we use for recurring billing. We’ve optimized them so that we earn 5x on utilities and 8x on gas with the Wyndham Business Earner card as well as 5x on streaming services and cell phone plans on the Ink Cash. All of that means that for these cards we earned 8.3% back on all spend on the cards listed below – not too bad.
Card Used
Spend
Points Earned
Point Value
Points Per $
Return on Spend
Ink Cash
$502
2,510
$51.46
5.0
10.2%
Wyndham Business Earner
$407
2,234
$24.57
5.5
6.0%
Amex Gold
$165
660
$13.20
4.0
8.0%
Total
1,074
5,404
$89.23
5.0
8.3%
This month’s spending not devoted to earning a signup bonus
In addition to the spending listed above, I also spent a little less than $3,000 on my Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, earning around 4,700 Chase Ultimate Reward points. Jenn spent over $3,100 on her IHG, earning 11,900 IHG points as well as the 140,000 point bonus for spending $4,000 in the first 3 months. If she ends up spending an additional $5,000 over the next 4 months, she will earn an additional 60,000 point bonus.
At the end of the month, we had a grand total of:
185,000 IHG points
161,800 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points
124,600 Amex Membership Rewards Points
93,000 American Airlines Miles
81,100 Wyndham Points
79,100 Alaska Miles
32,300 Citi Thank You Points
16,700 United Miles
15,900 Marriott Bonvoy Points
9,300 Hyatt Points
1,500 Delta Miles
$132 in Cash Back
According to the Points Guy’s valuations, the grand total of those points, miles, and cash back is a little less than $11,600. That is an increase of around $800 from the previous month, as our point totals finally start to recover from the massive amount of point redemptions we made at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. Of course, the most important thing is that we get to enjoy another wonderful vacation.
May wasn’t terribly exciting, but Jenn did join me on a business trip to San Antonio. While I’m not a huge fan of being in Texas during the warmer months, I love the River Walk. What is unique about the River Walk is that San Antonio built a giant flood tunnel and a lock and dam system along the San Antonio River to ensure that the river stays at the same level, regardless of the amount of rain they receive. That allows for the walkway to be only a few inches above the water level, and all of the shops and restaurants can be extremely close to the river. It makes for a unique and beautiful experience, especially at night.
While much of my time was spent at a convention, the evenings allowed us to check out many of the breweries and restaurants in the area. While I love walking around the main commercial area on the River Walk, the restaurants and bars there are expensive and underwhelming. When you get off the main area of River Walk, the food and drink seems to improve dramatically. We had the opportunity to visit my favorite place in San Antonio, Dos Sirenos Brewing, a couple of times when we were there, which made me and my belly, very happy.
Some Hotel Redemptions
My son Alex and I are going to Berlin and Dresden for a week this July. We hope to do a little hiking at Saxon Switzerland National Park and explore both cities. I waited maybe a little too long to book our lodging, but I was able to find a cheap Airbnb along the main train line in Dresden that should mean quick transit to the national park as well as Downtown Dresden. We also used the last two of Jenn’s IHG free-night certificates to book a Holiday Inn in Downtown Berlin.
In addition, we used Jenn’s Marriott free-night certificate, which was about to expire, to book a hotel in Peoria for a quick weekend getaway with our friends Bill and Theresa. While I hate that we almost had a certificate expire, using it for a quick getaway with some good friends is never a bad use of a certificate.
Slow and Steady
I’ve been a pretty big fan of the Wyndham program for a while. One reason is that Jenn’s Wyndham Business Earner card earns 8 points per dollar spent at gas stations and 5 points per dollar on utilities. That means that we are typically earning a couple of thousand Wyndham points per month on those categories. In addition, it gives any cardholder a 10% discount when those points are used.
Also, when the $95 annual fee is paid each year, the cardholder receives a 15,000-point bonus. Since those points are valued at 1.1 cents per dollar, we receive $165 in Wyndham points, and if you figure in the 10% point redemption discount, it’s closer to $180. That’s a pretty good reason to hold the card by itself.
Over the last 21 months, our Wyndham points balance has gone up by 78,000 points by doing nothing but using it for utilities and gas, and earning the annual bonus. This demonstrates how slow and steady growth can lead to a meaningful number of points.
At 81,000 points, we will have enough points to book a 1-bedroom Vacasa vacation rental for 6 days that is priced up to $250 per night. Since we really love to use vacation rentals, the ability to book one with points is fantastic. Also, the ability to get a free vacation rental worth up to $1,500 for just 81,000 points is pretty nice. There just happen to be quite a few Vacasas in Tulum, Puerto Vallarta, and Cabo San Lucas that fit that category, so there is a good chance I’ll be booking a trip to Mexico at some point.
On To The Point Check!
Once again, our spending not committed to earning a signup bonus was spent strategically. We earned 6.9% on that spending, and I’m generally happy when we earn over 5%.
Card Used
Spend
Points Earned
Point Value
Points Per $
Return on Spend
Wyndham Business Earner
$918
4,879
$53.67
5.3
5.9%
Ink Cash
$724
3.622
$74.25
5.0
10.2%
Venture
$455
910
$18.20
2.0
3.7%
Amex Gold
$421
1,684
$33.68
4.0
8.0%
Sapphire Preferred
$157
247
$5.06
1.6
3.2%
Total
$2,675
11,342
$184.86
4.2
6.9%
This month’s spending not devoted to earning a signup bonus
Besides the spending on the credit cards listed above, Jenn spent almost $1,600 on her IHG card, earning over 5,000 IHG points. I spent almost $1,500 on my Chase Sapphire Preferred card, earning me over 3,800 Chase Ultimate Reward points and getting me closer to my 100,000 point bonus. At the end of the month we were left with:
154,600 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points
124,500 Amex Membership Rewards Points
93,000 American Airlines Miles
79,100 Alaska Miles
78,800 Wyndham Points
60,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points
33,200 IHG points
32,100 Citi Thank You Points
16,700 United Miles
9,300 Hyatt Points
1,500 Delta Miles
$132 in Cash Back
When you add up all of those points, according to the valuations published by the Points Guy, they are worth a grand total of $10,700. That is slightly higher than the previous month, but still well below our all-time high of $16,500. Given the fact that we have some signup bonuses that we are working on and the fact that I don’t have to much to redeem our points on soon, I think we might top that this year. We’ll have to wait and see how that plays out though. Either way, I have a trip to Germany to get ready for!
Aer Lingus Avios is a tremendous program that almost nobody in the points and miles community talks about. The program is great because it provides a predictably great value on award flights. It is also easy to accumulate points because of its great transfer partners. What makes it fly under the radar, however, is that it is a confusing website and is not scanned by award websites like awardtool.com and pointsyeah.com.
Not Kidding – This Website is Terrible
One of the main reasons people don’t pay attention to this program is that the website is just horrible. For instance, you would think that if you logged into the website and then went to book a flight, you would be able to toggle between paying with Aer Lingus Avios and paying with cash. You would think this because almost every other airline has this feature on their website—not Aer Lingus, however.
This is the normal interface for the website, but there isn’t an option to pay with points.
Instead, you need to click on the AerClub tab at the top and under the “Spend Avios” section, select “Book a Reward Flight”.
When you click on “Book an Award Flight”, you would expect it to take you to a page where you could book an award flight. Unfortunately, you need to find the little button that says “Buy a Reward Flight,” which is about halfway down the page after a bunch of information about the kinds of flights that you can book with Avios.
Once you do that, there will finally be an interface to allow you to search for an award flight. Just type in the airport that you wish to depart from and the airport that you want to arrive at, as well as the date, and then click the “search flights” button.
That sounds easy enough, but the problem is that for some reason, you can only search for direct flights. For instance, I can search from Chicago to Dublin. I can also search from Dublin to Edinburgh, because both of those are direct flights. What I can’t do is search from Chicago to Edinburgh, because there would be a stop in Dublin. That’s utterly insane. I cannot think of another airline website that is unable to book an award flight with a stop. It’s non-stop flights or nothing.
How A Limitation Can Be an Advantage
This limitation, though, can be used to your advantage. I am a huge fan of stopover flights and because you need to book all of the awards as separate itineraries, that makes stopovers simple.
Let’s look at the above example. I want to fly from Chicago to Edinburgh, Scotland, and do it on points. Clearly, I can’t book it as one itinerary, because the website only allows for non-stop flights. However, that does mean that I can break the two segments up into separate days and instead plan a stopover in Dublin for a day or two. Now, instead of flying directly into Edinburgh, I can stop for a day or two, visit Dublin Castle, have a couple of Guinness stouts, and adjust to the jet lag before moving on to Edinburgh. Stopovers are a fun way of getting a little extra out of a vacation.
Unfortunately, that means that if you are planning to fly from America to Europe using Aer Lingus, you will need to fly from one of the few cities in North America that have a direct flight to Dublin or Shannon. There are a couple of dozen American cities that you can fly to Ireland on using Aer Lingus, and Flight Connections is a great way to find out where those airports are that connect via Aer Lingus.
Award Flights are Consistently Available at Reasonable Prices
The Aer Lingus website is clunky and hard to use, but the payoff is predictable pricing and fairly consistently available awards, at least in economy. Aer Lingus has a distance-based award chart, and they seem to release five economy seats for each flight. I have no idea how many business class awards they release, because they are always sold out. If you find one, consider yourself extremely lucky.
The points charges for economy flights within Europe are pretty good, with flights from Ireland to the UK or within Ireland costing 4,000 Avios off-peak and 4,500 peak. From Ireland to most of Europe, it is 6,500 off-peak and 7,500 at peak. When you get a little further out, like Ireland to Greece, the Canary Islands, or Croatia, it gets up to 8,500 off-peak and 10,000 peak.
The calendar for peak/off-peak is also fairly generous, with peak pricing basically being summer and a few holiday-related dates the rest of the year.
Where this program gets extremely interesting, for Americans, is the fact that you can fly to Dublin from most of the Northeast and Midwest in the US for 13,000 miles off-peak and 20,000 miles peak. For destinations in Florida, Denver, and the US West Coast, it costs 16,250 miles off-peak and 25,000 miles peak. To view the full award chart, click on this link.
What this means, at least for me, is that you can use Dublin as a great launching point for trips from the US to different parts of Europe. I’ve been promising my family a Canary Islands trip for years and haven’t pulled it off yet. Using Aer Lingus Avios, we could fly to Tenerife during spring break, for 13,000 miles to Dublin. We could stopover in Dublin for a night or two and then get back on a plane and fly to Tenerife for 8,500 Avios. That’s a total of 21,500 Avios each for a pretty great flight itinerary.
You could do the same thing and end up in Munich for 19,500 Avios with a stopover in Dublin, or go to virtually any place in Ireland or the UK for only 17,000 Avios. That’s not unheard of, but the fact that it’s available most of the time on the Aer Lingus website makes it unique. It might not be available on the exact date you want to fly, but usually within a few days of when you want to fly.
Also, if you really need to fly on a Saturday, because you really can’t do a Tuesday-to-Tuesday trip, Aer Lingus offers the same good flight prices on the weekends as they do on any other day of the week. You might need to plan ahead and book early if you want to get those flights, however.
Aer Lingus Avios are Easy to Earn
Accumulating Avios is one of the easiest things you can do in travel hacking. You can transfer points directly from American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards points, and Wells Fargo points. You can also transfer points from Citi Thank You points and Capital One by transferring to other Avios programs and then transferring to Aer Lingus Avios. In addition, Chase has three personal credit cards: the British Airways Visa Signature Card, the Iberia Visa Signature Credit Card, as well as the Aer Lingus Visa Signature Card, which earn Avios. There are also two credit cards issued by Cardless that earn Qatar Privilege Avios. If you earn Avios in any other program, like Iberia, you can just transfer those points to Aer Lingus at a 1:1 ratio.
All of those points can be consolidated into any Avios program. That probably makes Aer Lingus, as well as British Airways, Qatar Airlines, Finnair, and Iberia (all Avios programs), the easiest programs to accumulate points in. This means that not only will it not take a ton of points to book those flights, but it’s relatively easy to get those points.
Taxes and Fuel Surcharges are Relatively High
One thing that can be a little frustrating about the Aer Lingus program is that the taxes and fuel surcharges are relatively high. They’re not high compared to other European programs like Flying Blue or Virgin Atlantic, but compared to Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta, or United, those fees are pretty high. At current exchange rates, a round-trip flight to Dublin from Chicago costs $299.71 in taxes and fuel surcharges. On an identical United flight itinerary, the taxes are $50.41.
US-based programs like Alaska, American, Delta, or United are going to charge much less in taxes and fuel surcharges, but the number of points needed will typically be much higher. In the United Airlines example that I mentioned earlier, the total number of points needed was 80,000 United miles round-trip, as opposed to the 26,000 points needed with Aer Lingus. So the question is, would you rather pay 26,000 points and $300 or 80,000 points and $50? That’s really an individual decision.
Why Aer Lingus For Transatlantic Flights is Clutch
Recently, the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card had a 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points bonus. This will probably be the most popular signup bonus for 2025. Anyone who signed up for this credit card and completed the $5,000 spend in 3 months necessary to get the bonus will be sitting on at least 105,000 Chase Ultimate Reward Points.
If you have a family of four that you would like to fly to Dublin from Chicago, in an off-peak time like September, for example, you could book that with Aer Lingus for 26,000 Avios and $300 each, for a total of 104,000 Aer Lingus Avios and $1,200. Those flights currently cost around $800 each, or around $3,200 total. Since the Avios needed to book those flights transfer from Chase Ultimate Reward Points at a 1:1 ratio, that means that this one signup bonus can ultimately save $2,000 on these flights.
One credit card signup and one transfer, and you can save $2,000 on flights to Dublin. That’s pretty good.
Let’s say I wanted to visit Prague in September. Alaska Air has a flight bookable with Alaska Miles (ironically, an Aer Lingus partner award) for 27,500 miles and $24. I would book that and then book a flight from Prague to Dublin using 6,500 Aer Lingus Avios and $32 as well as a flight from Dublin to Chicago for 13,000 Aer Lingus Avios and $167. That means that for 27,500 Alaska Miles, 19,500 Aer Lingus Avios, and $223, I can fly from Chicago and visit both Prague and Dublin. That’s a pretty solid itinerary for a fairly low price in points and dollars.
Don’t Overlook Aer Lingus
The Aer Lingus rewards program flies under the radar as a pretty great way to book inexpensive economy awards from the United States to Europe, especially Ireland and the UK. While the website can be a little clunky, and all of the award flights have to be booked as separate legs of direct flights, understanding the Aer Lingus program can yield amazing value.
The fact that everything has to be booked as non-stop flights means that you can add a day or two stopover in Dublin. This allows people to add an additional destination to a European vacation. Having to book separate legs could be an annoyance, or it could be a benefit. It’s really just a matter of how you look at it. That being said, 13,000 miles one-way from the northeast and midwest of the US is a deal that just amazing, and it’s basically standard with Aer Lingus.
It’s easy to overlook this program because if you are trying to find the best deal on award flights with a website like pointsyeah.com or awardtool.com you won’t find Aer Lingus awards. But don’t forget to go to Aer Lingus and see what’s available, especially if a trip to Ireland or at least a stopover would be desirable. It’s a great program that flies under the radar, so don’t ignore it.
April was about the only breather we could take for a while. March consisted of a trip to Spain and Portugal to do a week on the Camino de Santiago. In July, Jenn is taking our daughter Emma, as well as her sister and niece, to Munich and Dublin. Meanwhile, I will be taking our Son Alex to Berlin and Dresden as well as doing a little hiking in Bohemian Switzerland National Park. In September, we will be going to Nice, France, to participate in the UTMB Nice Côte d’Azur. It’s almost a little too much traveling in too short a time, but I’m willing to take this challenge head-on.
A Decent Deal on a Delta Flight?
I had been looking for months for a decent price on a flight for Alex and me to go to Europe, preferably Germany. For a while, I was getting frustrated because I could get flights to Europe for a decent number of points, but the prices for getting home were more than I wanted to spend. I was patient, and finally, Delta came through with round-trip flights for 40,800 Delta miles and $132 each. The price was 48,000, but Jenn has a Delta Gold Card, so the redemption was 15% off.
That meant Alex and I were set to go to Berlin in July for 81,600 Delta Miles and $264. That’s a pretty good price, but the downside was that it was the price for Basic Economy. In other words, we don’t get to choose our seats, so Alex and I may not be sitting together. I’m sure he’ll survive; he is 16 after all.
Those points came from a small amount of Delta miles that Jenn had, but she also had to transfer 76,000 American Express Membership Rewards points to Delta to cover the rest. Those flights would have cost around $1,000 each, so the redemption came to around 2.1 cents per point, which isn’t bad.
This was the last of the redemptions that we have planned for flights this year. It’s honestly difficult for me to believe it, but we booked 12 flights to Europe this year on points as well as a flight to San Antonio. Those flights weren’t “free” because they always come with taxes and sometimes come with fuel surcharges, but they have always been at severely discounted prices.
There is no way I would have paid cash for all of those flights, so I’m glad that we were able to use points to get to these amazing destinations. This year alone, I will have visited Portugal, Spain, France, Monaco, Ireland, Germany, and the Czech Republic. That’s pretty amazing, and I’m very thankful that I’m able to take these trips.
Sign Up Bonuses
In January, I signed up for the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature Card, which had a signup bonus of 75,000 Alaska miles and a companion fare after $3,000 spend in 3 months. In April, I finally completed my spending and received the bonus. The companion fare is essentially a $122 fare that you can use on any Alaskan flight if you purchase a second flight. It’s only good for a year, and I don’t think I’ll get an opportunity to use it. The Alaska Air miles, though, will definitely come in handy, especially when there are a lot of chances to use 4,500 Alaska miles to fly American Airlines on short flights. For us, they are especially useful for flying from our home airport in Moline to Chicago O’Hare.
Jenn got her 75,000 Membership Reward Points bonus for spending $6,000 in 6 months on her American Express Gold Card. That came just in time to replenish the points I used to book the Berlin flights for Alex and me. Membership Reward points are very valuable, and it’s always nice to have a little stash of those.
100K on Chase Sapphire Preferred
It doesn’t happen very often, but Chase occasionally offers a 100,000 point bonus on the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. When it does happen, every points and miles enthusiast checks to see if they’re eligible to receive the bonus. The basic requirements are that you have signed up for less than five personal credit cards in the last 24 months, you haven’t received the bonus in the last 48 months, and you currently don’t have a Sapphire Card.
Chase Ultimate Rewards points are the most coveted points in travel rewards outside of Bilt points. Getting 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points with one signup bonus is phenomenal, but the card itself is an excellent travel credit card. This card earns 5x on travel through the Chase Travel portal and 2x on all other travel purchases. It also earns 3x on dining, online groceries, and streaming services, and 1x on everything else. There is also a $50 hotel credit per year that you can receive if you book a hotel through the Chase Travel Portal.
What makes the points valuable, however, is their transfer partners. They have some great Airline transfer partners such as United, Southwest, Air France/KLM Flying Blue, Aer Lingus/Iberia/British Airways Avios, Air Canada, and Virgin Atlantic. A lot of people, however, love their Chase Ultimate Rewards points because they transfer to Hyatt at a 1:1 ratio. Hyatt has the most valuable hotel points, with most people valuing their points at around twice the value of Marriott points and about triple the value of Hilton points.
Jenn referred me to the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, so she will receive 10,000 points, and I will receive 100,000 points. I need to spend $5,000 in three months to receive the bonus. She also referred another friend, so she will be getting an additional 10,000 for that signup. I think I know five people who jumped on this deal, because it was so good.
On to the Point Check!
Most of our spending in April was on cards for which we were working on signup bonuses, so the spending below is almost entirely recurring charges. That being said, a 7.1 percent return on those charges is phenomenal, so I feel good about how I have our recurring charges set up.
Card Used
Spend
Points Earned
Point Value
Points Per $
Return on Spend
Amex Gold
$552
2,130
$42.60
3.9
7.7%
Ink Cash
$445
2,224
$45.59
5.0
10.2%
Wyndham Business Earner
$347
1,736
$19.10
5.0
5.5%
Venture
$345
690
$12.77
2.0
3.7%
Total
$1,689
6,780
$120.05
4.0
7.1%
This month’s spending not devoted to earning a signup bonus
On top of the spending listed above, I spent a little over $1,000 on my Alaska Airlines Card, earning over 1,500 Alaska miles as well as the 75,000 Alaska mile bonus. Jenn spent a whopping $8,500, a good portion of which was our annual taxes, nailing down her 75,000 point bonus as well as an additional 12,000 Membership Reward points. After all of that, we ended the month with:
126,900 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points
122,600 Amex Membership Rewards Points
93,000 American Airlines Miles
85,000 IHG points
79,100 Alaska Miles
60,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points
58,900 Wyndham Points
32,100 Citi Thank You Points
15,900 United Miles
6,500 Hyatt Points
1,100 Delta Miles
$109 in Cash Back
When you add everything up, the total value of points and miles, using the valuations from The Points Guy, comes to over $10,400. That is a $1,300 increase over last month. I don’t anticipate us booking very much for a while, since our trips for the year are pretty much planned. That means our point totals should be growing for the rest of the year and hopefully leave us with enough points to make some fun decisions for trips in 2026.
I didn’t get more than a couple of hours of sleep. The wind slamming the shutters on the windows was a constant reminder of the massive challenge ahead. At this point, we were all struggling with nagging pain. The hike from Padrón to Santiago de Compostela would be our most challenging to date. In addition, the weather looked horrible. The weather app called for sustained winds of 20 miles per hour with gusts up to 40 miles per hour. The forecast also called for rain all day.
All I could think was, do we really want to spend eight or nine hours hiking in the wind and rain, limping in pain? Jenn and I decided to ask the kids what they wanted to do.
We walked into their room, told them about the weather, and asked them what they thought. Emma was conflicted and said she wanted to finish, but that it sounded terrible. She said she’d leave it up to Alex. He took one look at us and said, “I’m done,” and then he rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.
So there it was, after five days hiking the Camino, we were quitting just 17 miles from the end.
I was conflicted about it, because after all, this was supposed to be a vacation, and I felt like I spent the better part of a week torturing my family. On the other hand, there is value to completing something so physically demanding.
The Camino is a hard physical challenge that is achievable by normal people. Jenn and I have both completed these types of challenges before. Jenn has done two RAGBRAIs (a week-long 400-mile bike ride across Iowa) and a couple of half marathons. I’ve done a RAGBRAI, about ten half marathons, and a couple of full marathons.
The kids hadn’t experienced what it’s like to complete a challenge like that, and I was a little sad they wouldn’t finish. For me, those challenges are important because they build confidence and character. I hoped that quitting that close to the end didn’t invalidate any personal growth that resulted from the first five days of the Camino.
We took our time getting ready, then took the walk of shame through the rain and wind down to the train station and bought a ticket to Santiago de Compostela. We shared the complex feelings of regret for not finishing the Camino as well as the relief of not having to hike that day. I was happy, however, to have a little more time to visit with my friend Nate.
While on the train, I texted Nate to tell him we quit and we would be in Santiago de Compostela in a little bit. He said he would meet me at the Pilgrim House, which is the community center where he works.
Building in Santiago de Compostela
When we met, he introduced us to the staff at the Pilgrim House and even pointed out someone from our hometown who volunteers with the organization. She was talking with Jenn and mentioned that she also works with the youth symphony orchestra in our hometown. Alex happens to be a viola player in that orchestra, so she took a picture of her and Alex and texted it to his conductor with a message: “Guess who I ran into in Spain?” It’s a small world.
Santiago de Compostela Archcathedral Basilica
We talked with them about our experiences on the Camino and what we would do differently. They have a different perspective as veterans of the Camino themselves and as people who listen to thousands of Camino stories each year. They chucked a little and said, “You spend your first Camino learning how to do a Camino.”
Nate gave us a tour of Santiago de Compostela, showing us his favorite coffee shop, the Cathedral, and the wonderful architecture of the city. We talked about the old days and what happened to our old friends. He talked about his family and what it was like for them to raise kids in Spain.
The organ is decorated in a baroque style
It was wonderful catching up with him after all these years, and if there was one blessing from having quit the Camino, it was the ability to spend a couple of hours with an old friend, thousands of miles away from where we grew up.
A dome in the Cathedral
We said our goodbyes to Nate and headed to our hostel at Albergue Alda O Fogar de Teodomino. We were able to get a private room with four beds. The hostel was nearly empty. I think most people didn’t hike that day because of the weather. I assume that most people who would have finished in Santiago de Compostela that day were instead taking an off day and would finish the next day.
We checked into the hostel, and I said that I wanted to tour the Cathedral. Emma wanted to join me, while Alex and Jenn stayed back to take a nap.
The full name of the cathedral is the Santiago de Compostela Archcathedral Basilica. Construction began in the late eleventh century, lasted well over a hundred years, and was finally completed in 1211. It was built to house the supposed remains of St James, which were discovered in the 9th Century near modern-day Padrón.
I definitely question the validity of the claims that the body of St James was discovered more than 800 years after his death, thousands of miles away from where he died. However, this discovery led to millions of pilgrims over the centuries walking the Camino to this cathedral in Santiago de Compostela.
Seeing the Cathedral is the goal of every pilgrim who embarks on the Camino. As is the case with so many Cathedrals, it is lavish, with statues and artwork everywhere. The altar of the church is done in a baroque style, with gold and silver elements everywhere. There are countless golden pillars and a group of angels holding up a golden ceiling over the altar. It’s so ornate that I couldn’t really discern what the artwork was supposed to symbolize, but it is beautiful.
Right side of the altar in the Cathedral
My favorite thing in the Cathedral was a giant incense burner called the botafumiero, which is about 5 feet tall and weighs around 180 lbs. Traditionally, it took a team of eight men with ropes to swing the burner over worshipers. The purpose of this was to cover the smell of the pilgrims who had spent the day on a long hike to the Cathedral. They now only do this on special occasions, since it’s so labor-intensive. Presumably, because of modern deodorants, it’s also not as necessary.
Altar with botafumiero hanging in front.
We also walked down to visit the crypt, the supposed final resting place of St James. Behind an iron gate, you can see a silver ossuary. There it is – a beautiful, yet simple box containing the remains of someone, who may or may not be St James. It is the inspiration of millions of pilgrims over centuries to take time out of their busy lives to hike for days or weeks.
Silver Ossuary in the crypt of the Cathedral
I don’t buy it. I think people do it for so many reasons, but seeing a silver box can’t be the motivation for most people. For some, it’s the drive to complete a physical challenge. For others, it’s the opportunity to hike through towns, villages, farms, and forests. Some are taking time for introspection, and others are there for the camaraderie and fellowship with their fellow pilgrims.
I was there for a combination of those things, and I think that’s probably true for most pilgrims. I was also drawn by the opportunity to participate in something that draws people from around the world. According to the official pilgrim website, which keeps statistics on the number of people who complete the Camino, so far in 2025, about 37% of pilgrims were Spanish, 8% American, 7% Portuguese, and 6% were German. The remaining 42% were from various countries around the globe. It’s an amazing opportunity to spend time with a lot of wonderful, diverse people who are all working toward the same difficult goal.
The opportunities to connect with people at cafes, along the Camino, or at an albergue are endless. Those conversations also don’t feel forced. People who come to do the Camino are generally friendly.
Walking around the Cathedral, however, felt a little hollow. We hadn’t finished, and it felt like I didn’t deserve to be there. Visiting the Cathedral is a rite of passage for people who complete the Camino, and we hadn’t. Jenn and Alex didn’t even want to visit the Cathedral.
We finished up our trip to the Cathedral and met up with Jenn and Alex for dinner. At dinner, we discussed the disappointment of not finishing.
With everyone still dealing with being somewhere between sore and injured, I asked if they would like to try this again. Jenn laughed and said that she thinks we owe the kids a beach vacation for the next Spring Break trip. To my surprise, however, everyone said that they would like to do it again, but with some optional off days.
There isn’t an experience like doing a Camino. It’s real. It’s authentic. It’s a tremendous physical challenge. It’s the opportunity to meet people from around the world, as well as the chance to experience Spain in a non-touristy way. I would love to give it another try, but I definitely want to do it when I can hike for at least a couple of weeks. I definitely think it would go better the next time, now that I’ve spent my first Camino learning how to do a Camino.
At seven o’clock, we woke up in Caldas de Reis at Hotel O Cruciero. We told the kids to pack up and meet us in the cafe downstairs for coffee. Jenn and I grabbed a table, ordered everyone a café con leche, and questioned whether we were hiking today or if our Camino was finished.
Emma and Alex had their own room, so we hadn’t yet had a chance to talk with Emma about her ankle. She had used some topical cream to ease her pain, but I didn’t know if that would be enough to get her on the trail. Emma complained about pain in her Achilles tendon, which had started early in the week but was worsening daily.
Caldas de Reis to Padron is a fairly flat and rural stage of the Camino de Santiago
Emma played basketball for eight years and learned to play through pain, so when she complains, I know she’s not exaggerating. When we asked how she was feeling, she said she wanted to give it a try. We told her that she needed to rely heavily on her trekking poles to take the pressure off her ankle.
We didn’t hurry out of the cafe. The coffee was great, and they served little pieces of cake with it. We had a couple of rounds of coffee, trying to prepare ourselves for the hike. I was sincerely worried. I saw her play basketball with ankle pain and shin splints in High School, and I was afraid she was legitimately hurt and was just pushing through the pain.
Fountain in Caldas de Reis
I trusted her judgment, though, and once we got started, things were pretty good. The weather was lovely. Emma was leaning on her trekking poles, which kept the pressure away from her ankle and helped with the pain.
Igrexa de Santa Mariña de Carracedo
Since Caldas de Reis was fairly small, it didn’t take long for us to hike through it and into the countryside. Once we left town, most of the Camino between Caldas de Reis and Padrón was rural, which made for really peaceful hiking.
Crosses at Igrexa de Santa Mariña de Carracedo
Early in the day, we arrived at Igrexa de Santa Mariña de Carracedo, a beautiful stone church. It is typical of the churches we saw in the area, with a gorgeous stone bell tower.
Iglesia de Santa Mariña de Carracedo
From there, we continued through the countryside, walking between farms and forests. The trail roughly followed the path of the small river.
White cow near O Gorgullón
We stopped for an early lunch at Bar Pardal around eleven o’clock. They were extremely busy, and it was difficult to get service. The main reason why it was so busy was that The Boys were there.
Just like during the previous day, the fact that there were around 30 in that group made it difficult for the staff to handle all the customers simultaneously. This made for chaos and slow service, but we got our breakfast sandwiches and drinks and enjoyed them in the covered patio.
Trees form a tunnel over the trail.
While at Bar Pardal, we saw many familiar faces, including The German Girls, The Boys, and The British Couple. We enjoyed our brunch and then hurried out to get in front of The Boys, knowing it would take them a while to finish their meal and return to the trail.
On a Bridge over Rio Valga
We continued along the Camino, walking through the Galician countryside among farms and forests. We crossed Rio Valga and stopped for a drink and a snack at Buen Camino, a cafe across from Iglesia de San Miguel.
Iglesia de San Miguel
Buen Camino is a cute little cafe in a beautiful location next to Iglesia de San Miguel. That church is constructed in the same style as the other churches we saw in Galicia. Next to the church was a large cemetery. The cafe sits elevated over the cemetery with a fantastic view of the church and the hills on the horizon.
Cemetery at Iglesia de San Miguel
Once again, we ran into The English Couple who had also stopped for a quick drink. They were sitting on the patio overlooking the church, and we chatted with them while finishing our drinks, and then went back to hiking.
Galician Countryside past San Miguel
We were getting close to finishing our hike for the day, but as was becoming almost routine at this point, we were starting to hurt. Emma was still struggling with her Achilles tendon, Jenn was starting to limp as the hot spot in her foot got worse, and Alex was complaining about a bruise on his hip that was getting worse as the week went on.
Fountain along Camino
The fact that we didn’t schedule an off day was beginning to look like a mistake. I was certain that our discomfort would have improved with an off day, and it was a mistake not to schedule one.
View of Rio Ulla from Pontecesures
The options for lodging in Padrón were limited, so we booked an Airbnb for the evening. We stopped for another drink at Cafe Bar Galicia in Pontecesures and to contact the Airbnb. We finished the remainder of our hike and met with the host of the Airbnb in Padrón. After dropping off our backpacks, we ventured out to explore Padrón and get some dinner.
Padrón was a lovely town, but it was nearly impossible to get food before seven o’clock. Since the Spanish like to eat dinner fairly late, we had to check four or five restaurants before we found a restaurant serving dinner. While eating, we discussed the final day of the Camino. We were going to have our longest hike to date, about 17 miles, with about twice as much elevation change as our hilliest day so far. The forecast also called for rain.
Igrexa de San Xulian de Requeixo
No one was excited about hiking the last day between Padrón and Santiago de Compostela. Between the injuries, the difficulty of the final day, and the weather, the final day felt impossible.
In addition, I had planned to meet my friend Nate in Santiago de Compostela. Nate was an old friend that I hadn’t talked to in years, mainly because he had moved to Santiago de Compostela years ago to work in a community center. He was the main reason I had heard about the Camino, and I was looking forward to seeing him after all these years.
Paseo do Espolón in Padrón
But everything seemed a little bleak. How were we going to arrive in Santiago de Compostela with enough time to spare to see Nate and Santiago itself? Especially when, at this point, we were barely capable of hiking, let alone at a faster pace on our most challenging day.
Rio Ulla
We decided that we should get up an hour early, and hopefully we would make decent time. After dinner, I settled into bed for the evening. I started to hear rain and then strong winds as they began to shake the shutters on the windows. I checked the Weather Channel app, and it was calling for rain tomorrow with gusting winds of up to 40 miles per hour.
What I wouldn’t do for an off day, I thought. A single day off would allow us to avoid the bad weather and get valuable rest for our aching bodies. I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the banging of the shutters on the windows and all of my anxiety about the upcoming day.
We woke up refreshed in Pontevedra at Dpaso Urban Hostels. We had a private room with only 4 bunks and a private bathroom, which made the experience seem luxurious by Camino hostel standards.
Day 4 was a considerably flatter day with about half of the elevation change of Day 3
Much of the beginning of the day was spent walking through Pontevedra. Pontevedra was the largest of the towns that we had stopped in, with nearly 83,000 residents. Going forward, we would be staying in towns much smaller than Pontevedra, and Carlos warned us that we should consider booking our accommodations ahead of time, because the hostels fill up fast. We were also slow hikers, so we were coming into town later than most pilgrims, which made finding a hostel a little more difficult.
Sign marking 64,500 meters to Santiago de Compostela
With Carlos’s advice in our mind, we put Emma in charge of finding us a hostel, and she used a Camino app to find one in Caldas de Reis. Knowing where we were going, there was the small matter of hiking the 15 miles to get there.
Igrexa da Virxe Peregrina
The first and most important thing to do every morning was to find coffee. Having been in Spain for a few days, I was getting used to starting each day with a café con leche and a small snack, which is a wonderful habit.
Fountain in Pontevedra
We started hiking through the middle of town, crossing the Lerez River at Ponte do Burgo while keeping an eye out for a cafe. Following the bridge, we continued the hike uphill through the middle of town. Finally, we stopped for a coffee and some really delicious breakfast sandwiches that fueled us for the hike.
Streets of Pontevedra in the early morning
After breakfast, we left Pontevedra, and we were once again treated to amazing views of the Galician countryside. It was a bright, clear morning, and the temperatures were cool but not cold. It was absolutely perfect weather for hiking.
Hiking in the Galician Countryside
We stopped by Igrexa de Santa Maria to stamp our pilgrims’ passports and use the restroom. It’s a little church that caters to the pilgrims passing through. Next to the church is a cemetery with rows of mausoleums. We noticed a lot of cemeteries set up this way in Spain, with mausoleums next to a small church.
Chickens at Igrexa de Santa Maria
The church itself had a large yard in the entrance, where fairly tame chickens seemed unbothered by our presence. Outside, a man with a guitar and an amp played a Bruce Springsteen song, which seemed a little strange for rural Spain. We got our pilgrim passports stamped and moved on our way.
The next hour was spent walking on a wooded path next to a creek. The hike was peaceful with the creek flowing on one side, shade throughout, and an ancient stone path to walk upon. Several brooks crossed the path, and every time, there was a cute little stone bridge to help cross the brook.
A creek with a little stone bridge
This was about as calm and quiet a hike as you can imagine, but that serenity was about to end. Shortly after leaving the peace of the wooded area, we started to hear music, singing, and a group of young men lined up with their packs. The Camino was about to become much more crowded.
A path with drainage running over it and a stone bridge on the side
We were taking the main route of the Portuguese Camino, but starting at Pontevedra, there is an important split. Many pilgrims leave the main route of the Portuguese Camino at Pontevedra to hike the Spiritual Variant. It is a longer route that heads towards the Atlantic Ocean and then rejoins the main route at Padrón. It’s normally hiked in 3 days, while the main route, Pontevedra to Padrón, only takes 2 days.
Many of the pilgrims we were getting used to seeing, including the English Gentleman, decided to take this route. In many ways, the Camino is like life, where people enter your life and leave, often without fanfare or even a goodbye, and all you are left with are memories.
But as some have left the trail, we were joined by others. One such group was The Boys. The Boys were a group of high school students from the Boston area. They were there on an optional school trip during their spring break, and we had missed them in previous days because they were hiking the Coastal Route of the Portuguese Camino while we were on the Central Route.
They were well-behaved and polite young men, but they were unmissable. There were about thirty of them, and even though they were courteous, the sheer number of them was a disturbance. We met them shortly after the wooded area, presumably when they were taking a break.
We passed them while they were stopped, but since they were faster hikers than us, they had to pass us. Because there were so many of them, it took over a kilometer for the whole group to pass us. They finally passed us completely along the trail in the middle of the day, by a sculpture garden called Carballeira con Esculturas de Madeira.
We hiked another hour and a half before we found some lunch. We stopped at A Cabaza Cafe Bar, a little restaurant along the camino with sandwiches, pizza, and beer. It was a welcome sight, as we were getting tired and hungry. It looked a little busy from the outside, so we had the kids claim a seat on the patio. Then we went inside and realized why it was so busy.
The Boys were there. This was March, in the low time for the Camino, when only about half of the services like albergues and restaurants are open. When a large group pops into a cafe during low season, it can create problems for the folks running the cafe. The woman working the bar did a wonderful job of handling the unexpected business, and we enjoyed a couple of pizzas and some beer out on the patio.
Appropriate sign on the Camino
While we were enjoying our pizza, Emma was complaining about her Achilles tendon. This was getting progressively worse for her, and it was beginning to get concerning. She was not looking forward to the rest of the hike that day and was getting a little cranky about it. Jenn and I, being the wonderfully understanding parents that we are teased her a little about it and told her to suck it up. She was getting pretty annoyed by the teasing.
We finished our lunch and went back to the trail, leaving A Cabaza before The Boys had finished their meal. This meant that they were going to have to pass us on the trail again. Emma was noticeably limping and was becoming more agitated as the hike continued.
Vineyards were common late in the day, approaching Caldas de Reis.
As we walked through vineyards, The Boys caught up with us and started the long process of the whole group passing us, one by one. As soon as The Boys were past us, Emma and Alex left us in the dust. Jenn and I figured that our teasing Emma had upset her, and she wanted some time by herself. Alex followed behind her, probably because we had been hiking too slowly for him the whole time.
Estrella Galicia mural along Camino near Caldas de Reis
We had no desire to try to keep up with them, and they clearly wanted a little space from us, which really wasn’t surprising given the amount of time we had spent with them. We just texted them that we would meet them at the hostel.
We made one last stop on our way to Caldas de Reis, at Albergue Vintecatro for a quick beer and a bathroom break. Sitting outside was the English Couple enjoying a late lunch. We chatted with them a little bit about how we had apparently made Emma mad, and she left us. They had become familiar faces along the trail, and we enjoyed our short chats with them.
We finally made it to Caldas de Reis around 4 PM. Alex and Emma had beaten us by about half an hour and were waiting by Hotel O Cruciero for us to show up. We walked into the lobby, and there were The Boys, all of them, crammed into the lobby trying to check in. The staff was feverishly trying to get the passport information from each of them and get them checked into their rooms. Jenn and I exchanged glances that silently said, “Are you sure you want to spend the night in the same hotel as The Boys?”
Park and Mural in Caldas de Reis
One of the staff members noticed us, and realizing how long it was going to be to check in all of them, graciously helped us book a couple of rooms. The rooms were only 55 euros per night, but they were also pretty basic. However, I was just happy to have a private shower. I was worried that with that many high school-aged boys in the hotel that it would be noisy, but after the check-in, we barely noticed them.
Igrexa de San Tomé Becket
We spent the evening in Caldas de Reis walking around town. I especially loved Igrexa de San Tomé Becket, a stone church surrounded by palm trees.
We had some dinner and then went to a pharmacy to find some pain cream to help with Emma’s Achilles tendon. As it turns out, she was walking faster than us, not because she was angry with us, but because walking fast was less painful. We were starting to question whether we should hike the next day. I really didn’t want her to injure herself.
Small Plaza with Cross in Caldas de Reis
During the last couple of hours of our hike, Jenn had developed a hot spot on her foot that she mistook for a pebble in her shoe. It was becoming clear that physically we were beginning to break down, and we could use a day off. Unfortunately, our schedule didn’t allow it. We couldn’t finish the Camino with an off day; there wasn’t enough time. We went to bed that night, unsure if we would be hiking in the morning and hoping that some sleep would alleviate some of our pain.
I’ve been using points and miles to help me and my family travel for a little over three years now. In that time, I have been consuming large amounts of podcasts, blogs, and YouTube videos to learn how to maximize earning points and miles, as well as using those points and miles for maximum value. The information that I’ve gotten from these influencers has been invaluable in helping me set up my own strategies for travel, but lately, I have to admit, I’m getting annoyed.
I’m annoyed because many influencers present an unrealistic idea of what points and miles can do, especially for the average person. They also miss the point of what travel should be. I’m afraid people are paying attention to these influencers and not listening to what is best for themselves.
The Myth of Unlimited Points
There are three points and miles podcasts that I listen to on a regular basis. Every host on these podcasts takes multiple trips a year. These aren’t normal trips either; they are trips to Asia or Europe, and they fly their entire family in business class and stay in luxury hotels when they are there. They do this all on points. Listening to these conversations, the listener might think, “Maybe I can do this too?” Chances are, you can’t. These podcasters are spending millions of points per year, and that’s just not feasible for most people.
The podcasters fall into two categories: people who travel a lot for business and people with a lot of business spending. If you are a person who falls into one of these two categories, congratulations, you are going to have a lot of fun traveling on points. If you’re not, it gets considerably harder.
What really annoys me, however, are the ones who aren’t honest about this fact. I follow someone on Threads who, earlier this year, claimed that she had earned over 800,000 American Express Membership Rewards points on normal spend in three months. When pressed about it, she said that she had been getting 15x on a lot of purchases through Rakuten.
15x is pretty amazing but let’s, for the sake of argument, say that she got 20x on all her spending, which would be next to impossible, by the way. That would mean that she spent over $40,000 at 20x in 3 months to earn those points. That is not “normal” spending, and I guarantee she would have to spend way more than $40,000 to earn those points.
On one of the podcasts I listen to, a question was posed from a listener who asked how the hosts are earning all of their points. One of the hosts started talking about paying estimated taxes with a credit card, and while that will boost your point totals and help you earn signup bonuses, it doesn’t explain the number of points he must be earning to do the travel that he does.
I’m not saying that they aren’t earning a lot of points; I absolutely believe they are. However, can we be honest about how they are doing it? It’s not what they say. Here is how they are actually earning their points:
Lots of Business Spend
Many of these influencers are either owners of businesses that spend a lot of money on credit cards, or they are people who can spend and be reimbursed for expenses. This opens up the ability to earn a lot of points. This is especially true if you are a business traveler because that opens up the possibility of earning a lot of frequent flyer miles with airlines as well as lots of hotel points. It also opens up the possibility of earning status with those hotel and airline programs.
Manufactured Spend
A lot of points and miles people earn points and miles through manufactured spending. This comes in many forms, but generally it involves buying items, such as toys or gift cards, and then selling them for little or no profit. There are actually buyer’s groups that facilitate this for people who don’t actually want to handle the items themselves. There are all kinds of risks that are involved in doing this, including the fact that it’s frowned upon by credit card companies. This is probably why people don’t want to talk publicly about it. Understand, though, that there are a lot of folks doing this to boost their point totals.
Referral bonuses
For a lot of credit cards, you are offered a bonus for referring someone to apply for that card. These are generally limited to a certain number of referrals per card per year. For many of these cards, you can earn 100,000 points per year by referring applicants. If you have quite a few cards and a means to promote those referrals, like a blog or a YouTube channel, you can accumulate a lot of points and miles. However, for the average person, hounding all of your friends and family members to sign up for cards to earn a signup bonus may not make you very popular.
The Luxury Problem
Travel influencers are obsessed with luxury hotels. Hearing them talk about a Park Hyatt, a Ritz-Carlton, or an Andaz property makes me wonder if the only reason they traveled was to stay at that hotel. I understand that if you stay at a resort, you stay there because it’s the destination. But most of the time, the hotel shouldn’t be the destination.
We recently stayed in Madrid, where we used an IHG free night certificate that was good up to 60,000 points. We ended up staying at the Intercontinental Madrid, which was 59,000 points, so we maximized the value of the certificate. When we checked in, they double upgraded us because of Jenn’s status with IHG. The room was really nice, the service was great, but it was in the middle of the Financial District, and I would have preferred to be in an area with a bunch of tapas bars. In that case, maximizing the value of the certificate cost us the opportunity to be in a neighborhood that suited us better.
When we were in Amsterdam, we stayed at the Kimpton. It was a fun, quirky hotel with great service. When we checked in, they gave us $30 in bar credit because we used the Kimpton secret code, and Jenn had status with IHG. We didn’t use the credits. The reason why was simple – we were in Amsterdam! I don’t want to hang out at the hotel. I want to walk the canals and visit their bars and restaurants. We had a blast in Amsterdam, and all we did in the room was sleep.
At the end of the day, if you are out enjoying the place that you went to visit, the only thing that really matters is that you have a comfortable bed, a clean room, and a hot shower. Guess what? That’s nearly every hotel room. You don’t need to be that picky. If you have small kids and you will spend more time in the hotel because of naps, then maybe you want to be pickier, but for most people, what does it matter?
Flying in Economy is Fine
The obsession among points and miles people with flying in business class is ridiculous. Some of the comments from the folks I follow on Threads have been “I don’t care where I’m going as long as I turn left when I get on the plane,” and “Stop wasting your points on economy flights.” I mean, seriously, those are crazy statements. Are you only traveling so you can take a selfie in your lie-flat business class seat? That’s seriously weird.
I’ll tell you a little secret. When Jenn and I fly, she always wants an aisle seat, so if the seat arrangement is window, middle, aisle, I take the middle. I’m 6’2″, 220 pounds, and I can handle a 10-hour flight in the middle seat in economy just fine. The way influencers talk about economy seats, they act like they’re being stashed in the baggage hold under the plane.
Flying in economy is wasting my points? Really? At best, your business class flight costs twice the number of points that my economy class flight costs. That means that I can travel twice as often for the same number of points. The magic of flying is that I can be transported to a completely different part of the world in a matter of hours, it’s not that I can take a nap during the flight.
The Insanity of Positioning Flights
The worst part is the lengths people will go to get a business class flight. A good price on a business class flight is difficult to find. It’s so difficult that there is a term for a flight that you take to get to a business class flight. It’s called a positioning flight. In other words, you need to take a flight to get to the airport where your desired flight departs.
Typically, you want to fly a positioning flight the day before, that way if there is a delay on your positioning flight, you won’t miss the more important, business class flight. This is where, for me, the logic of doing this begins to break down.
Earlier this year, we booked flights from our home airport to Nice, France, for 19,000 American Airlines miles. Let’s say I have a friend who wants to join us there, but he wants to fly business class. He finds a business class flight from New York to Nice for an excellent price of 50,000 points. He’s going to have to book a positioning flight, which, if he’s lucky, will cost around 10,000 points, but he’ll have to get there a day early, so he also needs to book a hotel. Let’s say he books a Hyatt for 12,000 points near JFK airport. Now that a 50,000 point flight really costs him 72,000 points and a day of his time. Not only did I save 53,000 points compared to my friend, but I’ll be enjoying a latte and a chocolate croissant at a cafe in Nice while he’s on the plane.
This even gets more extreme, though. I’ve actually heard two people recently suggest that it’s easier to get a business class flight outside of the country, and you should try to take a positioning flight outside of the country. Let me get this straight: you want me to take a four-hour economy flight to Mexico, so that I can get a business class flight to Europe? Nope, nope, nope.
What is your Time Worth?
At the end of the day, many of the complaints I have are based on the amount of time required to earn the volume of points to go on luxury vacations. If you are lucky enough to earn points through large amounts of business or travel spend, then you are holding the golden ticket. However, for the rest of us, you would probably need to earn those points through some kind of manufactured spend scheme. I don’t really feel like spending my free time driving around town buying gift cards and products on sale and then posting those items on eBay.
Even if I had an unlimited amount of points, I don’t have an unlimited amount of vacation. Do I really want to waste a vacation day positioning so that I can take a business class flight? No, just get me to my destination so I can enjoy my vacation.
Know Yourself and Your Needs
Knowing yourself is important, however. If you are someone who appreciates luxury, maybe you’re willing to take fewer vacations to have that one dream vacation. That’s fine, and you shouldn’t be ashamed. It’s not for me, though. I want to experience the world, and that means that I need to make the most out of every single point that I earn.
We just got back from Spain and Portugal, where we hiked the Camino de Santiago. We ate at tapas bars and stayed in hostels. We flew in economy. Guess what? It was fantastic, and we were spending less than 50 euros per person per day, including lodging and food. It was fantastic because it was an authentic experience. We used points and miles to help us afford the flights, as well as a hotel in Madrid and one in Porto.
Points and miles have opened the world for us by lowering the cost of taking vacations. I’m proud of what we’ve done and the precious time that I’ve been able to spend with my family on those vacations – and you know what? I’ll never feel bad about turning right when I enter a plane and it wasn’t a waste of points, that’s for damn sure!
Oh, that’s an ugly chart. For several months, the value of our points and miles has been tanking. There is a very good reason for this. We have been planning a lot of vacations, and we’ve been using those points and miles to book those trips.
This year, we’ve had a ton of flights to book and quite a few hotel rooms to book as well. We are taking full advantage of the points and miles that we’ve accumulated over the past couple of years, and we will enjoy our trips. We just got back from Spain and Portugal, where we spent a week hiking the Portuguese route of the Camino de Santiago. This summer, Jenn and Emma, along with Jenn’s sister Misty and our Niece Zoey, will be going to Munich for five days and Dublin for four days. At the same time, my son Alex and I will be hiking the Malerweg on the border of the Czech Republic and Germany. In the fall, Jenn and I will be joining our friends Bill and Theresa when we participate in the Nice Côte d’Azur UTMB trail running event in Nice, France.
In addition to that, Jenn will be flying with me on a business trip to San Antonio in May. After hiking in Spain and Portugal, she is very excited to relax by the pool and read while I’m in day-long seminars.
That makes for a very packed schedule and declining point values. That’s okay, though – that’s what those points are for!
Redemptions
We used 12,000 Marriott Bonvoy points to book a night at the Courtyard by Marriott in Wood Dale/Itasca near O’Hare airport. This was really more about parking than anything else. On our way to O’Hare to fly to Porto, we parked at the Courtyard and took the hotel shuttle to the airport. Then we stayed at the hotel when we returned eleven days later.
Before we left, Jenn was trying to figure out how much the Courtyard charged for parking, since we would be staying one night and parking (without a hotel room) for ten nights. Before we booked the room, Jenn called the front desk to ask about the cost of parking. They told her that parking is always free for guests. She reiterated what we were doing, and he repeated that parking was always free. We didn’t believe him, but we showed up anyway.
When we went to the front desk, the day of our flight out of O’Hare, we found out that parking was $15 per day. Jenn told the attendant that we were told it was free, and she said that she needed to have another conversation with the guy who answered the phone. Apparently, this is an ongoing problem for them. We pretty much expected to pay the $150 for the parking anyway, since we didn’t really believe the guy who answered the phone. It’s fine, but if you work at a hotel with an airport shuttle, maybe you should know how much parking costs – just saying.
We also booked the missing leg of Jenn’s summer trip. We had already booked the flights to Munich and the flights out of Dublin, but had no way to get from Munich to Dublin. Using the 20% transfer bonus from Chase Ultimate Rewards to Aer Lingus, we transferred 25,000 Chase points to get 30,000 Aer Lingus Avios. From there, we booked four flights from Munich to Dublin for 7,500 Avios and $56 each. The four flights cost a total of 30,000 Avios and $224, which isn’t too bad. The Airbnb they booked in Dublin is right in the middle of town, by the Temple Bar District and Trinity College. I’m excited for them, I think they will love Dublin.
Confusion with Points Pooling on United
We booked Jenn a flight on United to join me on a business trip to San Antonio. I was able to find her a seat on the same flight I was going on for 12,900 United miles from Moline to San Antonio. We transferred 11,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points to United and added them to the United points pool we had set up months ago. To my surprise, I wasn’t able to book the flight with the pooled miles. At the time, I wrongly assumed that it was because one of the legs of the flight was using a SkyWest plane flying as United Express. I couldn’t reverse adding those miles to the pool. The only way to reverse it seemed to be to dissolve the pool, which I didn’t want to do.
Instead, I decided to transfer another 13,000 Ultimate Reward points to United, so that we could book it directly from Jenn’s United account. That means we stranded the first 11,000 point transfer to United.
I found out later that the reason we couldn’t book with the pooled miles had nothing to do with the flight being SkyWest operating as United Express. Instead, there is a 24-hour hold on pooled miles, so you can choose to reverse adding miles to the pool. I don’t know how to reverse that action, though, because I couldn’t find that option anywhere. Suffice it to say, be careful with United mileage pooling.
The return trip from San Antonio to Moline was booked on American Airlines for 7,000 American Airlines miles, $5.60, and zero drama.
On To The Points Check!
Card Used
Spend
Points Earned
Point Value
Points Per $
Return on Spend
Citi Premier
$678
892
16.06
1.3
2.4%
World of Hyatt
$623
3,114
$52.94
5.0
8.5%
Wyndham Business Earner
$501
2,944
$32.38
5.8
6.5%
Ink Cash
$444
2,224
$45.59
5.0
10.3%
Venture
$345
690
$12.77
2.0
3.7%
Citibusiness AAdvantage
$283
283
$4.67
1.0
1.7%
Blue Business Plus
$67
134
$2.68
2.0
4.0%
Total
$2,941
10,281
$167.03
3.5
5.7%
This month’s spending not devoted to earning a signup bonus
Once again, we managed to achieve over a 5% return on our spending not devoted to earning a signup bonus, so I’m happy about that. Besides that spending, I spent a little over $1,000 on my Alaska Airlines card and earned a little over 1,000 Alaska miles. Jenn spent a little over $1,100 on her American Express Gold Card, earning her just under 2,600 Amex Membership Rewards points. That left us with:
124,700 Chase Ultimate Reward Points
108,600 Amex Membership Reward Points
93,000 American Airlines Miles
85,000 IHG Points
60,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points
57,200 Wyndham Points
32,100 Citi Thank You Points
16,600 United Miles
15,500 Hyatt Points
6,300 Delta Miles
2,500 Alaska Airlines Miles
$109 in Cash Back
We’ve been redeeming points at a feverish pace, but that’s why we have the points. Even with all of the points that we’ve redeemed so far this year, we still finished the month with a total valuation, according to the Points Guy, of $9,100, and that’s really not that bad. The most important thing to me is that we have three great trips to Europe this year, and I couldn’t be more excited about that.
During one of our conversations with the English Gentleman we met on our first day, he commented about this being our first Camino. I joked that it was probably our last. He told me, “No, you’ll be back—it gets in your blood.” At the time, that seemed impossible. My shoulders hurt from trying to get used to my pack, and I wasn’t exactly used to staying in hostels.
But here we were waking up in an albergue for the third straight day. We had stayed the evening in Albergue A Conserveira, a fairly large hostel with probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 to 50 beds. Even though they were in one large room, they had separated them into pods of two or four. Each pod had a little curtain, which at least gave some privacy if you wanted to change your clothes. They also provided sheets and a blanket, which made the experience much more comfortable.
Water fountain at Parque Loureiro near Cesantes.
I didn’t notice a whole lot of noises overnight, which was surprising because of the size of the room and the number of pilgrims. The OSB board dividers between the pods did a pretty good job of blunting some of the noise. Inside the pod was a different story. Sleeping near my children revealed things I didn’t know about them. Apparently, Emma talks in her sleep, which was a surprise. What was really a surprise was that it was in Spanish.
Getting ready in the morning was a little more hectic than on previous days because the hostel was fairly full. There were quite a few pilgrims, all trying to get their packs ready and jockeying for space in the bathroom to get ready for the day. We headed out the door, saying our goodbyes to the people we met at the albergue.
Heading out down the streets of Redondela
The first kilometer of the hike was through Redondela, which is a lovely town. That was just the beginning of a gorgeous hike through Galicia from Redondela to Pontevedra.
Cross on building near Redondela
One of the main reasons was that we were in the area around the Ria de Vigo, an estuary that is 22 miles long and 7 miles wide at its widest point. Much of the early part of the hike takes place in the hills overlooking the estuary.
The Camino, just past Redondela
Leaving Redondela, we climbed into the hills on the outskirts of town. The Camino led us to a natural area with tall pines on both sides of the narrow path. The trail was covered with pine needles. We were mostly hiking uphill, and as we continued, the pine forest began to thin out a little and gave us a preview of the amazing views to come.
Ponte de Rande
Off in the distance, we could see Ponte de Rande, a striking cable-stayed bridge that crosses the narrowest point of the Ria de Vigo. The further we continued along the Camino, the higher we went, and the more spectacular the view. Now I understood what the English Gentleman told me – it gets in your blood. Every step was a blessing.
Ría de Vigo estuary
We started to descend into the town of Arcade, right where the Verdugo River meets the Ria de Vigo estuary. We stopped for a quick café con leche before crossing the Ponte Medieval de Pontesampaio, a stone arched bridge built in the 11th Century. It is an incredibly narrow bridge that allows automobile traffic to cross. Several cars inched past us on the narrow bridge while we were crossing.
Entering Arcade from the Camino
Between the ancient bridge, the wonderful buildings, and the cobblestone streets, Arcade is a pretty town. It would have been a lovely place to spend an evening, but we needed to push on to Pontevedra.
Pontesampaio
Leaving Arcade, we went into another natural area that had some technical hiking, where we were actually hiking uphill in a rocky creek for a while. I’m sure that most of the time, that creek is dry, but it had rained a little, and there was water flowing down the path.
The path after Arcade became a rocky creek.
After a while, we came to a fork in the path where we had to choose between going on what looked like a slightly longer path along a creek and a shorter one along the road. We chose the complimentary route along the creek.
Path along the creek on the Complimentary Route.
I think we underestimated the extra time and distance needed to walk the complimentary route along the creek. I don’t know how much it added, but the path was extremely curvy. The complimentary route was a calm walk, but the extra hiking began to wear on us.
Tunnel near the end of the complimentary route
I began to notice a pattern emerging where we would start to get progressively crankier after ten miles of hiking. Emma would normally run out of gas about that time, and it also seemed like every day, Jenn would need a restroom late in the day, with nothing around. The Camino doesn’t have a ton of restroom facilities, and that can get a little stressful when you are out in the woods for a long time. Alex and I would get tired as well, but both of us get quieter when that happens.
Pontevedra sign
Just as we were about to completely run out of steam, we arrived in the beautiful town of Pontevedra.
Walking down the street in Pontevedra
We got to Dpaso Urban Hostels, which had run out of bunks in the normal area of the hostel, but they did have space in a different building that had private rooms. We were able to book a private room with four bunks, which turned out to be perfect for us.
Igrexa da Virxe Peregrina
It was a very nice room for accommodating pilgrims with plugs on every bunk and sheets, and a comforter. The big luxury was our own private bathroom with a rain showerhead. I don’t mind sleeping in a hostel, but the shared bathrooms are something I really don’t like. Having our own bathroom for an evening was amazing.
Statue in Pontevedra
We went back to the main area of the hostel to do some laundry and ran into the English gentleman, as well as Carlos, whom we talked with for about an hour while doing the laundry. At this point, there were people we were recognizing all the time, some that we never talked to other than to say buen camino. We had names for them like the German girls, the Ohio girls, the Italian couple, and the guy with his Mom. Even though we never had conversations with some of these people, our greetings became more friendly as the week went on because they were friendly faces.
One such couple was the English couple. They are a married couple who had done the entire French Way of the Camino, which normally takes around 40 days. They didn’t do it all at once. Instead, they did it a week at a time when they were on vacation. We first met them at Casa Veiga on day 2, and ran into them repeatedly the rest of the trip, since they were walking at our pace.
We ran into them again at Bar Pitillo, which had been suggested by the hostel attendant. They sat at the table across from us, and we chatted a little. Pontevedra is a fairly large town, and it seemed unlikely that we would run into familiar faces at dinner. But that’s just how the Camino seems to go; you always seem to be running into the same people.
Chorizo inferno at Bar Pitillo
Following dinner, we arrived back at the hostel where we climbed into our bunks to rest after a long and challenging day. I reflected on what a beautiful hike it had been and the wonderful people sharing our journey. It had become clear to me that the English Gentleman was correct. The Camino was in my blood now.
Newby to Expert Traveler 