How points and miles allowed us to visit six new countries this year

Along with increased domestic travel, points and miles have allowed us to continue adding new countries to our passports. Our first big travel redemption was in 2018 for our European honeymoon, when we visited London, Paris, Berlin, and Amsterdam over the course of two weeks. We weren’t tracking the value of our redemptions then, but our flights to and from Europe along with all of our hotel nights were covered by points and miles.

Our international travel was limited the last few years thanks to Covid, but after going to Canada twice in 2022, we were ready to make 2023 the year we went outside of North America again.

We returned from our final international trip at the end of November, wrapping a year where we added Ireland, Scotland, Austria, Slovakia, Portugal, and Spain to our passports. Here’s how we used points and miles for each trip.

Ireland and Scotland – May 2023

We flew from Chicago to Dublin in mid-May on a United flight. Spending three nights in Dublin, we paid cash (credit card) for our hotel, the Aloft Dublin City. We opted to pay for these nights instead of using points because of a favorable employer rate that made our stay just over 100 euros per night. Using the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless to pay for our stay, we earned 6 points per dollar spent on top of the rewards points earned by all Marriott Bonvoy members as a baseline.

After Dublin, we headed to Edinburgh, paying for the short flight on Aer Lingus with our Chase Sapphire Preferred, earning 2x ultimate rewards points per dollar. In Edinburgh, we stayed at the Courtyard Edinburgh, which was in a perfect location for all the things we wanted to see and do. Similar to Dublin, an employer rate made each night very affordable – less than 100 euros per night. Of course we paid on our Marriott card for elevated points.

Our flights from Edinburgh to Chicago were covered with points. The cost of our flights to and from Europe would have been $2,150 had we not used points.

Austria / Slovakia – September / October 2023

A late pivot in some fall plans led us to land on Vienna as our next international destination. We previously wrote a detailed post on the full savings here: How we went to Vienna on points and miles.

Our flights to and from Vienna would have cost us over $2,800 dollars, so we used points. We stayed at a Residence Inn on the east side of the city that would have been more than $900 for 5 nights, but we only paid 69,000 Marriott points for our stay.

We only did a day trip to Bratislava. It’s an easy hour-long trip from Vienna thanks to trains. Or you can do as we did and take a boat ride down the Danube.

Portugal and Spain – November 2023

In January, we decided to use points to go to Portugal and Spain in November, seizing the opportunity to visit a warmer climate as the weather turns in Chicago.

We flew to Lisbon on TAP using points – the flights would have been around $700 per seat. We did pay $100 total to upgrade to premium economy so we’d have more leg room, but all told, saving over $1,300 on the flight was a pretty good return. For our hotel stay, we used points for one night and paid for two at the Lisbon Marriott.

After Lisbon, we flew to Barcelona on TAP, paying cash (credit card) for the flights. The flights were less than 100 euros total. We stayed at the Four Points Barcelona for less than 90 euros per night (pre-tax) thanks to my employer rate. This hotel was ideally located near public transit to get to the major sites and was very walkable to local spots.

Our final stop was Madrid. The train we took from Barcelona to Madrid cost about $75 per person, and we paid for these points with our credit card. As our final stop, we splurged on our hotel in Madrid, staying at a newly-opened JW Marriott in a prime location. We used points for all three of our nights in this hotel. Depending on when the hotel is booked, each night can cost upwards of $700 a night. This was definitely worth the indulgence for us.

Thanks to our Marriott status, we were able to receive free breakfast at all three hotels on our most recent trip.

We flew home from Madrid on Iberia, using points for premium economy seats. Without using points, these seats would have cost over $4,000 per seat!

All told, we saved more than $17,000 by redeeming points and miles for these trips.

Let’s be clear – we would not be traveling this much or to these destinations completely on cash. Points and miles allow us so much flexibility in our travel since we don’t have to worry about the cost of each trip.

Whether international trips are your speed or you prefer to stay closer to home, points and miles can be used by anyone to achieve their travel goals.