Want $466 in Free Travel Anywhere? Here's How!

The NFL recently announced the schedule for games slated to take place at Wembley Stadium in London next season, and already we’ve received several requests for a follow-up to our series covering our journey to the Jaguars/49ers game in London this year.

Following last night’s glorious victory over the historically bad Houston Texans, we’re sure the requests are only going to increase in number, so we’re going to start looking at how to travel to next year’s London games right now!

Schedule of Games

The first game of next year’s NFL International Series will take place September 28th 2014, when the Oakland Raiders play the Miami Dolphins.

The second game pits the Atlanta Falcons against the Detroit Lions on October 26th.

The finale matchup will see the Dallas Cowboys play against the returning Jacksonville Jaguars on November 9th.

Many Jaguars fans have expressed interest in making the trip, including reader Jason, who would like to travel to the game from Jacksonville with his wife after being inspired from reading all of the tweets from fans on the ground in London and seeing the coverage of the 2013 game. However, this year we’ve also heard from reader Sam, a Cowboys fan in Honolulu looking to make the trip!

There’s an incredible secret about the best way to book this trip: whether you’re coming from Honolulu or Jacksonville, the clearest path to a free trip is exactly the same, and because that’s true, some very interesting award chart hacks become possible! Let’s dive in:

Hi Everyone,

Sorry it’s been quiet this week aside from our post about the Fee-Free Visa Prepaid Cards on Monday! I’ve been working hard on some upcoming features, as well as a big project that we’re not ready to announce just yet.

Next week, we’ll be in Las Vegas speaking with representatives from several different gaming loyalty programs as part of this project. I’m working ahead to ensure you all have some fun reads for next week while I’m gone, and look forward to sharing several reports on my time in Vegas the week after next.

Starting Friday and heading into next week, we’ll be…

I didn’t say so right around Thanksgiving because it might come off as insincere or too sappy, but how seems like a great time to say thank you to each and every one of you that visit PointsAway! I’m so inspired by the trips you submit and the great feedback many of you provide, and love where we’re going together.

If you haven’t done so yet, you might want to take this opportunity to subscribe to the newsletter! We’re going to start hosting some special giveaways and exclusive tips in the newsletter beginning this Friday, so don’t miss out!

Please also help spread the word and let any friends or family interested in learning how to travel for pennies on the dollar know about us!

All the Best,

We stumbled on a great deal today and wanted to let you know about it as soon as possible. This month, AAA offices are waiving the typical activation fee on Visa gift cards. Cards can be purchased with any value up to $500, and the representative I spoke with stated there’s no hard limit on the number of cards you can buy.

You need to have a AAA membership in order to take part in this deal, but thankfully I keep one to take advantage of discount theme park tickets and other benefits here in Florida. I purchased four cards loaded with $500 each on them earlier today in an effort to replenish my BlueBird account. Because the service fees are being waived, that meant my total was simply $2,000.

By calling the number on the back of the card, you can set a PIN number for each card easily. I was able to accomplish this in less than a minute per card.

At this point, I went to a nearby Walmart and attempted to load two cards with $500 of credit each to my Bluebird. Each went through with no problems whatsoever! I’ll be loading the others in the days to come.

This is a great deal and more travel-oriented than some of you may think. There are a number of reasons why purchasing prepaid Visa cards can be a good idea:

Meeting Minimum Spend Requirements

Some of you may find it difficult to meet minimum spend requirements in the time you’re allotted. Let’s say you need to spend $3,000 in 90 days and after about 80 days, you’re still $500 short.

Rather than purchasing something you don’t need or – maybe even worse – missing out on your sign-up bonus, purchasing a prepaid card is a great way to put yourself over the top. That’s why we mention it as a great option in our piece on conquering minimum spend requirements.

This can be true of any gift cards, but prepaid Visa cards have much more versatility since you can use them almost anywhere. The downside is typically a service charge of $4.95 or so that doesn’t apply to store-specific gift cards. While that’s a bit less than 1% on a $500 card, that’s a steep fee if you’re only in need of, say, $100 or $200 to put you over the top.

It’s almost unavoidable this time of year. Even if you don’t want to shop for gifts – or for yourself! – on Black Friday, or even on Thanksgiving, retailers offer deals scarcely seen throughout the rest of the year, forcing your hand with prices that seem too good to be true.

In most cases, you can beat the traffic by shopping online. Some stores are even offering their Black Friday prices online already in order to help stave off the horde of shoppers. Even better, if you’re smart about it, this can be a great time to rack up miles and points while getting great deals! Here are our tips for coming out of Black Friday a winner:

Compare Shopping Portals

We’ve discussed eShopping malls before, in particular the Ultimate Rewards Mall. Which mall offers the best bonus for you depends not only on which points or miles programs you care most about, but also on what store you’re shopping with!

The difference in bonuses between malls can be significant. For example, Ultimate Rewards offers 10 points per $1 at Kohls, while Delta offers only 1 SkyMile per $1.

It would be an extraordinary hassle to check one eShopping Mall after another to see if you’re better off shopping via eBates, Ultimate Rewards, TopCashBack, United, Southwest, Delta or others. That’s where sites like evReward.com and CashBackMonitor.com come in. These sites allow you to quickly search by store to see which shopping mall or portal offers the best deal for you! From there, you can login to the best one, proceed with your purchase and know that you earned the most miles possible.

Look for Bonus Offers

Several airline shopping portals are offering bonus miles above the normal rates based on the total amount you spend through the portal during the holiday shopping season.

AAdvantage eShopping is offering 750 miles for $75 in purchases, 1,500 miles for $150 in purchases or 2,500 miles for $250 in purchases made before December 2nd. That’s like earning 10x miles on top of the regular bonus offered by each merchant and miles earned with your credit card!

For example, combining this with the crazy 60 miles per $1 being offered through AAdvantage eShopping right now by Magazines.com would mean an effective earnings rate of 71 miles per $1 if you spend right to one of the spending thresholds and add in an extra mile per dollar for your credit card. Maybe it’s time to send some folks magazines for Christmas!

SkyMiles Shopping is offering 500 miles for every $125 in cumulative spending between now and December 5th, up to 5,500 bonus miles. Meanwhile, MileagePlus Shopping is offering an extra 500 bonus miles for every $250 in purchases up to 2,500 bonus miles. Neither of these deals are as good as American’s, but if you participate more in Delta or United’s programs, then these can still be better-than-normal deals to consider.

Read the Terms and Conditions

The fine print is important when it comes to shopping portals. Sometimes, certain items, categories or departments are ineligible for earning miles. In many cases, purchases of gift cards won’t earn you miles. In some cases, using extra promo codes or coupons can also preclude you from earning miles.

These differ from store to store, but fear not: the fine print is typically very easy to understand. Just make sure to read it so you don’t end up disappointed by making a purchase expecting to earn miles that is ineligible!

Points Don’t Stop With Travel

While we focus on the type of points and miles best for seeing the world from 30,000 feet, it’s worth remembering that other types of points are out there!

Whether it’s Staples Rewards, Best Buy’s Reward Zone or countless other programs, there are many great opportunities to earn credit toward future purchases that are worth keeping in mind.

For example, Staples now offers 5% Back on nearly all purchases in the form of Staples Rewards certificates. For those with a card that pays out points for Office Supply stores, like Chase Ink‘s 5x category bonus, this can mean serious earnings. Stacking 5x Staples Rewards with 5x Ultimate Rewards points from Ink plus another 3x Ultimate Rewards points for shopping through the Ultimate Rewards Mall can be like taking 13% off your order. Coupons and promotions can only accelerate the savings from there!

Let Others Do the Work

The sheer scope of deals out there can often be difficult to digest, and it’s often hard to know what deal is the very best for any given product once rebates, store rewards programs and coupons come into effect. That’s okay. Just like we geek out over finding the greatest travel deals, there are plenty of folks out there who love finding the best deals when shopping.

Check out your favorite deals blogs and leverage their work to make saving easier. My personal favorite is SlickDeals.net, which has a very robust community always on top of the latest and greatest deals out there.

What are some of YOUR favorite tips and tricks for earning points and miles while shopping? Let us know in the comments!

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Trip Information

Reader Larry wants to travel from Dallas to Australia and New Zealand sometime between January and May of next year with a companion. He’s never visited that part of the world, and he’s coming to us today with a pile of miles looking for the best way to make this trip come to life.

Current Program Status

Larry’s been saving up for quite some time now. He’s sitting on an eye-popping 500,000 AAdvantage Miles, 80,000 BA Avios, 70,000 Starwood Preferred Group points and 65,000 Southwest RapidRewards Miles.

Our Take

On some itineraries, it takes not just miles but a bit of creativity as well to find a workable routing. That’s the case with today’s challenge. We’ll be using Larry’s AAdvantage miles throughout today’s feature. Though Larry is practically swimming in miles, the casual observer might be led to believe only Economy travel is possible. While that’s certainly an option, we’re going to present a method to fly Upper Class for this very long journey and make the most of American’s booking rules. Let’s get started!

Trip Information

Reader Lena has never flown in First Class. She’s been saving up her miles prodigiously and wants to go on a trip to remember with her husband, hopping from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore. Her timetable is flexible, looking to travel sometime next year.

Current Program Status

Lena has a hefty stack of miles on hand. Between her own stockpile and her husband’s, they have 130,000 Ultimate Rewards points, 133,000 American AAdvantage miles, 50,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points and 50,000 British Airways Avios.

Our Take

At first blush, this might seem like an easy objective to complete. After all, with six figures in two different programs and a solid 50k each in two others, how could this be hard? Unfortunately, this is one itinerary where stopover rules don’t work in our favor and the steep points expense of Upper Class redemptions for two people requires some creativity and quick booking. Let’s get started!

Trip Information

Reader Mark and his girlfriend are both graduating from college soon and are trying to plan a trip for next Summer around Europe. He’s looking at it as a last chance to get in some quality adventure time before he heads into the automotive industry and his girlfriend enters med school. Mark has been to Paris previously, but otherwise neither he nor his girlfriend have much experience traveling abroad. He wants to make the most of this opportunity, visiting not just Paris but also hopping to other European hotspots including Monaco, Venice and Santorini.

Current Program Status

Mark is still relatively new to the points scene, but has already done a nice job building his miles balance. He currently has about 58,000 United miles, a smattering of miles in various domestic programs and 30,000 SPG points. He also has an American Express Blue Sky card with enough rewards points saved up for a $300 travel credit.

Our Take

As you’ll see, that Blue Sky travel credit will come in just as handy as the miles! This was a deceptively difficult trip for us to figure out, and we’re still not certain we’ve found the very best way to do this trip. However, we have found a way to do this trip, and think the itinerary looks pretty promising. We’ll share some of the challenges in building this booking and show you how Mark stands to save thousands on a memorable graduation celebration

We don’t typically dive into every little change in awards programs here at PointsAway, preferring to roll with the punches and explain new information when reader trips require. However, we’ve spent so many posts singing the praises of Hyatt’s Gold Passport program that it’s important to take a few minutes to share some of the big changes that have been recently announced for the program!

A New Category

We spoke about our fabulous time at the Park Hyatt Vendôme in Paris recently, and it’s one of the locations undergoing some rules changes as part of Hyatt’s reshuffled award chart.

The Vendôme is among six Hyatt locations moving to a new Category 7. Rooms in this new category will cost 30,000 points per night instead of 22,000 as they did before. The six Hyatt locations moving to this new category are:

• Park Hyatt Beaver Creek
• Park Hyatt Milan
• Park Hyatt Paris Vendôme
• Park Hyatt Sydney
• Park Hyatt Tokyo
• Park Hyatt Zurich

While there’s no doubt that this change stings, compared to other hotel programs Hyatt’s top redemptions remain a bargain, even at this increased rate. Consider the Vendôme, for example, where rooms can go for over $700 per night. Even at 30,000 points per night, that’s still around 2.33¢ per point in value, which exceeds our target of 2¢ per point, indicating it’s a good deal.

It’s also encouraging to see how few properties made the leap up to this new category. It’s unlikely Hyatt will move more properties up to this new level before next year, and they may well stop at just some of these most expensive and most exclusive locations. Meanwhile, locations including the Park Hyatt in the Maldives and the Hyatt Regency London – Churchill, which we reviewed recently, remain at the Category 6 level.

Category Points Increases

Even though many outstanding Hyatt locations remain at their previous Category 5 or Category 6 levels, they’re still subject to some modest increases in the nightly rates. Category 5 rooms are going from 18,000 points per night to 20,000 while Category 6 rooms are going from 22,000 points per night to 25,000. Categories 1-4 remain untouched. Overall, the new chart looks like this:

21 Hyatt properties are jumping up a category as part of the changes as well. Four Hyatt Place locations in the US are moving from Category 1 to 2. Six properties interspersed globally are moving from Category 2 to 3. Four are moving from 3 to 4, four are moving from 4 to 5 and three are moving from 5 to 6. However, 17 hotels are moving down a category, so it’s not all glum news!

Trip Review: London, Paris and Points Between

Part 1: MCO to LHR & Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill
Part 2: The Power of Uber
Part 3: Riding Brittany Ferries Across the Channel
Part 4: Hyatt Paris Vendôme and American CDG-MCO

Park Hyatt Paris Vendôme

2 Nights, 2 Rooms • 2 Free Night Certificates + 44,000 Ultimate Rewards Points

As enjoyable as our stay was at Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill, it didn’t hold a candle to what we encountered at the Park Hyatt Paris Vendôme. Upgraded to a pair of connecting Deluxe rooms thanks to our Hyatt Diamond status, the pair of rooms combined felt more like a capacious suite.

The Rooms

Both rooms featured golden molding around the beds and windows, rich wood interiors and inset golden molding near the ceilings that served to make the ceiling seem even higher than it was. As impressive as the bedrooms were, the bathrooms were much more so. Featuring two sink areas and both a walk-in shower and a tub large enough for a full-sized adult to actually lay in, the bathrooms also featured a separate toilet area and exceedingly large walk-in closet complete with full-size ironing board and iron.

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The amenities in each room were an exceptionally nice touch, with hygienic amenities arranged “just so” in a leather-bound case in each bathroom. Each tub included a loofah and extra shampoos and conditioners, while a sewing kit, shoe shine kit, bath robes and even slippers awaited in the adjacent walk-in closet. Each room also featured glass bottles of Evian as well as Nescafé machines with an array of flavors and a number of hot teas to enjoy. As a Hyatt Diamond amenity, each room received an array of decorative macaroon treats and bottles of wine, as well as hand-written notes from our host welcoming us to the property.

Trip Review: London, Paris and Points Between

Part 1: MCO to LHR & Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill
Part 2: The Power of Uber
Part 3: Riding Brittany Ferries Across the Channel
Part 4: Hyatt Paris Vendôme and American CDG-MCO

A Third Option Across the Channel

When the time came for us to leave England and head to France, we needed a better solution than flying from London to Paris. That’s because we intended to spend at least a day exploring the beaches of Normandy and the World War II history of the region before heading on to Versailles and then, at last, Paris.

Flights from London to Paris were indubitably affordable, coming in as low as £49 per person on British Airways and with the possibility of even cheaper travel coming available by way of a Euro budget carrier like Ryanair or EasyJet. These other carriers could potentially offer service from other UK cities like Bristol, which could have proven handy given how far west our trip took us on the isle.

The Chunnel was another option, of course, and riding National Rail back to London for continuing service on a train under the English Channel held some appeal. However, it still wouldn’t get us precisely where we needed to be, and we’d still incur a one-way drop charge for our rental car unless we made it all the way back to central London.

In my research, I noticed the dotted lines crossing the Channel on Google Maps and grew curious about their meaning. It became immediately clear that the lines connected port cities along the coasts of Britain and France. After a bit more research, I discovered one of the ferry companies responsible for running many of these routes.

Brittany Ferries offers service along a variety of routes heading to Spain and France from Plymouth, Poole and Portsmouth in Britain, as well as from Cork in Ireland. French landing points in Roscoff, St. Malo, Cherbourg, Caen and Le Havre line up almost perfectly with the very cities Allied forces sought to retake in the aftermath of the D-Day invasion.

Brittany operates a variety of different ferries. Its fast-craft, the Normandie Express, goes from Portsmouth to Cherbourg in just 3 hours. Incredibly, even this fast ferry includes space for vehicles. Two passengers and a car can ride from as little as £79 each way, while no-vehicle individual fares start at just £23 per person. Day journeys on a standard ferry, clocking in at about 7 hours from Portsmouth depending on your French destination, are marketed as perfect for a short getaway and presented with some of the same points of emphasis one might expect from a budget cruise line.

In the end, we chose purposely to take the slowest option, an overnight crossing from Portsmouth to St. Malo, a journey of 11 hours. We chose this option because it dropped us far enough west to ensure we’d not have to backtrack in order to see everything we wanted to see and because it saved us the expense of lodging for one night. The ferry offered service both for those traveling with vehicles and those without.

We dropped off our rental car in Portsmouth and planned to pick up a new one in St. Malo upon arrival. Our dropoff point for Europcar in Portsmouth was just a couple miles from the port terminal, while the pickup location for Avis in France was located inside the arrival terminal in St. Malo, making this transition a fairly smooth one.

Riding Brittany Ferries

Passengers book a base rate including a reclining seat in one of the several low-lit, quiet general seating areas located throughout the ship. The seats each provide substantial room and recline, and I wouldn’t be opposed to considering this option in the future. However, upgrading to a small cabin with 2 bunk buds and ensuite shower and restroom facilities is often an inexpensive upgrade. Larger cabins with outside views and cabins for four passengers are also available, as well as a small number of suites best suited to 3 or less passengers, are also available, but the inside cabins are perfectly sufficient for the overnight journey.

In the end, we booked two inside cabins, with two passengers in each, for a total of £252. At an average of £63 a piece, you could argue air travel would have been a more affordable option, but that doesn’t include the added benefit of slow-boat-as-hotel, saving a room or two of lodging for the evening.

Boarding Process

Security at the port was minimal, making it easy to board quickly. A bus drove on-foot passengers the short distance from the terminal to the ship for boarding. It was fun to watch all manner of vehicles being loaded into the belly of the ship, all the way up to several fully loaded semi trucks.

After ascending a few flights of ramps, we emerged onto the ship. I was first given directions in French by one of the onboard greeters, who quickly changed to English when he noticed I hadn’t picked up on his instructions. Our rooms were located just a few paces away.

On-Board Amenities

On board, both a full service and self service restaurant are available, as well as a bar/nightclub area and small café. We opted for the self service restaurant. Everything was a la carte, down to individual packets of butter, and tap water was served from a jug underneath the cashier’s desk. The food was perfectly serviceable, though, with a fairly tasty steak, garden salad and strawberry parfait serving as dinner. Not nearly as appetizing as what you’d find on even a budget-minded cruise line like Carnival, the food was still much better than the terrible restaurant we exhaustedly wandered into on our first night in London.

Pay Your Way

After dinner, we explored some of the duty free shops on board. A standard area of alcohols, cigarettes and a few souvenir knick-knacks were available, but the prices were nothing special. Both GBP and EUR were accepted as currency, however, which was convenient, and the adjacent convenience shop had a plentiful array of magazines, newspapers, candy and essentials that were more appealing.

Exploring the Ship

Our rooms came with access keys to the ship’s Wi-Fi network which, while speedier than I’d imagined, was limited to certain areas of the ship and not available within our rooms. I briefly stopped by the bar/nightclub and bore witness to a singer covering Katy Perry at a “bad karaoke” level of skill before retreating to what passed as the ship’s casino.

With just a few suspicious-looking slot machines, I was pleased to find one that offered standard video roulette. I bet on black twice, turning £1 into £4 and then turning £4 into a pint of Stella. The ship featured two movie theaters, each with about 30 seats and a perhaps 100-120” screen. Tickets were somewhere around £8 each, so I opted to watch a movie on my iPad back in the room before retiring for the evening.

Off to Bed, Early to Rise

The top bunk folds up toward the wall when not in use, opening the small room up somewhat. With the bunk down, I had to slouch in order to not hit my head when sitting on the bottom bunk. The bed came pre-made with sheets and a pillow located halfway between “home” and “Economy airplane seat” in comfort, which was good enough for a night. The shower and toilet facility were small, as could be imagined, but not much smaller than a typical inside cabin cruise ship bathroom would be.

Morning came too quickly, with a wake up call around 6:30AM for a 7AM debarkation. In reality, this resulted in everyone standing around with their luggage for about 30-45 minutes while crews already set to work stripping beds and cleaning rooms for the next journey. The ship was on a tight turnaround, but allowing guests to stay in their cabin until it was time for their floor to debark would have been a much more comfortable option.

Overall, I feel like Brittany Ferries offered a good value for our itinerary and is a worthwhile choice for any travelers seeking to jump from the UK to France’s Normandy area directly. Don’t expect any of the nicer frills associated with travel on cruise liners, or to save substantially versus air or train travel between the countries, but the pragmatic value of saving money on a night’s lodging while arriving precisely where we wanted to begin our next day made the ferry a great option for us.

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