In this edition of Reader Success Stories,  Kori shares how she used points to book a trip to NYC over Memorial Weekend to attend her best friend’s wedding.  Not only did she get the whole trip paid for but she brought her 5-week-old son along! Supermom! Here is her story:

 

Kori’s Story

In 2018 I was invited to my best friend’s wedding in New York City. Shortly after, I found out I was pregnant. This meant that my husband and I would be bringing a baby as our +1!  We needed to find a way to fly from our hometown in Seattle, across the entire country with our to-be-5-week-old-newborn to New York City over Memorial Weekend. Memorial Weekend in NYC is not cheap! Birth also isn’t cheap. With those major expenses, I need to find a way to book this trip on a serious budget!

To add to that financial party, I exclusively nurse and the wedding had booked a live band – a loud, talented live band. So not only did I need to fly cheap, I needed to find a hotel in mid-town NYC that was literally a 5-minute walk from the wedding reception location. The plan was to send the baby back to the quiet hotel with Daddy so I could party with my bestie the bride. I also needed to be able to get to the baby quickly when he needed to nurse. A 5 week old doesn’t have a predictable nursing schedule – so hotel proximity was a big deal. All I could see were dollar signs adding up and I was overwhelmed. Enter: Travel Hacking Mom to the rescue!

Flights to NYC

Alex was amazing. She helped me piece together my existing Delta SkyMiles from various random accounts to get all our flights for free. We flew out on Delta to the cheapest of the NYC area airports.

NYC Hotel

Hotels for Memorial Weekend in NYC were so expensive! Thankfully, Alex helped us select the perfect credit card to cover our hotel stay! Listen to this magic – using her travel hacking wizardry, Alex found a hotel that was literally one block from the wedding reception location! I was able to stay for 3 days, and 2 nights for FREE using my Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card travel rewards points! I got the card and earned the points by spending on my everyday purchases (and paid off my birth). Using my points, we booked the absolute nicest hotel in the absolute perfect location for free! Flights for & hotel for free thanks to Alex’s expertise!

It was an amazing wedding weekend and I partied like I hadn’t just had a baby! My sweet baby was just 3 minutes down the block sleeping peacefully with Daddy. Thanks, Travel Hacking Mom!

 

Your Turn

Thanks, Kori for sharing how you used points to spend your Memorial Weekend in NYC with us!  We would love you to be our next success story.