We love to hear from our readers about how they used points to pay or reduce their travel costs! Here is reader Kat’s story and it was her first time traveling on credit card points and miles! Way to go Kat!

 

Kat’s Story

My husband and I just did our first points/miles trip in September 2019. We met in Milan for the F1 race in Monza. For most of 2019, he was working on a contract overseas, and his expenses were reimbursed. Part of his contract was that he had to stay at a Marriott in the city he was working in.

Additionally, he opened a Chase Sapphire Reserve when he first started traveling. So, his flight (first class) from the city he was working in was free, as was his flight home (also first class) from Milan. It was paid for by his company. My flight round trip in economy class from the States was $200 round trip (which was actually just the flight from our home city to JFK). JFK to Milan was all points!

Our hotel, right off of the Piazza del Duomo was literally steps from the Milan Duomo. We stayed at the Straf Hotel which is a Marriott Design Hotel. It even came with a free breakfast! We cashed in some of his Marriott Bonvoy Rewards and only paid the city tax for our whole stay—30 euros. Instead, we spent all our money on pizza and wine!

We try to take an overseas trip every other year (Iceland in 2016, Paris in 2018). This was our first points trip so we upped our timeline a little because we didn’t know if he was going to be traveling overseas in the future!

 

Bottom Line

Great job, Kat! It is always nice to not have to pay for two people. One of the perks of my husband not liking to travel as much as I do is that I get more points!! I love that your husband’s expenses were paid, which lets you pay for your flight with points. Even better, he could use the Marriott Rewards he accrued through business spending to pay for your hotel! We can’t wait to hear about your next travel experience!