Eb EnRoute

My excitement to collect a large lump sum of points was through the roof using this offer. I would get 25,000 points from this booking, and I would get to travel because of it!?! Sign me up, EXPEDITIOUSLY. Yes, you read the number right. You’re likely saying to yourself, Eb, the offer states you would get 20,000 points. You are correct; however, if I booked flights using my Amex Platinum card plus this Amex offer, I would receive 20,000 points (from this offer), plus 5x the points per dollar spent ($1,000 * 5 = 5,000), hence the 25,000 points!

I immediately started searching the Air France and KLM websites to see what my options were and how much flights would cost. The above offer required you purchase flights with either Air France or KLM. These 2 airlines share the same points program, Flying Blue. Though round trip flights to Greece from Miami were $800ish total for 2 people, that wasn’t enough to meet the $1,000 requirement to meet the Amex offer requirements. Had I known what I know now, I would’ve purchased the $800 flights and put the remaining $200 toward reserving extra leg-room seats (more on this later).

I found round trip flights for 2 to Greece for $1,166, allowing us to spend time in 2 other cities, Amsterdam and Paris. WHAT!! A long, 12 hour layover in Amsterdam, Athens for a few days, and a 19-hour overnight layover in Paris. My passport has been ACHING to get some stamps in it, and now I would get 3 from 1 trip? Color me happy! Of course, I booked it shortly after.

With Greece on the horizon, we needed somewhere to stay. I’d been mulling over how to use the 5 free night Marriott vouchers I received from my Marriott Boundless Credit Card for months prior to booking this trip, and this was as good a time as any. I found two 5-star Marriott hotels in the heart of Athens; however, the Hotel Grande Bretagne was the only one that allowed redemption of free night vouchers. I redeemed three 50,000-point vouchers, plus 11,000 Marriott points for a classic room, the most basic of all the basic rooms, but in a 5-star hotel. As a Gold Elite Marriott member, I would be eligible for a room upgrade upon arrival, thanks to my Amex Plat.

After booking the Athens hotel for 3 nights, I decided to quickly detour to Santorini, one of the most popular of the Cyclades islands. Initially I didn’t want to use any points, nor did I want to spend any money. I admit, I am a point hoarder (770,000 points and counting), and I’ve been collecting them since 2021, just to not use them. That sounds absolutely nuts, I know. I’m a little off my rocker. With this detour, we had to stay somewhere.

I mustered up the courage to use my Chase Reserve credit card points to book our Santorini and Paris hotels. After some extensive research, I settled on Athina Luxury Suites for Santorini. I booked the Cave Suite with a hot tub, costing a total of 69,690 points for 2 nights. Flights to Santorini from Athens, Greece, were inexpensive for 2 people, round trip totaling 202 EU, which included security fast track at Athens and Santorini airports.

When searching for the best hotels in Paris, I inevitably found the Pullman Paris Eiffel Tower, the most touristy of hotels, and for good reason. As its name suggests, it is not only near the Eiffel Tower, but some rooms have stunning balcony views of it. I’m an avid reader of reviews prior to purchasing anything so I know what I’m getting myself into. Although the hotel had mixed reviews, I decided to take my chances and booked a night in a deluxe room with the Eiffel Tour view from the balcony using 31,085 Chase points. Not the greatest point redemption, but not a terrible one either, so I’m happy with my decision. And it was TOTALLY worth it!

Now that flights and hotels have been booked, let's look at the math:

At first glance, my jaw was on the floor seeing how much we spent on flights. Calculating hotel costs if I hadn't used points puts me at ease; $2,978 (USD) for the Grande Bretagne, $1,045 for Athina Luxury Suites, and $482.68 for Pullman Paris. The cash costs of our European hotels would have cost $4,168 USD out of pocket! Yowsers! Our entire trip could have cost almost $6,000. I’ll take the $1,700 flights and free hotel stays any day!