Airbus Tour Mobile

My 18-year-old has been fascinated by aviation since he was a toddler. In his 18 years, we have visited a crazy number of airplane museums. When I saw Flight Works Alabama offering Airbus A320 and A220 Final Assembly Line tours on July 29th I knew I had to get him there.

We seriously debated driving for this trip, but after two recent road trips, we decided to look at our points to see if we could fly. Southwest doesn’t fly into Mobile where our tour is taking place. It does fly direct from Nashville to both New Orleans and Pensacola. Pensacola is about 55 minutes from where we wanted to go and the flights were fewer points so we decided on that airport. I booked my round-trip flight on Southwest for 23,000 points. My son is currently my companion on my Southwest Companion pass so he can fly free as my guest.

Earlier this year I applied for a Chase Marriott card. The sign-up bonus was 5 free night certificates. Four of those are being used on an upcoming trip to Glacier National Park. Since I still have a free night available I checked Marriott out for our stay in Mobile. I booked us a free room at The Battle House Renaissance Mobile. We love staying at historic hotels and this one looks fabulous!

We did have to book a car for this trip. I booked it through Costco Travel. They usually have the best prices and it is easy to rebook if you find a better deal. When I first looked at cars it was $206. I checked again a few days later and it dropped $16 so I rebooked a new car and canceled the other one. I was pleased I love saving money! Then I remembered we just got the Capital One Venture X card. It comes with $300 off travel in their portal. I looked up prices on Capital One which matched what I was paying at Costco. I used $200 of my $300 toward the car.

Instead of dreading a 7-hour car ride each way, we are thankful for points and free flights.