Alaska Cruise - $325
My husband recently got the Capital One Venture X card. With tuition and life expenses we quickly reached the sign-up bonus of 75,000 points. This plus the 2% back on the 4000+ I spent to get the sign-up bonus amounted to 83498 points. If you are interested in the Capital One Venture X you can check out my referral ink here.
Earlier this week, I booked an Alaska Cruise for me and my 16-year-old for next summer. I used a casino deal I got from Princess Cruises I just had to pay taxes and port fees plus a $200 deposit per person. This ended up being $1160 for an interior cabin on the Royal Princess that goes to Glacier Bay National Park (my dream!!!) I had until the end of the month to book this cruise with payment to receive the deal. I also just paid for our Greek Isle Cruise this month which was also a casino deal but this all adds up. So I devised a plan to book the Alaskan cruise on the Capital One Venture X card and then reimburse myself via travel purchases.
My whole goal in my points journey is to do what I want for free or cheap. A lot of people want to get the most bang out of their points and I do try to maximize how I use my points. For example, I did pay for my son’s plane ticket to Glacier National Park next month instead of using points. I knew I wanted the points towards European flights rather than Montana flights.
As for the Capital One points I had no plans for them and if this makes it where I get to go on my dream trip then I say “Do it!” after the charges for my cruise hit. I went to the Capital One website and looked at my points. There was an option for me to cover travel purchases. When I selected that my travel purchases showed up including my Princess Cruise. The cruise was more than the points I had available but I was able to use all the points I had in my account 83498 to take off 834.98 from my cruise.
I am currently waiting for Southwest to list their tickets for next summer to get our flights which should be free (I’ll make it happen). If that doesn’t work I do have quite a few Amex Rewards points that I can use as a backup plan for free flights. I have already booked a Hyatt in Seattle for the night before the cruise on points.
When I say I try to not leave a point behind I mean it. As a travel agent (up until now just booking my own travel) I get commission on my casino deals. It’s usually just a small amount but it adds up and if I am booking it anyway… a little extra cash is always nice.
