Glacier National Park for $700

I love getting an amazing travel reward deal on something I know will make my husband so happy! Let me preface this by saying that this is the 3rd time I have booked this trip. We have never got this close to going. I am hoping it works out this time. We booked this 2020 -so Covid stopped that trip. I booked it last year and we got a month out and the Montana wildfires were too bad for us to go. My husband has been talking about this trip for 20 years and I am excited to make it happen for him. I hope this is our year!!!!

Earlier this year, the Marriot Bonvoy Chase card had a deal for a sign-up bonus you would get 5 free night certificates (FNC) valued at 50k each. I hadn’t had the Marriott card in a few years (you can get the sign-up bonus every 24 months). I knew immediately I would like to take advantage of his offer again.

When the FNC hit my account I got to work trip planning. My husband gets limited vacation each year so I try hard to take advantage of long weekends to maximize our travel when you travel for free or this cheap. Why not? There are only a few Marriott properties in this area of Montana. None of them look fancy but this is an outdoorsy trip. We need somewhere clean to sleep, shower, etc. I booked four free nights at the TownSuites Whitefish/Kalispell. The current rate for this hotel is $406 a night.

This is such a quick trip, that I decided to fly into Kalispell. We used my husband’s Delta miles (from a sign-up bonus and maybe a few from work travel) for two free flights in Kalispell. A few months after I booked our flights on points. Our son Tanner mentioned he wanted to do this trip with us. He couldn’t believe we didn’t invite him. I didn’t have enough Delta miles to book him a free ticket. I looked at moving my Amex rewards to Delta. I had about 400,000 points but I wanted those for trips to Europe. I decided to buy him a ticket. It was $500. It really did hurt me to buy a plane ticket. I haven’t paid for a ticket in years. However, I thought this was the smarter move and we are so lucky our 16-year-old still wants to spend time with us.

When I started looking at rental cars I was stunned to see they were expensive. I booked a car for over $700 through Costco I knew I could cancel if I found a better deal. At one point in my search, nothing was less than $1000 for our trip. Luckily this week that happened. I rebooked the rental car through Capital One for $300. I then used $108 left over Capital Travel credit to get the car down to $195.

Thanks to Marriott free night certificates, Delta Miles, and the Capital One Venture X travel credit. I was able to get out vacation price to $700.