Kate's on a Plane

Fall is conference season in points and miles land (and maybe in every other land, too?), and because I’ve fallen completely down the rabbit hole, I was itching to go to an event where I could talk to other people who shared my affliction. I settled on TravelMoreCon in Dallas because of its commitment to centering female speakers, including some of my favorite bloggers and podcasters. It also fit well into my busy fall travel schedule. 

But, I just couldn’t justify spending actual money to travel to a conference just for fun. I decided that if I could book all the travel on points, I could give myself permission to pay cold, hard cash for the conference registration. Here’s how I did it.

I booked two tickets on Southwest for a direct flight to Dallas on a Friday evening, so we can go straight to the airport after school lets out (my three-year-old daughter is coming with me to this event because Dad and big brother have other plans that weekend). This flight was originally 10,569 Southwest points per person, which I transferred to my Southwest Rapid Rewards account from Chase. This price eventually came down to 8,316 points per person, so I was able to rebook and recoup the difference, paying a total of 16,632 points plus $11.60 in taxes and fees. The cash price of these tickets was $608 at the time I originally booked them.

I booked a rental car through the Capital One travel portal using $160.36 of my $300 annual Venture X travel credit. There’s an additional $6.15 in taxes and fees due at booking.

Although the conference was held at a Renaissance hotel, I chose to book a Hyatt House about 5 minutes away. I was able to book a two-bedroom suite for me, my daughter, and Grandma (who’s coming to babysit) to be able to spread out and sleep comfortably for two nights for a total of 16,000 points and $0. I transferred these points into my World of Hyatt account from Chase. Cash price would have been $472.34.

In the end, this hotel room wound up costing me even less. There was a problem with breakfast on the second morning of our stay, so I wrote to Hyatt to inquire if compensation was available in recognition of our lackluster experience. They refunded me 8,000 points–the cost of a whole night’s stay!

For our flight home, I really wanted to fly out of DFW instead of Dallas Love Field (the airport Southwest serves) so we could take advantage of the opportunity to visit the Capitol One lounge at DFW. I also wanted to be able to stay for as much of the conference as possible, and none of the flight times on Southwest out of DAL were late enough.

I found a direct flight leaving out of DFW on American Airlines. Since I don’t have any AA miles to speak of, I booked this flight through Qantas, an Australian partner airline. I transferred 23,800 points from Capitol One (11,900 points per person) to book this flight, and paid $11.20 in taxes and fees. The cash cost for this flight would have been $385.74. 

Flying out of DFW also means we were be able to have a late dinner in the lounge for free.

Here is my total cost for this trip, alongside what the trip would have cost without points and miles. 

Attending this conference would have cost me almost $2,000 if I’d had to pay cash for my travel, and there’s no way I would have been able to make that kind of investment in something that is a hobby rather than a business. Instead, my total outlay for the trip is just a little bit more than the price of my ticket. Because of award travel, I’m able to make it happen.