✈️ Grateful for the Journey: Making travel happen this holiday season

Good morning ☀️ from Booked It On Points: A curated collection of travel tips and personal stories by me, Allie→ because you’re meant to experience meaningful travel no matter life’s constraints 👊🏽

Let’s dive in.

Here’s what’s on today—

📉 I found this flight using one of my FAVORITE ways to search for flight deals to Europe. Simply go to KLM.com and click “Book with Miles.” From here, fill in the info but leave the date BLANK. When you hit “search flight” it will display a full 30 day calendars where you can easily see the low fare deals because they are listed in green ⬇️

✈︎ Points + Miles

The Argument for Travel: And How to Make It Happen

There is never a time you won’t find ready to sit down with a cup of coffee and go deep with my feelings. Going deep is easy for me, maybe too easy when it comes to things like intentional living, motherhood, and travel Who am I kidding, most anything.

And this weekend I turn 40.

🧘🏼 Shew, big exhale, just need to sit in that a moment.

But I digress and you are here for my 2 cents when it comes to how to travel on the cheap- after all, this is called Booked It On Points.

First I must make it be known → Make travel a priority. You won’t regret it.

I was exposed to the Spanish language through a high school language class requirement.

I wasn’t good at it, it took a lot of time and effort but I stuck with it. I don’t know why but something in me told me I needed to keep going with it and today, being able to speak Spanish is one of the things I am most proud of about myself.

This is also true about travel. It takes time, effort, resources, AND if you stick with it, you’ll never regret the trip. In fact, it could be one of your proudest accomplishments!

Back to the travel lesson.

Travel doesn’t have to be unattainable. It doesn’t have to be expensive, luxurious or out of reach. Budget-friendly ways of travel are out there. Using points + miles to curb costs is a real life strategy. It’s the only way our family is out and about exploring the world as much as we do.

Where to start:

• Look at your Points + Miles: Log into your rewards program and see what you have in there. Are these miles transferable to other airlines? Or perhaps you can use them in a way you didn’t realize. Need a refresher on what this looks like? I wrote about it here.

• Pick a Destination: Start with somewhere close to home or if you’re like me, anywhere at all. Consider heading to a place you’ve already explored. It can feel a new type of exciting to go back to a place of fondness and you don’t have to fret about an overly- planned itinerary because you’ve already been.

  For Geo and I, we opted to go to Mexico City for <72 hrs last week because we had some American Air miles to burn. For 12k miles and $44 in taxes and fees, we were eating tacos by noon. In fact, the entire stay was on points bringing our travel costs of round trip airfare and a 3 night hotel stay to $176. Total.

  

  Taco 1 of 293

• Travel can be simple: Unlike going to Mexico City for <72 hours, travel can be quite simple and it still serves the ultimate purpose: to wake up your senses to newness.

  For a moment in time, you’re breaking out of the easy, comfortable box we all live in and you’re consciously entering into a new space.

  • Consider a day trip. Ever heard of ResortPass? Or did you know you could book an airbnb using this card and then retroactively cover the cost with points on your statement?

• Be Open-Minded: Being flexible with dates or destinations can lead to surprising opportunities. Check out the low fare calendar with Southwest. You may be surprised with what’s out there that is attainable if you pick your destination base on prices. Google Flights Anywhere feature is the best at this.

  • Not into going simple? Me either, consider: Singapore Spontaneous Escapes. These guys accept Points + Miles from all our favorite big bank cards making travel with them easy and affordable. Like LA to Tokyo for 50k points 🤯

Whereever you go, however you get there, trust in the process that it will be worth it. Seek out others to share your journey this holiday season to create memories that will mean something.

As for me turning 40: “With age, comes wisdom. With travel, comes understanding.”
- S. Lake

✈︎ Poll

Last week on our dash over to CDMX, we packed up using gear from Tripped Travel. From packing cubes to the toiletry bag kit set and their tech pouch, we use it all and we love it.

✈︎ Travel News

Apple’s Air Tag can now share locations with others

Did you hear about this exciting news?

Apple just made it easier to find lost stuff. Now, with their "Find My" feature, you can share the location of your AirTags with airlines to help get your things back faster. It’s perfect if your luggage goes missing during a trip, so don’t forget to throw your air tag into your luggage before you risk it all!

Spirit Files for Bankruptcy

It’s happened, Spirit filed for bankruptcy yesterday. While they are still operating, there will be some changes including selling airplanes, cutting routes, and furloughing pilots. Things may get dicey in your itinerary in the immediate future so remember your rights when things go south and advocate for your reimbursements and compensations.

Blue Bank Ink cards may be “tightening up” on approvals

Reports suggest stricter checks on business legitimacy and personal credit history, with more applications being denied or needing additional documentation. This shift highlights the importance of ensuring your application is well-prepared before applying for a Chase business card. Got questions about applying? Hit reply antyime!

Chase Sapphire lounges opening in 5 new locations

New lounges opening is always good news. Even better news for the Reserve holders who will have access to 5 new locations soon enough. Phoenix lounge has just opened, with San Diego next up. Remember, if you’re heading to an airport, always check which lounges you have access to with your travel credit cards. You may be surprised in a really great way!

I was recently featured on a podcast hosted by my incredible friend and complete inspiration for all things outdoors and intentional living, Mak from @BoundforNowhere.

Camp Nowhere is a beautiful curation of storytelling and in our episode we talk tips and tricks to travel, the evolution of travel throughout life and the values we hold true in our own ways of living our lives while chasing sunsets all over the world. Take a listen. 

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If you’ve made it down to here, thanks for being here, truly and sincerely-

Allie