✈️ Offset any travel purchase with points (here's how)

Good morning ☀️ from Booked It On Points: A curated collection to keep you traveling for less money and more know how 👊🏽

Let’s dive in.

Here’s what’s on today—

📉 It’s a new month which means another Flying Blue Promo has arrived. This month Flying Blue (the loyalty program fro AirFrance/KLM) is offering TONS of one-way flights to Europe from several major US airlines for as low as 15k pts. Like this one from Atlanta to Athens for 15k pts and $102 in taxes.

Pro tip→ simply search AirFrance to find TONS of European destinations for just as low and get yourself wandering the charming streets of an old European village, baguette in hand 🥖 .

✈︎ Points + Miles

TOP STORY: How to use points to offset ANY travel purchase

We talk a lot about using points + miles to transfer to airline partners for HUGE redemption opportunities. But what about all the other travel costs that you could save if you could use your points + miles on other purchases?

Let me introduce you to Capital One miles. You can use the points from any of these cards to offset any travel purchase at a rate of one cent each.

A card that consistently remains as a top value card in my wallet is Capital One Venture X. It may have a higher annual fee ($395), but it’s a premium card with TONS of premium perks.

If you want something with a lower annual feel or NO annual fee, take a look at this card (95$) or this card (no annual fee). While you don’t get certain perks like lounge access or travel credits, you still get 2x points on ALL purchases.

Capital One miles are easy to earn. They are also the only program that allow you to pay for any type of travel using miles—even retroactively!

Though this isn’t always the best way to get the most value out of your miles, it still serves as a good option.

When you do want to redeem your miles at a fixed value for travel, you can cover any eligible travel purchase within the last 90 days!

You also have the option to book travel directly through the Capital One travel portal and select miles as your payment right then and there!

Final thoughts→ Capital One miles are some of the most transferable and flexible miles out there. There’s no reason not to love ‘em!

✈︎ The Informed Traveler

3 mistakes to avoid when booking summertime accommodations

Hotel/Air BnB accommodations can truly make or break a trip and there are a lot of things that go into finding places that check all the boxes.

On our recent trip to Europe, we stayed in a total of 6 different apartments as we made our way north up the Croatian coastline.

I used 3 different sites to book accommodations: Booking.com, Airbnb.com, and Chase.com/travel (10x points when you book in the travel portal) and learned a lot about what to do differently next time. Here are 3 things I’d differently:

1) Always book in a central location. I know, I know→ seems wildly obvious. But I would argue that when I’m traveling solo or with my husband, I don’t mind being a bit more off the beaten path. In fact, it allows you to see some “lesser” known areas and find more locally priced and authentic restaurants.

This time however, the apartments most central to restaurants/grocery stores and the beaches were well worth it so that we could head “home” throughout the days for lunch, rest, etc. Lesson→ Especially when traveling with kids, spend the extra $$$ to be as central as possible. 

2) Confirm WHERE the A/C unit is located. While I thought I was set booking spots with A/C, we learned that it was equally as important to confirm that there were units IN THE BEDROOMS. There were 2 apartments where the unit was only in the main room, and therefore didn’t do much to cool the bedrooms. In both of these instances we requested a fan only to be (politely) turned down. Lesson→ look at the pictures provided to see where the a/c units are and/if there are ceiling fans. 

3) Assume the washing machine will work. Again, like the a/c units, I assumed I was being a pro traveler booking 3/6 apartments to include a washing machine. Reality: every single one was broken. Seriously.

Lesson→ bring travel soaking detergent to hand wash items in the sink. While not ideal, it saved us half way through the trip. We used Soak Travel Packs and loved that all you have to do is simply soak your clothes in the sink.

*Overall, when you opt to take a more adventurous route to book apartments over hotels/resorts, you’re bound to find some idiosyncrasies in your accommodations. For me, it’s all part of how travel imprints on us and provides an opportunity to feel a touch more authentic when traveling in foreign places.

✈︎ Travel News

How locals are taking out their anger at tourists in their hometown

It’s becoming more common to hear about locals getting tired of the tourism in their neighborhoods. From the latest super soaker attack on diners in Barcelona to this Seoul neighborhood looking to enforce curfews and a color coded zoning procedure, over-tourism in some of the most popular foreign destinations is causing distress among locals and impacting local landscapes.

These incidents most commonly are happening in larger, popular cities. If you don’t want to fall victim to squirt guns during dinner, it’s worth opening your destination options to smaller, more off the beaten path destinations.

✈︎ Trivia

Answer to last week’s trivia:

The designer of the logo for the American Airlines AAdvantage program, Massimo Vignelli, also designed which of the following?

 The New York City subway map

Thanks for being here and have a great Tuesday!

Allie