FAMILY LUXURY TRIP TO LONDON - FOR $3,000

Our arrival time in London was about 10am. We knew we wanted to be pampered the first night, so we elected to book two rooms in the 5 star Hotel l’oscar for one night. This hotel is much nicer than we would normally select for a trip, but given the card benefits we received, we decided to upgrade. The interior design was exquisite and the rooms very comfortable, but what set l'oscar apart was the service, down to the bellman/concierge who took great pride in ensuring our stay was memorable.

Hotel l’oscar’s rates at the time were $787 per night. However, the hotel is included in American Express’ Fine Hotels and Resorts. American Express offers a $300 credit every six months for stays at their Fine Hotels and Resorts (1 night minimum) and their Hotel Collection (2 nights minimum). My wife and I each have a Platinum card, so we received a $300 credit for each room. We then used Amex MR points for the remainder of the charge (100 points per dollar) to wipe out the remainder of the cost.

In addition to the hotel credits, we received a $100 incidental credit for each room and free breakfast for all. This took care of an afternoon snack and took a bite out of our dinner bill in the hotel’s Michelin star restaurant.

Introduction

I have a nephew who was recently married in Bury St. Edmunds, England. His wife wanted to be married in a castle, so he made her dreams come true. The trip over the pond is not an inexpensive one, so some relatives and friends were unable to attend. I, however, was able to make it on a six day trip along with my wife, daughter and son. Thanks to credit card benefits, I was able not only to do it for less than $4,000, but also fly in lie-flat, business class seats and stay in 4 to 5 star hotels!

I’ll break it down for you as follows:

• Airfare

• Hotel – London (day 1)

• Hotel – Bury St. Edmunds (days 2 and 3)

• Hotel - London (days 4 and 5)

• Summary Savings Table

Airfare

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Cheers!

Max

Thanks to great planning by the bride and groom, I knew about the timing well in advance. My “pain tolerance” for this trip was very low. Given the facts I couldn’t change the date of the wedding, and I couldn’t pull my kids out of school for an extended period of time, I could not wait until the “best” offer came along…I had to act when I saw something good. Also, given that my lovely wife has little patience for connections, I sought something direct.

I looked at flights 11 months out, as soon as they were published, and immediately found business class flights from Washington Dulles to London Heathrow for 80,000 miles each. I also found a return for the same rate 6 days later. I flew my wife and I in business round trip, and my kids out in business and back in coach at half the rewards fare. Unfortunately, flights into London usually carry high fees and taxes, and I did not avoid those. $375 each way for business and $100 for coach. I paid $2,450 in fees and 560,000 points for all of the flights, instead of paying the posted price of about $13,500 dollars. Given my restrictions, I received a more than acceptable return on my points.

Hotel – London (day1)

Summary Savings Table:

Hotel – Bury St. Edmunds (days 2 and 3)

After a fun day and a half in London, we took the train to Bury St. Edmunds for the wedding festivities. Upon our late afternoon arrival, we checked into the All Saints Resort. All Saints is a four star resort with a spa and its own golf course. It didn't have the coziness and warmth we experienced at l'oscar, but it did have an excellent breakfast and terrific views.

The wedding party negotiated a block discount of £150 per night. Two nights for two rooms had us looking at £600 in total. With my Bilt Palladium card, I receive a $200 hotel credit every 6 months. I can also use Bilt Cash, earned through spending on the card, for an additional $100 toward hotel reservations each month. I booked one room for the block discount of £300. To be able to use the Bilt credits, I couldn’t use the wedding block discount. I booked the other room for slightly more at $252 USD per night, but stacked the Bilt credits to take off $300, netting $198 in additional savings.

Hotel – London (days 4 and 5)

We stayed at the five star Great Scotland Yard Hotel, part of the unbound collection by Hyatt. Yes, it is that Scotland Yard. The hotel is a refurbishment of the London police headquarters you’ve seen on most British detective movies. The New Scotland Yard has been relocated to a spot along the river Thames.

The hotel was incredibly comfortable with beautiful touches, everything feeling current and fresh, down to the bathrooms and the toilets with heated seats and built-in bidets. To quote my wife, "I want to export this entire bathroom and put it in our house!"

Both rooms were booked using points. We added to the Hyatt points we had available by transferring points from Chase (before the Chase/Hyatt transfer devaluation) for the 30,000 point per night rate, for a total of 120,000 points. The cash rate was $613 per night, so we received excellent value at more than 2 cents per point.

Max’s Take:

Thanks to credit card points and credits, I was able to travel in luxury to England with my family. We were able to book flights and hotels valued at $19,000 for just over $3,000. That’s a savings of $16,000! Of course, that is not the entire cost of the trip. We had meal costs, rail, taxi, tube, and some tourist packages on top of that, but the bottom line is that our use of credit cards turned an expensive, luxury trip into an affordable one. Without credit card benefits, even budget travel would have been significantly more expensive than our luxury travel. If we figure $700 each way for coach flights, and $300 per night of hotel (x2 rooms, x 5 nights), that totals $5,800, about twice what we paid for luxury.

I could describe all of the fun things we did in England (Covent Gardens, Piccadilly, Thames river cruise, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Burough Market, Bury St. Edmunds, wedding and reception, Buckingham Palace, a side trip to Ted Lasso’s Richmond, etc.), but this article is about maxing the benefits from credit cards, which I’m happy to say we did!

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