Incredible Value to Europe & Tips to Save on Your Next Vacation!
Air France, Small Luxury Hotels & Omio Transit Portal
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Good morning,
We’re getting ready to spend July in France, and wanted to highlight some of the best deals we’ve booked and other tips to making your next vacation a bit more affordable!
BILT Rent Day Promo
Hyatt Small Luxury Hotels
Omio Train Tickets via Rakuten
Before we jump in, if there’s one card we would recommend today, it’s the…
Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
This recently introduced premium card from Capital One packs a big punch – a great welcome bonus, generous ongoing earning rates regardless of spending category, lounge access, and lots of premium travel benefits and rewards credits that more than offset the annual fee.
You can easily get more value than what you’re spending for the $395 annual fee in credits. And if you can utilize the $300 travel credit every year, as well as issue a few authorized user cards to family members (see our deep dive issue) you’ll continue getting outsized value from this card.
Earn 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. Learn more here.
BILT Rent Day Promo
As mentioned in a past issue, BILT was offering a 100% Transfer Bonus to Flying Blue, the frequent flyer program for Air France and KLM. This meant that any BILT points transferred over would double. We capitalized on that promotion by turning 15k BILT points into 30k Flying Blue points and booking two Economy seats from NYC to Paris.
These tickets are absurdly expensive in cash, ranging from $531 to $1,190 per person in Economy!
Our preferred date was priced at $1,090, meaning we yielded $1,090 x 2 = $2,180 in value using only 15,000 points which would traditionally equate to $150.
That’s 14.5 cents per point in value ($2,180 / 15,000), in all fairness I wouldn’t have paid $2,180 out of pocket for these flights, but there is something so satisfying about seeing that number.
Wait, what is BILT?
For the uninitiated, the BILT Rewards Credit Card is known for it’s ability to earn 1x points on purchases like rent, HOA dues, etc that wouldn’t typically earn points. They do this by opening a Wells Fargo checking account that’s linked to your card and is used to make payments while still earning BILT points. That means you can pay everyone from your landlord to Verizon without having to worry about credit card convenience fees.
For example, if you’re paying $3,000 a month in rent, you could now earn 36k points per year. The higher your rent, the more valuable this card may be. Learn more here.
BILT offers a different “Rent Day” promo on the 1st day of every month. I’m looking forward to the July one and recommend signing up for the card before the 1st to join in on the Rent Day fun.
Hyatt Small Luxury Hotels
Small Luxury Hotels (SLH.com) partnered with World of Hyatt a while back to allow Hyatt members to book over 50 SLH properties via Hyatt with either cash, points or award certificates. Beyond opening up many more gorgeous properties, this also comes with a few other benefits for Hyatt Members:
Complimentary continental breakfast (which in Europe can’t be beat)
Complimentary Wi-Fi
Early check-in (based on availability at check-in)
Late check out (based on availability at check-in)
One category room upgrade (based on availability at check-in)
We’re admittedly still new to SLH Properties, having only stayed at the gorgeous Villa Orselina (shown above), but our experience was top-notch and included the option for all the benefits listed above, including an upgrade to a top-floor suite with panoramic views of Lake Maggiore as well as the broader district of Locarno, Switzerland.
If you’re looking for a special night or two somewhere off the beaten path, SLH Properties are a great option that shouldn’t be discounted. A full property list can be found here.
We’ll be spending a few nights at SLH property Château Le Cagnard in Provence and will share a review afterwards. In the meantime, a few tips for any hotel booking:
If you have flexibility, check the days before and after your ideal dates to see if better rooms are available or if points pricing is more favorable.
Email the front desk once you’ve settled your dates and let them know who you are, where you’re coming from and whether or not you’re celebrating a special occasion. This is also a great time to ask any questions about the hotel amenities or your specific room.
Be sure to follow up on the email a few days before arriving and if you really want an upgrade, don’t be afraid to ask directly. If traveling internationally, you may even sweeten the deal by asking your contact if there’s anything you can bring them from the States or your home country.
Sometimes the anticipation of a vacation is half the fun. Ready to start packing for your dream trip? Check out our list of essentials here!
Omio Train Tickets via Rakuten
Omio is the “Google Flights” of European train, bus, and ferry tickets. It allows you to easily search and compare routes, pricing, and ease of travel across various transit companies with the added bonus of an app to store all your tickets while you’re on the move. We used Omio to book trains in Italy & Switzerland last fall and France this summer.
It’s also now on Rakuten for 2%+ cash back on all purchases, and I’ve seen it eligible for 6% previously.
Rakuten (formerly known as Ebates) is a cash back portal. If you click through Rakuten before making a purchase, they’ll credit X% cash back depending on the current offers.
Sign up for Rakuten here, and check out Omio here.
❤️ A&A
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