July 17, 2023|Cruise, Emirates, Virgin Voyages

by Eric Lipkind 

Yes, you read correctly. My wife and I just got back from a 17-day Mediterranean travel vacation that had a value of $38,871 that only cost us $517 using points and other benefits we had available through airline, hotel, and cruise line statuses and credit cards.  How did we do this?  Strap yourself in.  

Virgin Voyages Cruise

This all started back in February when Virgin Voyages cruise line was running an incredible special – a European cruise for 2 people for only 100,000 Virgin Red points that had to start by the end of June 2023. Subsequently, Virgin Red ran another sale for the same cruise for only 80,000 points, but you win some, you lose some.  This included any fees and gratuities.  This was too good to pass up, so we booked the cruise and added it to a planned trip to Italy.

If this already seems daunting to you, allow me to help book your award travel.   I’d love to help!

Virgin Red is a partner program to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.  Miles from Virgin Atlantic Flying Club can be linked to Virgin Red for redemption.  1 Virgin Atlantic Flying Club point equals 1 Virgin Red point.   At the time, Citi ThankYou Points was running a 30% transfer bonus promotion for transferring points to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.  So, I was able to transfer 77,000 Citi ThankYou Points to Virgin Atlantic to generate a little over 100,000 Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points.   Incidentally, if you and your spouse both have Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points, Virgin Red will allow you to pool them into one Virgin Red account.   In order to book this cruise, there just had to be availability (not award category availability, but ANY availability) for a Sea Terrace cabin.   There was availability on the cruise we wanted, so after transferring the points, I redeemed them for the cruise on the Virgin Red website.  Within a day, an Access Key code was sent to me.  I was able to use this code on the Virgin Voyages website to book the cruise.  The code brought the price down to zero!  We were all booked in a Sea Terrace Balcony Room on the French Days and Ibiza Nights sailing out of Barcelona.  

A few weeks prior to the sail date, Virgin Voyages allows sailors to bid on upgrades to better rooms and suites.  They set a minimum bid and tell you the chances of winning based on your bid amount.   I was given the option to bid on seven different types of suites.   A few days before the cruise, you will be notified if your bid was accepted.   Once accepted, the bid is non-refundable and gets charged to your credit card.   I ended up bidding on all seven suite types (all near the minimum amount allowed).  A few days prior to sailing, I received an email that my bid for the highest level suite on which I had bid was accepted. We were upgraded to a Brilliant Suite.  The suite was tremendous with a huge balcony (with hammock!) and a huge bathroom.   This category of suite is called a Rockstar Suite.   Some of the benefits of Rockstar Suites are access to Richard’s Rooftop with a daily free champagne hour and nine bottles of various alcohols and mixers to use or take with us.  I’d value the alcohol around $500.  Prior to sailing,   Virgin Voyages had asked if we were celebrating an occasion.  I told them it was our anniversary trip and a complimentary bottle of champagne was waiting in the suite when we arrived. 

I bid $2,040 to upgrade to the suite which was worth $10,350.  $2,040 was charged to my Chase Sapphire Reserve card which gives 3X points on travel. I will be paying for this using Chase Ultimate Rewards points using the Pay Yourself Back feature.   This allows you to offset charges with points at a cost of 80 points per dollar in certain categories.  As travel is not one of the categories, I offset other charges I had in qualifying categories until I recouped $2,040.   This ended up costing 163,200 Ultimate Rewards points.

Another benefit of the suite was that there are no service charges on up to $1,000 a day to get chips to use for gambling in the casino.  Normally, there was a 7% fee.  What this meant was I could sit down at a blackjack table, request $1,000 in chips, choose to play or not, and then redeem the chips at the cage for cash — and the $1,000 charge would go on my cruise account which gets charged to my Chase Sapphire Card.   I did this a few times for $2,700 and left with $2,700 in cash that I will use to pay the Sapphire bill.  At 3X points, this was a free 8,100 Ultimate Rewards points earned. I could have done this for $7,000 and received 21,000 points, but I didn’t want to travel with that much cash.

Prior to sailing, Virgin Voyages was running a status match to other Cruise Iines loyalty programs.   I sent in a match for my Royal Caribbean and Norwegian status (sent both to be safe).  I was quickly given Virgin Sea Rover status which comes with a $100 bar credit, as well as a free cocktail party, $10 per day credit at the specialty coffee bar, premium wifi, one free dry cleaning item, and one free bag of laundry.  Additionally, by having Sea-Rover Status, we were able to pre-pay for $300 of bar tab and get a bonus $100 bar credit.  The $300 was use it or lose it.   My wife was matched as well, but you only get one set of status benefits per cabin.  

Virgin Voyages Cruise was spectacular, but I will save that for my Trip review in a future post.   

note — for this analysis, I excluded discretionary costs we incurred including excursions, taxis, and food while in port.

Here is the math:

Spent:

Citi ThankYou Points  — 77,000 points (converted to 100,100 Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Points

Chase Ultimate Rewards  — 163,200 points

Value received:

Brilliant Suite with $500 of alcohol in suite, Bottle of Champagne, $100 Bar Credit, $70 coffee bar credit, and laundry — $12,220

Points earned — 14,220 Chase Ultimate Rewards which are worth approximately $284

If all of this seems daunting to you, allow me to help book your award travel.   I’d love to help!

Airfare

For our air travel, we needed flights from Newark to Barcelona, Barcelona to Milan, and then Milan to New York and we wanted to fly in Business Class.

The first leg from Newark to Barcelona was challenging.  There are not many non-stop flights to Barcelona from the New York airports.  I was able to find a non-stop flight on United out of Newark in Business Class.   When looking to book the flight using United miles, the cost was more expensive than using a pay-with-points option.  Additionally, there was no availability on this flight on one of the frequent flier programs of the airline partners of United.  As many have experienced, travel to Europe this summer is very expensive.  I was willing to use points to pay for the airfare, even if it wasn’t a great use of points as far as value, but it let me travel without an out-of-pocket cash cost.  The price for two one-way tickets was an astounding $7,062.   I paid for the flights using American Express Membership Rewards linked to my American Express Business Platinum Card.  The Business Platinum Card allows you to choose one domestic airline and will give you a 35% rebate in points if you pay for the airfare using points.   The $7,062 airfare required 706,240 AMEX Membership Reward points.  About a month later, I got a rebate for 35% of those points totaling 247,184.  This made the net cost 459,056 points.   This is still a lot of points but was many fewer points than using United miles for an award ticket which also would have required us to pay taxes out-of-pocket.  The other benefit was that since United recognizes this as a paid airfare, we earned United Premier Qualifying Points towards status as well as Mileage Plus Miles.  I have Gold Status with United, so I earned bonus miles as well.  I earned 28,000 United Mileage Plus points and my wife earned 17,500 points.   That part was a huge win in this scenario.

The second leg was from Barcelona to Milan after the cruise was over.   There were numerous discount carriers for this route, but I found that Singapore Airlines has a non-stop flight between these two cities. This is one of the rare Fifth-Freedom Routes (a route between two countries that is not the airline’s home country).  I wasn’t able to find Business Class seats using points in any program, so what I did was paid for the flights on my Chase Sapphire Reserve card, and like for the cruise upgrade I mentioned earlier, used the Pay Yourself Back function of the Chase Ultimate Rewards program to offset the cost of this flight using credits against category qualifying purchases I had made,    The airfare cost was $733 in total for the two tickets.  I used 58,543 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to offset this cost.  Additionally, I earned 2,198 Ultimate Rewards for the airfare purchase as travel gives 3X points.  I also gave our United Mileage Plus numbers as they are a partner and we earned 448 United Mileage Plus Miles each as well as Premier Qualifying Points towards United status.

Our final flight was for our trip home.  I love flying Emirates and Emirates has a Fifth-Freedom Route between Milan and JFK in New York.  The price for Business Class tickets using Emirate Miles was very expensive, so again, I went the pay with points option.  This time I used Chase Ultimate Rewards by booking through the Chase Ultimate Rewards Travel portal.  I used Chase Ultimate Rewards linked to my Chase Sapphire Reserve card. The redemption rate is .67 points per dollar.   The airfare was $3,927 and was paid for using 261,852 Chase Ultimate Rewards.  Since this was viewed as a paid-for airfare as opposed to an award ticket, we each earned 6,563 Emirates Skywards points.   When you book a paid Business Class ticket on Emirates, you get free chauffeured transportation to and from the airport with a  Business Class with a Saver, Flex or Flex Plus fare, which we had.   We had a nice Mercedes sedan pick us up in Milan and took us to the airport and a nice SUV pick us up at JFK and drove us home to New Jersey.  The value of this was easily $500.

Since these were all Business Class tickets, they all provided Airport lounge access with food and an open bar as well as Fast Track access through security,

As all of these were pay-with-points, I did not earn any points on the purchase of airfare using the AMEX or Chase cards.

Here is the math:

Spent:

American Express Membership Rewards  — 459,056 points

Chase Ultimate Rewards — 320,395 points

Value received:

Two Business Class tickets from Newark to Barcelona on United — $7,062

Two Business Class tickets on Singapore Airlines from Barcelona to Milan — $733

Two Business Class tickets on Emirate from Milan to New York City — $3,927

Car service to and from the airport — $500

Points earned — 

           46,396 United Mileage plus points which are worth approximately $603

           13,126 Emirates Skywards Miles which are worth approximately $158

If all of this seems daunting to you, allow me to help book your award travel.   I’d love to help!

Hotels

For our itinerary, we had a one-night hotel stay in Barcelona the night before the cruise, one night in Milan, three nights in Florence, two nights in Venice, one night in Cinque Terre, and one night in Milan.   I had lots of Marriott Bonvoy points and free night certificates, so I wanted to stay at Marriott properties as much as possible, and I don’t mean Fairfield Inns.   I wanted 5 Star.  Mission accomplished as follows…

Prior to arriving at each hotel, I found the General Managers’ email addresses online and sent each one an email saying that I have Bonvoy Titanium status and my wife has Bonvoy Platinum status and we were looking forward to our upcoming anniversary stay.  I always find you get great service when you connect personally with hotel management.

Barcelona — The Barcelona Edition

The American Express Platinum Card comes with a benefit when you book a prepaid stay at Fine Hotels and Resorts booked directly through American Express.   The benefits include breakfast for two, an upgrade when available, 12pm check-in, 4pm checkout, free wifi, an experience credit, and an annual $200 credit.  At the Barcelona Edition, the experience credit was a $100 food and beverage credit.  As I had not used the $200 annual credit yet, this was a perfect opportunity.     As opposed to most third-party booking sites, when you book through AMEX Fine Hotels and Resorts, you still earn your Bonvoy points, and your status is recognized.  As I have Bonvoy Titanium status, some of the benefits were redundant, but it was still worth it for the $100 and $200 credits to book this way.    The room I booked was a standard king-bed room.  The prepaid price I paid was $627.   Less the credit, this made my net out-of-pocket cost $427.  I’d value the breakfasts at $30 each based on the menu pricing.   When we arrived to our upgraded Loft room, the General Manager had sent a bottle of champagne and a chocolate creation for our anniversary.  The chocolate creation was the New York Yankees logo sculpture. It was unreal.   It was also unbelievable that the hotel went above and beyond to research me (aka my Instagram) to see that I am a huge New York Yankees fan.  This blew me away!  I’d value these gifts at around $75.  I did have to pay the city tax of approximately $15 at checkout.

Since I prepaid this room using the American Express Platinum card, I earned 5X points on travel booked through AMEX.  I earned 3,065 American Express Membership Rewards for the purchase.  For the stay I earned 9,652 Marriott Bonvoy points which included the Elite Bonus as well as the 1,000-point Bonvoy Titanium welcome gift. Based on the price of the room, I calculated that I should have earned 10,748 points.   I contacted Bonvoy Assist on Twitter and they credited me with 2,000 points (which is a bit more than I should have received). So, in total I earned 11,652 points for the stay.  I also earned 90 Bonvoy points for putting the city tax on my American Express Bonvoy Brilliant card which gives 6x points at Marriott properties.  I also earned one night toward Bonvoy status.  I also earned one night towards a ‘stay two nights and get a free night’ award promotion.

Milan —  Excelsior Galla

For this one night stay, I booked a standard king-sized bed room using an 85,000-point free night certificate that my wife had from her American Express Bonvoy Brilliant card.   Had I booked on points, it would have only cost 68,000 points, but the certificate was going to expire so it was better to use it and not lose the value.    This hotel was spectacular.  Due to my Bonvoy Titanium status (and perhaps my email to the General Manager) we were upgraded to a Signature Suite which was selling for $1,714.    Aside from a tremendous room, there was a bottle of champagne and a cake waiting for us in the suite for our anniversary I’d value at $75..   As a Bonvoy Titanium, there was the choice of free breakfast for two valued at $60 or 1,000 Bonvoy points.   Of course we took the breakfasts.   All we had to pay at checkout was a city tax of approximately $11.  For simplicity, I put the majority of the foreign food and other miscellaneous purchases while in Europe on the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, as it has no foreign transaction fees.  It also earns 3X Chase Ultimate Rewards points on travel.  I earned 33 Ultimate Rewards for the city tax charge.  As the room was free, I did not earn any Bonvoy points, but my wife did earn a night stay toward elite status for next year.

Florence — Westin Excelsior

For this three-night stay, I booked a standard king-sized bed room using Marriott Bonvoy points.  I used 309,000 Bonvoy points for the stay.  Additionally, I had requested an upgrade in advance using my Bonvoy Suite night awards I had with Titanium status.   The upgrade came through a few days before we arrived.  We were upgraded to a beautiful junior suite which was selling for $3,947 for the three-night stay.  Upon arrival, there was a bottle of champagne and macarons for our anniversary.  As before, I chose the free daily breakfast for two over the 1,000 Bonvoy points for the Titanium welcome gift.  At checkout, I was charged approximately $32 for city taxes.  Again, I put that on the Sapphire Reserve Card and earned 96 Ultimate Rewards Points.  Since I used points, no other Bonvoy points were earned, but I did get 3 nights credit toward Bonvoy Status. I’d value the champagne and chocolates at $75 and the daily breakfasts at $180.

Venice — St. Regis

For this two-night stay, the cost was 212,000 Bonvoy points.  When I booked it, I used an 85,000-point certificate I had from my Bonvoy Brilliant card and then topped it off with 14,000 points for the 99,000-point night stay.  The other night, I paid 103,000 points.   A few weeks later, I noticed the rate on the first night dropped to 97,000 points.  I called Marriott to modify the rate and refund the 2,000 points but was told when you modify, in fact, the whole reservation gets canceled and you have to start over.   When doing that, the second night now required more points.  That made no sense to me. I said to the representative that I shouldn’t be penalized for booking multiple nights instead of having separate reservations for each night.  She said there was nothing she could do.   I suggested leaving the reservation as it is and giving me a goodwill bonus of 2,000 points.  She spoke to her supervisor and got approval for that.   I also requested a Suite Night Upgrade using the three awards I had in my account.  A few days prior to check-in, our upgrade was confirmed.   We arrived in the Venetian Suite.  The room was terrible.  It had a second-floor view of a garbage dumpster in a courtyard.  I was not happy given how many points this room cost.  I messaged the front desk and they were able to move us to a beautiful canal-view terrace room on the 7th floor.   This room was amazing.  I’m not sure why we weren’t given this at first.   Also, we received a bottle of Prosecco and a pastry for our anniversary.   Again, I opted for the daily breakfast for two for both days instead of the 1,000-point welcome give.   These breakfasts were valued at $220 and the prosecco and pastry at $25.  The value of this room was $2,313 per night, or $4,626 in total.  At check-out, I had to pay the city tax of approximately $22 that I put on the Sapphire Reserve and earned 66 Chase Ultimate Rewards points.   As this was an award stay, I did not receive Bonvoy points but did earn two nights towards status.

Cinque Terre — we stayed in a lovely non-Marriott hotel here for one night and paid with cash as there was no points option.  As points were not involved, I am leaving this out of the valuations.

Milan —  Excelsior Galla

We returned here for our final night as our flight home was from Milan.  This time, rooms were going for 59,000 Bonvoy points.  I used a 50,000-point certificate I had from a Chase Bonvoy Bold sign-up bonus plus 9,000 Bonvoy points.  Upon arrival, we were upgraded to an Atelier suite which was selling for $1,287.   We opted for the complimentary breakfast worth $60 in lieu of the 1,000-point Titanium welcome bonus.  At checkout, I had to pay the $11 city tax that went on my Sapphire Reserve earning me 33 Chase Ultimate Rewards.  I also earned one night toward Bonvoy status.

Here is the math:

Spent:

Marriott Bonvoy points — 433,000

Marriott Bonovoy certificates — two 85,000-point certificates and one 50,000-point certificate

Taxes — $90

Prepaid hotel — $427

Value received:

Marriott Bonvoy points — 11,742 which are worth approximately $82

Chase Ultimate Rewards — 195 which are worth approximately $4

One night in a loft room at the Barcelona Edition — $632

Two nights in a suite at the Excelsior Gallia in Milan — $3,023

Three nights in a suite at the Excelsior Florence — $3,979

Two nights in a terrace canal view room at the St. Regis in Venice — $4,648

Breakfasts — $580

Champagne and baked goods — $250

Barcelona Edition food and beverage — $100

If all of this seems daunting to you, allow me to help book your award travel.   I’d love to help!

Summary

We had an incredible 17-night trip to Europe.  The majority was paid using miles and points.  Of course, we did have other out-of-pocket expenses including trains between the cities, dining, tips, souvenirs, taxis, and tours.   However, for this exercise, I only listed those items impacted by using points and miles.

Spent:

Citi ThankYou Points  — 77,000 points (converted to 100,100 Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Points

Chase Ultimate Rewards  — 483,595 points

American Express Membership Rewards  — 459,056 points

Chase Ultimate Rewards — 320,395 points

Marriott Bonvoy points — 433,000

Marriott Bonovoy certificates — two 85,000-point certificates and one 50,000-point certificate

Taxes and prepaid hotel — $517

Total Cash out-of-pocket — $517

Value received:

Cruise — $12,220

Airfare — $11,722

Car Service — $500

Hotels and related items– $13,298

Chase Ultimate Rewards — 14,415 worth approximately $288

United Mileage Plus points — 46,396 worth approximately $603

Emirates Skywards Miles — 13,126 worth approximately $158

Marriott Bonvoy points — 11,742  worth approximately $82

Total Value received — $38,871

When booking all this, not having to pay at all was a goal, so even though in some cases I only got 1.5 cents per mile value out of AMEX Membership Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards, it was still worth it to me.  You must always consider the opportunity cost when using points and what your goal is.

Key Takeaways

– be on the lookout for transfer bonuses if you have a trip in mind

– introduce yourself to the hotel General Manager in advance and follow up after the stay with a thank-you email

– don’t forget about the pay-with-points option

– check your award activity to ensure you receive the correct amount of points for flights and stays

– be aware of all of the benefits of your credit cards as well as the benefits of the airfare class you book

– make the right choice for welcome bonuses if you have hotel status

– remember to frequently check points rates for hotels to see if the cost dropped after you book

– be creative with customer care if something doesn’t seem right related to rates or points

– check all airlines when planning because some airlines may have routes you may not have considered

– consider how to earn free points (i.e. the casino) 

– look and ask for upgrade options

– if you are not happy with something, let the airline or hotel know so they have the opportunity to correct the issue

If all of this seems daunting to you, allow me to help book your award travel.   I’d love to help!

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