Booked! Marty's Going to Greece!
We did it! After meeting the minimum spending requirement and receiving her 80,000 points, we booked her trip from Los Angeles to Greece all on points and roughly a third of the cash she would have spent on a revenue ticket.
Marty is truly one of my best clients. She followed my instructions to the letter. She spent the required amount to gain the points while I kept tracking the flight options available for the dates she desired. In the end, she spent 70,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points and $479.02 in taxes and fees. That's a whole lot better than the $1,867 she would have paid outright on a revenue ticket!
Her itinerary changed because the award ticket I found a few weeks ago disappeared. This is her new itinerary (all in economy):
LAX-AMS Saturday, Oct. 7th, departing at 13:55, arriving at 09:05
AMS-ATH Sunday ,Oct. 8th, departing at 12:05, arriving at 16:20
ATH-AMS Tuesday, Oct. 17th, departing at 08:25, arriving at 111:10
AMS-LAX Friday Oct. 20th, departing at 12:50, arriving at 14:50
When compared to my other itinerary, this is a better deal flight-wise and points-wise. Marty will arrive in Athens on a Sunday afternoon rather than Sunday night with less time on the layover PLUS she will have an extra day to spend in Amsterdam.
Some of you might feel 70,000 points for an international economy seat is a little high and there might be better deals out there. Well, you're right. There are better deals -- IF you're flexible with your schedule. Marty had a set date she need to be in Greece because she was meeting friends there and to return to LA because of her wedding anniversary. If her schedule had been a little more flexible, I would have found her an even cheaper deal. But this is still a great deal given the constraints!
After learning about this booking, one of Marty's friends is now interested in getting into the points game.
If you're interested as well, reach out to me at globalistguru@protonmail.com or any of my social media platforms (just type in "Globalist Guru") and let's chat!
Safe travels!