A family recently reached out to me about needing a vacation for their family of 7. They needed some suggestions on how to save money on travel, because the prospect of paying for 2 adults and 5 children to go on vacation is roughly the equivalent of needing to take out a 2nd mortgage.
However, when using miles and points to vacation, getting away for some much needed family time suddenly becomes VERY affordable!
In This Post
Where to go?
My friend wasn’t too picky with where she wanted to go, but preferred something tropical and all-inclusive. We live in the same neighborhood in Southern California, so Mexico is a great choice because the flight isn’t more than a couple of hours.
I found this all-inclusive package through LivingSocial that should meet her needs.
Some resorts have limitations on then number of people per room, so she may need to buy 2 packages. Even if that is the case, with the savings on flights that I describe below, it will still be within a reasonable budget for a family of 7 to take an amazing all-inclusive vacation together.
How to get there?
Southwest begins flying to Cabo on August 10, 2014 as they merge the AirTran routes into their network.
Tickets run approximately $359 round-trip from SNA (Orange County) airport. Paying $2,513 for airfare (7 x $359) is not something I’d recommend, so let’s find some savings!
Using Southwest points instead
The beauty of Southwest’s award travel is that, if there is a seat available, you can buy it with points at a fixed ratio. There are no black-out dates or other hoops to jump through.
Using Southwest points, Wanna Get Away tickets would be approximately 16,310 points and $85.94 in taxes for a round-trip ticket.
How to earn points to fly a family of 7 for $116!!!
Southwest has a promotion offering 50,000 points by applying for the Chase Southwest Visa. With my special code, you can get these 50,000 points with a minimum spend of $2,000 vs the normal $3,000.
Please email me using the form below for the special offer details!
Once she and her husband have each earned their 50,000 miles, they will have enough points to book 3 tickets each for 48,930 points (3 x 16,310) and $257.82 (3 x $85.94).
This would be a combined 97,860 points and $515.64.
But what about the 7th family member?
I also recommend that each parent get the Barclay Arrival Plus card. It will provide $400 in credit towards travel expenses (hotels, airlines, etc). They would use one card to buy the 7th ticket, with the price offset by the $400 in travel credits. The 2nd card would be used to pay for the taxes required by the Southwest award tickets.
So, the out of pocket costs of $516 mentioned above would only be $116 after the $400 credit!
Conclusion
A family trip for 7 people would have required $2,513 in airfare from Orange County to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Instead, through the magic of credit card bonuses and airline miles and points, this family’s cost is only $116!!!
There’s no greater feeling in knowing that you can spend quality time with you family while saving almost $2,400.
Where will your miles take you?
