How we took a 4 night trip to Niagara Falls & Ann Arbor for $300

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Let me start with… this post SHOULD be called “How we took this trip for $150” but unfortunately, things don’t always go as planned.  We’ll get to that.  We took this trip because my precious cousin is in a convent in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  She was making her first profession of vows and we wanted to be there for her.  My husband & I made the trip while the kids stayed with Granny, which is a vacation in itself for them!  We thought, well while we are going north anyways, Niagara Falls isn’t that far, let’s go for it!  Here’s how it went down…

How can someone possibly fly for free?  It is so possible and not even hard to do!  We love flying Southwest Airlines.  It is easy to book, budget friendly, frequent fare sales, and they have a consumer friendly cancelation policy.  They also have family boarding (if you have a child 6 or under in your party) which is a nice perk since the seats are not assigned.

Now onto why I REALLY love Southwest.  They offer a Companion Pass for Rapid Rewards members, meaning once you earn it, you can have a companion fly with you for FREE for the following 12 months and the rest of the following calendar year after.  Let’s say you earn it in January, that is 2 full years of one person flying free!  Can I get a WHAT WHAT?!

Now you’re thinking, how do I earn this precious?  There are several ways.  One includes 100 one way flights in a calender year… ain’t nobody got time for that.  We want to get this bad boy as quick as we can!  The best way is to accumulate 110,000 Rapid Rewards points in a calendar year.  How do I do that Courtney?  Well I’m glad you asked!  You can get 2 Southwest credit cards under your Rapid Rewards number and the points from those bonuses apply to what you need for the Companion Pass!

The Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus card (referral link) is the personal card I started with.  The current offer through this link is 40,000 points for spending $1000 in the first 3 months.  You also earn 1 point per $1 spent on top of that.  However, they do have offers throughout the year for 50k or even 60k points after the same minimum spend!  There is a $69 annual fee with this card, but that has already paid for itself after just one trip!  The second card I used to reach the point total needed is the Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business card.  The current offer is 60,000 Rapid Rewards points for spending $3000 in the first 3 months, plus 1 point per $1 spent with a $99 annual fee.  If the current offer doesn’t quite get you to 110k points, you can earn the rest through Southwest partners & retailers!  I was able to get the 50k offer on the Plus card which got me where I needed to be!

SO… we earned the Companion Pass AND over 110k Rapid Rewards points in the process.  We did this by putting all our regular spending on these Southwest cards and paying them off in full every month.  Not only does the companion fly free, but the Rapid Rewards member (AKA me) has 110k points to use towards flights!  Pinch me already!  Using points to fly does not include a mandatory $5.60 government-imposed one way fee.  But, $22.40 for 2 people to fly round trip?  Yeah I can handle that!

Yall still with me?  Next is conquering hotel stays!  We spent one night in New Orleans before our early flight, one night in Niagara Falls Ontario, and two nights in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  We elected to pay the first night in cash because I do like to be frugal with my points!  We found a good rate at a hotel near MSY on hotels.com and paid with our Capital One Venture card, which currently has the awesome benefit of 10x points on hotels.com!

Our other 3 nights were all booked with Chase Ultimate Rewards points through the UR portal.  The first way to earn these is with our go-to card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card – referral link.  The current offer is 50k bonus points after meeting the minimum spend of $4000 in the first 3 months.  Yall know what I’m gonna say!  When meeting a minimum spend, ALL regular spending you can possibly put goes on that card (groceries, gas, bills, etc) and you pay it off in full each month!  Another card that packs a big punch is the Chase Ink Business Preferred – referral link.  Right now it’s offering a whopping 80k bonus for reaching the minimum spend of $5000 in 3 months!

I know what you’re thinking.  Business cards?  I don’t have a business!  Oh you don’t?  Yall, you’d be surprised!  You may or may not have your own actual storefront, but you may also have a work from home business, direct sales distributorship, or provide services like babysitting, personal training, yard work, etc.  These qualify!

So exactly what did we spend for these flights & hotel stays?  We paid $22 in fees booking our flights on Southwest.  We paid a $32 tax on our room in Canada, with the room paid by points.  We paid $109 for the one night stay in New Orleans.  Both nights in Ann Arbor HAD been paid for with points, however, when we arrived at our hotel to check in, the power was out!  And after 9 pm that night we decided it wasn’t coming back on and we had to find another option.  The Kensington Hotel right across the street was kind enough to offer us a room for $129 a night (this hotel is usually over $200/night) so we gladly paid that to have a place to sleep & shower.  Chase has amazing customer service and has refunded us the points from what should’ve been our first night stay.  Thankfully the power was restored for our second night in Ann Arbor!  It was a wonderful trip and I’m very glad we were able to be there for Sister Basil Marie’s big day!

Still confused on using rewards for travel?  Check out this post on Travel Hacking for beginners!

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