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Katie's note: Thanks to Aimee from @aimeespointsadventures for sharing the details of her family trip to Europe!
Spending almost a month in Europe feels out of reach for most families, and ours was no different. We started dreaming up this trip in 2020, and we were disappointed to cancel our plans then. In the end, that ended up making our 2022 European adventure even better because we were able to take advantage of more TIME to build up our points and miles! In the end, we covered round trip flights for 5 people, lodging for 28 nights, Disneyland Paris tickets, and more with points.
I've learned a lot in the last few years preparing for this trip, some of which I'd do the same and some differently, but all of that helped make free flights, accommodations, theme park, and train tickets available to us. I'm so grateful to Katie and others who have generously helped me with their travel points tips along the way!
Flight: Chicago to London
Total points used for 5 people: 175,000 AAdvantage miles plus $28 in taxes
It was so much fun to take our kids on their first international flight as we traveled to London. Book as early as you're able for the best award availability (we booked last September for flights this June).
Earn 50,000 bonus miles after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first 90 days, and earn 10,000 bonus miles after a purchase is made on an employee card.
I love this card as an easy way to earn AA miles! But be warned: Barclay can make some people jump through a lot of hoops when it comes to getting approved (like sending in paper copies of documents). Also note: Barclay seems to prefer people to be at 6/24 or less and generally approves people for at the most one card from them every 6 months.
Even at the standard 65,000 offer,I leave it on this page because it is a good one to get to stock up on AA miles.
It's not a card I keep long term (though you might want to if you find the free bags helpful). I usually get it every 48 months as the terms allow. I generally wait for an offer of 65,000 miles or higher.
65,000 miles is the standard offer on this card. The highest we have seen is 75,000 after spending $6,000 in 6 months. A 75,000 mile offer ended in June 2024. A 75,000 mile offer ended in January 2025.
London Hotel: London Marriott Hotel Canary Wharf – 5 nights
Total points used: 160,000 Marriott points plus £200 to upgrade to a Family Deluxe Room
We liked that the hotel was conveniently located near the Elizabeth Line and lots of restaurants. Summertime points bookings for a family in European cities can be tricky, so I was happy to get this reserved in January for our summertime stay. When you book Marriott rooms with points, you get the fifth night free.
We earned these last year from Marriott business cards. We each have some side gigs that qualify us for business cards. After my husband was able to sign-up for this card, he then referred me to the same card. You can transfer up to 100,000 Marriott points/year to other accounts, allowing us to combine points for this stay.
after you use your new Card to make $8,000 in eligible purchases within the first 6 months of Card Membership. Terms apply. Offer ends 10/22/2025.
(Personal Referral) All information about this card has been collected independently by Katie's Travel Tricks. This card is no longer available through Katie's Travel Tricks.
6x points on each dollar of eligible purchases at hotels participating in the Marriott Bonvoy(R) program.
4x points for purchases made at restaurants worldwide, at U.S. gas stations, on wireless telephone services purchased directly from U.S. service providers and on U.S. purchases for shipping.
Receive 1 Free Night Award every year after your Card renewal month. Plus, earn an additional Free Night Award after you spend $60K in purchases on your Card in a calendar year. Award can be used for one night (redemption level at or under 35,000 points) at hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy(R). Certain hotels have resort fees.
Enjoy Complimentary Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite Status with your Card
Receive a 7% discount on eligible bookings as a benefit of being both a Marriott Bonvoy® member & a Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card Member when you book directly with Marriott through an eligible channel for a participating property under the Amex Business Card Rate.
Opening this business card versus one of the personal Marriott cards will help you stay under 5/24 longer and that's the main benefit of this card. I do like the annual free night certificate, too — and that you can top it off with up to 15k points.
Be sure to pay close attention to all the eligibility rules when applying for any Marriott card as they are pretty convoluted!
The welcome offer fluctuates from 75,000 bonus points to 125,000 points.
Sometimes the bonus is 3 free night certificates for up to 50k per night
The highest we've seen was 5 free nights (up to 50k per night and ended March 2024, was offered again and ended July 2024).
Note that personal referral offers often don't match the best available offer.
Oxford Hotel: Voco Oxford Spires – 2 nights
Total points used: 32,000 points + 1 free night certificate
From London, we went to Oxford for two nights to meet up with friends who hosted our kids on their canal narrowboat (such a treat!) while my husband and I stayed at the Voco Oxford Spires. We loved getting to spend time in this fascinating town with so much history, and this was a beautiful property. We used an IHG Free Night Certificate and 32,000 points to cover our stay. We got a complimentary upgrade to a Premium Room, thanks to the Platinum Elite status that comes with our IHG card, and some welcome gifts as well.
This card is a great way to earn some IHG free nights! You will get a Trusted Traveler program benefit (use for TSA Precheck, Global Entry, or NEXUS), Platinum Elite status (which can give you room upgrades), and 4th night free when you book with points.
IHG has a large footprint and it's useful to have a stash of IHG points for lots of kinds of trips! IGH has a large number of hotels in Europe that sleep 4 (which is rare!). You can also check out my map of Holiday Inn Vacation Clubs — they have villas with kitchens and some sleep 6. We often use IHG points everywhere from Holiday Inn Express, avid, or Staybridge Suites on road trips. And for a little upgraded stay, we love the Kimpton brand.
This card is a keeper for the annual free night certificate you'll get on your cardmember anniversary each year. We often redeem ours for a staycation in Chicago!
140,000 points is the standard offer. A 175,000 point offer ended in Spring 2023. A 165,000 point offer ended on April 3, 2024. An offer for 5 free nights (up to 60k per night) ended in September 2024. An offer for 5 free nights (up to 60k per night) ended July 24, 2025.
Paris Hotel: Comfort Hotel Nation Pere Lachaise Paris 11 – 5 nights (2 rooms)
Total points used: 80,000 Citi Thank You points transferred to Choice Hotels
We headed back to London to take the Eurostar to Paris where we stayed at the Comfort Hotel Nation Pere Lachaise Paris 11. We booked two larger rooms on the top floor. We appreciated the clean rooms and helpful staff in a location that was convenient to the Metro and shops. Rooms cost 16,000 points per night.
Citi Premier points transfer 1:2 to Choice Hotels, so we were able to get 2 rooms here for five nights each from one Citi Premier sign-up bonus. We wanted to be on the east side of Paris for our day at Disneyland, and it worked well to get back and forth from here.
Thank You Points can be transferred to a variety of partners like JetBlue, Avianca, Turkish Airways, Choice, and more. Points double when transferred to Choice!
You can also cash out your points. Each point is worth 1 cent. 70,000 points = $700. (After 8/24/25, points can be cashed out for .75 cents per point.)
This card is a new card and existing Citi Premier customers have been converted to this one. Citi was very stingy with approvals for the Citi Premier so we don't know yet how stingy they will be with the Strata Premier. The extended warranty is the best of all the starter cards and offers an additional 2 years of protection on items you purchase.
An offer of 75,000 points ended in April 2025. The previous version (Citi Premier) had a standard offer of 60,000 points. We saw some 80,000 point offers as well — the last one expired in January 2023.
Disneyland Paris Tickets + Local transportation – covered by Capital One Venture miles
Having been to the US parks, I can say that Disneyland Paris has a magic all its own, but it was even better that our tickets were free thanks to our Capital One points. We bought them through UK-based Attraction Tickets so they would code as travel and we could use our points to cover our purchase, and we also used our Capital One points to cover other train tickets, metro rides, and cab fares throughout our trip.
Don't let the annual fee of $395 scare you. The $300 annual travel credit and a slew of other benefits make this card a keeper. Plus you'll immediately up your travel game with airport lounge access and Hertz Presidents' Club status. Read my complete guide here.
This is the second card in my Three Year Plan despite the annual fee because I really think it is the easiest premium card to get your value back. Between the $300 annual travel credit and the 10,000 miles every year on account anniversary (redeemable for a minimum of $100 in travel), that's huge value right there.
When this card was released in November 2021, it had a 100,000 miles bonus offered (with a $10,000 spend requirement over 6 months). Since March 2022, it has had the same 75,000 mile bonus offer.
Starting October 6, 2023 – a new 90k offer was available exclusively through select referral links. This ended early in December 2023.
Flight: Paris to Nice
Total points used: 55,000 American Express Membership Rewards® transferred to Air France. Taxes were Covered with a Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card.
We flew from Paris to Nice on Air France. Booking flights with points rather than the cheapest cash fare allowed us to each check a bag for free, too. We paid for the taxes with our Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, allowing us to cover those fees as well.
(Reader Referral) All information about American Express® Gold Card has been collected independently by Katie's Travel Tricks. The American Express® Gold Card is no longer available through Katie's Travel Tricks.
Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment is required for select benefits. Visit americanexpress.com
Earn 4X Membership Rewards® points per dollar spent on purchases at restaurants worldwide, on up to $50,000 in purchases per calendar year, then 1X points for the rest of the year.
Earn 4X Membership Rewards® points per dollar spent at US supermarkets, on up to $25,000 in purchases per calendar year, then 1X points for the rest of the year.
$120 Uber Cash on Gold: Add your Gold Card to your Uber account and get $10 in Uber Cash each month to use on orders and rides in the U.S. when you select an American Express Card for your transaction. That's up to $120 Uber Cash annually.
$84 Dunkin' Credit: With the $84 Dunkin' Credit, you can earn up to $7 in monthly statement credits after youenroll and pay with the American Express(R) Gold Card at U.S. Dunkin' locations. Enrollment is required to receive this benefit.
$100 Resy Credit: Get up to $100 in statement credits each calendar year after you pay with the American Express® Gold Card to dine at U.S. Resy restaurants or make other eligible Resy purchases. That's up to $50 in statement credits semi-annually. Enrollment required.
$120 Dining Credit: Satisfy your cravings, sweet or savory, with the $120 Dining Credit. Earn up to $10 in statement credits monthly when you pay with the American Express® Gold Card at Grubhub, The Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com, and Five Guys. Enrollment required.
Amex almost always has higher personal referrals on this card than the public affiliate offers and I always try to post them on my blog when I have them! This is a strong offer for points that transfer to a lot of airline partners.
If you're interested in this card, just know that getting this offer will make you ineligible to get the a welcome offer on the American Express® Green Card. So to maximize your points you'd want to get that card first. Also if you have (or have had recently) a The Platinum® Card from American Express, you'll be ineligible for thos offer.
Public offer is usually closer to 60k. The current 90,000 offer is the highest widely available offer. Occasionally highly targeted offers to certain people will be higher.
5 nights at Airbnbs in French and Italian Riviera
Total points used: 76,300 Chase Ultimate Rewards®
Using Chase's Pay-Yourself-Back promotion for AirBnB stays, we decided to book our stays in the French & Italian Rivieras in AirBnBs. Having a kitchen and washing machine at this point in our travels was really helpful.
We stayed just a few blocks from the Promenade des Anglais, right on a tram stop, for 3 nights at this AirBnB in Nice. This was a good home base for exploring nearby Antibes and Monaco. We took the train (booked via the handy Trainline app) to Vernazza in the Cinque Terre, a spot we first visited 17 years ago before we had kids! We really enjoyed our two nights at this spacious AirBnB with a lovely patio near the train station.
Enjoy benefits such as 5x on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, 3x on dining, select streaming services and online groceries, 2x on all other travel purchases, 1x on all other purchases
Earn up to $50 in statement credits each account anniversary year for hotel stays through Chase Travel(SM)
Great transfer options to Hyatt, United, Southwest, and more
Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027. Plus $10/month for non-restaurant orders. More here.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is THE top beginner card I recommend for miles & points. The travel protections it provides is top tier, too. Get this card early in your travel points journey, it's a keeper. It's the first card in my Three Year Plan.
Starting June 23, 2025 — Chase is changing how much points are worth via Chase Travel. Usually they will be worth less. Occasionally they will be worth more.
But the good news is that points you'll earn are easy to redeem and it's also easy to keep earning them. Our favorite use is to transfer them to Hyatt for hotel stays but you can use them for cash back, for any travel expense, or for airlines. See more inspiration here and here.
It has a fun extra benefit through December 31, 2027: $10 a month for non-restaurant purchases at DoorDash. Read here how to use this benefit.
If you want to learn more about it, check out Season 1 of my podcast — I dive into the benefits and how to use the points.
The standard bonus used to be 60,000 points but 75,000 is the new standard offer (as of June 23, 2025) since the points are now worth less via Chase Travel.
A 100,000 point offer ended in May 2025.
An offer for 60,000 points + $300 credit towards Chase Travel in the first year ran from September – early November 2024.
An offer for 75,000 points ran from early May – mid June 2024.
A publicly available online offer for 80,000 points ran from March 2023-May 2023.
An 80,000 point bonus ended in Fall 2022. An offer for 100,000 points ended in Fall 2021.
Hotels in Florence and Rome: 3 nights in Florence, 3 nights (two rooms) in Rome
Points used: 138,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards®, booked through portal
Le Clarisse breakfast terrace in Rome
After our coastal stays we headed inland, with a quick stop in Pisa along the way to get the requisite Leaning Tower photos, and used Chase Ultimate Rewards® to book our final six nights in Florence and Rome.
We earned most of these points through Chase business cards, and then transferred them to our Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card to get the 25% bonus on redemption value through Chase Travel℠ and use our $50 annual hotel credit.
We were able to add breakfast as part of our reservations when booking both these stays, allowing us to cover those costs with points, too. Hotel Desirée in Florence was right by the train station with a pretty breakfast room and a cozy, clean room setup for five people. We could explore Florence easily on foot from here, and also did a long day-trip to Venice on the speed train.
For our last stop, we took the train to Rome and booked two rooms for three nights using Chase Ultimate Rewards® at the Hotel Le Clarisse al Pantheon, which had an amazing breakfast on a lovely terrace each morning and a great location in the heart of Rome. Our room had a queen bed, the kids had a queen and twin bed in their room next door, and we were walking distance to the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, lively piazzas, and the Trastevere neighborhood.
This offer is a lot easier to earn than other cards in the Ink family due to the longer time you have to do the full amount of spending.
The bonus for this card is listed as cash back. But if you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, you can actually combine the "cash back" points with your Sapphire card. (If you have a Chase Ink Business Premier® Credit Card you cannot combine the points.)
You can get a Chase Ink Business Cash® Credit Card and Chase Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card . You can also get multiple if you have multiple businesses. Don't forget to refer your spouse to this one! Full guide here
For many years, the bonus on this card offered $500 after you spent $3000 in 3 months. The offer changed to $750 after spending $7500 in 3 months during the pandemic. In fall 2022, the offer went to $900 after spending $6,000 in 3 months. In fall 2023, we saw the $900 offer return from September to mid-January 2024.
Chase Ink cards are our favorite option when we have larger expenses coming that help us to meet the higher minimum spend. The bonus for this card is listed as cash back.But if you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, you can actually combine the "cash back" points with your Sapphire card. (If you have a Chase Ink Business Premier® Credit Card you cannot combine the points.)
You can get a Chase Ink Business Cash® Credit Card and Chase Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card . You can also get multiple if you have multiple businesses. Don't forget to refer your spouse to this one!
For many years, the bonus on this card offered $500 after you spent $3000 in 3 months. The offer changed to $750 after spending $7500 in 3 months during the pandemic. In fall 2022, the offer went to $900 after spending $6,000 in 3 months. In fall 2023, we saw the $900 offer return from September to mid-January 2024.
Flight: Rome to Chicago
Total points cost: 150,000 American Advantage miles plus $345
For our flight home, we used American AAdvantage miles again. Taxes were $69 per person flying home from Rome, the cheapest option I found returning from a European city, which is part of what determined our itinerary.
Our kids were excited to have their first airport lounge experience at the airport in Rome thanks to our Priority Pass memberships that are covered with the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, a great option for families to get free airport meals and drinks pre-flight.
Wyndham has some good hotels but my favorite use is to use the points to book Vacasa vacation rentals. When you hold this card, you'll get a 10% discount which means each night at a one bedroom Vacasa costs just 13,500 points. Barclays seems to prefer people to be at 6/24 or less. This does add to your 5/24 count.
We personally opened the business version of this card instead just to save a 5/24 slot but this one often has a lower spend requirement.
Even at the standard 65,000 offer,I leave it on this page because it is a good one to get to stock up on AA miles.
It's not a card I keep long term (though you might want to if you find the free bags helpful). I usually get it every 48 months as the terms allow. I generally wait for an offer of 65,000 miles or higher.
65,000 miles is the standard offer on this card. The highest we have seen is 75,000 after spending $6,000 in 6 months. A 75,000 mile offer ended in June 2024. A 75,000 mile offer ended in January 2025.
All cards used
These are the 12 credit cards that helped to make our adventure to Europe possible. Most of these were only opened by one of us over the course of the last three years. We alternated business and personal cards and met the minimum spends through our regular spending. We also paid it off in full each month!
Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Business Mastercard
CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®
Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®
Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Mastercard
Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card
IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card
Citi Premier® Card
Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
American Express® Gold Card
Chase Ink Business Cash® Credit Card
Chase Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
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I tried to look up the hotel for Paris, Comfort Hotel Nation Pere Lachaise Paris 11 and I can’t find it on Choice website anymore. Am I doing something wrong?
I tried to look up the hotel for Paris, Comfort Hotel Nation Pere Lachaise Paris 11 and I can’t find it on Choice website anymore. Am I doing something wrong?
Looks like it might be out of the Choice network now. We are about to start rechecking all these hotels! Sorry for the wrong info