Travel Party of 5 | Points & Miles for Family Travel

How We Booked 2 Weeks in Europe on Points as a Family of 5!

• Raya & Duane

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We break down exactly how we booked our entire family of five for a two-week European adventure across Paris, Barcelona, and Madrid using points and miles. This trip demonstrates how strategic credit card usage, elite status benefits, and advance planning can transform an expensive dream vacation into an affordable reality.

• Booked 5 economy seats on Air France for 85,000 Flying Blue miles with 25% discount for kids under 11
• Leveraged Hyatt Globalist status to secure club access and connecting rooms at multiple properties
• Used suite upgrade awards to enhance accommodation experience for the family
• Booked high-speed train from Barcelona to Madrid using the Omio app 
• Secured premium economy return flights through Virgin Atlantic using 150,000 transferred Amex points
• Communicated with hotels 6-8 weeks in advance to confirm connecting rooms and family accommodations
• Used free night certificates and airline credits to minimize out-of-pocket expenses
• Total cost under $2,000 for round-trip flights to Europe for a family of five

If you have questions about planning your own family trip using points and miles, find me on Instagram and say hello! I'm happy to answer them.


Speaker 1:

Do you want to take your family to Europe, but you're not sure how. In today's episode, I am breaking down exactly how I booked our family of five for two weeks in Europe, all on points and miles. Listen in Hi, I'm Raya and I'm Dwayne, and we are your hosts of the Travel Party of Five podcast, where we share how we travel as a family of five around the world.

Speaker 2:

We will also share how we use points and miles to travel as affordably as possible and sometimes even completely free.

Speaker 1:

So if you're wanting to travel more with your family but you're not sure how, we'd love for you to listen in.

Speaker 2:

So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn a thing or two to get you closer to your next trip.

Speaker 1:

Hey guys, welcome back to Travel Party of Five podcast. My name is Rhea, I am one of your hosts and thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for listening. I appreciate you very much.

Speaker 1:

At the time that this episode airs, we will hopefully be living our best lives gallivanting across Europe with our kids and we will be back next week to share the first of probably several episodes about the trip itself. But in today's episode, before we dive into that, I'm going to share exactly how I booked this trip. It has been a full year in the making, if not a little bit longer, and we are so excited. But I want to share all the booking details now so that if you have a Europe trip on your mind, I'm going to tell you exactly how I planned and booked this. And, as a side note, two or three episodes back, I also walked through my entire trip planning process, from like opening the cards and deciding where to go and which cards to open, all the way through to the day of departure and kind of how I plan things when I book tours, activities and all that sorts of things. So if you are new to traveling with a family in general, it doesn't even really have to be using points and miles. I would go back and listen to that episode as well, especially if you're feeling overwhelmed about how to plan a trip like this for so many people. I also put in the show notes of that episode a link to like a checklist. So it's basically my entire process that I go through in the episode in a checklist form that you can print out and look at and write on if you want. So I would highly recommend that, if you are maybe have a trip in mind. That's not Europe, but we are going to jump into the details of the trip. So first I'm going to give you the full overview of the trip itself and then I will break down each piece, meaning each flight, each hotel, etc. So we are going to be gone for a full two weeks and we will leave out of Phoenix, we will fly to Chicago and we have an overnight in Chicago, and then we fly out of Chicago nonstop on a flight to Paris. We will spend four nights in Paris and then we will fly to Barcelona. We will spend four nights in Barcelona, Then we will take the train to Madrid. We will spend four nights in Madrid and then we will fly from Madrid back home, we fly back again through Paris and we actually have one more overnight in Paris, and then we take a nonstop flight from Paris back to Phoenix. So that will take us a full two weeks and let's break it down so our flight to actually let me back up one step. So, on this trip we're doing Paris, barcelona and Madrid.

Speaker 1:

The original plan for this trip was Paris, portugal and Madrid, and my plan knowing that Portugal is right next to Spain was that we could take a train from Portugal to Madrid and it would be easy. However, in fact, I even had the Hyatt Regency Lisbon booked originally, but when I started looking into how to get from Lisbon to Madrid, I realized there is no high speed train, and if we were going to take a train, it was a bunch of local trains and it was going to take like 13 hours, and so obviously we could fly right, you can, we could take a plane, but I didn't want to get on a plane every four days for the entire trip. I wanted to at least take the train from one city to another at least once, and so I realized that Portugal was not going to make that possible, and so we pivoted, and that's how we ended up on Barcelona and Madrid instead of Portugal and Madrid. So sometimes that happens when you're planning a trip. One thing that I like to keep in mind for me personally is I imagine myself, you know, the day of like. Am I going to dread having to get to the airport or am I going to, you know, xyz, if I book this? And I try to really be honest with myself and keep that in mind Because, again, this is a vacation and, yes, we're traveling with kids and, yes, it's going to be a little bit stressful at times, as any traveling is really, but my ultimate goal that I'm keeping in mind is this is a vacation and what's going to feel easiest and most seamless to me, and that is always in the back of my mind when I'm making these decisions. So, could we have flown from Portugal to Madrid? Yes. Could we have taken a 13 hour train ride? Yes. Do either of those things make me feel excited? No, so we will do Paris and Spain, and we will save Portugal for another time.

Speaker 1:

But let's go back to our flights from Phoenix to Chicago. So currently, air France has a nonstop flight from Phoenix to Paris. However, that flight path didn't open until last summer, so the summer of 2024. And I booked this trip in the spring of 2024. So this trip has been booked for a full year, and that is why we are not flying directly out of Phoenix, because if I could have done that, I would have, but I was impatient, and if you've listened to this podcast long enough, that is a theme that you will notice is that I am impatient and sometimes that causes problems.

Speaker 1:

However, we are going to fly on Southwest to Chicago. We had a bunch of Southwest credits for all five of us from delayed Southwest flights last year, and so I use those credits that covered most of the cost of the flights. We will stay overnight in Chicago for one night. We are going to use my IHG free night certificate that comes from holding the IHG one card, I think it's called and we are going to stay at the Intercontinental Magnificent Mile, which I've heard is a really nice hotel. I also understand they have an indoor pool and I'm looking forward to using that for the kids to get some energy out before our long flight to Paris. And so we fly over on a Friday. We have a good amount of time in Chicago, so we'll be able to get some Chicago pizza. We'll be able to do some fun things before we leave.

Speaker 1:

We are going to fly on Air France, and I was able to book all five of us in economy for 85,000 flying blue miles, flying blue transfers from all four major banks, and so it's super easy to earn miles for that. And they also offer 25% off kids tickets if your kid is 11 or younger. Fortunately, this year my oldest is 11. And so this is our last year of getting the discounted fare for him. But 85,000 points for a family of five to fly to Paris is incredible. The flight is a nonstop flight and we land in Paris around 8am, I think, on a Sunday morning.

Speaker 1:

We are staying in Paris at the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile. I've stayed here before. It's a fantastic hotel for families coming to Paris. It's a great points option. Unfortunately, this like within a few days of this episode airing the category is going to go up from a category four Hyatt to a category five Hyatt, which means you can no longer use your free night certificates here, your category one through four free night certificates. That is. So that is disappointing, but it's not surprising given how popular this hotel is, and so, for a family of five.

Speaker 1:

I have booked two rooms at this property. One is in my name, one is in my husband's name. Again, I have status with Hyatt. I have globalist status, my husband does not, and so the primary reason for having the status at this hotel specifically, in my opinion, is for use of the club. You can book a club access room if you'd like, but it costs more points. So instead, what I did was I applied one of my club access awards that I earned through achieving globalist status last year to his reservation, so that way, all five of us can get access to the club. The other thing I did was I reached out about six weeks before our visit and I confirmed these are the two reservations that we have, can you please confirm if we can have connecting rooms. And they were able to do that for us, and I was also able to confirm the club access for all five of us. So we will spend four nights there and we will report back from there.

Speaker 1:

After four nights in Paris, we will fly to Barcelona. It's about a two hour flight, maybe hour and a half, it's not long. We are again flying on Air France. I actually paid cash for this flight. It was around $700 total for all five of us. The points cost was not terrible, but I just didn't want to waste the points, so I paid cash for this flight, and again, it's a nonstop flight. It's not a very long flight, and so then we will arrive in Barcelona.

Speaker 1:

We have four nights booked at the Grand Hyatt Barcelona, and again, one room is in my name and the other room is in my husband's name. If you're wondering why I'm not booking both rooms in my name, there's there's one main reason, and that is is that if I were to book two rooms in the same hotel on the same night, I would only receive one qualifying night for that, even though it's two rooms, because one person can technically only physically be in one room at a time, and so I don't want to waste the second night, if that makes sense. So Dwayne will also get a qualifying night for his room, and that's why I did that, because if you hit a certain number of qualifying nights in a year, you can earn awards through Hyatt, and those awards start at 20 nights and go up from there, and it also helps him get to his brand explorer on Hyatt. Every five Hyatt brands you stay at, you earn a free one through four free night certificate, and so that's why we're booking one in my name and one in his name, so that we can take advantage of basically double the benefits, if that makes sense. And so we have four nights booked at the Grand Hyatt Barcelona. Sense, and so we have four nights booked at the Grand Hyatt Barcelona. This hotel also has a club. So, very similar to what I did for Paris, I applied a club access award to his reservation as well and then again emailed about six weeks prior just asking if we could have connecting rooms and if all five of us would, confirming all five of us would have the club access. The other thing that I did for the Grand High at Barcelona is I applied a suite upgrade to my reservation, so we will actually have a junior suite and a that will be connected to a premium twin room and, like I said, I confirmed all of this before arrival. So we will spend four nights in Barcelona and then we will take the train to Madrid.

Speaker 1:

So a little note on train reservations I like to use the app Omeo train reservations. I like to use the app Omeo O-M-I-O. This is how I was able to book our reservations for Italy last year for my mom and my sister and I, and I use them again to book the train from Barcelona to Madrid. They do charge a small surcharge per ticket, I think, but I find the app very easy to use and I will pay a little bit extra for that versus trying to understand. You know a train website in Spanish.

Speaker 1:

You can also choose your class of service when you book a train, and I did pay an upgrade to get a higher, like a first. It's called a first class option. Um, the seats are more comfortable, there's wifi, that sort of thing, and it's about a three hour train ride. I don't have high expectations for a first class Again, I'm putting that in air quotes but I just want it to be a little more comfortable because, again, we're on vacation and I want it to feel like a vacation to me. So if I get on and I have to sit in a dingy seat, that's uncomfortable and I'm shoved in with a hundred other people, is that going to feel relaxing to me? No, it's not. So, again, I think it was around like $95 total for all five of us for the upgrade, not per person but total and so I felt like, yes, fine, that's fine to me. It also allows us to bring on luggage because we will each have a suitcase and a backpack. So, again, the app is omeo o-m I-O. Okay. And so then, once we arrive in Madrid, we are staying at the Hyatt Centric Gran Via in Madrid, and same with Paris and Barcelona.

Speaker 1:

I booked two rooms, one in my name, one in Dwayne's name, and then reached out beforehand middle of January, so again about six to eight weeks before our trip wanting to confirm that we would be able to again fit five in the two rooms that we have and that we could have them connecting. This is why you reach out, because they said hey, the rooms that you have booked have a maximum of two people each and, unfortunately, that you have booked have a maximum of two people each and unfortunately they cannot accommodate you. So they said these are the options we recommend. So the options were number one book a third room, which is not an option. Number two change one of the rooms to a double room. They said our double rooms can accommodate two adults and one child up to 12 years old, accommodate two adults and one child up to 12 years old, or cancel both rooms and rebook a family suite, and so I went back and forth a bit because I didn't want to book a third room and I this is what we settled on I asked if I could apply a suite upgrade award to my reservation and that would then give me the upgrade to a standard junior suite, and then they could connect that junior suite to a second room, and he said yes. The person I was working with said yes, that would be fine, and so that is what we settled on. So I used a suite upgrade, I called and had that applied, and then that suite will be connected to a second room, and that is what they call the family suite. Because once we got it all settled, they said I will make all the notes and changes to reservations, so a family suite will be guaranteed for your stay. We wish you a great experience. And so I am not sure how the globalist benefits are going to work at this particular property, because there is not a club, and when I asked if my globalist benefits could be extended to my husband's room, originally they said no. Now that we have a quote family suite, I'm not sure if they will honor the benefits for all five of us or not, and so that's just kind of we're just going to see what happens and whatever, maybe they will, maybe they won't. I'm not going to lose sleep over it, but I will report back.

Speaker 1:

And so we have four nights in Madrid and then we leave to fly back to Paris. We leave on a Friday, we fly to Paris in the afternoon and we have an overnight layover in Paris. Our flight, again, is booked on Air France. So all flights for this trip are on Air France, with the exception of our Phoenix to Chicago flight, which is Southwest. So all flights are on Air France, except the flight from Madrid to Phoenix is on Air France, but I did not book through Air France. I booked through Virgin Atlantic, and so the way the flight works is we fly out of Madrid, we fly to Paris, we have an overnight in Paris and then we fly straight from Paris to Phoenix the next day. Again, I booked through Virgin Atlantic and we're actually flying in premium economy on the way back. So our flight from Madrid to Paris is economy, but our flight from Paris to Phoenix is premium economy, and so I'm excited for that. I think that will be a nice little upgrade. Because it is a daytime flight.

Speaker 1:

I want to be more comfortable, because I don't know if we're going to be able to sleep or not, and I booked this for the cost for five people in premium economy on Virgin Atlantic was it was 195,000 points. However, there was a transfer bonus happening at the time, so I transferred 150,000 American express points to Virgin Atlantic in order to book the flight, and that gave me 195,000 miles that I needed, and so, again, I was able to book all five of us in premium economy. The only downside to this is the taxes and fees were very high. Virgin Atlantic did a devaluation actually not a devaluation. They switched over to a more dynamic pricing model a month or two ago, and we've noticed that the taxes and fees have seemed to go down a bit since that happened. However, again, this was booked a full year ago, and so that was before any of this happened. So we are paying roughly $1,600 for all five of us for the taxes and fees, but again we're going to be able to fly in premium economy.

Speaker 1:

I didn't use that many points. I use 150,000 American Express points, and is it a little bit more out of pocket? Yes, Am I okay with it? Yes, I am, and so that still brings our total for flights to under $2,000 for round trip flights for all five of us to Paris, and again, one of those legs is in premium economy. So that's fantastic. Keep in mind that amount does not include the flight from Paris to Barcelona. I'm not including that in because you know that that's a choice. You don't have to do that, okay, so anyway, so we will fly in premium economy.

Speaker 1:

For the overnight layover, I booked us two rooms at the Hyatt House Charles de Gaulle, which is the Hyatt hotel right by the Paris airport, and I actually did not use points for that because it was very cheap. I think it was $100 a room, maybe even less, maybe $90 something, and so I just paid cash for those two rooms at that hotel for just the one night. So we will fly back from Madrid in the afternoon, we land in Paris in the evening, we will likely just have dinner in the hotel and then go to sleep and wake up and fly out the next morning and fly straight back home. So that is our trip to Europe in a nutshell. Again, are we using a lot of points? Yes, we are, but we are going to have free breakfast most places we go, and in the two hotels. With the club, we're also going to have free snacks and like light appetizers for dinner. So overall, I think staying in hotels while, yes, it's a lot of points, it's still going to save us a ton of money on food. Food is our biggest expense when we travel because there's five of us and my 11-year-old eats like a full-grown adult, so we are super excited.

Speaker 1:

We also love the amenities that a hotel offers and kind of the service and the luxury of it, versus staying at an Airbnb, which to me, just feels a little bit more cold. I don't generally feel as relaxed and taken care of when we stay in an Airbnb. I think that that's because I'm the mom and I'm the one who does all the cooking and everything, and I feel more pressure to do that when we have a kitchen and stuff. And when we have a hotel and we don't have a kitchen, I can't cook, so I feel no pressure. So we are just a hotel family.

Speaker 1:

Could you stay at an Airbnb instead and save your points? Yes, if you want to fly business class and save your points for that and then pay cash for an Airbnb, 100%, yes, you do you, but this is what works for us and we are super, super excited. So I hope that kind of breaking down how I booked this was helpful and kind of reaching out beforehand to the different properties to make sure that they understand what I'm thinking and what I'm expecting. I think that's a really valuable tip because they're not mind readers and they need to know. And so I also now have written confirmation because this was all done via email of all of these room, you know, connecting rooms and all that.

Speaker 1:

So those are my tips. That is how I booked two weeks in Europe for our family of five, almost completely using points and miles. If you have questions, come, find me on Instagram, say hello, I'm happy to answer them, and then next week we will be back with Duane and me and we will be sharing all the details of our Europe trip. So hopefully no one gets sick. Cross your fingers, say a prayer, okay. Thank you so much for listening. We appreciate you and I will see you on the next one. Bye.