Through a series of testimonials from our readers, Milesopedia presents what you can achieve with credit cards and loyalty programs.
Here’s Isabelle’s trip to Costa Rica with her husband and three children. During these three weeks, they even celebrated a small family wedding.
I’m 45 and have been a Milesopedia reader for two years.
Before becoming a parent, I backpacked for several months at a time. I’ve been all over South America, Europe and South-East Asia.
Since becoming a mom, I’ve mostly been on camping trips in Quebec, Eastern Canada and the United States. I’ve also stayed in all-inclusives, in addition to a few trips to France, Mexico and Tunisia for work.
Since I’ve been reading Milesopedia, I’ve started travelling frequently again, and I can’t get enough of it! I prefer a combination of these types of trips:
As a family of five, we prefer economy-class flights. Our aim is to travel more often.
We went to Costa Rica for three weeks during the 2023 holiday season. We traveled as a family: my husband, our children aged 7, 14 and 19, and myself.
The heart of our trip was a small, simple family wedding (also known as an elopement). We wanted to visit a few regions of Costa Rica, but without spreading ourselves too thin or getting exhausted.
As far as accommodation was concerned, we wanted to experience several different types: tree house, mini-home, etc. We were looking for accommodations with kitchenettes to keep within our budget, as the cost of living is quite high in Costa Rica. In the end, we decided to rent a car for the flexibility it brings.
Our three-week itinerary began and ended in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica. In total, we visited three regions and visited the following places:
Flights for five people were booked with Aeroplan points.
Inbound: Quebec City-Toronto-San Jose
Outbound : San Jose-Montreal
For the car, we dealt with a local rental agency. We paid $2,892 for a three-week rental. With our Platinum CardMD from American Express, rental car collision damage waiver (CDW) is included. We didn’t need to take the company’s protection, so we saved $294 on this aspect.
With 100,000 Aeroplan points, we saved $5,900 on our five round-trip tickets to Costa Rica. As we traveled during the high season (holiday season), the cash price of flights was very high. Points allowed us to fly for way cheaper!
In total, we saved $6,194 on transportation during our trip.
For accommodation, we used a combination of Marriott Bonvoy, Scene+, TD Rewards, NBC Rewards and HSBC Rewards points for our bookings:
Phew! That’s a lot of different reservations. By taking full advantage of the variety of points in our wallet, we saved a whopping $4,131 on accommodation during our family trip to Costa Rica. In the end, we spent only $720 out of pocket for three weeks.
We were also able to try out different types of accommodation, including hotels, apartments, mini-homes and tree houses.
With Airbnb Experiences, we booked a guided tour. We then applied 25,000 HSBC Rewards points for a $125 statement credit.
All these points were accumulated by applying for credit cards and being strategic with our spending.
My husband helped collect Aeroplan points by unlocking a welcome bonus with an American ExpressMD* AeroplanMD Card. He also got the Marriott BonvoyMD American ExpressMD* Card welcome bonus.
Otherwise, for the most part, I’m the only one applying since he’s a student and doesn’t qualify for most cards.
Under the new Aeroplan rules, you cannot hold more than one credit card from the same product line at a time. It is recommended to wait 18 months between the opening of different Aeroplan cards. Moreover, receiving repeated welcome bonuses goes against the program’s terms and conditions. Find out all the details and our advice in this article.
The HSBC World EliteMD Mastercard® is now discontinued. For another no-FX-fee travel card with flexible points, take a look at the Scotiabank Passport™ Visa Infinite* Card.
With our credit cards, we enjoy additional benefits such as :
To accumulate all these points for my trip and to save as much as possible, I adopted various strategies:
Combining all expenses, we achieved significant savings of $10,156! Here are the details of the amounts saved by category during our three-week wedding and family trip to Costa Rica:
Our points portfolio is varied, and we used seven different loyalty programs for this wonderful trip. Here is a summary of the points used:
The best card in my wallet is the American Express CobaltMD Card for its excellent accumulation rate. I use a variety of tactics to maximize my points, including the purchase of gift cards.
Thanks Milesopedia!
Read on for more testimonials from members of the Milesopedia community:
Savings are here:
