How much for a weeklong vacation for a family of 4?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP again. Oof. Guess it's mostly staycations next year then.

Use credit card points for travel. Thats what we do.

I love how people always suggest this to budget travelers as if "just spend ludicrous amounts of money every year on your credit card!" is a viable option.

A round trip ticket on AA without ridiculous restrictions that make them basically unusable is 40,000 points, or 160,000 for a family of four, so that's $160,000 on your AA credit card.

Hilton Honors charges 45,000 points a night for anywhere you'd want to stay, so 2 rooms for 5 nights is 450,000 points or $150,000 spent on your credit card.

Even with the intro bonuses for signing up for the credit card (50k for AA, 100k for Hilton, which is obviously a one-time thing) you're still looking at $225,000 required spend.

We are only semi efficient with signing up for cards but we’ve done a ton of trips using mostly Marriott points. We charge everything to the card. Wait for a time of year when the sign up bonus is high. Stay at that brand when you do pay for hotels.

Exactly how many families struggling to pay for a vacation do you think have the ability to put $225,000 on their credit card every year?

Incorrect, although it’s easy to see why one might assume otherwise. Most you can get multiple times, you just have to know the rules.

Not PP but how??

Not the PP who wrote that, but there are many ways to get multiple sign up bonuses. There are different cards which earn the same points- I think there are 4 different AA cards, for example, that you could hold all of them. Also you have 2 people to apply for cards if you are a couple. And there are waiting periods where you could get another bonus after a certain number of months/years after getting it in the past. But seriously the world of churning credit card bonuses is quite complicated, and something you shouldn't jump into without being willing to make a significant time/effort commitment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP again. Oof. Guess it's mostly staycations next year then.

Use credit card points for travel. Thats what we do.

I love how people always suggest this to budget travelers as if "just spend ludicrous amounts of money every year on your credit card!" is a viable option.

A round trip ticket on AA without ridiculous restrictions that make them basically unusable is 40,000 points, or 160,000 for a family of four, so that's $160,000 on your AA credit card.

Hilton Honors charges 45,000 points a night for anywhere you'd want to stay, so 2 rooms for 5 nights is 450,000 points or $150,000 spent on your credit card.

Even with the intro bonuses for signing up for the credit card (50k for AA, 100k for Hilton, which is obviously a one-time thing) you're still looking at $225,000 required spend.

Exactly how many families struggling to pay for a vacation do you think have the ability to put $225,000 on their credit card every year?

Incorrect, although it’s easy to see why one might assume otherwise. Most you can get multiple times, you just have to know the rules.

Not PP but how??

Not the PP who wrote that, but there are many ways to get multiple sign up bonuses. There are different cards which earn the same points- I think there are 4 different AA cards, for example, that you could hold all of them. Also you have 2 people to apply for cards if you are a couple. And there are waiting periods where you could get another bonus after a certain number of months/years after getting it in the past. But seriously the world of churning credit card bonuses is quite complicated, and something you shouldn't jump into without being willing to make a significant time/effort commitment.

I wouldn't say we're credit card "churners," per se, but I have opened/closed some cards based on points, lack of annual fees, etc. There are lots of websites that will break it all down for you. For example, I opened a Delta Skymiles card, no annual fee for the first year, and got 40k miles by spending $1k in the first three months (we aren't HUGE spenders, but that's easy peasy). Then 2x points at supermarkets and restaurants. plus 1x everywhere else, and we were able to earn another free ticket by the end of the year. Much easier to pay for two flight tickets than four. Then I cancelled it at the end of the year. Most recently, I opened a US Bank card - $0 annual fee for the first year, 4x points on gas stations and travel, 2x points on streaming services, 2x points at grocery stores, grocery delivery, and dining; 50,000 bonus points when you spend $2000 in eligible purchases within the first 120 days of account opening. That'll get us two, probably three tickets. It took me very little time at all to research which cards to get etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP if you really truly need to travel on a very strict budget it can be done. Over the last 6 years our HHI was 100k and our family has done:

-10 days in ireland
-14 days in Spain
-12 days in North Carolina
-7 days in Florida
-We are in the process of booking 16 days in Belgium/France/Netherlands over the holidays

Yes, I go to great lengths to travel hack and save, but at the end of the day we have great trips and it's absolutely worth it to me.

Teach me your ways!!! We are just starting to think about travel now that I'm done using up all my PTO for "maternity leaves," but I haven't budgeted anything more ambitious than camping or hotels in nearby cities. I would love to take my family to Ireland, among other places.

Ireland is quite cheap outside of Dublin. Looked at some random Airbnbs in small towns near Galwsy, you can get a 3 br house for $180/night. You can fly nonstop on Aer Lingus for $600/person in May. Hertz at DUB is $450 for 10 days. So you could do a 10 day trip for $4750 including rentals and transportation. $200/day in food and activities, and you are at $7k for 10 days. It's not cheap, but it's not $25-30k either.

Thanks! We were thinking northwest coast or Maine/Atlantic Canada for first big trip, but that probably is actually comparable. I'm surprised the rental car is so cheap, that's significantly lower than domestically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP again. Oof. Guess it's mostly staycations next year then.

Use credit card points for travel. Thats what we do.

I love how people always suggest this to budget travelers as if "just spend ludicrous amounts of money every year on your credit card!" is a viable option.

A round trip ticket on AA without ridiculous restrictions that make them basically unusable is 40,000 points, or 160,000 for a family of four, so that's $160,000 on your AA credit card.

Hilton Honors charges 45,000 points a night for anywhere you'd want to stay, so 2 rooms for 5 nights is 450,000 points or $150,000 spent on your credit card.

Even with the intro bonuses for signing up for the credit card (50k for AA, 100k for Hilton, which is obviously a one-time thing) you're still looking at $225,000 required spend.

Exactly how many families struggling to pay for a vacation do you think have the ability to put $225,000 on their credit card every year?

I don't think you understand the credit card programs well. The 2 ways to amass large points is: 1) sign up bonuses. 2) shopping online at the portal which can give 4x to 8x on online shopping depending on the store and the seasonal point promos.

I have 350K AA points and 700K other airline and hotel points, about 90% from sign up bonuses. Spouse has similar amounts. In the past, sign ups can be done every 1-2 years to the same card with no issues, but it is different landscape since a couple of years ago.

The other method that some people do is manu spending, which I will not get into here.

[Anonymous]

Once you're over in Europe, travel is much cheaper than in the US. Hotels, AirBnB, food, local travel, activities - all so much more reasonable. I'd sign up for an awesome credit card offering bonus points, and use those points to fly there. Then, seriously, everything is much cheaper than the US, especially with the exchange rate where it is.

We just got back from a trip to Seattle/Olympic. Eight nights. Lodging averaged $312/night, flights were about $500 each (family of four). Used points to recoup all but $200 of flights, and other card got us about $700 off hotel rooms. (Points accrued from huge bonus from one card and just regular spending on the other for things like groceries/bills over a year or so, approx $1500-$2000/month).

Activities/museums were very pricey. We ate many meals at rental homes to stretch budget, ate out for some. Overall, we spent about $4,000 out of pocket.

We did a week in Tuscany in 2018 offseason all in for $2,800, including a screaming flight deal and sharing villa with friends, just for comparison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP again. Oof. Guess it's mostly staycations next year then.

Use credit card points for travel. Thats what we do.

I love how people always suggest this to budget travelers as if "just spend ludicrous amounts of money every year on your credit card!" is a viable option.

A round trip ticket on AA without ridiculous restrictions that make them basically unusable is 40,000 points, or 160,000 for a family of four, so that's $160,000 on your AA credit card.

Hilton Honors charges 45,000 points a night for anywhere you'd want to stay, so 2 rooms for 5 nights is 450,000 points or $150,000 spent on your credit card.

Even with the intro bonuses for signing up for the credit card (50k for AA, 100k for Hilton, which is obviously a one-time thing) you're still looking at $225,000 required spend.

Exactly how many families struggling to pay for a vacation do you think have the ability to put $225,000 on their credit card every year?

Incorrect, although it’s easy to see why one might assume otherwise. Most you can get multiple times, you just have to know the rules.

Not PP but how??

Not the PP who wrote that, but there are many ways to get multiple sign up bonuses. There are different cards which earn the same points- I think there are 4 different AA cards, for example, that you could hold all of them. Also you have 2 people to apply for cards if you are a couple. And there are waiting periods where you could get another bonus after a certain number of months/years after getting it in the past. But seriously the world of churning credit card bonuses is quite complicated, and something you shouldn't jump into without being willing to make a significant time/effort commitment.

I wouldn't say we're credit card "churners," per se, but I have opened/closed some cards based on points, lack of annual fees, etc. There are lots of websites that will break it all down for you. For example, I opened a Delta Skymiles card, no annual fee for the first year, and got 40k miles by spending $1k in the first three months (we aren't HUGE spenders, but that's easy peasy). Then 2x points at supermarkets and restaurants. plus 1x everywhere else, and we were able to earn another free ticket by the end of the year. Much easier to pay for two flight tickets than four. Then I cancelled it at the end of the year. Most recently, I opened a US Bank card - $0 annual fee for the first year, 4x points on gas stations and travel, 2x points on streaming services, 2x points at grocery stores, grocery delivery, and dining; 50,000 bonus points when you spend $2000 in eligible purchases within the first 120 days of account opening. That'll get us two, probably three tickets. It took me very little time at all to research which cards to get etc.

Defininetly. There are several big websites that give you all the info you needed about which cards to sign up for. They get referrals for many of the sign ups, which is why the websites exist. I prob signed up for 80 cards in my life. 2M points total. Stopped doing it when the family wasn't using the points up. Best card in my opinion for a family is apply for 2 Southwest cards to get the Southwest Companion pass. Spouse should do the same thing. The pass saves so much if you leisure travel domestic or to caribbean several times. You also get all those Southwest points from the sign ups.

[Anonymous]

Miami you could do for 5k.
Hawaii 10-20k
California 7-10k
Europe 15k


I like to stay at nice places and we have 3 kids so our trip often costs much more. Our Hawaii trip cost us 30k, maybe 35k. Recent Europe trip cost us probably 35-40k.

[Anonymous]

Shhhhhhhh….. don’t share the points secrets. Let them think we spend $500,000 a year on our credit card to get the free travel. More award availability for us!




quote=Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP again. Oof. Guess it's mostly staycations next year then.

Use credit card points for travel. Thats what we do.

I love how people always suggest this to budget travelers as if "just spend ludicrous amounts of money every year on your credit card!" is a viable option.

A round trip ticket on AA without ridiculous restrictions that make them basically unusable is 40,000 points, or 160,000 for a family of four, so that's $160,000 on your AA credit card.

Hilton Honors charges 45,000 points a night for anywhere you'd want to stay, so 2 rooms for 5 nights is 450,000 points or $150,000 spent on your credit card.

Even with the intro bonuses for signing up for the credit card (50k for AA, 100k for Hilton, which is obviously a one-time thing) you're still looking at $225,000 required spend.

Exactly how many families struggling to pay for a vacation do you think have the ability to put $225,000 on their credit card every year?

Incorrect, although it’s easy to see why one might assume otherwise. Most you can get multiple times, you just have to know the rules.

Not PP but how??

Not the PP who wrote that, but there are many ways to get multiple sign up bonuses. There are different cards which earn the same points- I think there are 4 different AA cards, for example, that you could hold all of them. Also you have 2 people to apply for cards if you are a couple. And there are waiting periods where you could get another bonus after a certain number of months/years after getting it in the past. But seriously the world of churning credit card bonuses is quite complicated, and something you shouldn't jump into without being willing to make a significant time/effort commitment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shhhhhhhh….. don’t share the points secrets. Let them think we spend $500,000 a year on our credit card to get the free travel. More award availability for us!




quote=Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP again. Oof. Guess it's mostly staycations next year then.

Use credit card points for travel. Thats what we do.

I love how people always suggest this to budget travelers as if "just spend ludicrous amounts of money every year on your credit card!" is a viable option.

A round trip ticket on AA without ridiculous restrictions that make them basically unusable is 40,000 points, or 160,000 for a family of four, so that's $160,000 on your AA credit card.

Hilton Honors charges 45,000 points a night for anywhere you'd want to stay, so 2 rooms for 5 nights is 450,000 points or $150,000 spent on your credit card.

Even with the intro bonuses for signing up for the credit card (50k for AA, 100k for Hilton, which is obviously a one-time thing) you're still looking at $225,000 required spend.

Exactly how many families struggling to pay for a vacation do you think have the ability to put $225,000 on their credit card every year?

Incorrect, although it’s easy to see why one might assume otherwise. Most you can get multiple times, you just have to know the rules.

Not PP but how??

Not the PP who wrote that, but there are many ways to get multiple sign up bonuses. There are different cards which earn the same points- I think there are 4 different AA cards, for example, that you could hold all of them. Also you have 2 people to apply for cards if you are a couple. And there are waiting periods where you could get another bonus after a certain number of months/years after getting it in the past. But seriously the world of churning credit card bonuses is quite complicated, and something you shouldn't jump into without being willing to make a significant time/effort commitment.

Don't worry, most of us do not have the desire or bandwidth to manage 4 AA credit cards at one time just to get multiple bonuses.

I previously accumulated a lot of AA points because I travelled on AA for work almost exclusively and had an AA credit card. Used for a couple nice international trips for DH and I pre-kids but over time they became so hard to redeem for the places we wanted to go. I still have $150k points sitting but every time I go to look at options I get frustrated. DH and each have a chase rewards card now, which we use for everything like daycare, etc. I don't think the points are worth as much as other programs but they are much easier to use.

[Anonymous]

Agree that it so, so depends.

We have saved thousands by doing home exchanges, and have had trips where we used points for airfare. So we ended up spending on a few thousand dollars for a great multiweek international vacation. On another trip, we went to crowded national parks where even basic motels were $200-$300 a night.

[Anonymous]

We are a family of 5 and went to Rome (and other parts of Italy) this summer. We booked our flights using our Chase rewards points, the b&b we stayed at was $2300 for 5 nights for 2 lovely rooms, breakfast included. We loved the location and the hosts and breakfasts were fabulous. Other than meals we didn’t have big expenses (other than entry to tourist sites), but we did some private tours which added to the cost but were surprisingly inexpensive for our family - 3 hours for €140 for all of us. And the kids loved them!