Anniversary Trip Lesson 2: Redemption Rate Trumps the Destination, Why I Stopped Overvaluing the Destination

As we continue through this series of lessons learned from booking our anniversary trip around the world, I want to discuss what I suppose will be controversial. Let’s be honest, the destination really doesn’t matter to most of you. You want good food, a few tourist attractions to see, a beach or a vineyard. Most countries offer these things.

Okay, you probably think I am nuts that I am arguing the destination doesn’t matter, but let’s try this experiment below shall we! Our hero really wants to go to Paris, but is trying to keep an open mind. Which vacation would you choose?

Vacation A

Destination: Paris

Flights: For two people, direct in business class.

Total Cost: $12,000

Vacation B

Flights: For two people, 7 Hours in Economy with an 8 hour layover, no lounge access and a second 3 hour flight

Destination: Paris

Total Cost: $2900

Vacation C

Flights: For two people, 7 Hours in Business with an 3-hour layover, lounge access and a second 3-hour flight

Destination: Paris

Total Cost: 250,000 miles

Vacation D:

Flights: For two people, 7 Hours in Business with an 2 hour layover, lounge access and a second 90 minutes flight

Destination: Madrid

Total Cost: 80,000 miles

Which Would You Choose?

Vacation A represents someone who is paying for convenience. They are booking the most direct flight in business and staying at a nice hotel. They will likely return home pleased as they got to go to their top choice and their accommodations were good! But they just spent 12,000 dollars!

Vacation B represents someone who will book the cheapest flight possible and stay at a cheap hotel. They do get to go to their top choice but will come home exhausted and full of complaints over how uncomfortable and loud their hotel and flight were.

Vacation C represents someone who prioritizes the destination over the cost and uses dramatically more miles to get to Paris.

Vacation D represents someone using points/miles to their fullest potential. They recognize that most cities in the world have lovely architecture, shopping and good restaurants. These people want to travel comfortably and stay in a hotel with beautiful facilities, top service and excellent amenities. While they would have loved to see Paris, they returned home seeing Madrid and still have several thousands of dollars in their checking account 😊.

How This Relates to Our Anniversary Trip

We had a list of possible destinations for our anniversary trip that included;

• Thailand
• Maldives
• Bora Bora
• Vietnam

Luckily we got a killer deal on miles for Thailand and we were able to hit one of our destinations. We knew our trip would likely include other places as well, but we wanted to check off one of those destinations above. We had another week to kill and had to get home and noticed redemption rates were easier if we flew west via the Middle East and Europe. By being open-minded over our next destination we were able to redeem miles and fly to Tel Aviv.

Lessons Learned

I am a former World History teacher and of course understand every country is unique. But, that helps make my point. Every country has something to offer. Be open-minded and you will have so many opportunities to travel luxuriously across the world on a budget. If you are too focused on one specific destination then you are at the mercy of the airlines hoping for a good redemption opportunity.

Bon Voyage,

Andrew

PS Madrid is lovely and once you get there, it only costs like 100 dollars to get to Paris 😊