Matt of Canada

We have lots of travel planned for 2016, and we’ve booked tons of flights using points! 

First up is Mexico! Since we are currently in Florida, we decided to take advantage of a sweet spot in British Airways’ award chart: only 4500 points for a one way flight under 600 miles! In February the price will increase to 7,500 points, which is still a good deal.  Cancun is 531 miles from Miami, so this works perfectly. I transferred 9000 points from my Amex account (apply for this card to get 25,000 Amex points) to my BA Avios account (which I had created just a day before transferring the points) and used them to book two one-way tickets from Miami to Cancun on American Airlines, a British Airways partner. Taxes and fees were only $24 each!

Once we land in Cancun, we will rent a car and embark on a week-long roadtrip around the Yucatan Peninsula! We will be stopping in Merida, Valladolid, and Playa del Carmen, visiting Mayan ruins, cenotes, markets, beaches, and eating Mexican food. Stay tuned for a trip report!

To get back from Cancun, we decided to book a one-way award using Alaska Airlines miles (get 25,000 Alaska miles through this credit card. $75 annual fee, or you can apply though gcr.ca for a $60 rebate). Alaska charges 17,500 miles for one-way Mexico to Canada (as do most programs), and lets you redeem miles for flights on American Airlines. Alaska has one feature that no other program has; they give you a free stopover on one-way awards! So on the way back from Cancun, we’re adding a 3-day stopover in San Antonio, Texas and spending a few days in Austin and San Antonio.