One Cruise Within Sight

One Cruise Within Sight

I posted previously in my blog, "Lofty 500,000 Points Goal for 2 Vacation Cruises" and followed on with video on Facebook to get the word out that we were on a mission to accumulate 500,000 Ultimate Rewards (UR) points in the next 3 - 6 months in order to pay for 2 vacation cruises with points alone.  Help from readers towards that goal has been dismal, but I'm encouraged anyway because as the quote goes, "success results when preparation meets opportunity", my wife and I have been preparing for award travel opportunities as they arise through disciplined spending using strategic tilt towards credit cards with big signup bonuses whose rewards points can be used for all types of travel and experiences.

The Preparation & Opportunity

In January, my wife signed on for the Chase Sapphire Reserve just as the promotion for 100,000 UR was ending and we have achieved the 4K spend and received those points, coupled with the points she previously had for Chase Sapphire Preferred for 60,000 UR.  She also was able to get approved for the Chase Ink Preferred which has 80,000 UR bonus once 5K spend is met.  Then couple that with an average 4,000 UR points we get on average and my existing points combined will tally to 289,530 UR/$4,342.

Current Balance Before the 85,000 UR to be Added

This cruise is within sight because I have a plan to get to that 5K required spend in next month or so by doing 3 things

• Paying taxes and offsetting the service fee charged by signing up for the promo on Citi for opening checking account and get $300 - $3,000+

• Paying accountant - $500

• Paying 6 month auto insurance premiums up front - $1000

The thing with booking a cruise through Chase Ultimate Rewards is that you must have all the required points needed at the time of booking or the remainder would go onto the credit card you are booking with, which in our case, would be the Chase Sapphire Reserve.  There is no plan to have a remainder, we would have enough points to book this 9 Night Western Mediterranean Cruise on Royal Caribbean's Symphony of the Seas (New Ship being built—this will be the largest ship in the world)

with an Ocean View balcony room.  

 

 

 

And It Don't Stop

We may not hit our lofty goal of 500,000 UR for 2 vacation cruises this year, but there is always next year for preparation to meet opportunity.  I know 2 things is that we will continue to use strategies that will maximize our ability to obtain award travel and that our preparation will save us $3,334 for 

Cruise Price for 2 People

the cruise and perhaps another $2,722 for flight, which is too far out to accurately predict cost wise, for this trip and thousands of dollars for trips in the future.  So, that is $6,056 we aren't going to need to come out of pocket for and we are going to be enjoying a free vacation.  I'll invest the $504 ($6,056/12) saved over the next 12 months in my Loyal3 10 Stock Plan.

That is some serious money and it is just my wife and I that I'm talking about, so imagine a bigger family trying to go to Europe without trying to offset any of the cost using award travel.  The answer is either they can't afford to go or they going pay the cost of a small vehicle to get there!

I know that people are slow to wake up to the opportunities before them for whatever the reason.  What I'm saying here is not doing anything that's illegal.  I am not going to promote you sign up for a credit card using my link, nope, I just hope that you take heed because this ship is going to sail whether you are on-board or not.

 

In Closing

My wife and I preparation is going help us meet one of our goals for a free cruise vacation from Europe which should be fantastic.  We didn't have to go into debt to achieve and in fact we will be saving $6,056 which can in turn be invested in stocks of 10 of the most ubiquitous companies in the world.  You can choose to take advantage or not, to support or not, but I'll continue to write blog stating our next vacation destination, and you can pretty much guess that I will be trying to use award travel to get us there!