We had to cancel our trip to Lake Tahoe for February break unfortunately. I had actually gotten lucky with the flights and because there was more than a 60 minute change to our American Flights from when I booked them, I was able to redeposit all of our American Airlines AAdvantage miles back into our account.
Enter, a last minute booking to Breckenridge and some free flights and a free stay and a free car service nonetheless. How did we do it?
Recall, this past year, Rob took advantage of a 200,000 Capital One Miles bonus offer (not a typo). Since then, I have moved many of Rob’s business charges to his Capital One Spark Miles card, where he earns 2x Capital One Spark Miles on all of his purchases.
I had more than enough Capital One Spark Miles to cover our 5 nights at the Beaver Run Resort ($2670) as well as the private round trip car from Denver Airport ($1018-shh don’t tell Rob but it makes it soooo easy!!). Remember, Beaver Run is not a chain hotel and therefore cannot be paid for using loyalty points. Enter Rob’s Capital One Spark Miles card. where I redeem Capital One miles at a rate of 1 cent/1 point via the Capital One Purchase Eraser. So for the hotel, I used 267,000 Capital One Miles and for the car I used 101,800 miles.
As for the flights, I was desperate and probably spent way too much money on flights to Denver. I spent 536.80 per flight ($2684 total), but used only 178,933 Chase Ultimate Rewards points for those flights. As I redeem at 1.5 cents per point because I have a Chase Sapphire Reserve card.
So, I summary, I used rewards for this last minute Breckenridge trip and saved a cash outlay of $6372. (2670 +1018+ 2684).
Oh, and one more thing…..now that I know that you do not have to be staying at a Hilton/Bonvoy Resort to take advantage of the $250/$300 resort credits, we will be saving $250 on food, as the Double Tree Breckenridge is a 2 minute walk from where we are at Beaver Run and we will be using Rob’s $250 credit that he has with his Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card for $250 with of food. Breakfast anyone?
Lastly, where I do spend my money on our ski vacations is at all of the fabulous restaurants. Why is ski town food so good?
During our week in Breck, based on some recommendations, we had dinner at Kenosha, Blue River Bistro and Giampietro. I also had a fabulous lunch at BoLD. I enjoyed earning all of my American Express Membership Rewards points on these meals as I get 4x points per $1 on dining with my American Express Gold card.