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DubrovnikIn this Travel Miles 101 success story, Dan from Chicago details how he was able to put together a three-month trip to five different countries (both Europe and Asia plus an extra stop back in the United States to attend his college reunion) using airline miles he earned in just the past 18 months.

Enjoy Dan’s story of this dream trip he is embarking on in the next few weeks and be sure to wish him well in the comments below:

Dan’s Travel Miles 101 Success Story

I started earning credit card rewards points without an explicit goal or itinerary in mind, just thinking it was an interesting idea and that it might come in useful later. I just moved from card to card without dramatically changing my spending habits and without any long-term strategy for how and when I was going to redeem these miles.

About a year and a half later, I decided to change careers and suddenly had the opportunity for extensive international travel, something I’d wanted for years. I’d dreamed of traveling around for a few months, subletting apartments in different cities for a month at a time in order to get to know the cities a bit better (and to save money on lodging…). Without job obligations, this was my chance.

When I went to check out my miles stash, this is what greeted me:

Dan's Points Stash

These miles were the result of only four card bonuses* (Note: these were the card names available at that time):

  • Chase Sapphire Preferred Card
  • Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® MasterCard®
  • Aviator / AAdvantage® MasterCard® (not sure if you can still open this, but I earned a nice AA bonus)
  • British Airways Visa Signature Card

* The United miles came from some prior work travel

As I started to translate these numbers into plane flights, I was amazed at how far the miles would go. I hadn’t pursued this hobby with nearly the dedication or intensity of many others, and yet still with fairly minimal effort I had an amazing set of resources to work with.

British Airways logoRight away, I realized that the British Airways Avios miles would make cross-Atlantic flights very easy due to partnerships with Aer Lingus and Air Berlin (Brad’s note: These are the only two airlines you can fly on to avoid the massive fuel surcharges British Airways normally charges when using their miles to/from Europe on their flights and other partners).

A quick glance at the Chicago O’Hare Airport Wikipedia page shows that both Air Berlin and Aer Lingus flew out of my home airport.  Here’s what I found when I used the Great Circle Mapper website to determine the distance:

Dan's flights to Europe using Avios

From the BA award chart I determined these flights would cost 20,000 Avios to fly to Dublin or 25,000 to Berlin.

I had also really been hoping to go to southeast Asia, where the cost of living is lower. And the final wrinkle to my trip was that my 5-year college reunion was in the middle of my ideal travel window, meaning that I either had to miss my reunion, or come back to America and then head abroad again.

When you play the miles game, I guess you can have your cake and eat it too. I ended up planning a 3-month dream itinerary that will take me to Ireland, Croatia, and Poland (my ancestral homeland), back to America for my college reunion, and then off to Thailand and Malaysia.

I used miles take the sting out of all of the trans-oceanic flights, and the unavoidable taxes and fees were quite reasonable as well.  For instance, to go to and from both Europe and Asia, I’m only spending about $140 total in taxes and fees.

My Itinerary and Cost in Points and Dollars:

Dan's Itinerary-updated

This itinerary keeps airfare at around $700 for the whole trip, and still leaves a lot of miles in the bank. I haven’t touched the American miles at all, and still have about 30,000 Ultimate Rewards points left.

Next time around, I’ll definitely be more targeted with my cards and my vision (and it helps to have a sense of which rewards go farthest, which have the best and worst redeemability, etc). But the most important lesson I’ve learned is that while it’s better to have a plan than no plan, it’s better to get started without a plan than to not even try at all! Just get in the miles game with the minimum possible change to your life and you will be happily surprised at how things turn out.

Travel Miles 101 has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Travel Miles 101 and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.