It’s hard to believe that six months ago I published my first article about Europe for Free. The concept was simple: take my husband on an adventure of a lifetime through Europe for one month completely free through travel hacking. At first the project seemed daunting. Even absurd. But six months later I’ve booked almost all our hotels and half our airfare and have only paid $564 out of pocket. Compare that to the about $5,262 that I’ve SAVED on hotels and airfare with points and miles, I’d say I’m doing an incredible job.

This December update is going to be a little different because I’ve kind of hit a standstill with purchases. I’m waiting to book the rest of our airfare until airline prices go down about three months out. And, I only have a handful of hotels left to book. So here’s a less-focused update than the usual themed format.

Big change to our itinerary

The biggest update is a large change to our original travel itinerary. I originally had us staying a couple nights in Athens and then heading to the Greek coast. After looking at the airfare pricing and having no good point redemptions available, I changed the itinerary to no longer go to Greece. Instead, we’ll leave Dubrovnik and spend one night in Montenegro and come back to Croatia for a final night by the airport. From there we’ll fly to Cappadocia for three nights and then catch up to the previous itinerary in Istanbul. I’m really excited about this change. Who doesn’t want to see the hot air balloons in Cappadocia?

This change was largely so I could use Singapore Airlines points I had expiring soon and take advantage of the Singapore Airlines bonus promotion they were running at the time. I had a little over 10,000 Singapore Airlines miles in my account from years ago. Two one-way flights on Turkish Airlines were 35,000 miles. With the bonus promotion and the 10,000 miles already in my account, I only needed to transfer 22,000 miles to reach the total needed for the flights on Turkish Airlines. It was a great deal for flights that would have cost around $350 a person. Well worth the change in itinerary.

IHG Increased Required Points

After months of steady redemptions (constantly checking them) IHG has unfortunately increased the number of points needed for my 150,000 sign-up bonus basically right after I received it. I’m holding out on booking anything hoping that the points required will drop again after the holidays, but if not I’m working on some alternatives. Maybe some Hyatt nights in Istanbul? Not a lot to say here other than it sucks and I’m not a huge fan of dynamic rewards for this very reason.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred $50 hotel credit

My husband’s sign-up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred coincided with the newly introduced $50 annual hotel credit. I used this credit for our 3-night stay in Lviv, Ukraine. Between the credit and 10,000 Chase points I ended up paying $14 for the entire stay. Since I love boutique hotels, I give a lot of weight to the $50 Chase credit and the Chase Travel Portal’s 5x rewards. If you use the $50 credit it brings down your annual fee to $45 a year for this card. A steal.

It’s also great that with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card you receive 5x on hotels booked through the portal. As I mentioned, I love boutique hotels. I’m planning to upgrade my Chase Sapphire card to the reserve to take advantage of the 10x on hotel reservations through the portal and transfer my husband’s points to the card for more value. We’ll keep his as a Preferred to take advantage of the $50 annual hotel credit.

What about the dreaded c-word?

When I started considering Europe for Free it was still snowing outside. Seriously. It was March 2021. Laughably, I thought people would get vaccinated and we’d be good to go come Spring 2022. I’m still expecting we’ll be able to take this trip but we might have some COVID hurdles along the way, and I think it’s especially true for Ukraine, Poland and Turkey. This might be additional testing requirements but it could mean changing our trip to not include these countries if we can’t get in. Hopefully in the next four months the situation will improve but I’m purchasing travel insurance with my favorite product, Travel Insurance Master, to ensure that anything nonrefundable I’ve booked can be refunded with our insurance if plans must change.

I’ve also made sure to book refundable everything and transfer points to programs that I believe have value if I have to cancel any section of my itinerary.

We’re not just four months from leaving for a trip of a lifetime. That means it’s time to start thinking about necessary arrangements for our life at home and really finalizing the details. It’s getting close, guys.

Explore on. -K