How we saved over $2500 on our New England 9 day road trip

 Next year we are having a dog sitter watch the house and the dog and we are taking off to New England for a road trip to celebrate our 20th anniversary.  There is some math here so be patient but this is how we saved money on the trip:

For car rental, we shopped around and the 2nd best rate was Costco Travel at $442.  Capital One Travel was $389, a savings of $53.

For our lodging,  our first night in Boston was $437.  But I got a Capital One Venture Card  (please consider clicking on my referral link) with the 75k Point and $250 travel credit sign-up bonus (SUB).  Plus the card gives us a $50 credit per stay.  Now we did pay an annual fee of $95 but that still gives us a savings of $250+$50-$95=$205. And we might be more likely to get an upgrade from using Capital One’s Lifestyle Hotel Collection.

Our second night in Boston was paid with our Delta card which has a $150 Delta Stays credit so that is more money in our pocket.

Our flight on Delta would have normally been $794 plus $140 for luggage=$934.  We paid $427 by using our annual free companion ticket. The annual fee on the Delta Card is $350 so our savings are $934-$427-$350=$157. Plus the card gives us Priority Boarding.

Next, we have five nights of stays at various IHG properties.  Paying cash would set us back $2694 but we used points we bought at half price and three credit card anniversary nights.  Figuring in the annual fees and the cost of the points, we are paying $1274, saving us a whopping $1420!

In addition to our IHG cards, we also have the Marriott Brilliant.  While that card has a $650 AF, you get $25/month dining credit, so the net costs is only $350. Plus you get Platinum status that gives you lounge access where available and free breakfast.  For the sake of simplicity, I will assume breakfast will cost us $30.  We are booking the Newport Marriott Resort and Spa.

The card gives us up to 85K for a room and we have well over 100K points in our account to top it off with so the savings are $839+$30-$350=$519!

The savings we get from the Marriott card are pretty substantial since we get free breakfast at a variety of Marriott properties every time we stay at one.  Plus having the IHG and Marriott cards give us extra points when we do pay cash.  Both these cards have various other perks that I will discuss in other postings.

I also plan on discussing the Capital One Venture Card in a future post.

Happy travels!