New Orleans Vacation

I just got back from a week vacation, including two nights in New Orleans, and a 7-night cruise to the Western Caribbean. As you may have guessed, the flights and hotel stay were booked with miles and points. 

 

 

For the flights, I booked my family on Southwest using miles that I earned from Southwest credit card signup bonuses. I reserved my flights back in August 2014 when Southwest opened their schedule for March/April 2015. Normally, I would say that there is no rush to book flights on Southwest when their schedule opens. The exceptions are for any holidays. Since I knew my school system schedule, I was able to schedule the cruise and the flights in advance. My wife and I both have companion pass status so our boys flew free with our booked flights. Total out of pocket cost was $44.80 for 9/11 security fees and 73K Southwest miles for two flights.

I had only been to New Orleans once before on a quick overnight trip so wanted the chance to explore a little more. I had the flexibility to arrive 2-3 days prior to my cruise. I had a good amount of Club Carlson points and wanted to take advantage of their credit card bonus night benefit, so I found the Country Inn and Suites French Quarter and booked for two nights. This property is a category 5 and was booked for 44K points/night. Since I am a Club Carlson credit card holder, I receive my last night free for any bookings of two or more nights. For me, the total was 44K points. For curiosity sake, I asked about the nightly rate upon my arrival and was told that the rate was $440/night. Theoretically, I was able to redeem my Club Carlson points for 2 cents per point. That is not a good Club Carlson redemption, that is a GREAT Club Carlson redemption. As recently as March 2013, Ben, from One Mile at a Time, valued these same points at 0.4 cents per. 

 

 

Now that my flights and hotel were booked, I needed to focus on ground transportation and cruise excursions. I will cover these in my next set of posts.