115. Our Honeymoons—Then vs. Now! Get Your Honeymoon for Nearly Free Using Points and Miles
Points Talk with the Travel Mom Squad
Alex, Pam and Jess
4.9 • 734 Ratings
🗓️ 11 February 2025
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For Valentine’s Day, we’re taking a trip down memory lane! In this episode, we’re sharing all the details about our honeymoons—how we booked them before we knew about points and miles, what we spent back then, and what we'd do today now that we’re points-savvy. Spoiler alert: our original honeymoons were not nearly as luxurious (or strategic!) as what we could plan today.
Pam’s “Not-So-Luxurious” Road Trip Honeymoon
Pam kicks things off by sharing her 1974 honeymoon—let’s just say, points and miles were not a thing, and neither was luxury travel. If she could redo it today, Pam would plan a dreamy trip to Greece, flying Emirates business class, stopping in NYC on the way, and relaxing at stunning hotels in Santorini and Crete—all on points.
Alex’s Two-Part Honeymoon: Park City & Mexico
Since Alex’s husband played college football, their wedding date was dictated by the sports schedule, leaving them with a tight honeymoon window. Flights and accommodations came from family gifts. Today, she would book an easy, stress-free honeymoon at the Andaz Maui using points and a travel credit for a rental car—keeping the travel cost to just $22!
Jess’s First Trip to Europe: Budget Paris & London
Jess technically did use miles for her honeymoon—but in the least efficient way possible. Jess's economy flights to Europe came from years of earning miles on a single airline card. Looking back, she would book Emirates first class to Italy, stay at the Grand Hotel Victoria in Lake Como, and enjoy luxury Hyatt stays in Florence—all for far less out of pocket than she originally spent!
Why We’d Do Things Differently Today
Weddings are expensive, but newlyweds can use their wedding expenses to earn credit card welcome offers. That means luxurious hotels, business-class flights, and less out of pocket than budget honeymoons! And the best part is taking “honeymoon-level” trips every single year—because why limit luxury travel to just one trip?
If you're planning a honeymoon or dreaming about a do-over, this episode is a must-listen! Tune in now and start planning your dream trip for less!
Links:
How to Get Your Next Vacation for Nearly Free: How to Get Your Next Vacation for Nearly Free -https://travelmomsquad.lpages.co/freevacation
- Links For All Things Travel Mom Squad: stan.store/travelmomsquad
Episode Minute By Minute:
- 00:30 – Walking down memory lane: How we booked our honeymoons pre-points & miles
- 01:40 – Pam’s honeymoon: A road trip, Disneyland on Christmas, and a car breakdown
- 07:00 – What Pam would do differently today: A dream Greece trip on points
- 13:00 – Alex’s honeymoon: A football schedule, Park City, and a timeshare in Cabo
- 17:00 – How Alex would redo her honeymoon for $22 with points
- 22:00 – Jess’s honeymoon: Economy flights to Europe and a budget hotel in Paris
- 26:30 – Jess’s dream honeymoon today: Emirates first class and Italian luxury hotels
- 31:00 – The best honeymoon strategy: Use wedding expenses to earn free travel
- 33:00 – Why every year can feel like a honeymoon with points and miles
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Do you ever wish you'd gotten started on your points and miles journey sooner? |
| 0:03.6 | We sure do. |
| 0:04.4 | Today, we're each looking back on our honeymoons and how things would be different now if we |
| 0:08.3 | were planning them with the help of points and miles. |
| 0:10.8 | Welcome to Points Talk with the Travel Mom Squad. |
| 0:13.7 | We are three moms who've discovered how to leverage credit card welcome offers to get hundreds |
| 0:18.4 | of thousands of dollars of travel expenses for nearly free. |
| 0:21.6 | We've used credit card points of miles to take vacations to places like Hawaii, Paris, Greece, Maldives, Japan, and so much more. |
| 0:29.6 | And the best part? We each still have 800 plus credit scores. Imagine being able to take the vacation of your dreams for nearly free. It's totally |
| 0:38.6 | possible and we're here to show you how. Hey, I'm Alex and I'm Pam, Alex's mom. And I'm Jess. |
| 0:46.9 | Let's Talk Points. So this episode is coming out the week of Valentine's Day and I thought it |
| 0:53.1 | would be really fun to take a walk down |
| 0:56.3 | memory lane and talk about our honeymoons then and now. So basically the honeymoon we booked |
| 1:02.5 | when we got married, spoiler, none of us had discovered points and miles at that time. And so |
| 1:10.0 | there were no business class flights or luxury hotel |
| 1:14.0 | stays to be had by any of us at that point. And then kind of compare it to if we were planning |
| 1:19.6 | our honeymoon today, how things would be different. And I think you're going to be really |
| 1:22.7 | surprised at how much we would spend out of pocket today versus what we spent way back when. |
| 1:29.8 | So Pam is going to kick it off. |
| 1:31.7 | We're going to go married longest to less longest to soonest. |
| 1:36.7 | So Pam is going to kick it off. |
| 1:40.0 | Okay. |
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