7 nights in London and Norway for 100,000 points: Mountains, fjords and ferries (Tim’s 100K Vacay Journal)

Congrats to Stephen Pepper, who deservedly won the 2025 Frequent Miler Annual Challenge, 100K Vacay! The goal this year was for us to compete to see who could plan the best vacation using no more than 100,000 points and $1,000 in cash. All of our lodging and our international flights had to be paid for entirely in points; we could only use cash for activities, food, and local/regional transport.

Each contestant used one transferable currency: Nick gets Amex Membership Rewards, Stephen gets Capital One Miles, and I’m using Citi ThankYou Rewards.

I had planned a 7-night trip through London and Norway, but unfortunately had to go back after my first night due to a death in my family. However, I promised readers a full itinerary of what I had planned, and for those interested, here it is.

I had several goals for this trip, based on wanting to showcase a broadly applicable, invigorating trip for someone who only has 100,000 points and one week to spend. They included:

• I wanted my trip to be at least five nights. Three nights are a long weekend. A getaway. A bank holiday. But, not a vacation. So, for my trip, I set myself a goal to travel (and lodge) for a minimum of five nights (I ended up using all seven).
• I wanted to feature at least two popular destinations. In order to cover more area (and make it more challenging), I wanted to visit at least two countries that are popular with North Americans. The additional transit will put more strain on my modest resources, but will hopefully show off even more interesting places that can be visited on the cheap.
• I want to visit expensive destinations and still get value. It’s easy to do a cheap vacation to an inexpensive destination, but what about getting value in notoriously expensive ones? Now that’s a bit more challenging. So I want my two destinations to be among the fifteen most expensive countries to visit for Americans (see list here).
• I want elite perks that don’t require elite status. I’m supposed to show what can be done with 100,000 points only and make it as broadly applicable as possible, so I’m not going to take advantage of any elite statuses that I have, unless an average reader of Frequent Miler could have gotten the same status without having to travel or spend any money.

Want to find out how I would have done? Check out my 100K Vacay Journal below.

What is the 100K Vacay challenge? Nick, Stephen, and Tim each picked a different transferable points currency they think can compete with Greg’s 100K Chase Ultimate Rewards points, each trying to beat Greg’s 100K Vacay with one of their own. Unfortunately Tim's trip came to an early end due to an unavoidable need back home, so it's up to Nick and Stephen to see this challenge through.

Tim’s Activities and Total Costs (table)

For the TLDR crowd, here’s a day-by-day breakdown of most of my planned activities and all the associated costs. Whenever possible, I’ve linked to specific attractions, hotel rooms, etc.

In total, my trip using Citi ThankYou Points featured:

• 7 nights in London and Norway, all in better-than-standard room categories
• Flights between Europe and the US in premium economy and economy delight
• Terrific theater tickets in London; a Fjord and mountain tour in Bergen, Norway (along with some incredible hiking); and fine dining, bike-riding, and a ferry tour of the islands of Oslofjord
• An actual out-of-pocket cost of $736 and 97,115 Citi Points
• The total cash value of the points portion of my trip was $5,474, for a total value of 5.64 cents per Citi point.
• I didn’t use any elite status benefits outside of this one that was available to any reader of Frequent Miler.

Tim’s 100K Full Trip Journal

October 1st (Day One – A private terrace in London)

New York in the morning, London in the evening

And we’re off! Or I am, anyway.

Although the official kickoff livestream for 100K Vacay starts tonight at 9 pm EST, our travel window started this morning at 12:01 am. My goal was to treat this challenge as though I had a week of vacation to use, and in order to maximize it, I wanted to utilize day 1 in some way.

I have a special distaste for overnight transatlantic flights from the East Coast, primarily because they’re too short to eat, sleep, and wake up rested. I’ve spent many bleary days after arriving in London, Dublin, Reykjavik, or Paris early in the morning with my body plagued by the twin terrors of jet lag and 2 hours of fitful sleep.

There are a handful of daytime flights to Europe that are available from the East Coast, and I’ve always wanted to try one. Jet lag would still be an issue when you’re transiting five time zones, of course, but arriving in the evening and sleeping in a ground-level bed would be a novel pleasure. 100K Vacay provided the perfect opportunity to finally sample one.

By far, the most affordable option on points (at its cheapest) is Virgin Atlantic’s flight from JFK to London-Heathrow that leaves ~8 am in New York and arrives in London ~8 pm on the same day. I was hoping to snag a premium economy seat, as I’ve seen them as low as 13,000-14,000 miles one-way, but after looking for a week or so, availability was insufferably ironic: there was a premium economy seat for 15k available on September 30th, and one for 14k on October 2nd. Heck, there was even an overnight seat available for 14k on October 1st. But the 8 am flight was 22k.

Determined to keep costs at a minimum, I booked an economy seat for 6,000 miles and $76 in fees (a 30% transfer bonus took the total down to 4,615 Citi points).

Skyrockets in flight…economy delight?

 

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Virgin allows you to upgrade an economy seat to any available premium economy seat by paying the difference in miles and taxes/fees. I hoped I could upgrade it later. No such luck.

However, fortune didn’t completely frown on me.

I wasn’t relishing the idea of spending six hours in an economy seat, daytime or no, but choosing an exit row seat for the flight was ~$95…almost 10% of my total cash budget. That’s a little rich for this 100K vacationer, so I kept an eye on availability, hoping that I might be able to snag a seat change for free at the gate before the flight. After all, my buddy Nick Reyes says that you miss 100% of balls you don’t swing at.

On the morning of departure, it looked like there were still a couple of exit rows available, so I went to the gate and asked if there was any chance I could be moved to one. No dice. They had just assigned them to other passengers.

However, economy class was overbooked, so they were moving some folks around. The agent took pity on me and my bionic hip and moved me across the aisle from a staid, boring economy seat into an “Economy Delight” seat (“skyrockets in flight“). At first, I thought she was having a joke at my expense, but they’re actually a thing, if a horribly named one.

It’s effectively just a regular, ole economy seat with extra legroom and priority boarding, sort of the Virgin equivalent of Delta’s Comfort+. Even better, I had “Reyes Economy Delight” because the seat next to me was vacant…so I was able to stretch out my legs AND cross them if I wanted to. What a…delight.

I arrived in London a mere five hours and forty-two minutes later, just before 8 o’clock local time. It was so strange to arrive in the evening with a (hopefully) good night’s sleep still in my future. After my livestream at 2 am local, of course.

Take the A, B, or C train

There are three primary trains from Heathrow Airport to London. The first is the Heathrow Express, which takes around 25 minutes and costs ~$33. The second is the Elizabeth Line, which is slightly longer (-35 minutes), but half the price at ~$17. The third is the regular Picadilly Line, which makes just shy of 720 stops and takes around an hour…but for the bargain price of ~$10.

The Picadilly Line would normally have been my modest budget choice, but there’s an even better way. At the Elizabeth Line station (not online), you can buy a 24-hour Off-Peak Underground Pass for $3-4 more than the one-way Elizabeth Line fare. That would allow me to take the fast(er) train into London tonight, and have all my local transport covered for this evening and tomorrow evening. Score.

A suite with a private terrace for 12,500 points…in London?!?

One of my favorite parts about using Citi points for lodging is that there are often opportunities to book yourself into non-standard rooms, whether that be through Accor, Leaders Club, I Prefer, or Choice. Sometimes, with Choice and I Prefer, you can even get upgraded rooms for the same price as a standard room. Getting some of those “upgraded” room awards was one of my goals for this trip, and I found a marvelous example in Central London.

London is an expensive place to stay. $300-400/night seems to be the starting point these days. When I was researching options, I came across the Mandeville Hotel, a 4-star property in Marylebone, which is a posh neighbourhood in Central London. Not only does it have a great location and is a great value for only 50,000 I Prefer points, it often has multiple room types available for the same standard award price.

On the two nights that I was looking to stay, the top-floor, 2-level “Terrace Suite” was available for ~$900/night…or 50,000 I Prefer points. Since Citi transfers to I Prefer at a 1:4 ratio, that means that I could book myself into that suite for only 12,500 points per night. By comparison, the Hyatt Regency Churchill, about three blocks away, commands an average rate of 35,000 points per night…for a standard room.

The private terrace had a remote control heat lamp, a view of the cathedral next door, and seemed like an ideal place from which to join the livestream (you can find the video of a full room tour here):

Chilling out at Outernet and a moonlight walk on the Thames

Once I got to London, I had a few hours to kill before the kickoff YouTube livestream that started at 2 am local time, so I decided to go out in search of some cultural stimulation and doner kebab.

For me, one of the great treats of London is the food, just not the British kind (sorry Stephen Pepper). Due to its vast historical influence around the globe, London is a melting pot of delectable international flavors: Indian, Malaysian, Middle Eastern, and more. That’s what I seek out when I’m in the city, and that’s what I was looking for once I got settled at the hotel.

I had heard of an excellent Turkish place just a few blocks away, so I visited and tucked into a massive wrap of lamb, salads, tzatziki, and chili sauce. Let me tell you, after sampling Virgin Atlantic’s economy fare, this stuff was epic.

Afterwards, I walked over to Outernet, a recent addition to the West End that focuses on performing and digital arts. Two free spaces exhibit a rotating series of 20-30 digital installations. It was awesome. There’s one installation that allows you to name digital figures walking under the multi-colored rain falling from the ceiling. See if you can guess which one I did:

 

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Afterwards, I went down to the River Thames and took the opportunity for a fabulous moonlit walk. It was the perfect way to end the day.

Here are my total costs from day 1:

October 2nd (Day Two – curry puffs, street art, and killer theater tickets)

Breakfast for free, from free status

One of my goals for this challenge was that I didn’t want to take advantage of any elite statuses that I have, unless an average reader of Frequent Miler could have gotten the same status without having to travel or spend any money. Savvy readers with a memory much, much better than mine might recall this post of Nick’s last year, where anyone could get iPrefer Titanium status through 2025 without a match. I read his post and have that shiny Titanium status to prove it.

Normally, the Mandeville Hotel doesn’t provide free breakfast on points bookings, but I Prefer Titanium members are supposed to get a food and beverage amenity. Preferred Hotels and Resorts even sent me a handy confirmation email clearly stating it. When I checked into the hotel, I asked if I could have breakfast as my f&b amenity and the front desk agent kindly obliged.

This deal is dead, so it isn’t replicable, strictly speaking. However, any Frequent Miler reader could have done it, and I thought it was a great example to encourage folks to take advantage of free status opportunities, even when you don’t know whether or not you’ll use them.

Mummies, award-winning pasta, and the best views in London

London is an incredibly expensive city, but it also has a massive amount of free attractions. I’ve been to London many times over the years, and I’ve always wanted to see the mummies at the British Museum. But I never have. So, after breakfast, and armed with my off-peak travel card, the plan was to head to the British Museum (which has free entrance), and remedy that previous oversight.

After the mummies, I was going to head over the Borough Market, one of London’s best markets for food. My first stop would be at Padella Pasta, an acclaimed fresh pasta restaurant that usually runs a long waitlist. It’s located in the market, so my plan was to join the waitlist, then tour around the market until my spot came up. I was planning to do some interviews with vendors at the market to get some “local exposure.”

Many cities have tall buildings that offer dramatic views across the skyscrapers and buildings (the Eiffel Tower, Tokyo’s Sky Tree, etc). London’s no different. However, it is very unique in that two of the best options are free: Horizon 22 and the Sky Garden. Both of them require tickets that must be booked in advance. I had already been to the Sky Garden, so I was able to snag early-afternoon Horizon 22 tickets. The views look spectacular.

Street artists and secret gardens

After savoring the views, I was going to jump back in and cross the river to visit the Leake Street Art Tunnel. This is a famous graffiti zone started by the renowned street artist, Banksy. From the sounds of it, there’s always some fantastic artists creating something, so my plan was to check it out and hopefully find one that would let me take some video of them.

I knew that my energy might be starting to lag by that point, so my next stop would be for a coffee at the Queen Elizabeth Rooftop Garden, a pocket garden on top of Queen Elizabeth Hall. There is a cafe there, which seemed like the perfect place to stop for a coffee. The garden was started with two aims: two provide a green oasis in the middle of the city, and as a “Grounded Ecotherapy” program for folks in various stages of recovery. After my coffee, I had arranged an opportunity to learn about the program, which I was then planning to share.

London’s best curry puffs and 9th-row theatre tickets

Along with New York City, London’s West End is undoubtedly one of the world’s centers for English-language theater. I love seeing shows there, as the venues tend to be smaller than Broadway, so even “bad” tickets are often comparatively decent. But I didn’t want bad tickets.

London’s West End has the same sort of discounted last-minute ticket opportunities as Broadway. The difference between the two is that, in London, the last-minute seats that they sell are incredible. Some shows offer lotteries where you can confirm seats in advance, others offer “rush tickets” that can be purchased via an app like TodayTix, usually at ~10 AM the morning of the performance. I love Roald Dahl, and was deciding between going to the Tim Minchin-penned “Mathilda” or waiting for rush tickets for the Stranger Things stage show.

I ended up being selected for the Mathilda lottery, so I decided a ticket in the hand was worth two in the “rush.” The seats that I bought for $33 were in the 9th row and would have cost ~$130 if purchased in advance.

During a previous challenge, Nick sampled (and fell in love with) some famous Michelin-starred curry puffs in Singapore. As a fedora-tip to Nick, I was going to stop by for a quick, pre-theater dinner at Old Chang Kee, supposedly the best curry puffs outside of Singapore.

You can’t go to London and not stop by the pub, so I planned to end the night by grabbing a pint after Mathilda.

Here are my total costs from day 2:

October 3rd, 2025 (Day Three – On to Norway with dinner included)

London to Bergen on Norwegian Air

After breakfast, I’d need to take the Thameslink train out to Gatwick Airport so I could fly to my next destination, Bergen, Norway. Norwegian Air flies a non-stop between the two airports, and I was able to get a ticket with a carry-on included for only $73 out of pocket. Oddly, booking.com was selling the flight with a carry-on for about $10 less than when buying directly from Norwegian Air. I was able to get 10% instant cashback by using a virtual Fluz debit card with a booking.com promo to make the purchase, and stacked that with an additional 6% cashback via the shopping portal RetailMeNot.

The best hotel deal in Bergen

Norway is known for being incredibly expensive when it comes to food. Choice Privileges’ partnership with Home Hotels offers a terrific way to counterbalance that, as each of the brand’s properties offers free breakfast, dinner, and fika (afternoon tea, coffee, and pastries).

Bergen has an excellent Home Hotel: the Hotel Havnekontoret, a well-reviewed harborfront hotel in a historic building (that also happens to have a private tower with great views over Bergen). Booking with Choice points allowed me to select both standard and superior rooms. The best feature of the superior rooms is that some have a water view, so I requested (and was confirmed into) one from the hotel in advance. I booked the hotel for 15,000 Choice points per night, or 7,500 Citi points, since Citi offers 1:2 transfers to Choice. The cash cost of my dates was just under $300 per night at the time that I booked, making it a sensational value for only 7,500 Citi points.

After dinner, I planned to take a moonlit walk along Bergen’s harbor and make it an early night. I would have a big day tomorrow.

Here are my total costs from day 3:

October 4th, 2025 (Day Four – Fjords and Flåm )

A tour I’ve always wanted to take

Since my time in Bergen would be short, I wanted to find a tour that would allow me to cruise the fjords, get into the mountains, and visit some of the area’s smaller villages. I settled on this one, which looked awesome. It is an all-day tour that includes a Nærøyfjord cruise, a visit to the famous Stegastein Viewpoint and Tvindefoss waterfall, lunch, and a couple of mountain villages, including Flåm. I was very excited for it.

At the time of booking, I wasn’t sure which night we’d be doing the FM live check-in, so I booked two tickets for back-to-back dates. At the time, there was a $50 off $250 Amex Offer for Viator, and it could be used twice. Since each ticket was $250, I ended up getting two $50 credits…both of which stuck after I cancelled the date that I didn’t need. I was also able to stack the Amex Offer with a 25% cashback deal from the shopping portal TopCashBack. All together, that took the out-of-pocket cost of my $250 tour down to $87. What a deal.

The van left at 7 am, and I wouldn’t get back to the hotel until ~6 pm, so my plan was to get a quick (free) dinner and then grab a quick nap before the check-in at midnight local time.

Here are my total costs from day 4:

October 5th, 2025 (Day Five – Cable cars, jazz, sensational hiking)

Floibanen Funicular, lunch on Mt Floyen

Along with yesterday’s fjord tour, this was the day that I was most looking forward to. After breakfast and some work, I was going to take the well-known Floibanen Funicular to the top of Mount Floyen, which would also be the start of my planned hike.

There is a moderately-priced, cafeteria-style restaurant on the top, so I planned to break for lunch and enjoy the views before I got started.

Hiking from Mount Floyen to Mount Ulricken 

One of the most famous hikes in Norway, and one that I’ve always wanted to do, is the 8-mile Vidden Trail that connects the Floibanen Funicular with the Mount Ulricken Cable Car. Along the way, it passes some incredible mountain lakes and fjord views.

The end of the hike would be the Mt Ulricken Cable Car, a cable car from the top of the tallest mountain that you can see from Bergen. From there, I’d bus back to the hotel. After partaking in the hotel’s free dinner, I’d end the evening with a jazz show at the Bergen Jazzforum.

Here are my total costs from day 5:

October 6th, 2025 (Day Six – Two ways to catch a Thief)

Reindeer sausage and old Bergen

Before making my way to the train station, I was going to take a walk down to Gamle Bergen, an “old town” museum area of Bergen. Although you have to pay to go into the old houses, it’s free to walk around. On the way back to the hotel, I planned on stopping by the famous sausage stand, 3-Kroneren, for a reindeer sausage. Oddly enough, they offer complimentary fruit punch with any sausage order.

Crossing Norway on rail from Bergen to Oslo 

One of the most renowned train rides in all of Europe, and perhaps the most famous in Norway, is the trip from Bergen to Oslo. It cuts through the center of Norway and Hardangervidda National Park and across the Hardangervidda plateau, which is Europe’s largest high mountain plateau. It takes between 6.5-7 hours to get from Bergen to Oslo, so I booked it to leave Bergen just before lunch and arrive in Oslo just before sunset, allowing me to enjoy the full length during daylight hours.

A room with a view…of Oslofjord

My last hotel stop of the trip was The Thief, in Oslo, considered by many to be one of the best boutique hotels in the city. It’s located on the small island of Tjuvholmen, which used to be used as a place to imprison and hang thieves.

The Thief was available for 20,000 points per night via Choice (10,000 Citi points), or 50,000 points through Preferred Hotels (12,500 Citi points). However, Preferred Hotels allowed me to book a Deluxe Room with a fjord-view balcony, whereas Choice only had standard rooms. I figured that if I booked one night with I Prefer points and the second with Choice, they would just combine the two and allow me to keep the same room. I was right.

For the nights that I was there, the Deluxe Room was selling for ~$460/night.

Dinner and some spa time

The Thief offers a ton of freebies (which I’ll describe tomorrow), and was another place where my I Prefer Titanium status came in handy, as I received a $50 food and beverage voucher along with a free, 90-minute visit to the Spa. Both of these would sound great after an all-day train ride. The restaurant is supposedly quite good (and isn’t inexpensive), but by using the $50 credit, I could turn a meal with a cost of ~$75 into an affordable, $25 value.

Here are my total costs from day 6:

October 7th, 2025 (Day Seven – A tour of Oslofjord and a seafood feast)

A modern art morning

I love modern art museums, and the Astrup Fearnley Museum looks like a sweet one. It’s right across from The Thief, and entrance is free for all Thief hotel guests. After breakfast, I planned to stop by and take a look.

Touring the islands of Oslofjord for less than $5

Several public ferries ply the waters of the Oslofjord, including one that visits four different islands. The complete circuit takes around an hour, and a ticket is only $4.50. The ferry dock is a short walk from the hotel, so after finishing up at the Astrup Fearnley Museum, I was going to head over for a boat ride. 

Each of the various islands looks fun to explore, but I was planning to get off and take a stroll around Hovedøya, which has forests, beaches, a Cistercian monastery, and old Norwegian Army gunpowder depots. My original ferry ticket would have expired by the time I was done, so I’d have to buy a second for the rest of the loop, for a total cost of $9.

A bike tour of Oslo and Norway’s most visited attraction

The Thief provides complimentary bike rentals for guests, so after the ferry ride, I was going to go back, get a bike from the hotel, and use it to take Rick Steve’s bike tour of the main sights along the Oslo harborfront. There’s a 7-mile promenade that’s known to be a great place for biking and to take in most of the main sites.

After the harborfront tour, my last stop would be Frogner Park, which is home to Vigeland Sculpture Park, which claims to be Norway’s most-visited attraction. Gustav Vigeland is a well-known sculptor who lived and worked in Oslo in the early 20th century. He installed over 200 sculptures in Frogner Park, and some are integrated into the surrounding trees and foliage. It looks incredible.

Feasting on seafood for my final night

Oslo is known for incredible seafood, and there are several different waterfront restaurants that specialize in ocean creatures. Most of them have changing menus based on what they have in-house that day, and I was going to peruse that evening’s menus and pick the one that sounded the best, for a last-night, splash-out seafood feast.

Here are my total costs from day 7:

October 8th, 2025 (Premium economy from Europe to the US for less than $100 and 25K)

SAS premium economy from Oslo to Newark (via Flying Blue)

I knew that getting home would be tough, given my cash budget, as flights from many European airports can have copious amounts of departure taxes added on. Since I wanted to spend 7 nights in Europe, I needed a flight that returned to New York on the 8th, had moderate fees, AND was less than 30,000 Citi Points. I found the perfect option: SAS Premium Economy from Oslo to Newark, booked using Flying Blue Miles.

I was really, really surprised to see how good SAS pricing was on Flying Blue…especially the fees. Most premium economy fares from Europe to the US were cheaper than Air France economy tickets on the same day. Not only that, but the fees were lower. I was able to find the exact non-stop flight that I wanted from Oslo to Newark for only 27,000 miles and $88 in fees. Thanks to a 20% transfer bonus from Citi to Flying Blue, the actual cost was only 22,500 Citi points.

The cash cost of a one-way flight was an absurd $2263, but a round-trip could be booked for $2800, so for my costs, I accounted for it as a $1400 flight.

SAS Premium Economy isn’t going to make anyone forget about Qsuites, but on a daytime flight to the US, it’s more than suitable. For 22,500 points, it’s a steal.

The flight was scheduled to arrive in New York just after 1 pm local, giving me plenty of time to make it to my hotel in time for the challenge’s final live check-in…and maybe even time for a quick nap.

Here are my total costs from day 8:

September 1st, 2025 (one month before the start of the challenge)

It’s September 1st, which means we’re one month to the day from the beginning of the 2025 Frequent Miler Annual Challenge. This year, we’re calling it “100K Vacay.”

The goal is for us to compete to see who can plan the best vacation using no more than 100,000 points and $1,000 in cash. All of our lodging and our international flights have to be paid for entirely in points; we can only use cash for activities, food, and local/regional transport. Each contestant can only use one transferable currency: Nick gets Amex Membership Rewards, Stephen gets Capital One Miles, and I’m using Citi ThankYou Rewards.

Carrie and Greg will judge between the three contestants, awarding points for style, affordability, unique leverage (i.e., the use of unique aspects of each transferable points currency), and applicability (i.e., uses of points that are of use to many people).

All three of us have been planning furiously (or in some cases, “more relaxedly”), but we’re a month out, so it’s getting to be crunch time. After a couple of months of surveying the pointscape and mulling over the task of creating the perfect 100K vacation, I’m seeing the faintest outline of a “Strata-gy” begin to appear.

My approach to the 100k Vacay challenge

I tend to be more of a “spirit” vs the “letter” of the law kind of guy; I imagine many points and milers are. The last challenge that I participated in, Flying by the Seat of our Points, was focused on last-minute travel. Which contestant would better manage jetting across the globe in style when they only had 24 hours’ notice to get there?

As part of that challenge, Greg asked us to write a post saying how we were preparing, and my first thought was, “Is it part of the spirit of a ‘last-minute travel challenge’ to prepare?” I thought not.

So, I spent some time thinking about what the conditions would be for me to play the game as though I actually had found out that I needed to be somewhere in 24 hours, then go from there. You can read what I how decided to do that here, but I had a lot of fun on the challenge by not reading the fine print terms and conditions, and instead going by what I thought most honored the “spirit” of the challenge.

This time around, I asked myself, “What is a 100k Vacay?”

What is a 100k vacation anyway?

When the FM Team was first discussing this challenge, we were debating between two different names: “100k Vacay” or “100k Getaway.” We eventually decided on the former, the idea being that it was more impressive (and difficult) to plan an entire vacation than a simple “getaway.” That’s also part of the reason that we chose to only give each contestant one week to do all of their travel, since many people don’t have the luxury to choose exactly when their vacation days fall.

But, I’m still a little fixated on the whole “vacation” word. What do our trips need to look like for the average Greg or Carrie to be convinced that we pulled off a killer vacay with Style, Affordability, Leverage, and Broad Applicability?

I’ve got some ideas, based on that “broad applicability” goal for this challenge.

It needs to be at least five nights

Officially, in order for our trips to pass muster, they need to be at least three nights. However, what would you say if I were to tell you that I was going on vacation for three days?

Probably something along the lines of, “Not a very long vacation, is it?” You’d be right.

Three nights are a long weekend. A getaway. A bank holiday. But, not a vacation. So, for my trip, I’m setting myself a goal to travel (and lodge) for a minimum of five nights.

It needs to feature at least two popular destinations.

Our resources are limited to 100k points and $1,000. My natural first thought was, “Where can I go where the dollar is strong and where my points will go the furthest?”

However, I quickly decided against doing that.

A big value of this contest is broad applicability, and many of those budget destinations just aren’t popular or easy to get to for folks in North America, especially in a week’s time. Instead, I want to concentrate on the most sought-after destinations for North Americans.

In order to cover more area (and make it more challenging), I want to visit at least two of those countries. The additional transit will put more strain on my modest resources, but will hopefully show off even more interesting places that can be visited on the cheap.

I need to get at least $4,000 in value from my points

It’s easy to do a cheap vacation to an inexpensive destination, but what about getting value in notoriously expensive ones?

Now that’s a bit more challenging.

Asher & Lyric regularly publishes a “Budget Travel Index” which breaks down the costs of a 5-night trip to the 100 most popular tourist destinations in the world. It then grades them from “A+” to “F,” based on affordability.

There are currently 17 countries that have an “F” grade, and that’s where I want to concentrate my effort. If you average the Asher & Lyric trip cost among all 17 of them, it leads to a total of ~$5,000 for an entire trip. That seems like a good benchmark.

I want to visit at least two of those “F” countries, and since I have $1,000 in cash to work with, I need to get at least $4,000 in value out of my points in order to hit that $5K average. That works out to an average redemption value of 4 cents per point.

Now, this is starting to sound like a challenge!

It should have elite perks without needing elite status

Every time we do a challenge, we have a debate: “Should we show off elite perks?”

All of us on the team have elite status in many hotel and airline programs, and lounge access from credit cards. But that’s not most people’s situation. The more common scenario is maybe one or two hotel statuses from credit cards, or a low-to-mid-level hotel status.

In this case, I’m supposed to show what can be done with 100,000 points only and make it as broadly applicable as possible, so I’m not going to take advantage of any elite statuses that I have, unless an average reader of Frequent Miler could have gotten the same status without having to travel or spend any money.

That doesn’t mean that I’m not going to bling out, however. I want included breakfast! Hotel suites! Free snacks and welcome amenities! My challenge is to show it can be done, even if you’re not a Hyatt Globalist or a Hilton Diamond.

It needs to be comfortable

There are a lot of ways to travel around the world. The older I get and the more joints I replace, the less comfortable many of them are.

For instance, I can’t sleep in economy airplane seats, and sleep comes at a premium during these challenges. Nick and Stephen have an incredible superpower, where they can almost instantly snooze away the moment they sit down in a plane, train, or ox-drawn cart. I’m the exact opposite. I have an occupationally inconvenient inability to fall asleep in any sort of upright position, regardless of how tired I am.

Because of this, I’m going to make a solemn vow: I will not darken the economy cabin of a single overnight flight.

Why I chose Citi ThankYou Points for 100k Vacay

I’ve long been a huge fan of Citi ThankYou Points, despite their historical reputation as the homely black sheep of transferable currencies (although that’s changing a lot now that Citi has a new premium card and transfers 1:1 to American Airlines). Chase and Amex boasted more well-known transfer partners and bigger welcome offers, the combination of which has made them much more sexy in the eyes of most points-huggers.

Citi’s reputation was so bad that when we first started talking about each contestant choosing a single rewards currency for this challenge, a certain team-member-who-won’t-be-named exclaimed, “That would be fun, but who would take Citi Points and only get 1.6 cents each for hotels!?” I knew I had to defend my favorite, underappreciated points’ besmirched honor, so I volunteered. Given my goals, I’m very pleased about that choice.

I think that I’ll be able to squeeze a “Strata-spheric” amount of fun using my stash of 100k ThankYou Points. Here are a few reasons why.

Citi ThankYou Rewards has several unique hotel partnerships that are excellent

I’ve said for some time that I think Citi’s hotel partners are the best of any other currency, with the exception of Chase Ultimate Rewards’ ability to transfer 1:1 to Hyatt. However, it gets much less attention because the only big brands it has are Choice Privileges and Wyndham Rewards. But there’s plenty of opportunity here.

Choice has some excellent properties overseas, and Citi points transfer 1:2, making many interesting locations available for 5-15k points. Transfers to Preferred Hotels are 1:4, meaning excellent redemptions can start at ~7.5k Citi points per night. Leading Hotels of the World has some drool-worthy hotels and averages around 1.6-1.8 cents per point in value (or better with a transfer bonus), while Wyndham transfers to both Cottages.com and Vacasa can be a marvelous use of points for vacation rentals.

Several of these programs allow you to book multiple room types with points, sometimes at the same price as a standard room, a feature that will come in very handy when trying to show accessible bling. To my mind, Citi’s lodging partners are my biggest advantage over Nick and Stephen and the biggest reason that I wanted to take ThankYou Points for a whirl.

What Citi lacks in transfer bonus quantity, it makes up for in quality

Citi has a fraction of the annual transfer bonuses that Chase and Amex strut out. However, they usually tend to do at least one per year for many of their partners. In this challenge, we can take advantage of transfer bonuses in order to stay under 100K, the one caveat being that they have to happen during the “planning phase” of our trip (essentially April-October).

Here’s what I’ve had access to so far:

• 25% transfer bonus to Avianca LifeMiles
• 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
• 30% transfer bonus to Qatar Privilege Club Avios
• 25% transfer bonus to Wyndham
• 20% transfer bonus to Air France KLM Flying Blue
• 50% transfer bonus to Accor Live Limitless
• 25% transfer bonus to Leading Hotels of the World

Now, we don’t see a lot of the 35-40% numbers that Nick gets with Amex, or that Greg can take advantage of with Chase during his “setting the example” trip. However, I’ve still had the opportunity to take advantage of bonuses on Star Alliance (via Avianca), SkyTeam (via Virgin and Flying Blue ), and oneworld (via Avios) flights. I may have to be a bit more creative, but hey, you can’t spell “creative” without eat, and I love eating.

Even without American, Citi’s airline partners aren’t that bad

Now that Citi transfers to American Airlines 1:1, they’ve become much more desirable for air travel. However, when we picked these currencies, none of us knew that transfers to AA would be possible before the challenge. Due to that, and in the interest of fairness, I’m not going to be transferring any points to AA.

That said, even without AA, there are some excellent partners. I’ve used EVA Air’s points a few times to go between the US and Asia, and the combination of price and business class availability from Seattle is unbeatable. However, I don’t know that I’ll have the budget for a 75k lie-flat flight to Asia on this trip.

Flying Blue can offer some surprising value between Europe and other regions, especially when using its monthly Promo Rewards. Qatar gives me access to the entire coterie of Avios programs, while Virgin Atlantic opens up decent pricing on some SkyTeam awards along with rock-bottom prices on flights between the US and Europe (albeit with significant surcharges). Avianca gets a deservedly bad rap for the serpentine phone tree and maze of bad IT that it calls “customer service,” but it still has an enviable list of sweet spots on Star Alliance awards.

Without AA, I’m certainly not going to argue that Citi has the best airline partners. That would probably be Amex Membership Rewards. But I think there’s enough here to keep me competitive, especially when combined with Citi’s lodging partners.

Final Thoughts

Now, those who’ve already read Nick’s and Stephen’s strategy posts will notice that my approach is a little different. My hope is that my dedication to embracing the spirit of planning a 100K Vacay while maximizing Style, Affordability, Unique Leverage, and Broad Applicability will give me some extra “Strata-s” points in the eyes of our two esteemed judges (Greg and Carrie). After all, they’re a tough crowd.

Regardless of who emerges with the (non-existent) challenge crown, I think this year will be a fun one and hopefully broaden all of our notions of what’s possible with 100,000 points

Join Team Tim (Subscribe to this Post)

When the challenge begins, I’ll be updating this post regularly. This will be my daily journal where I’ll document my plans, successes, and failures as I go along. I welcome any help that I can get and would love to hear any ideas that you’d like to share with me!

Perhaps you’ll know a particularly great sweet-spot award or hotel deal that I can take advantage of with my Citi Points. Maybe you’ll have other advice for one of my destinations: how to get around cheaply, where to eat yummy food at delicious prices, or free and low-cost activities that will make Nick and Stephen jealous.

If you’re interested in helping me, then commenting at the bottom of this post is how to do it. Also, by subscribing to this post’s comments, you’ll get emailed whenever someone (including me) adds a comment.

Each of the contestants will have a post like this one where everyone is welcome to participate by making suggestions in the comments. You can pick a single person to follow (Nick, Stephen, or me), or you can click back and forth and help us all. Either way, we’re eager to hear from you!

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