From Paris, to the World Cup, to Prague, via Dublin

Paris > Dublin > Doha > Prague for under $150

Here’s how I’ve been utilizing my points this month to help you see them working in real-life scenarios:

Paris to Qatar for the World Cup, then onto Prague

1. Researched and found the best deal for our dates, requiring just 52,000 Avios and $100 a person. The cheapest flight I could find without points for our dates was over $800 each.

2. I had 18,000 points in my British Airways Account, so I needed another 34,000

3. Capital One had a transfer bonus for BA. My girlfriend has the Venture X, so I had her send 29,000 points to my account. With the bonus, I got 5,800 extra points, taking me just over the required 34,000

4. I booked one flight from Paris to Dublin for 8,000 points and $100. I chose Dublin instead of London because the UK is notorious for its high airport fees and taxes, which would have cost almost an extra $400. Dublin is not part of the UK, so it has far less.

5. Unfortunately, the only award flight to Doha from Dublin was the next day, so we’ll need to stay in a hotel in the city overnight. Thankfully, our Capital One Venture X has a $300 travel credit that we need to use by the end of the year, so we grabbed a free hotel in the center of Dublin.

6. I then booked the Dublin to Doha leg, which cost 44,000 points and $90 for both tickets.

7. The last flight in December is from Doha to Prague. I was a little lazy but still found a flight on United Airlines for just 25,000 points and $45 each. I transferred the points from my Chase Account, as I’d just received my intro bonus for my Chase Sapphire Prefered card. If I’d used Turkish Airlines, I could have gotten them far cheaper, but I just didn’t want to deal with the call centers they require you to use.

All in all, I grabbed a short trip to Dublin with a free hotel, flights from Europe to the Middle East during the busiest period of travel Qatar has ever seen, and flights back out to Prague for Christmas, all for just under $150 a person. All the flights together would have been around $1600 a person.