Start of seventh month:
March 18 – 20: Airbnb condo in Santa Croce, Florence. Free with our Airbnb credits. Avoided cost $233.
Mar 20 – 22: NH Collection Murano Villa. After using two Amex The Hotel Collection $300 credits, our cost was $92. Our avoided cost was $703.
Mar 22-24: Airbnb apartment in Verona, Paid $49 + Airbnb credits. Avoided cost $227.
Mar 24 – 26: Airbnb in Modena. Free with our Airbnb credits. Avoided cost $233.
Mar 26 – 28: Airbnb in Vernazza (Cinque Terre). Paid $402 (ran out of free Airbnb credits).
Mar 28 – 29: Rome – Part 2. Rome Cavalieri, A Waldorf Astoria Hotel. After using Amex Fine hotels and Resorts credits, our cost was $105. Avoided cost $783.
March 29-30: Rome Cavalieri, A Waldorf Astoria Hotel (Vista Suite King room). After using Amex Fine hotels and Resorts credits, our cost was $515. Avoided cost $1,731.
March 30-31: Rome Cavalieri, A Waldorf Astoria Hotel. After using Amex Fine hotels and Resorts credits, our cost was $215. Avoided cost $783.
(We also used Amex credits to get $215 of food for free at the Rome Cavalieri, but I’m not including that in the totals).
Tuesday, March 31. Virgin Atlantic flight from Rome to Johannesburg. Biz class. Paid 142,000 VA points + $595. Avoided cost $4,904.
April 1: South African Airways. Johannesburg to Windhoek. Paid $282 for economy class (half of the roundtrip cost). No good miles options.
April 1-2: Hilton Garden Inn in Windhoek. Paid $106 (better deal than the points cost)
April 2 – 14 camping.
April 15 – 16: Hilton Garden Inn in Windhoek (king suite). Paid 25,000 Hilton points. Avoided cost $210
End of our seventh month of living abroad.
Lodging: cash out of pocket for our seventh month was $1,175. If we hadn’t used points, the lodging costs for our seventh month would have been $5,411.
Flights: cash out of pocket for our seventh month was $877. If we hadn’t used miles the cost of our flights for our seventh month would have been $5,186.
Cumulative 7 month totals:
Total out of pocket lodging and airfare expenses: $16,643.
Amount that we would have paid if we hadn’t used points and miles: $105,388
Average monthly out-of-pocket lodging and airfare expenses: $2,377.
Average monthly amount that we would have paid if we hadn’t used points & miles: $15,055.