This 12-day trip would have cost $19,787 if we had paid cash. But by using points and miles, our travel and lodging expenses were only $1,561!

For this trip, we had some Marriott FNC’s (Free Night Certificates) that we needed to use before the end of the year. So, I simply did a search for the best Marriott hotels in the world to use FNC’s and points at. The Domes Miramar in Corfu, Greece was one of the highest rated hotels. So, we set our sights on that.

Most flights from the US going to Greece fly through Istanbul, Turkey. So why not add a couple nights in Istanbul and see that too!

To begin our trip, we flew in business class from San Francisco directly to Istanbul on Turkish Airlines. The service was outstanding and there was a sky chef overseeing the meals.

Upon arrival, we took an Uber to our hotel. We ran into a problem here. We had booked the hotel through Delta Stays (Delta Airlines hotel reservation service). We used this service because American Express Delta Platinum business card holders receive an annual $200 credit to be used towards reservations through Delta Stays. But the hotel didn’t have our reservation!

After about thirty minutes of contacting Delta Stays and talking to the hotel manager, we ascertained that: 1) Delta Stays uses Expedia for their hotel bookings; 2) the hotel decided to drop out of the Expedia system; and 3) Delta Stays didn’t tell us that our reservation had been cancelled. We asked Delta Stays to give us a refund for our booking and they stated that they would get back to us on that.

(Over the course of the next week Delta Stays stated that they would not give us a refund and essentially said, “too bad, so sad.” But after I complained on their FB page, on Yelp, to the BBB and disputed the charge with my Delta credit card we did get a refund).

We scrambled and were able to find another hotel. We stayed in Istanbul for three nights. While we were in there, we visited the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sophia, the Basilica Cistern. We also went to MiniaTurk, the Camlica Mosque and took two river cruises on the Bosphorus. 

From Istanbul, we flew to Athens. We had a several hour layover before our flight to Corfu, so we used the time to take a Hop-on, Hop-off bus tour of Athens.

In the afternoon, we got our flight to Corfu. In Corfu, we picked up a rental car and drove to the Domes Miramar hotel. This was truly a great hotel. They upgraded us to an oceanfront room. They had live music every night. And they had a fabulous breakfast buffet. The hotel was designed by Ari Onassis’ sister and was frequented by Jackie and Air Onassis, Elton John, Princess Diana, Marie Calas and many others.

We spent four days touring the island. We drove to the highpoint (Mount Katokrator), visited the Vlacherna and Paleokastritsa monasteries, a couple fortresses, kayaked from our hotel and went to the Canal D’Amore. Our good friends Pat and Sid joined us for three days.

When I was putting the trip together and searching for hotel availability and airline availability that lined up, I found that the last night I could use points to book the Domes Miramar hotel (which is a Marriott property) was October 12th. So, we booked five nights with the last night being October 12th. Unbeknownst to us, October 12th is the last night of the tourist season in this part of Corfu. So the hotel was giving out free champagne on that night and, the restaurant that we went out to dinner at also was giving out free drinks since it was also their last night. This was the Bella Vista Taverna restaurant. We had an outstanding view and meal. 

After Corfu, we flew back to Athens. We stayed in the Wyndham Grand Athens for two nights.

We explored the Acropolis and Parthenon, the ancient Agora, Monasteraki Square and more. We each ran a lap around the Olympic stadium.

From Athens, we flew Turkish Airlines business class to Istanbul and then we flew from Istanbul to JFK. TFrom JFK we flew Delta business class to San Francisco. 

Another great thing about this trip was hitting all the wonderful airport lounges. Our new favorite is the Delta One lounge at JFK. They have excellent food in the buffet, a sit-down restaurant, great automatic chair massagers and more.

THAT SOUNDS GREAT, BUT HOW DID YOU DO IT?

For the flights from San Francisco to Istanbul, we used 210,000 miles and paid $552 in taxes. Our avoided cost was approximately $10,000. We got the Turkish miles by transferring points from our Capital One Venture X credit cards (two 75,000 welcome bonuses, a few 10,000 anniversary year bonuses, two 25,000-point referral bonuses, some credit card spending.

For our hotel in Istanbul, we received $200 credit by using our Amex Delta Platinum business credit card and booking through Delta Stays. We paid $58 and our avoided cost was $258 (we received a refund for the $258 for our cancelled hotel reservation. We applied that to our replacement hotel which cost us less than $200).

For the flight from Istanbul to Athens, we used Turkish miles. We paid 22,000 Turkish miles plus $144 in taxes. Our avoided cost was $1,085.

For the flight from Athens to Corfu, we flew on Aegean Airlines which we booked through the Capital One travel portal. The Capital One Venture X credit card gives you a $300 travel credit every year and we applied it to this flight. The flight cost $332 so our cost was only $32.

For the hotel in Corfu, we used two Amex $200 Fine Hotels & Resorts (FHR) credits and three Marriott FNCs (Free Night Certificates). The $200 FHR credit is an annual Amex Platinum credit card feature. We booked a one-night stay through the Amex travel portal using each of our Amex Platinum credit cards. The nightly room night was $248, so we paid $48 per night for two nights. For the Marriott FNCs, I received three Marriott FNCs for opening an Amex Marriott Bonvoy Business credit card (Kate also received a 20,000-point referral bonus. There was a charge of $10 per night for each of the FNCs. So our total cost was $126 and our avoided cost was $1,240.

For the Wyndham Grand Athens, we used 27,000 points from Kate’s Marriott account. We earned the points from a 125,000-point welcome bonus plus the aforementioned referral bonus. Our avoided cost was $577.

For the flight from Athens to JFK, we paid 90,000 Turkish miles plus we paid $638 in taxes. We earned the Turkish miles by transferring points from our Capital One accounts. Our avoided cost was $3,184

For the Delta business class flight from JFK to SFO, we paid 170,000 miles plus $11 in taxes. We earned the miles through a 90,000-point bonus by opening the Amex Delta Platinum business card and some shopping portal bonuses. Admittedly, there must have been some other methods of points earning but I didn’t keep track of it. Our avoided cost was $3,196.