Welcome to our first World Travel Adventurers (WTA) savings report. This is a new featured post where we will routinely “pull back the curtains” and show you how we save a ton of money while luxury travel hacking around the world and staying in some of the most fabulous accommodations on the planet. Since this is our first official savings report, we’re going to kick things off with a bang and review the last 2.5 years of our travels. We will go into more detail in subsequent savings reports, but wanted to start with the big picture.

Our purpose for this is to not only inspire you but to also open your eyes and show you what’s possible when it comes to family luxury travel.

These reports will cover general accommodation and flight cost savings due strictly to travel hacking. It does not include costs like car rentals, extra activities etc. Although this form of travel hacking is doable for just about anyone, one thing to keep in mind is that this is NOT a process that happens overnight. We go through an enormous amount of planning and strategic “points stacking” to pull this off. It is a process that typically starts at least a year out from the actual travel dates.

Many ask us why we would ever want to openly share how much we save on travel each year. Some view it as bragging, some absolutely love it and love the fact that a family of 4 is not only doing it but also willing to share HOW they did it. No matter what you think, we are excited to publish our savings reports and have decided to share them for the following 2 reasons:

1. Before we started travel hacking, we knew nothing about the world of points, strategic travel planning and discounted luxury travel. We always heard about others (mostly couples without kids) using sophisticated credit card points schemes to earn perks and essentially travel for free, BUT – from the outside, it just seemed like too much work for mediocre results. If it weren’t for other travel hacker blog authorities like “The Points Guy” sharing their tips and information, it’s very likely that we would have never begun this journey. We want to show others how just a little work and what we call ‘strategic travel preparation’ can go a long way and eventually get you on trips and experiences that you would have never dreamed of taking… if you had to pay full price. We’re talking about some of the world’s most luxurious destinations for pennies on the dollar if not completely FREE. Like when we stayed at Le Sirenuse in a $1,900 suite for free! If you are new to this, you will quickly find there are just as many opinions and strategies as there are people trying to do it. We like to share our savings stories to motivate individuals like yourself to take “baby steps” and get started.

2. We like to show other people that discounted family luxury travel IS a thing and that it IS possible for just about anyone that typically travels at least once a year. If you are looking for information on how to begin this journey and inspiration for planning your dream vacation, sign up for our email newsletter so you don’t miss our new blog posts and tips for affordable luxury travel. We will be sharing many more of our money-saving tips so you can make it work for your family too!

Those are just a couple of the reasons that we are looking forward to sharing these savings reports with you. We really want to show others that you don’t have to overpay for traditional overpriced sub-par vacations and destinations. You can stretch your dollar and get FAR more for FAR less than you could ever imagine. As parents, seeing the experience that our children get from these trips and knowing they will have memories that last a lifetime, makes the effort totally worth it.

In 2016 things really started to click for us. We began to get our process down and travel hacked our way to Italy, The UAE, and the Maldives on Emirates First Class and Etihad Business Class. We saved over $60,000 on flights and hotels just on that epic trip that launched our blog. We had a taste of affordable luxury travel that left us hungry for more, much more!

2017 was a great year of travel for us mainly because we flew our family of 4 to Japan in First Class on points for $18/pp and saved over $103,000 during the course of the year through travel hacking.

One of our biggest travel hacking challenges was securing 4 First Class point redemption tickets on the same flight to Japan for our family. It required a lot of checking and rechecking for availability, but was totally worth the effort to experience Japan Airlines First Class together on our first family trip to Asia. We saved over $70,000 on this family vacation to Japan and Singapore and really enjoyed introducing our kids to new cultures. You can read our JAL First Class review here or get a quick glimpse in our 10 photos of Japan Airlines First Class.

In 2018, we started the year with a bang in February with a return trip to the Maldives on Emirates First Class again and literally flew around the entire world on points. We visited Oman on the way and celebrated the Chinese New Year in Hong Kong on our way home. We kicked off summer with a family trip to Iceland completing the entire ring road. We also celebrated our anniversary in Costa Rica with our children. It’s been exciting to say the least!

Reflecting back we never thought we’d be able to travel to 25 countries and experience primarily luxury accommodations for only $8,105 spent on $279,274 worth of flights and luxury hotels.

While 25 countries in 5-star hotels with children may seem impossible, please remember that does not happen all at once. It’s a process, and it requires advance planning and time.

We can remember reading and looking up to other travel bloggers who were taking adventures around the world for pennies on the dollar wondering, “is this for real”. We’ve been there, and we are here to show everyone that it’s possible and within reach for just about any family with the proper strategy and planning in place.

In fact, we love meeting other families across the world who are travel hacking their way to luxury resorts and beautiful destinations. One of our favorite poolside conversations with other travel hackers is best award and point redemptions, like staying at Andaz Costa Rica for free with our Hyatt award nights and points. That deal is so good that we’ve been there two years in a row! Combine free hotel stays with nearly free flights thanks to our Southwest Airlines Companion Pass and loads of Southwest points, and we couldn’t resist returning!

Travel Breakdown for our  2016, 2017, and 1st Quarter 2018 Trips

From January of 2016 – Early 2018, we traveled to 25 countries and spent only $8,105 on $279, 274 worth of flights and hotels. In total, we saved $271,169 just by doing strategic family travel hacking. That doesn’t even include extra savings like getting breakfast for free and lounge access at various hotels thanks to our reward program perks. Below is our savings breakdown for our biggest trips to give you a better idea of how this was all possible when done the smart way:

New York - Tokyo - Singapore - Frankfurt - New York

Baltimore - NYC - Milan - Dubai - Maldives - Abu Dhabi - Washington DC

Washington DC - Dubai - Muscat - Maldives - Singapore - Hong Kong - San Francisco

Germany - Hungary - Slovakia - Montenegro - Croatia - Bosnia & Herzegovina - Italy

Washington DC - Istanbul - Moscow - Naples - Amalfi Coast

Total Travel Hacking Savings: $271,169

As you read this we are planning and strategizing for our trips next year for spring break vacation and summer. We look at how we can fit all the pieces of the puzzle together to maximize our savings and utilize our points to get the most bang for our buck. We look for a destination that we can fly to on points which also has hotels at which we can stay for free on points. We’ll see where 2019 takes us!

If you want to learn more about our planning process, make sure you subscribe to our World Travel Adventurers (WTA) newsletter.

We look forward to hearing about your travels and more importantly your own savings!

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