I’ve written before about how fortunate we are in the miles and points hobby. There are several times in the last couple of years where having a good stash of miles and points has really hooked us up, and this is just talking about regular life, not any of the fancy and/or family trips we’ve been able to take.
(SEE ALSO: My first “fake” trip (thanks to miles and points))
(SEE ALSO: Last night, miles and points really saved my bacon)
Here’s one more example of miles and points really made a big difference in our life, in a way that doesn’t include 5 star hotels or first class trips around the world (though those are fun too!)
Avoiding a 3AM wakeup call
Last week, my son attended a church camp called EFY (Especially for youth) that was up in Tiffin, Ohio, about 3 hours away from our home in Cincinnati.
Map copyright OSM contributors
He had a great time but one big problem (for us) is that checkout from the camp was between 7 and 7:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. We had arranged a carpool with families of 3 other girls from our area, so we only had to make the drive once, but without miles and points, it would be an extra $150 hotel night, and in a budget-conscious family, we likely would have made the decision for one of us to wake up at 3 a.m. to drive the 3 hours up on Saturday morning
Enter miles and points
But with miles and points, it’s NBD. We used 15,000 IHG points from our stash (partially from filling up envelopes!) to book a hotel for Friday night. You can read my full Holiday Inn Express Tiffin Ohio hotel review here, but it was a great stay and totally worth it.
Sure, we still had to drive 3 hours up and 3 hours back, which wasn’t my FAVORITE use of time (especially since I’ve already BEEN to every county in Ohio), but that was going to have to happen no matter what.
Plus, when you have 6 kids, you have to take your “dates” where you can get them :-). Carolyn and I had a fun time Friday night – stopping in for dinner at Dayton’s famous Marion’s Piazza
We were thankful for a miles and points stash that (once again) helped us to have good memories instead of the bad memories of having to wake up at 3 AM 🙂
When have points and miles saved your bacon? Leave your story in the comments
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
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