So the other day I was sitting in the lobby of a Holiday Inn, watching my kids terrorize the lobby and devour all the free cookies and lemonade 🙂
A younger couple came in to the front desk and I overheard as they talked to the employees there. They did not have a reservation, but still wanted a room. The lady at the front desk quoted them the “rack rate” of $179 / night.
Now this was a nice hotel – it certainly wasn’t this drug-infested Quality Inn, but it wasn’t the “Vendome” by any stretch of the imagination.
I just thought about how fortunate I’ve been to learn from others about how to get miles and points to help my family travel for free. With as big as a family as we have, without this knowledge, big family vacations might be out of our reach!
In fact, a big family reunion trip was the reason I started on this journey a few years ago. The thought of 8 plane tickets to Lake Tahoe was fairly daunting. Being able to get those tickets with miles instead of spending $3000-$4000 might very well make the difference between being able to attend or not.
What about you? What’s your best example of being fortunate with miles and points?
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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
If my son hadn’t taught me some of these mad skilz
Then I wouldn’t have been able to attend OUR family reunion, for sure