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?