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Thanks to a good friend choosing to get married in Lima, Peru, Liz and I had a reason to head to South America. Back in November, right before Continental Merged with United, both programs offered a Chase Credit Card with a 50K Mile Sign-Up bonus after your first purchase. Filling out one application in Internet Explorer and one in Firefox – then hitting submit within seconds of one another – allowed me to get both Credit Cards for only one credit inquiry. The Bounty? 100K Miles.

This past June, I applied for a Chase British Airways Credit Card (again I applied for a couple other Chase cards at the same time, and yes, I currently have 7 active Chase Credit Cards). The Bounty? 50K Avios Miles after my first purchase – and an additional 25K miles after an additional $10K spend up to 50K Bonus Miles. The BA Credit Card came with an annual fee of $95 – not waived – but there was a specific reason I was applying for this card. What did these miles afford me?

Our Flights:

Unfortunately when we first sought out flights, the only options to use United Saver Miles in First Class had us going through 6 different cities. Luckily, a much better option opened up, but a change fee of $50 was added. Our final routing:

Cleveland > Chicago (First Class)
Chicago > Panama City (First Class)
Panama City > Buenos Aires (First Class)

International First Class travel, allowing access to United lounges and over 17 hours on planes for 50,000 miles + $30 in taxes. Add the $50 Change fee and our total for getting to Buenos Aires is…$80. I’m pretty confident I can drink enough Champagne on these flights to cover that.

After 4 days in Buenos Aires, we are heading to Santiago, Chile. Given that it is only a 2-hour flight, we decided to save some of our miles and fly with the plebs back in coach. This is where BA Avios comes in. British Airways has a number of partners world-wide, and these partnerships come in quite handy in South America. Our following itineraries booked through BA on LAN Airways:

Buenos Aires > Santiago (Economy)
Santiago > Lima (Business)

 

Total cost for Economy: 7,500 Miles + $45.
Total cost for the 4-hour Business Class Flight:  20K Miles + $45.

So for 27.5K miles (still leaving us with 22.K miles from our initial sign-up bonus) and $90, we have 2 more flights.

That leaves the final leg. One great thing about Peru is that United considers it “Northern” South America and 1-way Saver Awards in First Class start at 35K Miles. Our Routing:

Lima > Toronto (First Class)
Toronto > Cleveland (Economy)

Total Cost: 35K Miles + $30.

For sports fans keeping track at home, our flights from Cleveland to Chicago to Panama City to Buenos Aires to Santiago to Lima to Toronto to Cleveland – all in Business or First Class (with the exception of the 1-hour flight and 2-hour flight) cost a total of: $295.

For those of you who are saying “yes but you are hurting your credit score, I encourage you to visit Step 1: Understanding Your Credit Score. My Credit Score has actually been increasing over the past 18 months.