Stephen and I have been acting as judges for the ongoing Flying by the seat of our Points Challenge! If you’d like a refresher of how we scored Stage 1, check out this post.
You can check out the information below for more general details about this challenge, but in this post, we’ll talk all about how our contestants scored for their second stage: the international divergence to Croatia, Switzerland, and Morocco!
Next Live Check In: Monday, June 10th at 9PM ET via YouTube Livestream. (Check out our Monday night livestream revealing the domestic convergence destination here, our Wednesday night livestream to reveal the international divergence destinations here, and our Friday afternoon livestream to reveal the final international convergence destination here. And of course subscribe to our YouTube channel for notifications! Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, and this blog to keep up with all the action, and to see who will win this last-minute travel challenge.
Greg’s Stage 2 trip summary
Greg had a mostly leisurely travel day, and paid:
- $16.40 for a $264.50 flight from LAX to Vancouver on WestJet. This was booked as a cash fare through Delta. (Thanks to Delta status, he was able to pick an exit row aisle seat for free (there’s no first class)). He had multiple Delta credits (thanks to Amex Platinum fee reimbursements) which is how he was able to pay only $16.40 to the credit card.
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72,500 Flying Blue Miles and $262.10 in fees for a KLM flight to Zagreb (Vancouver – Amsterdam – Zagreb) Due to that massive 150% Bilt transfer bonus, he has these miles in large supply.
- 20k Hilton points for the Hilton Garden Inn Zagreb
For the above itinerary, Greg got just 2 points for flight value and 2 points for flight experience. He earned 1 point for hotel value, and the hotel experience will be ranked after we hear how each contestant’s night went.
His trip was noteworthy in this way:
- He got a KLM blue delft house! This earned him 1 bonus point.
- He ran into some snags with his original hotel choice and the Hilton Garden Inn was his second choice.
Greg’s exploration challenges were:
- Eat something that either still has eyeballs, still has tentacles…or both
- There are many ways to enjoy the water in Croatia – show us one of them.
- Teach us what makes Croatia’s black risotto black…
By the time we had our check in, he’d only completed one of these challenges (eating something with eye balls) earning him 1 bonus point, but since then he’s already continued to work on the challenges and will inevitably earn more. (Contestants have until they leave the country to continue working on the exploration challenges.)
Greg’s Total for Stage 2: 8 points
Nick’s Stage 2 trip summary
Nick had a rough go of things, in part because of a desperate need to sleep on his flight (and therefore strong motivation to avoid economy.) He paid:
- 25,000 Alaska Airlines miles plus $18.10 for his LAX-ORD speculative positioning flight on AA (business class)
- 13,000 American Airlines miles plus $5.60 for a ORD-DFW repositioning flight on AA (economy)
- 57,500 American Airlines miles + $59.70 for his DFW-CDG-MAD flight on AA business class
- 6,000 Qantas miles (cancellation penalty for an un-flown ORY-CMN flight on Royal Air Maroc)
- $272.71* for his EasyJet flight from CDG-RAK. *Ritz card reimbursements are likely going to reimburse a large piece of this charge.
- 22,500 points for the Rian Siwan, a Mr & Mrs Smith property. This helps him try out Mr & Mrs Smith, and he was targeted for and had registered for 20% back on all of his award bookings for the next 90 days. That means he’s getting 4,500 Hyatt points back. That’s a net 15,000 points for a $275 hotel (1.5cpp) and he’ll get to check off Mr & Mrs Smith on Brand explorer. That’s #14 for him and he has a reservation for their new Caption brand in Japan later in the summer that will get him to 15 for a Hyatt Cat 1-4 FNC.
For the above itinerary, Nick got 1 point for flight value and 1 point for flight experience. His hotel booking on the other hand scored him 3 points for value. Again, hotel experience will be scored after we’ve seen how everyone’s night went.
His trip was noteworthy in a few ways:
- Nick endured a lot of things going wrong on very little sleep – everything from closed trains to points not getting returned to his account readily enough. It was a comedy of errors that earned him 1 bonus point basically for not having a mental breakdown.
Nick’s exploration challenges were:
- Find an authentic, Moroccan dish, served in a tagine.
- You impressed your kids with a visit to Santa…now can you do something that convinces them you’re Indiana Jones?
- Can you do what we failed to do in Macau and find a place to enjoy some live music?
He had not achieved any of these before our checkin, but he has until he leaves the country, and his dinner reservation was likely to achieve at least two of these.
Nick’s Total for Stage 2: 6 points
Tim’s Stage 2 trip summary
Tim filled his day with interesting travel, and paid:
- 15k AA miles + $5.60 for AS Premium Class for his LA to Seattle flight
- 70 Aeroplan points +$100 for a SEA-FRA-ZRH flight in Lufthansa Business
- 40K Hyatt points + Suite Upgrade for the Park Hyatt Zurich, Park Suite. He called ahead for this, earning him 1 bonus point.
- $68 (including 25% off from an old BahnCard he had) for a Train to Basel, then on to Zurich
For the above itinerary, Tim got 3 points for flight value and 3 points for flight experience. He scored 2 points for hotel value. (Hotel experience will be scored after he’s spent the night in his hotel.)
His trip was noteworthy in a few ways:
- The cash cost of his room would have been $2,352!
- Instead of sticking with just Zurich, which didn’t excite him much, Tim decided to take the train to a second Swiss destination: Basel. Our Instagram viewers were in favor of this decision when he polled them for their opinions.
- At his hotel, he received a monogrammed wallet, which earned him 1bonus point
Tim’s exploration challenges were:
- Switzerland is notoriously expensive. Can you eat something authentic for under $20?
- Get high…er than the hills so you can see if they’re really alive with the sound of music.
- We know you like a nice glass of wine…but see if you can find this drink, (which originated in Switzerland): Absinthe.
He achieved all of these challenges before the end of the live checkin (with his absinthe getting delivered live during the checkin), earning him 3 bonus points for the challenges themselves and 1 bonus point for achieving them all before the end of our checkin.
Tim’s Total for Stage 2: 14 points
Our contestants now head to Kuala Lumpur for Stage 3 where they’ll host the following activity challenges:
Greg: This is a vacation, you’re supposed to be relaxing! (Find an activity that helps you all restore some energy.)
Nick: This is a vacation, you’re not supposed to be relaxing! (Find an activity that gets everyone’s blood pumping.)
Tim: This isn’t JUST a vacation! (Find an activity that makes use of your brains!)
And here are their totals so far…
None of our contestants have been to Kuala Lumpur, or Malaysia for that matter, before! If you have any tips for our contestants, make sure and comment on their individual journal posts here!
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