Reaping those rewards, baby!

Today I booked our Labor Day weekend getaway to Monterey. Daisy is a big fan of fishies and so we want to take her to the aquarium. Plus, as you probably all know by now, I need out of dodge... bad.

If you follow this blog or my Facebook posts regularly, you also know how *not fond* I am of paying thousands of dollars for a weekend break in the U.S. I generally think it's a colossal waste of money, especially when you realize you could go away for an all-inclusive weekend to Mexico or the Caribbean for almost the same amount of money. It irks me no end to see those dollars disappear out of my account for what amounts to a hectic to-and-fro break to somewhere where there are still Home Depots, Dennys, and Starbucks lining every freeway. When I say "vacation" I mean "get me the hell out of this country and to somewhere completely new and different". Nuff said.

Which is why I was ever-so proud of myself for realizing that I had 41,000 American Express Rewards Points I could use to offset the cost of our two-night break. (And please, nobody do the calculations - I don't need or want to know how much I had to spend to get those. You'll spoil my buzz.)

41,000 points got me a $308 discount toward our hotel in Pacific Grove. Albeit, it's a HoJo but we're only going for two nights and needed a 2-bedroom suite for our own sanity (you fellow parents know what I'm taking about here - whispering in bed to your husband at 8pm on vacation is a real downer.)

Anyway, it took the sting out of the whole local break thing.


Next stop is my 103,000 Virgin Atlantic Frequent Flyer Miles, which are set to expire in the next month if I don't get off my lazy butt and book a trip back to Blighty next year. It took me 15 years of back-and-forth transatlantic flying to earn those suckers and I'll be damned if I'm going to let them float off into the sunset, unused. Stay tuned for the grand British vacation plans for 2011!