Our last BIG VACATION

 

My wife and I have been using an American Express-Delta credit card for over 20 years.  We use that card for as many purchases as we can.  In the 20 years that we have been using that card, we have never paid any interest payments, always paying it off before any interest is due.

We have used our points to fly to Cancun, Mexico; Las Vegas, Nevada; Honolulu, Hawaii; NYC, NY; Paris, France; and, Vancouver, Canada.

Before yesterday, we had over 400,500 frequent flyer miles built up and decided to use those miles to fly to Honolulu, Hawaii again and take an island cruise as our LAST BIG VACATION before turning 80 years of age.  We had made the assumption that once we reached 80, we would not be traveling that much anymore.

A Delta agent helped us book our flight out of Atlanta, GA, flying nonstop to Hawaii in Delta comfort seats, right behind the first-class bulkhead.  Our return flight would put us in first-class seats right behind the Delta One bulkhead.  Our return flight would also be non-stop.

This trip would leave us with 45,000 points that we would donate to fly critical care patients to a hospital.  We had done this before with the points we earned on United and American Airlines.

My wife and I consider ourselves to be lower middle class financially, but the point of this article is to let people know that if you are willing to be patient and plan, there are many things you can do that you might think you do not have the financial resources to do.