JQ Louise is no stranger to far-flung adventures. The Boston-based travel creator regularly shares her vacations — from Cartagena to Cairo — with her audience of more than 100,000 followers. But one place she had yet to visit was the Philippines, where her dad’s side of the family is from. Here’s how a point.me deal helped her fulfill that dream.
Using existing AmEx points to find a deal on point.me
JQ’s grandmother grew up in the Philippines, which is where she met JQ’s grandfather, who was overseas during World War II. He returned to the Philippines after the war, they married, and he brought her home to Massachusetts, where JQ and her family still live today. Many generations of JQ’s cousins remained in the Philippines, so this trip gave her the opportunity to meet them — plus an excuse to explore the islands for the first time while she was there.
Her trip started out in Manila, where JQ and her dad were able to spend time with their Filipino family. Following several days in Manila, JQ’s boyfriend met up with her, and the couple did some island-hopping; the Philippines is an archipelago comprising more than 7,000 islands, around a third of which are inhabited. Flexibility was key to making this family trip a reality, JQ says.
“We were flexible on our exact travel dates to Manila, so I started researching how to use my existing Membership Rewards points with point.me,” she explains. “We were able to get the ideal dates that we had in mind once we found an amazing deal for Delta One.”
JQ already had points in the bank thanks to a sign-up bonus for the American Express Platinum Card — which traditionally runs as high as 175,000 Membership Rewards points through targeted offers — and had continued to use the card to earn more points and save them for a big trip. Once she found a great deal via point.me, she knew this was just the trip to use them on, she says. She used 100,000 points per ticket for both her dad and her to fly one way from Boston to Manila via Seoul on Delta One.
“We flew there one way with miles, and it was such a deal for points,” she says. “I had heard of point.me and decided to give it a try, and this was the first trip I booked thanks to the service. I am so happy it was such a great start to the trip, allowing us to travel in style for such a big trip.”
Island-hopping in the Philippines
From there, JQ and her boyfriend did some island-hopping to other Filipino destinations like Siargao and Pangulasian Island in El Nido. She put much of her out-of-pocket expenses — like her resort stays and flights home — on her American Express Platinum Card, which earns 5x Membership Rewards for all flights and prepaid hotels and will give her more points to cash in on future trips.
“The Philippines are stunning, the islands are some of the most beautiful in the world, and the hotels there are truly what dreams are made of,” JQ says. “One place that we stayed, Nay Palad Hideaway, is one of the best hotels [in the world] that I have stayed at.”
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