Gooooooooooood morning, folks.

Today’s newsletter is going to be a bit different. I want to walk you through how I booked a 9-day trip to some amazing, remote places for less than $100 out of pocket.

Almost every redemption I’ll share with you today was booked with points that you can earn from U.S. credit cards, so this trip is easy to replicate… and hopefully after reading, you’ll want to do just that. 😉

Let’s dive in.

✈️ How I booked a $6,000 luxury Arctic trip with points

I’m jetting off on my next adventure soon – and this time, it’s all in Canada. 🇨🇦

But here’s the thing about Canada…

It’s expensive as fck. Like… insanely expensive.

Thankfully, I found a way to book a $6,000 luxury trip through Alberta, Yukon, and Saskatchewan for less than $100 out of pocket.

And some of the redemptions might surprise you. 😏

Lie-flat luxury to Edmonton

First up, I’m flying in Air Canada’s lie-flat business class on a 787 Dreamliner from Toronto to Edmonton.

Air Canada was charging 70,000 points for this flight, but I was able to book it for just 20,000 Lufthansa miles in business class, and about $58 USD in taxes and fees.

But since I used my Hilton credit card to pay the taxes and fees, it triggered my quarterly $50 airline credit, so this whole flight cost me $8 out of pocket.

This flight would’ve otherwise cost well over $1,000 USD, so I was EXTREMELY happy with this redemption.

Since I arrive in Edmonton just before midnight, I’ll spend my first night at the Renaissance (a Marriott property), which is attached to the airport terminal.

I used Rove Miles to book this as a loyalty-eligible stay for 16,000 miles.

Since it’s loyalty-eligible, I’ll actually EARN Marriott points on the same stay – including the new global promotion that I recently wrote about.

I’ll also get free breakfast and all the other benefits from my Titanium status.

For my last couple of nights in Edmonton, I’m staying at the recently renovated, Michelin Key-winning Fairmont Macdonald.

This hotel has been around since 1913 and is famously one of the best hotels in the country.

This is an Accor Live Limitless property right downtown, and a few minutes’ walk from the Edmonton Oilers game I’ll be attending (gotta see McDavid play in the flesh).

Anyway, it’s expensive…

But I was able to redeem 40,000 Accor points and pay just $30 out of pocket for this stay.

As a reminder, Accor points have a flat value of 2 Euro cents each, and can be obtained by transferring Capital One Miles, ThankYou points, Bilt Rewards, or Rove Miles – so you actually have many ways to earn them.

Here are some highlights in Edmonton, should you find yourself there:

• Saskatchewan River Valley trails

• 100 Street Funicular

• Check out an Oilers hockey match

• Ritchie Market

• Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market

Off to the Yukon

From Edmonton, I’ll fly nonstop to Whitehorse, the capital and largest city of the Yukon Territory, and by far the part of this trip I’m most excited for.

I booked this flight on Air North through the UR points portal for 1.5 cents per point.

My goal with this trip was to spend as little cash out of pocket as humanly possible, so getting a flat 1.5 cents each was fine by me.

You might be surprised to learn that Whitehorse is now home to a Hyatt property – a Category 3 Hyatt Place.

It actually looks quite cozy, and people say it’s the best hotel in town.

Anyway, it costs between 8,000 and 12,000 points per night, and my stay will run a total of 36,000 Hyatt points.

Given the cash cost of $1,145 for the whole stay, I was very happy with this.

But also, this stay will do two additional things:

• Trigger the global promotion, earning me 3,000 bonus points

• Bring me to exactly 80 nights this year, unlocking a new milestone to earn 10,000 more Hyatt points

So, in reality, I’m spending 36,000 points and getting 13,000 back for the stay.

While in Whitehorse, here’s what I’ll do:

• Yukon Wildlife Preserve

• Craft beer brewery-hopping

• Hot spring spa day

• Kwanlin Dun Cultural Center and other museums

• MAYBE some Northern Lights… if I’m lucky 🤞

Crossing the Arctic Circle

I decided to do something insane while I’m in the Yukon… On my last full day there, I’ll fly to Dawson City for a day trip.

Dawson became famous as a boomtown during the Klondike Gold Rush, with over 100,000 people setting out to strike it rich. Now, it’s just a quiet one-horse town in Northern Yukon with around 1,500 residents.

I decided to make a fun aviation adventure out of this…

So I’ll be flying from Whitehorse to Dawson via Inuvik and Old Crow, because I’m a nerd – and even getting to look out the window and stand on those remote tarmacs for a few minutes is an activity in and of itself. 🤷🏼‍♂️

I’ll get about 3 hours to spend in Dawson itself, after which I’ll fly back to Whitehorse and sleep in the same bed I woke up in.

This whole 4-segment day trip is also operated by Air North and booked with my UR points at 1.5 cents a pop, which I earned from this credit card.

This is another good example of how even with smaller niche airlines, there is (almost) always a way to book them with points.

Final stop: Saskatchewan

For this last chunk, I finally got to put my stash of Aeroplan points to use.

I booked a business-class award from Whitehorse to Regina via Vancouver for around 42,000 points and $7 USD in taxes and fees.

The cash cost of this route was around $738, so this wasn’t actually a great value for my points.

But here’s the thing – I don’t care.

I get to fly from the freaking Yukon to freaking Saskatchewan in comfy seats on the exact day I needed to, for about $7 out of pocket.

In Regina, I’ll stay at the famous Hotel Saskatchewan, another one of Canada’s historic properties, bookable with Marriott points.

Since I have over a million Marriott points, I was happy to shell out 64,000 of them for a 2-night stay in the middle of town to explore Regina.

In Regina, I actually don’t know what I’m going to do yet. If you have any ideas, please reach out and let me know. 🙏🏼

Finally, I’ll head home on a nonstop Air Canada business-class flight, which cost me around 30,000 Aeroplan points and $36.

I actually booked those two Aeroplan awards (Whitehorse to Regina and Regina to Toronto) as a single multi-city ticket.

If I need to change or cancel my trip, this means I can pay a single change or cancellation fee rather than two.

Aeroplan points are some of the easiest to earn, since you can transfer points from basically every U.S. bank to Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio.

If you hold this Aeroplan co-branded card, you’ll even get a 15% discount on award flights like the ones I’ve shown you today.

The damage

Here is what the trip looks like:

It’s pretty cool that points and miles can take you to such remote places that otherwise cost so much money.

In total, here is what I’m spending for this whole trip:

• 20,000 Lufthansa miles

• 40,000 Accor points

• 16,000 Rove Miles

• 64,000 Marriott points

• 23,000 Hyatt points

• 72,800 Aeroplan points

• 40,473 UR points

• $82 cash

The total cash cost of everything would be $6,038. So after subtracting the cash I’m paying, I’m getting an average of 2.2 cents per point.

Most importantly, the entire trip is costing me less than a nice meal downtown here in Toronto.

You can do this trip, too

My starting and ending points of this trip (Edmonton and Regina) both have nonstop flights from the U.S.

Regina has nonstop flights from Denver on United, and Edmonton has nonstop flights to places like San Francisco, Seattle, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and more.

If you transit through cities like Vancouver or Calgary, you have even more ways to travel around this region.

So with a few tweaks on either end, you could enjoy the same splendors of Northern Canada. 🇨🇦

I hope you enjoyed this fun look at using points and miles for some interesting destinations and high-cost flights and hotels.

See you tomorrow,

43.6532° N, 79.3832° W

With contributions by Katie Begnoche and Alison Carrico.