How I Earned 10,000 points while spending $500

When I learned that I would be given $500 to show Brendan and Erin around my hometown of Minneapolis, I knew I could either focus on making their visit the best possible stay — or I could play to win. 

And I wanted to win.

My desire for victory led to some unusual experiences: I booked us on a guided ghost walking tour of Minneapolis, and we cooked two different meal kits together at my house. Based on my lack of kitchen skills, I promise you that the latter of those items was scarier than the former 😱

Combined, those two activities netted me over 8,000 points!

I do admit that I was tempted to ignore the full idea of the challenge and just blow through the entire budget at my favorite restaurant in Minneapolis. (It’s called Alma. Seriously, if you come to Minneapolis and want to enjoy a fantastic tasting menu that is not cheap, please go to Alma.) 

Unfortunately, that plan would not have secured me the win, so I pivoted to a more substantial strategy. It turns out that going on a ghost walking tour and cooking together was a lot of fun anyway! 

My Plan

The core of my strategy was this: I planned Brendan and Erin’s visit around promotions I found on online shopping portals.

I have been using shopping portals for a long time, and I love maximizing their offers. A few years ago, I decided to see if I could earn enough points through the Alaska Atmos shopping portal to book a business class flight to Australia (with a five-day layover in Fiji) — and I did!

Although nothing that crazy popped up while I was planning Brendan and Erin’s trip to Minneapolis, there were a few great bonuses that I found, mostly on the Atmos shopping portal.

Firstly, Atmos offered a “Mystery Bonus” in April: an extra 500 points if I spent $100 through the portal. I decided to spend that required amount on Viator, an activity-booking website, which would earn me an additional 6x points per dollar. Although pickings on Viator were a bit slim, I did find a ghost walking tour of downtown Minneapolis for $35 per person, or $105 for the three of us. Not the activity I had imagined us doing in Minnesota, but perfect for my (hopefully) winning strategy.

I purchased the walking tour with my Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and earned 210 Capital One miles. I also earned 630 Alaska Atmos points through the 6x per dollar offer on the Atmos portal and an additional 500 Atmos points through the mystery bonus. In total, that was 1,310 miles earned for this activity! Not a bad haul from paying to learn about a few ghosts. 

I also decided to take advantage of inflated earnings offers on meal kit delivery services. Green Chef was offering 3,000 Alaska Atmos points for purchasing a meal kit, so I decided that Brendan, Erin, and I would be cooking together at my house.

A few days after I ordered this kit, Atmos emailed me an offer I couldn’t refuse: Hello Fresh was now elevated to 3,500 points. 

What’s better than one meal kit delivery service? Two meal kit delivery services! The more the merrier, as they say.

For the two meal kits, I spent a total of $74. By using my Venture X, I earned 148 Capital One miles. And more importantly, between the two offers, I earned a whopping 7,500 Atmos points! 

The final piece of the planning puzzle was picking the hotel. I knew I wanted a unique hotel, so I settled on the Nicollet Island Inn. It’s located on an island on the Mississippi River, nestled between downtown Minneapolis and the adorable St. Anthony Main. Perfect.

I looked at several ways to book Nicollet Island Inn, and it came down to choosing between the Rove and the Capital One travel booking portals. On Rove, I could have earned 21x points per dollar on the hotel stay, which is huge! This would have given me 6,242 Rove miles and would have set me up perfectly for the win.  

Unfortunately, the total price on Rove would have been $322, which was a lot higher than on other booking platforms. I couldn’t stomach spending so much extra unnecessarily. Booking through Rove would have brought my total to $501, instantly putting me over budget and leaving nothing to spend during Brendan and Erin’s actual visit.

Luckily, the price on the Capital One travel portal was significantly lower. I was able to book a nicer room type, a deluxe king, for only $247. Through my Venture X card, I receive an annual $300 credit to spend on the Capital One portal, and I happened to have $36 left of that amount this year. I applied this toward the cost of Brendan and Erin’s stay, bringing it down to $211.

This stay earned me 2,115 Capital One miles, a far cry below the potential 6k Rove miles I would have earned. But this decision did leave me with a decent remaining balance to spend in Minneapolis, a necessary sacrifice.

Before Brendan and Erin even arrived in Minnesota, I had already earned over 10,000 miles. Not a bad start to the challenge! 

Day 1: Welcome to Minnesota

First stop: Owamni. As soon as Brendan and Erin arrived in Minnesota, I brought them to Owamni, one of the most unique restaurants in the city. Owmani specializes in indigenous cuisine, using only pre-colonial ingredients. That means no wheat flour, no sugar cane, no dairy. 

Owamni is now in the process of moving to a larger location, and it turned out that the night Brendan and Erin were in town happened to be Owamni’s very last night in their original location. How’s that for being a part of history?

I paid the bill with myAmerican Express Platinum Card®, and the total came to $0. That’s because my Platinum card offers a $100 credit for restaurants on the Resy platform four times a year*, and I used it on this meal. The original total for the meal came to $75.80, which means I earned 76 American Express Membership Rewards points and was refunded the full cost by the credit card company. What a delicious way to save room on the $500 budget.

Platinum Card® Note: Get up to $100 in statement credits each quarter when you use the Platinum Card® to make eligible purchases with Resy, including dining purchases at U.S. Resy restaurants. Enrollment required. 

Next Up: Our ghost walking tour of downtown Minneapolis. It turns out that not too many people sign up for eerie activities in May… Brendan, Erin, and I had a private tour! We found our guide, Elizabeth (she was hard to miss, wearing a pink witch’s hat), and spent the next 90 minutes hearing some spooky stories. The tour was mostly true-crime-focused rather than paranormal experiences, but it was a nice way to see the city.  

After the tour was over, we walked back to their hotel over the Stone Arch Bridge, and we made a plan for the next day, when I would be taking them on my own tour of Minneapolis - no ghosts invited.

Day 2: Tour of Minneapolis

Day two dawned, and I was ready to bring Brendan and Erin to some of my favorite spots in Minneapolis, including kayaking on the chain of lakes in Minneapolis.

First stop: Silver Fern Cafe. This coffee shop specializes in unique espresso drinks. We indulged in some decadent lattes: banana fosters and red velvet, among other items. The total came to $29, and I earned 58 Capital One miles. 

Then: Punch Pizza. This is one of my favorite spots for pizza in Minneapolis, and I had to include it on my tour. Given that there was minimal wiggle room in the budget, I swooped in with a gift card I already had to cover the cost. Free pizza? Perfect. Zero points earned? Less perfect. The pizza itself? Completely perfect. 

Next: Mill City Farmer’s Market and the US Bank Stadium. Brendan, Erin and I wandered this farmer’s market while already stuffed from coffee shop treats and Punch Pizza, so not a penny was spent. The ambiance is excellent, so be sure to check it out if you’re ever in Minneapolis on a summer weekend.

We also managed to peek at the football stadium where Brendan’s chosen NFL team, the Eagles, clinched their first-ever Super Bowl victory, which meant a lot to him. But who did the Eagles beat that year to go to that Super Bowl? I don’t want to talk about it. (Insert image of me crying tears of purple and gold). 

Next on the tour: The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden at the Walker Art Center. We had to stop by the Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture, as I am pretty sure it’s written into the city bylaws that all visitors must be brought to see it. And at any rate, who doesn’t like giant cherries on giant spoons? 

Then: Isles Bun and Coffee. If you want the best cinnamon rolls in Minneapolis, this is the place to go. Brendan and Erin split the classic cinnamon roll, and I opted for the smaller version, known as a puppy dog tail. Yum. Our total with drinks came to $19.80, earning me an additional 40 Capital One miles. 

Up next: Kayaking on the chain of lakes in Minneapolis. We rented two kayaks at Bde Maka Ska, the largest lake in Minneapolis, and paddled our way through the series of connected lakes in the heart of the city. We went through Lake of the Isles (The namesake of Isles Bun and Coffee and home to the Lake of the Isle Pencil). We admired the turtles sleeping on logs, then went through the canal to Cedar Lake before retracing our steps (paddles?) back to Bde Maka Ska. 

This is one of the best ways to enjoy Minneapolis in the summertime. If you’re visiting in the winter (you brave soul), the chain of lakes is covered by fully groomed cross-country ski trails. The lakes really are one of the best parts of the city, all year round. 

Our kayak rentals cost $59.96, and I pocketed 120 Capital One miles with the purchase. 

Then I brought Brendan and Erin to my house in Minneapolis to cook the two meal-kit deliveries. We made Smashed Black Bean Tostadas (compliments of HelloFresh) and Savory Apple and Cheddar Flatbread (Courtesy of Green Chef). Although I may not be a skilled knife-wielder, the three of us had a great time whipping up these recipes and then enjoying the fruit of our labor. 

As I mentioned above, ordering these two meal delivery kits earned me the vast majority of my points for this challenge. I spent $74 for the two kits, and I earned a grand total of 7,648 points from the purchases. Not a bad haul!

Finally, we stopped by Minnehaha Falls on the way to the airport. I brought Brendan and Erin to one last location in Minneapolis, Minnehaha Falls, and then set them loose at MSP to fly onward to the next competitor, Daniel in Indiana. 

What I Earned & Takeaways 

Across $499.02 in total trip spend, here’s what I earned:

Total points earned: 10,397. I earned 8,630 Alaska Atmos points, 2,691 Capital One miles, and 76 American Express Membership Rewards. 

I feel very happy with my total here, but it wasn’t a perfect run. As a frequent flier and less frequent diner, I hold cards that maximize spending on airfare over dining out, which would have made a difference in the challenge. My Platinum Card® card allows me to earn 5x points on airfare booked directly with the airlines, a huge value for someone like me, but only 1x on most other purchases. 

If I had carried a card like the American Express® Gold Card, I could have earned 4x points at restaurants worldwide (up to $50,000 per year, then 1x after that) instead of just the 2x points I get with the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. There is definitely room for improvement if we get to take on another points challenge in the future.

The bulk of my earnings came from using shopping portals. The nicest part of these shopping portals is that they are open to anyone with any credit card - or debit card, for that matter. You don’t need to be approved for a fancy credit card with all the bells and whistles to earn points this way. You just need to be creative in how you purchase items. 

Wrap Up 

I had a wonderful time showing Brendan and Erin around Minneapolis! I am really glad I had the opportunity to plan such a nice tour of my hometown. I am pleased with how my points-earning strategy came to fruition, and I am hopeful that my thirst for victory is quenched.