Two people to Ireland in business class for 192,000 points and $1,946

For our wildcard round, I decided to continue planning the very real trip I started planning in our exercise of what we'd do with 100,000 points.

Final tally: 192,000 points and $1,946.50. Business class both ways, six nights, four stops, one card.

Two things I want on the table before we start, because I'd rather you hear them from me:

• One: I also decided to make life more difficult for myself and pursue a one-card strategy for this one. April said we'd get bonus points if we could do that, and as a crippling overachiever that always went for bonus points (oh that sweet feeling of getting a 105 on a test in high school), I just couldn't resist.

• Two: this whole thing rests on a transfer bonus. Given that a 30% Avios transfer bonus is pretty common (there was one for UR points earlier this year), I felt pretty good doing this as it's likely to happen again. But it wasn't guaranteed when I booked it and it won't be guaranteed when you go looking.

So let's get into it.

First, the ground rules

Quick refresher on the challenge: two travelers, departing the East Coast, and the whole trip has to fit inside a fixed window over Thanksgiving week. The budget is 200,000 points and $2,000, and the points come from a maximum of three cards.

Mine: the American Express® Gold Card. That's the whole list.

The best two card-strategy here would be with two cards I actually have and love: the Amex Gold and CSR. Amex Gold for the transfer bonus to Aer Lingus, Chase Sapphire Reserve® for paying for everything else. The Sapphire Reserve has some of the best built-in travel insurance in the game, and crucially for this trip, primary car rental insurance.

I ended up picking the Amex Gold for my one-card strategy, mainly for the transfer bonus, as it gave me extra points to work with for hotels. You could've easily done this one-card strategy with either the Sapphire Reserve or Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.

Here's the itinerary:

• Nov 21: Boston (BOS) → Dublin (DUB) on Aer Lingus in business class (77,000 points transferred for 100,000 Avios + $290 for two)

• Nov 22–24: Two nights at the Anantara The Marker Dublin Hotel (38,000 points)

• Nov 24: Pick up the rental car ($80 for four days)

• Nov 24–25: One night at Isaacs Hotel Cork City ($168.56)

• Nov 25–26: One night at The Lake Hotel Killarney ($194)

• Nov 26–28: Two nights at the Glenlo Abbey Hotel ($754.94)

• Nov 28: Shannon (SNN) → Boston on Aer Lingus in business class (77,000 points transferred for 100,000 Avios + $459 for two)

Let's go through it.

Flights to Dublin

Ireland is one of the easier places to find business class availability to Europe from the East Coast, and I managed to find five seats available for these dates. It was too hard to pass up. Total: 100k points + $290 USD for two in biz class from Boston to Dublin. 👇

(For my actual trip dates, I found biz class availability for two from Philly. This is why it always pays to check multiple airports that you might be open to positioning to!)

Looking at the cash value: 👇

That gives us an off-the-charts value of 6.7 cents per point!! 🤩😮

Epic.

Two nights in Dublin

Since I'm going with the Amex one-card strategy here, it was time to check out LHW, Amex's latest transfer partner. Mike just did his first transfer to the program and kindly broke it down for us here. Now it was my turn. Getting used to the 4:1 transfer ratio took some getting used to, but I did find a hotel in Dublin that I could book for two nights with my remaining MR points: 👇

With the 4:1 transfer ratio, for two nights that was 37,888 points, or 38,000 to transfer.

Rental car: 4 days

After a couple of days in Dublin, head back to the airport to get your rental car for the road trip portion of the trip! Sure, you could get it when you arrive on day one, but a) why pay for days you don't need? b) I don't know about you, but driving on the opposite side of the road after a red eye flight sounds like a recipe for disaster 🫣

I booked this through AmexTravel.com to get a great price and 2x on prepaid car rentals with my Amex Gold. I also chose Hertz as my preferred company because as a benefit of the card, I get complimentary Hertz Five Star® Status. That means benefits like skipping the counter (at select locations), adding an additional driver at no additional cost, and vehicle upgrades.*

Also, since I priced this out in the Chase Travel℠ portal (before I committed to my one-card strategy), I think it's worth noting that the same rental was $230 when booked there vs. $80 total booked through Amex Travel. That's almost a third of the cost!

Also, yes. I did get the smallest car possible. Everyone who has driven in Ireland assures me that this is in my best interest, and I don't like driving big cars anyway. 🤷‍♀️ 👇

One night in Cork

Meander your way south from Dublin, stopping at whatever sights and towns pique your interest along the way. Spend the night in Cork to get the feel for a smaller city.

Guys, I compared this quaint hotel on both Amex Travel and Rove. It was the exact same price on both, but on Rove you earned way more miles. I think this challenge has made me a Rove convert for booking hotels. 👇

One night in Killarney

In the morning, head to Killarney National Park (just an hour away from Cork) and/or drive the popular 111-mile Ring of Kerry. In the evening, rest your head at this sweet hotel located inside the park. Same story here. I checked on both Amex Travel and Rove, and the price was the same, the miles were much more. 👇

After a long day of hiking, book their Lake Thermal Suite, complete with a steam room, sauna, and outdoor hydrotherapy area with an outdoor hot tub and infinity pool. Say less.

Two nights in Galway

I'm fully leaning into the luxury trip and using my Amex Gold benefits to the max for this trip. One not-oft discussed benefit of this card is the $100 credit towards eligible on-property charges when booking through The Hotel Collection.

I'll be honest, if I were really booking this hotel for myself, I probably wouldn't book this, because a) have you seen that price tag b) the hotel isn't realllyyy my vibe, though it is in a historic 18th-century manor and there are Pullman cars on-site that have been converted into a restaurant, so that's pretty cool. But since I had covered so much of the stay with points, I had cash burning a hole in my pocket, and if I'm told I have $2,000 to use, why not use all of it? 👇

From here, you could explore the region of Connemara on your last couple of days. It's known as one of the most beautiful areas of the entire country and there's plenty to see here.

Flight home

Galway to Shannon airport is a 1.5-hour drive, and with a late afternoon flight, that gives you plenty of time to make one last drive, maybe even making a stop along the way. 👇

Another 100,000 Avios, or 77,000 points with the 30% transfer bonus, plus $459 in taxes and fees for two.

The damage

Adding it all up:

• Points: 77,000 (Amex → Avios, outbound) + 38,000 (Amex → LHW, Dublin) + 77,000 (Amex → Avios, return) = 192,000

• Cash: $290 (outbound) + $80 (rental car) + $168.56 (Cork) + $194 (Killarney) + $754.94 (Galway) + $459 (return) = $1,946.50

Two business class seats across the Atlantic, six nights on the ground, and $53.50 left in the budget.

What I'd actually do (if I weren't locked into one card)

• Book hotels on Rove when paying with Cash!

• Put the rental car on the Sapphire Reserve. I usually book my trips with my Sapphire Reserve cuz I have many more Chase points than Amex points, but the Amex Gold is still a solid travel card. Only thing to note is that it only has secondary car rental insurance and not as good benefits as the Sapphire Reserve (trip delay only kicks in after 12 hours instead of 6), but for a one-card strategy, it still does pretty well.

• If I were really booking this trip for myself, I'd probably do things a bit differently and spend more time finding unique hotels in some more natural environments. In the interest of time, I leaned into the luxury aspect and really went with that!

The bottom line

Can two people fly business class to Ireland over Thanksgiving week, spend six nights and drive half the country, on 192,000 points and $1,946, using exactly one card?

Yes. And the only reason it worked was the transfer bonus.