This past Thursday, we stopped back at AAA in Cicero to pick up our Travel Paperwork. This time we booked through Travel Impressions instead of Pleasant Holidays, as they had a slightly better deal than Pleasant Holidays and we could get the Turtle Bay Package that included two Full Breakfast Buffets at the Hula Grille every morning of our stay. ($420 added value!)

We also paid for the travel package with out United MileagePlus Explorer Card to avoid the $25 first bag per person baggage fees, and then found out Travel Impressions did not use our credit card for paying for the airfare, they buy everything in bulk with their own AMEX card.  When our AAA Agent talked to them, they tried to work it out with United to no avail, so instead, they just refunded us $180 on the package to cover the baggage fees and our inconvenience (baggage fees = $150, $30 inconvenience payment)

We also booked our flights from Syracuse to San Francisco and back using our United Mileage earned from previous flights and credit card purchases, so that saved over $1000 in the trip cost.  We thought about upgrading to First Class instead, but just figured it was better to get the free flights….

And to top off the savings, we booked our San Francisco hotel (Hampton Inn San Francisco – Airport) and Alamo Rental Cars for both outgoing and return stays with our Chase Freedom Rewards Points, which covered about two thirds of the cost, all just for buying our regular every day items over the past year or so 🙂

Now, to use our Discover Card Rewards to buy some gift cards for restaurants, etc for use during our travels 🙂