One of my long-time bucket list items has been visiting the ancient Incan ruins at Macchu Picchu in Peru. As an iconic site that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, it is not only one of the most popular destinations in the world, but also notoriously complicated to achieve the perfect visit.
First, getting to the site requires quite a bit of travel connections. You usually have to fly into Lima, the capital of Peru, before taking an intra-country flight to the city of Cusco, which houses the closest airport to the ruins. From there, a train ride to the city of Aguas Calientes is necessary, followed by a bus ride up to the entrance of the site.
As If those logistics weren’t enough to make your head spin, there are limited tickets sold each day and there’s only a couple months of the year when the rain and fog isn’t so bad that the roads are closed and the views are spoiled.
Talk about a planning nightmare.
However, I do like a challenge and every single person that has ever made the trek refers to the experience as life changing. So, I decided to give it a go and found the perfect flights, travel dates, and even splurged for the top tier train experience.
Sadly, COVID-19 had other plans for me since this would have been the week that I had planned for almost a year. Fortunately, I’ve been able to get all my points and money back from the booking and plan to take another crack at this trip in the future.
With our trip cancelled, my wife and I made the choice to pivot and head to Buenos Aires, Argentina in November instead which gives me the perfect opportunity to show how I book a real trip from scratch.
Why Buenos Aires?
Often referred to as “the Paris of South America”, Buenos Aires is one of the most popular cities on the continent and features impressive architecture, deep culture, a bustling nightlife, and my wife’s personal favorite – lots of wine. The weather was also a significant factor in our decision. Due to its location south of the equator, November will be the end of spring in Argentina and should deliver temperatures in the high seventies during the day with mid-sixties at night.
Flight Booking
Since there are no direct flights to Buenos Aires from our local Orlando airport, I knew that connecting through an airline hub was going to be our best bet. We already had some Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles in our account from our cancelled flight to Peru, so I wanted to try to use those first. This was also perfect because Delta flights can be booked through Virgin Atlantic and business class seats are only 45k miles each way. With most flights being overnight and lasting 10 hours, business class is definitely a must.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is a highly underrated loyalty program that presents some really great redemption options. Fortunately, it is a travel partner of Amex, Chase, and Citibank so it is very easy to transfer or accumulate miles.
Fortunately, it was pretty easy finding availability to/from Atlanta over Thanksgiving, which is when we wanted to go. Atlanta is the closest Delta hub to us and is only a short repositioning flight from Orlando. That cost of the repositioning flights were a bit high due to being around the holiday, but I decided to use a credit that I had from Delta to neutralize the cost.
That brings our total flight cost to 90k Virgin Atlantic Miles and about $90 per person. Not bad for flights that Delta would normally charge $3846/person for.
Hotel Booking
As a Hilton Diamond member due to my Hilton Aspire credit card, I knew right away that I wanted to stay at a Hilton. The Hilton Buenos Aires looked perfect due to its downtown location and executive lounge. Properties like this one that have executive lounges offer free breakfasts and happy hours for Diamond members which can save a lot of money on food and drinks over the course of a 6-night stay.
The cash cost of rooms starts at $250/night for a Queen Bed Deluxe Room while the same room can be had a 60k points/night.
There are 2 caveats here, though. First, the cash cost shown doesn’t include taxes/fees which are another $316 for the stay. Second, booking with points avoids these taxes, and as a Hilton Diamond member, it’s guaranteed that I’ll at least be upgraded to a Queen Executive Room which goes for $318/night plus taxes which makes it even more lucrative.
I decided to book 5 of the six nights for 300k points and book the final night with a free night certificate, which is another perk of my Hilton Aspire card. That brings the total cost of the hotel booking to 300k points for a stay that would have cost $2312 in cash.
Conclusion
COVID-19 may have disrupted my plans to visit Macchu Picchu and finally check it off my bucket list, but all is not lost. While I did spend a considerable amount of time planning the perfect trip, I will still be able to use that information to give it another go next year or the following. In the meantime, I’ll keep using the opportunities presented to take fun and exciting trips like this one to Buenos Aires and make the best of it. Spending just under $200 out of pocket for a $10k trip seems like a pretty decent consolation prize after all.
