A Game-Changer for Families: Travel Portals

Using points to book travel for your whole family is a lifesaver

Traveling with the whole family can be a way to make great memories together. But it is often super expensive, especially when you have several children. Luckily, using points substantially cuts down on the cost of travel for families. Booking travel for big families using points can sometimes be tricky, so it’s important to know all of the options available.

One of the biggest hurdles I’ve come across is finding hotel rooms that can fit my whole family of 5. In the US, it can be relatively easy to bypass maximum occupancy rules and squeeze into one room altogether. But in Europe, they are much more strict about enforcing how many people allowed per room. You often have to hand over passports for all guests at check-in, so there really is no way around this.

Finding a hotel room that fits the family can be challenging

When booking with points alone, it is hard (aka: impossible) to find a suite that fits more than 3 or 4 people in Europe. When I booked our family’s hotel stays in Paris, I ended up needing to book 2 rooms for each night, in order to accommodate all of us. This doubled the amount of points I spent on hotels.

What I wish I had known was that, when you pay with points through the bank’s travel portal, you have access to many other room types that sleep 5 people (or more!). Each bank has a travel portal where you can book travel directly through them, and pay with points. You can book hotels, airfare and even rental cars.

The Chase Travel Portal

So for our upcoming trip to Italy, I have been using the Chase Travel Portal to find hotel rooms. After a quick search I found that I can book 3 nights in Rome for as low as 79,000 points (total!) when I book through the Chase Travel Portal. There are a variety of hotels to choose from. Many of the lower prices rooms are at local hotels that are not owned by a chain. There are several options for an apartment style hotel room—that has separate bedrooms, laundry and a kitchen. This is probably what I will choose so that we have space (and laundry!). This would run me 164,000 points for 3 nights. It’s more points than the cheaper portal option—but it’s still cheaper than transferring points and we will have a 1,000 square foot apartment in the heart of Rome!

This is the hotel with the apartment! Amazing location right by the Trevi fountain.

This is the room and rate: 2BR apartment at 164,311 points total

If I didn’t use the portal and instead transferred my points to Hyatt (arguably the best hotel transfer partner), I would likely end up spending a lot more points —because we need 2 rooms every night.

The Tribune would be a great value, especially when you compare to other chains (Hilton, Marriott, etc.)

There is a Hyatt in Rome called The Tribune. It’s gorgeous and in a great location. I would likely book this if I were transferring my points and supposedly getting the best “bang for my point.” I would certainly consider this if we only needed one standard room.

The largest suite available when I searched The Tribune in Rome

The biggest room available to book at The Tribune (using Hyatt points) is the King Junior Deluxe Suite. I called the hotel and they were adamant that the maximum occupancy is 4 people. Our 5th person is a small 4 year old, but they weren’t willing to make an exception due to fire code. So, I would need to book this room and another room. The suite is 46,000 points per night. Three of us could stay in there. Then I could book a standard room for the other 2 of us for 23,000 per night. That would be 69,000 points per night coming to a total of 207,000 points for the 3 nights. We wouldn’t be sleeping altogether in the same room (my husband would sleep in one room with one of the kids and I would be in the other room with my other two kids). This isn’t ideal and it’s double the points.

• Side notes: I wouldn’t be able to book 2 standard rooms either - the standard rooms are 2 people maximum - so saving a few points by doing that is not an option.

• Also, when you search using the Pay with Points option, you will not see the same availability as when you search paying with cash. Many more room options will be available if you pay with cash. Same with flights. Award availability is always different than if you paid with cash.

So for most big families, the travel portal should be the first place you check, especially when you are traveling to Europe. As always, do your due diligence and run the numbers. Compare how much it would cost in points if you transfer to one of your bank’s hotel partners. Then check out the portal and see what options you have. You may be pleasantly surprised at how well your family is accommodated when utilizing the bank travel portals. I know I was!