In keeping with my tradition (which I started last year) of taking my wife out of country for our anniversary, this year we are going to Vancouver, British Columbia.

Getting There

This year we are flying to Seattle, renting a car, and driving to Vancouver.

I am a huge fan of using British Airways Avios for short flights and since Boise to Seattle qualifies for the lowest rate I am using 4,500 Avios + $6 for each of our one-way tickets.

Theresa had about $100 on her Alaska Airlines wallet from changes to prior flights and even though it was not set to expire for several months we decided to pay for the one-way ticket from Seattle to Boise since we wanted a specific flight for which there was no Savor award available.

Total Airfare

BOI > SEA 9,000 Avios + $12

SEA > BOI $204

I use AutoSlash to find cheap car rentals and they found a 3 day rental through Thrifty for $170.

I am using a total of 7,000 Starpoints (Starwood Preferred Guest) to stay two nights at a Sheraton Hotel in RIchmond, south of YVR.

Point Valuation

9,000 Avios vs $198 (the BOI > SEA early flight is $99 each) yields 2.2 cents per Avios.

7,000 Starpoints vs $517 (for the entire two night stay) yields 7.39 cents per Starpoint.

Acquiring Points

I have the Chase British Airways credit card which came with a 50,000 Avios signup bonus.  Normal spending on this credit card yields 1.25 Avios per dollar (although that will be going to an even 1 Avios per dollar).

I also have the American Express Starwood Preferred Guest credit card which came with a 25,000 Starpoint signup bonus.  Normal spending produces 1 Starpoint per dollar.

So Say We All

I am really looking forward to this trip not just to celebrate our 24th Anniversary.  My all time favorite show, Battlestar Galactica, was filmed in Vancouver at many of the well known landmarks.  I don’t know if I’ll get to see Baltar’s house, but either way I am going to enjoy the trip.