I first got into the Miles game more than a year ago, sometime in 2014, when I received an unsolicited offer in the mail from American Express for a Delta Airlines Gold credit card with a 50,000 SkyMiles signup bonus.

That really didn’t mean anything to me since I didn’t fly much and I didn’t even understand frequent flyer programs generally.   But because I already had a trip booked on Delta (to Jamaica) and this offer talked about a free checked bag (not just for me, but for others on my itinerary) and Zone 1 boarding… I figured I would jump on it.  After all the annual fee was waived for the first year so there was no risk.

I applied and was approved.  Now…what do do with those 50,000 SkyMiles?  I had no future trips planned beyond the Jamaica trip which was already booked through Hotwire months ago.

So I sat on the SkyMiles figuring I would eventually use them but whenever a trip came up and I looked to use SkyMiles for it, well, Delta never seemed to have a Saver award.  I began to think I may never use the SkyMiles, or, suck it up and take a non-Saver award just to use them.

American Pharoah

Who would have thought a horse vying for the Triple Crown would be my SkyMiles savior.

Less than three weeks from the Belmont Stakes I got this crazy idea to fly to New York City to go to this historic race (historic because it could produce a Triple Crown winner).  I checked American Airlines for a Saver Award and they had a Saturday arrival around 11am.  Nope.  Not enough time to get to the track for the Saturday afternoon race.  Plus they had no return flight for Sunday.

Alaska Airlines was no good.

I didn’t check United because Theresa was still reeling from a horrible experience at SFO on a misconnected United flight so I didn’t even bother.

That left Delta.

I did a preliminary search expecting to get the usual 25,000 or even 37,500 one way but to my surprise Delta came back with 12,500 each way.  You have got to be kidding me!  There are like 5 open seats – all in the middle — and yet there are TWO Saver awards?

I made a quick call to Theresa (who didn’t even know I was contemplating this) and she ok’d it.  I checked for a hotel and found a 20k award at a Fairfield next to the Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR).  Then I checked for tickets to the Belmont and found general admission available.

I booked two Saver wards on delta (25,000 each round trip) with decent connections.

The best part, though, is that the next day Theresa and I decided to bring our daughter with us if there was still a round trip Saver award on the same flight.  There was!

The three of us will not be sitting together on the overnight flight from Seattle to New York, but that’s ok.  Our daughter doesn’t even know that she is going; it will be a great surprise.