How I Used Points and Money to Travel to Galapagos

Galapagos has been a dream for years. We have put it off forever because of cost. Well, we did it! And we did it for under $1500 for 2. Yay!! I can show you here how to do it for even less.

 

For this trip, I opened a few credit cards that I knew I would use to pay for airfare and hotels.

I started with the United Business Card. (referral link) This card gave me 80K miles after spending $5000. I then used those points to purchase flights from SLC to Baltra on United.  The first 2 legs are on United metal. Then you switch to Avianca, which is a Star Alliance Partner. It is all one reservation. 

We got a super saver deal for 29K points each way in Economy. I was super happy with that redemption. I used some of my other 80K miles to send my son to Kauai.

With the United Business card came 2 passes to the United Club.  We had a 7 hour sit in Houston so we enjoyed that benefit and ate lunch and dinner there. 

We arrived in Quito after midnight. I made a bit of a goof and booked the wrong Wyndham. This was a costly mistake as we had to take a $25 taxi each way instead of a free bus to the airport hotel. Darn. 

Our next flight was with Avianca at back at the Quito airport at 10 am. We got up early for our trek back. I will love to go back and spend time in Quito. Our drive was lovely. 

When you get to the airport, you need to get in line to purchase a Galapagos transfer card. Just show your passport, pay $20 each and they will set you up. Then go put your bags in a special screener. Next, go to Avianca and check in. You then go through security like normal. 

We have priority pass privileges with a Hilton Card, so we visited the lounge for breakfast and a soft place to wait for our flight. 

My other point redemptions were 20,000 points transferred from AMEX rewards to Avianca for our flight to Guayaquil. This came to 9500 Life miles each, plus some change. 

I also used the chase travel portal to book our snorkel trips, I could have saved even more money if I booked hotels with points, but I chose airbnb and VBRO instead...I can't really say why. They were just cheap enough, I guess. 

How to use the Chase Travel portal to book activities:

 I hope you can make this dream become a reality.