Carly Helfand
It was a long trek to Antarctica, but it was a once-in-a-lifetime trip, with plenty of penguin sightings.
- Antarctic cruises can easily go for close to $10,000 or more, so using credit card rewards is a great way to cut down on extra expenses.
- My sisters and I used points from the Chase Sapphire Reserve to book two separate round-trip itineraries as part of our journey down, saving more than $2,000 per person in the process
- We also used credit card rewards for lodging in Buenos Aires on the way back from the port city of Ushuaia, Argentina.
- The Platinum Card® from American Express offers airport lounge access, which saved us on dining costs during transit.
- See Business Insider's list of the best rewards credit cards »
Going to Antarctica is not a cheap proposition. The vast majority of visitors to the frozen continent go by ship from the port city of Ushuaia, Argentina, and unless you find a last-minute deal, you're looking at a multi-thousand-dollar price tag. Depending on the type of cruise and accommodations you want, these can easily jump to five figures - and that's to say nothing of the plane tickets to Argentina, pre-trip accommodations and gear you'll need for the journey.
I made the trek to Antarctica with my sisters in November, and while I couldn't use points to cover the cost of the voyage I did with Quark Expeditions, I turned to credit card rewards for other pieces of the trip to ease the financial burden as much as possible. Here's a look at a few of the strategies I used that you can replicate if this trip is on your bucket list.
Keep in mind that we're focusing on the rewards and perks that make these credit cards great options, not things like interest rates and late fees, which will far outweigh the value of any points or miles. It's important to practice financial discipline when using credit cards by paying your balances in full each month, making payments on time, and only spending what you can afford to pay back.
1. Maximizing the cruise purchase
As I mentioned above, I knew I wasn't going to use points to book my Quark voyage. It's not technically impossible: If you have a "purchase eraser"-style credit card such as the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card, which lets you use points to remove travel purchases from your credit card statement after you've made them, you could theoretically get the cruise for free.
But with a bill of more than $7,000, I would have needed more than 700,000 Capital One miles to get the job done, so it wasn't really viable for me. Instead, I opened a new credit card - the Ink Business Preferred Credit Card - before making my payment so that it could help me meet the threshold for an 80,000-point sign-up bonus that required $5,000 in spending in the first three months. On top of the bonus, I also earned 3 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent since travel is a bonus category of the Ink Business Preferred (for up to $150,000 in combined purchases each cardmember year).
2. Using points for two round-trip flights
My sisters and I each booked two separate round-trip itineraries as part of the trip - one between the US and Buenos Aires, where we spent a day on each end of the Antarctic expedition, and one between Buenos Aires and Ushuaia.
There are lots of ways to get from the US to BA using points and miles, but since we were looking to fly together, we stuck to using the only currency all three of us had in abundance: Chase Ultimate Rewards, which we earned with Chase credit cards including the Chase Sapphire Reserve.
We wound up finding good United economy flight options, and they cost fewer points to book using the Chase travel portal than it would have taken had we transferred points to United for award tickets. In addition to saving me $1,153.63 in airfare, booking the round-trip through the portal using 76,908 Ultimate Rewards points also meant I earned about 8,000 redeemable United MileagePlus miles - as well as elite-qualifying miles, which helped me score United Platinum elite status for 2020 - on the trip.
We turned to Ultimate Rewards for the BA-Ushuaia flights as well. Our voyage offered the option to include charter flights between the two cities, operated by Aerolineas Argentinas, but they came at a steep $1,000. That was a tab I definitely didn't want to pay, especially considering that Aerolineas flies several commercial flights each day between the two cities.
Aerolineas is a member of the SkyTeam alliance, so you can book Aerolineas flights through other SkyTeam airlines. But the award space on the flights we wanted wasn't made available to partners, so we used the Chase portal a second time to secure round-trips for 21,363 Ultimate Rewards points each.
3. Using points for pre- or post-voyage hotel stays
Another expense we didn't want to pile on during an already expensive vacation was lodging in Buenos Aires. Luckily, the city has a number of properties bookable using points, and we redeemed Marriott Bonvoy points for a night at the Park Tower, part of the Luxury Collection. As a Category 6 property, a standard night goes for 50,000 points, but that can sink to 40,000 or jump to 60,000 during off-peak or peak dates, respectively.
Read more: The best Marriott credit cards
We stayed our other BA night at Anselmo Buenos Aires, part of Hilton's Curio Collection. While I didn't use points for the stay, I did use my Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express to pay, netting 14 Honors points per dollar. (That hotel wasn't our favorite; if I were to do the trip again, I'd definitely consider transferring Chase points to the World of Hyatt program to book a night at the Palacio Duhau - Park Hyatt Buenos Aires instead!)
4. Using lounge access to the fullest
Our itinerary took us through both Houston and Buenos Aires twice, and each time, we had layovers of a few hours. With lots of time to kill, I used the Platinum Card from American Express for access to the Centurion lounge in both locations.
Platinum cardholders can also bring in up to two guests for no additional charge, so my card covered all three of us. That benefit alone saved us the expense of buying four meals for three people, which easily could have run us a few hundred dollars or more.
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Please note: While the offers mentioned above are accurate at the time of publication, they're subject to change at any time and may have changed, or may no longer be available.
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