Beth and I had an amazing five day adventure in Queenstown, New Zealand. Queenstown is one of the most beautiful places we had ever visited and the DoubleTree by Hilton Queenstown was a perfect place to stay at. Before coming to Queenstown we had spent a week with some friends in Melbourne, Australia and also drove the amazing Great Ocean Road. All this was part of our itinerary to visit both Australia and New Zealand thanks to free award tickets and in business class!

Back to the hotel we stayed at, the DoubleTree by Hilton Queenstown which is situated right on the water that connects to the beautiful Lake Wakatipu. Being a hotel point and airline mile aficionado I managed to get the room for free using 120,000 points for five nights. It runs between 25,000 – 30,000 points per night depending on the time of the year and as a Hilton Honors Diamond elite I received the fifth award night free! All elites do!

The past couple weeks were crazy going from one coast to the other for weddings, but I had a splendid time in one of my favorite cities, San Diego! I had the chance to visit one of my friends in San Diego a year and a half ago and I was excited that he invited me to his wedding.

Me and my fiancé Beth ventured out from Indianapolis to San Diego on Friday night with a connection through Denver. Thanks to a previous mishap on a Southwest flight I had enough in vouchers to pay for one ticket and then the Southwest companion pass allowed Beth to fly for free with me! Not a bad deal, free flights! For those interested, the Southwest credit card is at 50k point right now which is a lot towards the 110k companion pass qualification, a decent guide about the Southwest Companion Pass at The Points Guy if you are interested. Now on to the actual trip!