Sorry this is out of order! I promised I would do a cost breakdown, and now I have all the final numbers.
Again, I traveled alone and my trip comprised the following characteristics:
- Single traveler
- Coach flight from NYC - EZE (award)
- 2 nights hotel in USH
- Peregrine Antarctic Explorer - main deck twin
- 4 domestic Aerolineas flights (roundtrips BA - Ushuaia, BA - Iguazu)
- 5 nights at the BA Marriott (2 seperate award stays)
- 2 nights Falls View Sheraton Iguazu (award)
- Excursions and Admissions (including Beagle Channel cruise, day trip to Lake Fagnano in USH, day trip to Colonia, city tour of BA, day trip to Tigre, day trip to Brazil side of Iguazu, attending the opera at the Teatro Colon, tour of the Teatro Colon, tour of the Casa Rosada, museum admissions, etc)
Here is my total cost breakdown:
- 14,000 SPG Points
- 8,991 Amex Points (converted to SPG pts. When pooled with above I used a total of 17k SPG pts)
- 93,000 Marriott Points
- 40,000 AA Miles
- $8,600 (of which $350 was spending cash from ATM)
Here is a breakdown of the $8600:
- 68% - Antarctica trip from Peregrine
- 9% - Gear, including clothing, toiletries, many books
- 8% - Misc (fees, food, tips, cash expenditures, souvenirs, activities)
- 6% - Transportation (domestic flights, car service, supershuttle, trains, etc)
- 4% - Excursions, as outlined above
- 3% - Insurance
- 2% - Hotel in Ushuaia
Note: I opened an AA Mastercard to track all my costs on this trip. I got 18,000 AA Miles for signing up + over 8k for the spending, so I made back 26,000 of the 40,000 AA miles I used.
ETA - When I called to close Mastercard account 9 months later, they offered me 3,000 miles to leave it open. This brings my total AA mile count to 29,000, and I am still closing that account before the annual fee hits. ^