I know things could be very different raising two children, but we've always had a "travel fund" that we would put money into every month automatically--just like a Christmas Fund. We didn't even see it...if we had, I'm sure we would have had 100 other things to do with it.

Perhaps you could start one and just know it is for flights only...and watch kayak or the many other sites that allows you to put in your "wish list" and it will watch the airfare for you--it's free and what a time saver!

Good luck!!!

Dawn

PS: If your kids see you take time out for your relationship (without them), they will learn to do this with their husband/wife. You can't have it both ways--if you model this for them and take time away from them to build/strenghten your marriage, they will follow suit and know this is "okay." If you don't model this for them, it is unlikely they will ever feel that is "okay" to take time away from their children. And as grandparents (someday), you would love nothing more than to have your children have the best marriage/relationship with their spouse, which should include mom/dad alone time/vacations, but it will be foreign to them if they didn't live it growing up. Just my 2 cents....

I laughed when I read this, I said the exact same thing about never paying for a card. But, the free night each year actually more than pays for the card, so I convinced myself that I'm actually making money by getting the MR card. Just say it over and over again, and eventually you believe it

-pk

I know....I can't remember what decade it was that I paid an annual fee for a credit card either. I associate that with someone that may not have stellar credit--but alas, here I am shelling out $65 or $69 per year as well.

Actually, we will be using that certificate this year with an award in Australia...so most definitely, it will have paid for itself this year for sure.

Even more important for me is the 15 points toward status. It ALMOST makes up for the fact that award stays do not count toward status--I said ALMOST...like some other folks, that is probably my biggest pet peeve w/Marriott. Argh.....

Dawn

Thanks for the advice

RE travel fund: my wife is starting one now, and she's going to get her passport next week (while I'm in Germany). It's neat to see her excited about something. One advantage for me that my wife just pointed out is that my company does a 2:1 vacation match (I can sell one day back for every day I take). I have 10 weeks on the books now, so I can take 2 weeks off for Paris and sell 2 weeks back, which will cover most (all) of the expense while in Paris. Women get creative when they see something they really want

And on a semi-related note: what's the best time of year to visit Paris, both from tourist perspective as well as from a rewards-redemption perspective (i.e. hotel availability)?

I don't know if I wrote it down or kept the article, but there is a website that was in our newspaper travel section a month or so ago. Basically, you type in the city/country you want to visit and it tells you when the best time to go is! I don't have it though...and for us, we go the same months every year....once in February and the other vacation is in late Oct, early Nov. But there are a lot of great posts about Paris...check tripadvisor also. And actually, I suspect there is no bad time to go to Paris (grin).

Sounds like you have a great plan. I've always said half the fun is in the planning!

Can't wait to read your first trip report!

Good luck!

Dawn

To avoid crowds in Europe avoid mid-June through last weekend in August. August is vacation month for Europeans. American families do European vacations from mid-June to Labor day.

Go to weather.com and in the search box at the top of the page type in Paris, France, or any other destination you are interested in, and click the Search button. When Today's Weather page is displayed, click on the Month button at the right end of the orange navigation bar. When the Monthly Weather page is displayed scroll down and click on the orange Averages button at the bottom of the monthly forecast. I noticed for Paris there was no monthly precipitation information.

Personally I would choose late May, early June, or September. Spring in Paris is beautiful, but September may tend to be a bit warmer and have less rain IMO.

+1

Hi Flyertalk, this is Rachel with Amex Customer Care.

Everyone in the forum had some great points. It is definitely up to you Patk if you want to cash in your points for items as opposed to using them for hotel stays. We can not tell you what the best option is, but if you do have any detailed questions that you would like us to research feel free to let us know.

Don't forget about the travel package (hotel/air/Hertz discount) redemptions. A great deal if you want to stay 7 nights in the same hotel.

https://www.marriott.com/rewards/usepoints/morepack.mi



Hotel + Air

Take advantage of an excellent vacation value. Exchange your points for a week of hotel accommodations, with airline miles and a 25% Hertz rental-car discount* included. Refer to tables below for point requirements.

*Available at participating locations in the USA and Europe

Get details on how to redeem your points >>
Participating Airlines: Aeromexico, Air Canada, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, British Airways, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Mexicana, Northwest, United Air Lines, US Airways, Varig Brasil, Virgin Atlantic
7 Hotel Nights 50K Miles 70K Miles 100K Miles 120K Miles
Category 1-5 200,000
Details 220,000
Details 250,000
Details 270,000
Details
Category 6 230,000
Details 250,000
Details 280,000
Details 300,000
Details
Category 7 260,000
Details 280,000
Details 310,000
Details 330,000
Details
Category 8 290,000
Details 310,000
Details 340,000
Details 360,000
Details
Participating Airlines: Air Berlin, Air China, Air France/KLM, Alitalia, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Cathay Pacific, China Southern, Emirates, Japan Airlines, Jet Airways, LAN, Lufthansa/Miles & More, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, SN Brussels Airlines, TAP Air Portugal
7 Hotel Nights 35K Miles 50K Miles 70K Miles 85K Miles
Category 1-5 200,000
Details 220,000
Details 250,000
Details 270,000
Details
Category 6 230,000
Details 250,000
Details 280,000
Details 300,000
Details
Category 7 260,000
Details 280,000
Details 310,000
Details 330,000
Details
Category 8 290,000
Details 310,000
Details 340,000
Details 360,000
Details

Hotel + Air Travel Packages are available to anyone, elite status is not needed to redeem these awards.

If I were the OP, I would save for the travel packages. I redeemed for 3 earlier this year (before the devaluation). I will be spending 14 days in London in about 6 weeks (I'm planning on making visits to Oxford, Cambridge, Portsmouth and a few other areas via train) and probably 7 days next January in Hong Kong. The 300,000 AA miles that I got will also be put to good use (a F ticket to London with a stopover in LA before crossing the pond and I'm saving the rest of my AA miles for future trips).

A second top tier hotel status is nice. With Hyatt, I plan on using 3 award nights next January to extend my stay in Hong Kong. Hyatt has some properties with low redemption rates (compared to its competitors) in some expensive locations.

I like Marriott more, but it is easier to rack up free nights and points with Hyatt. Marriott's travel packages are my only way to eventual lifetime AA platinum status with the occasional Hilton stay and dining out adding some extra miles.

So how do these travel packages work? From reading the MR site, it sounds like they transfer points to an airline account where they get exchanged for miles?

Is it a one-for-one (1 MR point = 1 Mile)?

Also, WRT this table:
How is this interpreted? Does this mean if, for example, I stay 7-nights at a cat 6, it would require 300 points if the airline needed 120K miles? Lastly, is this roundtrip, or do you have to take care of the return on your own?

thanks
-pk

A TP hotel + Miles award is basically a 7 night Cat. X hotel award plus a number of miles transferred to the airline program of your choice. As you noticed the number of airline miles transferred is variable (i.e. miles in blocks between 50K and 120K.) The cost of the award is also dependent on the category level of the hotel award portion as well.

So essentially a Cat. 1-5, airline miles 50K award will require fewer points than a Cat. 6, 50K airline miles award since you get a higher category hotel award. The Cat. 6, 50K airline miles award will cost less than a Cat. 6 70K airline miles award since you get 70K miles transferred instead of 50K.

Essentially a TP award is a 1-to-1 transfer of points to miles. This is what really makes these awards one of the best hotel awards in the industry.

As for whether the airline ticket is roundtrip, one-way, business, coach, first, etc., that is totally dependent on the airline program and how you choose to use the miles once they are transferred. The points are now miles in your airline program, so you would need to look at the rules of usage for that particular airline program.

Um, Rachel, the OP was asking about using MR= Marriott Rewards points for merchandise vs. hotel stays.

Had he been asking about MR= Amex Membership Rewards points, your advice would be on topic.

(pssssst-BTW-using AMEX MR points for merchandise is a bad deal also)