How (and How Much) I Paid for a Trip to the UK on a Low Income

 

As of the time of publication of this post, I'll be on a plane bound for England. I've been planning this trip for two years and the excitement is palpable! Until I return home, I thought I'd share the nitty gritty about this trip. Enjoy!

For a long while now, I've talked about surviving and thriving on a low income. Today, I'd like to focus on the thriving part. As you know, I'm currently (as of post publication) on the way to the UK with my friends, Keith and Audrey. I'm sure you're wondering how on earth I managed to pay for such a trip on a low income. Well, I'm about to tell you.

As you also know, I've been credit card churning for a handful of years now. As I got more used to it and did more research, I started to think about what I wanted to gain from credit card churning. Did I want to earn cash or did I want to travel? Well, if you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you're well aware of my burning love of travel - and Europe as well. So, a few years ago, I decided to concentrate on travel. With my smaller income, and because I'm single (meaning I can't build up points as quickly as if I were in a partnership) I figured I could build up the miles/rewards/hotel points every other year. This is exactly what I did.

Now, I'm not going into all the details of credit card churning as I've done that here before. How I operate it is that I just use a credit card in place of using my debit card or cash. I strictly use two kinds of cards: one that earns airline miles and another that earns hotel points. I utilize other cards when/if needed, and that did come into play for this trip. So, here's how I did it.

1. Airline Miles

I used a Delta Amex card for airline miles. Once I decided on my destination for 2024 back in 2022, I researched to see approx. how many miles I would need for a flight to London. Once I figured that out, I used that card exclusively to cover my flight. I used some additional credit card churning to make it happen. In early 2023, Amex emailed me about my other Amex Card, the Everyday Card. They offered me 25,000 reward points if I spent $1,000 in three months if I upgraded to Everyday Preferred. I happily did and after I reached the $1,000 I got the 25k points which I immediately converted to Delta miles. This was perfectly fine as both cards are Amex. I then canceled that Everyday card because Preferred has an annual fee and I wasn't using it before nor after this. 

2. Hotel Rewards

Once I had the miles I needed for a flight to London, I put that card aside and began using a card that gave me hotel rewards. I ended up churning three different credit cards to build the points/cash-back rewards I needed to pay for lodging.

A. I'm a fan of Choice Hotels and own a CH credit card. I've stayed at many CH brands in the States and loved them, so was happy to see that there are CH hotels in London as well. Unfortunately, rewards points using the CH branded card build up reward points very slowly. I needed to find a way to build (more) points faster.

B. After some research, I discovered that my Citibank Double Cashback card reward points - which accrue much more quickly - could be converted to Choice Hotels rewards points at a 1 to 1.5 ratio. This means that I not only build up points faster using Citi, but I can exchange my Citi points for Choice Hotels and get 1 1/2 times the points. Ex: 1,000 Citi points = 1,500 Choice Hotel points. Additionally, I could redeem my Citi ThankYou Points for cash if I needed a different choice in lodging. As a side note, I did need to actively use my Choice Hotels card to keep it active so I attached it to my lone subscription (YouTube Premium) to pay that bill automatically each month. So, I earned a few points every month with my CH card.

C. London is mainly a cashless town now, so I set about to find a good card to use that wouldn't charge foreign transaction fees with every swipe or tap. I happened upon Bank of America's Travel Rewards credit card. They were offering a signup bonus of $250 in travel credit, so I jumped on that. I figured that might come in handy for something.

When I was finally within the date range to begin booking hotel nights, CH had increased the amount of points I needed to book. After pondering on it a bit, I started looking into Airbnb. After all, I can exchange my Citibank points for cash. I carefully perused the website and found hostel-like lodging that also happened to be in the dead center of London at a cost of about $64/each per night. I happily booked the first three nights paying for my half with my Citi cashback rewards.

The 4th night was in Cardiff, Wales - a request of my friend Audrey - so she paid for a night at a hostel there for the two of us.

For the 5th - 8th nights we decided to book the same hostel-type Airbnb we stayed at the first three nights. I paid for my half using more of my Citibank cashback rewards.

During the planning phase of the trip, I mentioned to Audrey that we should split a hotel at Heathrow for the last night. My logic was that it would be easier to do that (plus we could stay in an actual hotel with free breakfast) on our last night and we wouldn't have to travel clear across London on the day we flew out. She agreed, and I paid for my half using the rest of my Citibank cashback rewards and shored up using a few of my Bank of America Travel Rewards. 

3. Spending Money

One of my many sinking funds is "Travel". I put enough in there each paycheck to build up more than $1,200/year. On my off-year vacations, it pays for the whole two weeks, and on my main-year vacations (like this one) it covers things like public transportation, entry fees, food, drinks, and if I want to pick up any mementos.

4. Purchasing Things in Advance

I get two extra paychecks a year. The first one of the year, since I didn't have to pay any bills with it, I used the opportunity to purchase some things in advance. Things like:

A. Day Trip to Stonehenge/Bath

B. Jack the Ripper Walking Tour

C. Evening Cruise on the River Thames

D. Train to Cardiff and back

E. Entry to Greenwich Observatory

F. Entry to Highgate Cemetery

Now, let's talk overall cost:

Flight

Delta won't let you get away with paying $0 for any rewards flights, whether domestic or international. I had to pay $203 on top of my miles. The flight without rewards was $900 so I saved almost $700 using the miles I earned by paying my monthly bills. Not too shabby.

Cost: $203

Lodging

By far and large, lodging is the MOST expensive cost of traveling. Finding ways to offset that cost is incredibly helpful. I used a combination of Citibank Thankyou Points and Bank of America Travel Rewards to pay for 8 out of the 9 nights. Audrey paid for night number 4 at the hostel in Cardiff. After I cashed in all my points, I had extra money to offset against other purchases - detailed below.

Cost: $0

Additional

I did need to renew my passport - which also required purchasing a passport photo - because it expired two months before the trip. I had to get my picture taken and purchase stamps to mail the passport renewal. Why am I sharing this information? Because it was a necessary cost for my trip. 

Cost: $155.97

On that thread, I decided to be a minimalist traveler so I bought myself a backpack suitcase and some packing cubes.

Cost: $56.69

I also had to buy a charging converter so I could charge my phone and some earplugs. If you've ever stayed in a hostel, or even just in a room with a group of friends, you know how important earplugs are. Luckily, Audrey had earplugs so I just bought the converter - which had enough plug-in capacity for all three of our phones.

Cost: $12.83

 Padlocks and a towel are a must for hostels, luckily I already have two padlocks and a quick-dry towel that I use for backpacking.

Cost: $0

Advance Purchases

All prices reflect the exchange rate at the time, which was 1.29 USD to 1.00 GBP.

After redeeming my Citibank ThankYou Points and Bank of America Travel Rewards to cover lodging costs, I had money left over. It was enough to pay for A and C. 

A. Day Trip to Stonehenge/Bath ($176.66): $0

B. Jack the Ripper Walking Tour: $25.00

C. Evening Cruise on the River Thames ($49.42): $0

D. Train to Cardiff and back: $141.58

E. Entry to Greenwich Observatory: $25.60

F. Entry to Highgate Cemetery: $23.00

Cost: $215.18

TOTAL COST 

$643.67

Of course, that includes one-off purchases that I wouldn't normally have to make (as listed in the "Additional" section), so I can leave those off for a more accurate cost of the trip. So, the:

TRUE COST 

$418.18

Considering that I will be spending 10 days/9 nights in the UK, visiting a bunch of fun sites, and eating out for most meals, that's cheap.

Now, what would it have cost had I not employed credit card churning? Well, I've calculated it for you:

$2,625.78

That's a savings of $2,207.60!! 

That's simply AMAZING! Of course, I have my $1,200 in spending money for the trip that I saved up little by little by putting aside money each paycheck in my Travel sinking fund. Will I spend it all? Time will tell.

Last, but surely not least, I would be remiss not to mention that I don't have to do all of these activities to have a good time in London. London is a city where almost ALL museums and parks are free (world-class and fantastic ones at that), and you can do plenty of other free/inexpensive things. Since I could indulge a little bit, I did - this is part of the MAGIC of credit card churning mixed with consistent saving and careful planning. 

While I'm splurging some, I plan on doing plenty of things of the free and cheap variety, which you'll get to read all about in coming posts about the trip. Stay tuned for those!