How I booked a $5,000 trip to Thessaloniki, Calais and London with points and miles

About a month ago, I booked a spontaneous trip to volunteer with two organizations helping refugees in Greece and France. The route outlined in the title is the same one thousands of refugees take every year to a safer place.

I’m lucky, like every American passport holder: I got to travel this exact route safely, comfortably, and with the protection of the U.S. Embassy if I ran into trouble along the way.

Hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing war-torn countries every year don’t have any of those privileges. They trek through dangerous terrain, travel through unsafe waters, and thousands of them don’t make it to the safe shores of Europe.

---

My background

My own family left Afghanistan in the 80’s under difficult circumstances. Most of my extended family fled to Pakistan and one of my aunts made the long trek largely on foot, with her family in tow. At one point she was separated from her husband and two of her kids for several days before reuniting with them in a refugee camp across the border.

My immediate family was lucky. My dad, being the miracle worker that he is, promised my mom that she wouldn’t have to endure the dangerous journey to Pakistan. He would get us to Europe – by plane, something my mom laughed at.

But he made it happen and while the journey presented its own challenges, my parents were grateful that they no longer had to worry about whether their home would be next to get hit by rockets while warlords fought to control the country.

The plight of refugees is something I’ve always been concerned about and I wanted to make things a bit easier for those who were following the path my family took 27+ years ago.

Some of these refugees have language difficulties. They leave home with very little and rely on the kindness of strangers to survive until their asylum claim is processed and they’re able to rebuild their lives. With many of the refugees speaking Pashto and Dari, languages I’m fluent in, I wanted to volunteer as a translator.

I reached out to a few organizations in February but couldn’t really make it work at the time. When award space opened up to Thessaloniki on AirBerlin in early July, I decided to book it two days before departure, keeping the rest of my travel plans loose so I could make routing changes and book hotels on the go. When you do as much obsessive planning months in advance as I do, this isn’t so difficult.

How I booked the trip using points

Ultimately, it was my collection of points and miles that made this trip possible. Here’s a breakdown of how I covered pretty much all of my travel expenses using points and miles, which would have otherwise cost over $5,000:

• Airberlin business class SFO-DUS-MUC: 57,500 AAdvantage miles + $141.86 taxes and fees (14,186 Arrival Miles).
• 1 night at the Hilton Munich Airport: $218.09 = 21,809 Arrival miles.  It was pricier than most hotels in the area, but it was the most convenient option and I was ultimately very happy with my choice (and the 7,086 points I earned from the stay).
• Airberlin economy class Munich to Thessaloniki: 7,500 British Airways Avios and $37.90 cash.
• 1 night at the Hyatt Regency Thessaloniki: 6,000 points + $70 cash charged to my Discover It Miles card.
• 2 nights at The Met Hotel Thessaloniki: 14,000 SPG points + $70 worth of room service charged to my Discover It Miles card.
• Aegean Airlines economy class flight from Thessaloniki (SKG) to Paris (CDG): $135.44 (13,544 Arrival Miles).
• 1 night Hyatt Regency Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport: 6,000 points + $70 charged to my Discover It Miles card.
• TVG train ticket from Paris (CDG) to Calais via Lille: $49.95.
• 4 nights at the Ibis Hotel Calais (room, breakfast and two room service dinners) $480.21 (48,021 Arrival Miles).
• 3 nights at the Holiday Inn Calais: 25,000 IHG points + $240.46 (24,046 Arrival Miles).
• Eurolines bus/ferry from Calais to London: $55.74.
• American Airlines Business/Economy Class LHR – ORD – SFO: 57,500 AAdvantage miles +  + $270.66 taxes and fees (27,066 Arrival Miles)

I spent 302,172 miles, which was well worth it considering how much I saved.

• 148,672 Arrival Miles
• 115,000 AAdvantage miles
• 25,000 IHG Rewards Club points
• 7,500 Avios
• 6,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points

My out-of-pocket cost

My out-of-pocket cost was around $400, which consisted mostly of cab and bus fares, tips, and the occasional meal or expense that I couldn’t pay with a credit card. This was mostly in Calais, where taxis didn’t accept credit cards and I needed cash for some incidentals and the daily 2 Euro roundtrip bus fare. Along the way, I also took some Uber rides, which I off-set with miles from my Discover It Miles Card.

For travel purchases over $100, I used miles from three different Barclay Arrival Plus World Elite Mastercards. I have my own card and I’m an authorized user on my dad and brother’s accounts. I’m regularly generating miles across all three cards, which I used to cover hotel stays and award taxes.

I don’t like to wipe out a single account balance, so it was preferable for me to pull miles from all three Arrival accounts and still maintain decent balances across the board.

I probably could have saved more cash and miles if I had booked this trip in advance. However, I think I did pretty well considering the time crunch and the fact that I was able to keep my travel plans flexible and make some big changes in the beginning (i.e. abandoning Thessaloniki and heading to Calais instead). It was a slightly stressful trip in the beginning, but I’m really glad I stuck it out.

It wasn’t all work. I got to visit my cousins in London after not seeing them for six years, took a scenic train ride through the French countryside, had fun exploring Calais, and met some really great people.

The current state of the Calais Jungle

The disappointing part of the trip was finding out a few days after returning home that the police had raided the Calais Jungle camp, shut down all the businesses, confiscated the merchandise, and arrested the owners. The raid included the Jungle Books Kids Restaurant, where unaccompanied minors were served hot meals free of charge.

At the moment, I’m concerned that local authorities will make good on their promise to shut the entire camp down. In the meantime, I encourage anyone who is interested in helping, to make donations to L’auberge Migrants/Help Refugees. They are the organization I worked with in Calais, where they collect donations, prepare meals, and organize the distribution of necessities at their warehouse.

They were incredibly well organized but running low on supplies (and in need of donations) during my stay. Another great organization is the Al Khair Foundation – their team was single-handedly feeding the 2,000+ Syrian refugees living in the Softex refugee camp in Thessaloniki.

Reflecting back on my trip

Aside from some of the issues I encountered, this was one of the best travel experiences I’ve ever had. It sounds terrible, but I’m not much for volunteering my time. In the past I never felt like volunteering made a difference. I came away feeling like I was being useful and the work we all did as a team mattered.

I’m grateful as ever that my job allows me the flexibility to not only work while I travel, but to cover my travel expenses via points and miles. While other volunteers were staying in hostels and camping in tents to keep costs low, I had a very nice hotel to go back to at the end of a long day – at a fraction of the cost.

At times, I’ve taken this hobby for granted and thought it was somewhat shallow and silly. I definitely left this experience feeling grateful for what it has made possible. Among other things.

Other stories from my trip to Calais

• Air France KLM Lounge at San Francisco International Airport review
• My observations of the Calais Jungle refugee camp
• Banksy’s mural in the Calais Jungle
• New Kabul Restaurant, The Welcome Wagon, and a memento