Average Cost: $10,114 Points Used: 124,000 + Taxes & Fees: $0.00 CPP: 8.16

On Christmas day - one week out from our Brussels departure, I checked Air Canada and found the United Polaris Business class seats I was looking for.  While this wasn't as good of a redemption as our find on Turkish Airlines, Chase had a 20% transfer bonus to Air Canada and we were going more for speed to book this. We originally booked the trips on economy, so this just shows you how it's possible to book last-minute trips on points if you're patient and attentive. 

Average Cost: $820 Points Used: 34,600 + Taxes & Fees: $11.20 CPP: 2.34

With a free cruise coming up in January, we booked this flight on points because we found a good deal through Sarah's United card. By holding a United card (not even using it to book) you get access to special award seats for cheap point flights. The way back it just made more sense to book in cash. 

Average Cost: $23,902.00 Points Used: 228,000 + Taxes & Fees: $208.40 CPP: 10.39

To start our Maldives trip, we booked this fifth freedom route to avoid paying hefty taxes flying through Dubai. This way we still go to experience most of the Emirates First Class offerings - just no shower or bar. Emirates usually only releases 1 First Class seat per flight. So we booked one first class and then one business class at first. At the check-in desk, I was able to upgrade my flight using 39,000 points to go to first class. 

Average Cost: $3,200 Points Used: 108,620 + Taxes & Fees: $0.00 CPP: 2.95

To get to the Maldives, we just looked for the best deal - found with an Air Canada redemption to book Gulf Air. We had a fun stop in Bahrain and was able to sit lie-flat for the remainder of the trip!

Average Cost: $11,091 Points Used: 170,000 + Taxes & Fees: $669.30 CPP: 6.13

This was the capstone flight we booked a year ago in 2023. We wanted to try the best business class product in the sky - Qsuites by Qatar which is a double bed in the sky for the long flight back from the Maldives. We transferred 170,000 points from American Express to British Airways (when Qatar wasn't  a transfer partner at that time) and used the Avios to transfer to Qatar to book the flight. 

Average Cost: $5,584.18 Points Used: 270,000 + Taxes & Fees: $11.20 CPP: 2.06

We also wrote about this extensively in our blog post so see that for the details. This route through Denver was the only United plane that had lie-flat seats on both legs so that's what we went for. It wasn't Polaris, but helped us stay rested on this long flight. These seats aren't commonly shared with partners, so 135,000 points per person was the cheapest we could get. 

Average Cost: $6,302 Points Used: 270,000 + Taxes & Fees: $11.200 CPP: 2.33

This was the only direct flight from Honolulu to Dulles - a red eye - so I knew I had to book this so we could sleep overnight. I first actually booked this flight at a whopping 165,000 points per person once this was released, but continued to monitor the flight until it dropped. With the the drop, United makes it easy to cancel your flight, get back the points, then book again. 

Average Cost: $1,328.80 Points Used: 60,000 + Taxes & Fees: $11.20 CPP: 2.20

For one last trip, we changed our economy tickets paid in cash to get business class seats to be comfortable. Since the tickets were actualy pretty good value on points, we went ahead and booked these. However, they weren't lie-flat, just the classic domestic wider seats. But we got the bulkhead to get more space.