Mexico Awaits...Along With Big Savings

An El Dorado resort. Not sure if it's Seaside Suites. Courtesy of their facebook page.

Early next year I'll be headed to Mexico with Crystal for one of her friend's weddings. It'll be at the all-inclusive El Dorado Seaside Suites. Yeah, we'll really be slumming it. The humanity!

In all actuality (and if you didn't click on that link) it looks really nice. And by really nice I mean jaw-on-the-floor nice. Still can't believe I'll be staying there. I've never stayed at an all-inclusive. We're booking the stay through a travel agent, which is kinda nice. We don't have to worry about anything except being where we're supposed to be when we're supposed to be there (I'm looking at you Crystal). 

Cost

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Now, the whole thing costs just over $1,000. At first I thought it was $2,000 b/c I apparently can't read bills and divide by two - but that's a story for another time. 

But guess what?  It won't cost me anywhere near $1,000. 

Why? Because I got the Barclaycard Arrival Plus (which I mentioned here) - a cash back credit card that gets me 2 points per dollar. After meeting the minimum spend requirement of $3,000 in 3 months I received 40,000 miles as a bonus. That minimum spend requirement may sound like a lot to some of you (and it still kinda does to me) - but when you use your credit card on pretty much everything you buy it adds up pretty quickly. Anyways, that 40,000 miles - plus the minimum spend miles I got - equals a total of 46,000 miles in my name. That is a cash value of just over $500. (46,000 miles = $460. When I redeem for travel - Barclays gives me 10% of the miles back = 4,600. So $460 + $46 = $506.  Still with me?)

That means if I use all my miles for this trip - I'll get it for almost half off!  I haven't decided whether I'll use all of them or just part - but no matter how you slice it - that's some solid savings!

And I can certainly use an extra $400. Or $500.