Our Family of 6 Goes to PCB on Points
Flying kites on the beach right outside our hotel in Panama City
Hello Fellow Adventurers!
My family of 6 took a trip to Panama City Beach, Florida back in May of 2024, which is a vacation spot my family went often when I was a kid. It’s great that time of year when kids are still in school because our hotel was mostly filled with retired-aged people
And it only cost us a grand total of $67.20.
Out-of-pocket price would have been over $4,700!
So how did we get here? Let’s break it down:
Let’s start with airfare.
My second daughter looking out to the clouds…she was 7 when we took this trip.
Back in mid October 2023, my husband and I each started opening Southwest cards in order to reach the minimum spend by January 2024 and get enough points for the companion passes. He and I both received the Companion Pass which meant my two oldest daughters now fly free with us every time we fly until December 2025.
(If you’re interested in getting the companion pass, check out this blog post that explains the strategy of how to get it for close to two years!)
The original price for all 6 of us to fly direct from Nashville to Panama City would have been $2,627.76. Instead, it cost us $5.60/each in taxes for a whopping $67.20 total round-trip.
Next is hotel.
The sunset view of the Atlantic, lazy river and pool from our balcony @ Holiday Inn Express & Suite Panama City.
IHG has been a great family-friendly hotel chain so far, and you can often find really good redemptions. For this trip, I used the points from when I had opened the IHG Premier personal and business cards last year, which we opened to book two rooms in Orlando for our family and in-laws for 4 nights back in 2023. That post is here.
We used the leftover points for this property for 5 nights. Again, when you hold either the personal or business IHG Premier card, the 4th night is free every time you book. We also received 500 bonus points and a voucher for a snack and drink at the Indigo Grill on site when I checked in.
This particular beachfront room had two queen beds and a bunk bed. Plus, you can request a crib for no additional cost, which is what we used for our youngest. So, everyone had plenty of space, and my oldest got a queen bed all to herself because the other two wanted to sleep on the bunk bed. Win win for everyone!
This property was beachfront with a zero-entry pool and lazy river. My oldest two pretty much lived in the lazy river, they loved it so much. What I liked about this property is it had complimentary towels, ice water, and sweet tea poolside, which meant we didn’t have to lug our water bottles around or carry them in our swim bag. Oh, and the free breakfast! Anybody with kids knows that a free breakfast is a major win!
Another perk with having Platinum Elite status with the IHG card is certain properties either have better parking for you or will waive the parking fees in some instances.
Night swim! Beautiful weather at night in May
You get many perks when you hold either the IHG Personal Card or IHG Business Card
SUMMARY:
Overall, this entire trip would have cost us $4,726! All we paid was the taxes and fees for the flights, which was a grand total of $67.20. The hotel and car rental had no additional fees added.
Airfare: 14,246 Southwest points/each so 56,984 SW points total
Hotel: 5 nights @ 32k IHG points/ngt so 130k points total
Car Rental: 36,400 UR points
