Greece is a location on most travel lovers bucketlist. We had wanted to travel to Greece for our honeymoon but then the pandemic shut that down for a few years. During the pandemic I signed up for the American Express Gold Card and the Chase Sapphire Preferred and my husband signed up for the American Express Business Platinum Card. Between our daily spend and the sign up bonuses, we collected plenty of points for our Luxury Honeymoon to Greece.
Booking business class airfare requires you to plan in advance- a minimum of 8 months out. If you are looking to fly economy on points, it is a bit easier to find availability, though summer can be tough to find mileage tickets in either class of service. So it’s always better to plan ahead of time when you are booking on points.
We booked our flights with United (which usually doesn’t have great redemptions but we lucked out). Though we booked with United, it was actually a codeshare flight with Swiss Airlines. Our business class flights cost us 60K points and $60 in taxes each. We transferred points from Chase Ultimate Rewards. In order to transfer from Chase you have to have the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card. My Airline Alliance and Transfer Partners List can help you figure out which credit cards will transfer to which airlines.
We booked the Grand Hyatt Athens using Chase Ultimate Rewards. Thanks to my Globalist status, we were upgraded and got free breakfast. The breakfast was on the top floor with an amazing view of the Acropolis, and the breakfast buffet had pretty much everything you could ever want. We stayed 2 nights at 15K points a night. We were able to walk to the Acropolis from here.
In Mykonos, we used American Express points and booked it through their Fine Hotels and Resorts program. This program offers free breakfast, a $100 resort credit to be used on anything other than your room charges, an upgrade, early check in and late check out, and complimentary wifi. Plus with the American Express Platinum Card you get a $200 yearly hotel credit which you can apply to any charge booked through Fine Hotels and Resorts. We stayed at the Bill and Coo Luxury Suites in a suite with a private infinity pool. Because they are part of the Fine Hotels and Resorts Program so we were able to book it with American Express Membership Rewards points. It cost us 35K points per night which our American Express Platinum Card sign up bonus paid for.
We traveled by ferry from Mykonos to Santorini. Santorini had some amazing hotel options but we settled on the Canaves Oia Suites because they were part of Hyatt and we could use points. It was 40K points per night which for this amazing hotel was worth it. We were able to use Hyatt points we had accumulated and transfer the remaining points needed from Chase Ultimate Rewards, which is the only transfer partner with Hyatt. We had a beautiful private pool and a free amazing breakfast overlooking the caldera every morning. This hotel is located right at the top of the pedestrian zone so the location is perfect. There was also a patio to watch sunset from and we seemed to be the only ones who knew about it. There were couches to sit on and the restaurant even brought us drinks and apps right to the patio.
Greece is a bucket list destination for many but can be a very costly points if you have to pay cash for it. Luckily if you can travel there on points and save thousands of dollars and still stay at some of the best resorts Greece has to offer. If you want to get started with your free travel journey, schedule a consult with me and maybe you will be heading to Greece soon.
