How Prince of Travel Made Our 20th Anniversary Trip a Dream Come True

After spending a couple of hours a day for a couple of weeks working through the blog articles, guides, and doing some independent research, we dipped our toes into the welcome bonus game with one goal in mind: book the ultimate 20th anniversary trip.

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The Points Programs We Chose

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Our 20th Anniversary Trip

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We spent the first two nights at the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai in an Executive Corner Suite, using two Suite Night Awards that were confirmed three days ahead of our departure.

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On the morning of October 29, we were picked up and taken to the Al Maha Desert Resort & Spa for a five-night stay. We booked a Bedouin Suite for 370,000 Bonvoy points, using Marriott’s Fifth Night Free benefit.

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Since we weren’t able to book Dubai as a stopover, we utilized 104,000 Aeroplan points to fly business class on Gulf Air business class from Dubai to Malé via Bahrain, allowing us to experience Gulf Air’s flagship Falcon Gold Lounge.

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We had booked an Overwater One-Bedroom Villa for 400,000 Bonvoy points, again using the Marriott Fifth Night Free award policy.

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Days before our arrival, we were told that they had overbooked the Overwater Villas and that we had been upgraded to a Sunset Two-Bedroom Overwater Villa–and due to inconvenience, we would each receive a complimentary 60-minute massage at the Iridium Spa!

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Tomorrow afternoon, we will be leaving the resort to start our journey back to Ontario. We are booked on Qatar Airways Qsuites again, from Malé to Chicago via Doha, which we again booked using 85,000 Alaska miles per person.

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