It all started with a spark of an idea to meet up with some great friends in Europe in March. That spark and an email turned into an interest to attend TBEX Europe 2020 in Catania, Italy around the same time. Early tickets for the conference were on sale and being that I’ve never been to Italy, it seemed like a great reason to make it happen. I asked my girlfriend, Jackie, if she would mind if I went to a conference while we’re on our trip. She asked, “so, you want me to spend a few days in Italy on my own while you go to a conference – yeah, no worries – I’ll be just fine!” I grabbed the conference ticket and began keeping an eye on flights – that’s when I stumbled across an email from ScottsCheapFlights that would lead us to get tickets from Portland to Rome for less than $250 each!
TBEX (Travel Bloggers Exchange)
TBEX US 2018 – Corning, NY
I first heard about TBEX in 2018 and since I haven’t done much with my blogs lately, I decided to attend my first in September 2018 in Corning, NY to see if it would spur some inspiration. While there, I met and befriended a number of other bloggers, learned a lot of info to help out my blog, made some cool glass stuff, experienced a new part of New York, and eventually got home with a plan to do something the new info…and then didn’t really do anything.
TBEX US 2019 – Billings, MO
In September 2019, I decided to go back to TBEX for a lot of the same learnings and went to Billings, Montana for the first time. I left again with even more info, more connections, and more ideas, and though I haven’t actually done much with the info yet again… I am at least taking the time to write about it this time!
TBEX Europe 2020 – Catania, Italy (Island of Sicily)
Before going to the last TBEX event in Billings, I was sent an email about the next TBEX happening in Europe which is happening in Catania, Italy – a place I had never heard of before, but after doing some research and talking with my partner, Jackie, we had a new destination in the works.
Roundtrip LAX-FCO (ScottsCheapFlights)
The email above is what I received at the end of September from ScottsCheapFlights and the one that I jumped on for one of the best deals I’ve ever seen for getting to Europe from the US – especially the west coast! I plugged in dates around the conference and after some digging around, I was able to select two roundtrip flights from LAX to Rome for $544, or $272 each! I booked our tickets using my Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite™ Mastercard and for some reason, I received a credit for $205 with a memo of “Congrats! AA Spend Bonus”! Again, I’m not sure why I received this, but I’m okay with it because it brought our $544 tickets down to $339 or $170 each for LA to Rome!!
I’ve been a member of ScottsCheapFlights for a couple of years, first starting with the free version, and then getting into the Premium version. After signing up, you select your primary airport and other airports in the area that you would fly from. Soon after, emails start coming in that are like the one above that shows flight deals from the airports selected for certain date ranges. Along with the deal is usually some extra info added, like the normal price for the flight, the length of time the deal is likely to be available, what airlines are used, and at the bottom is info on how to book your tickets. Pretty dang easy! The Premium version gives you even more amazing deals that aren’t usually sent to free members – so if you’re really interested, I would recommend going the Premium route. Honestly, you save as much as I did and it pays for itself after one great offer!
PDX-LAX (British Airways Avios Points)
The last things to put together were the flights from PDX to LAX and back. I decided to go through my list of accounts I track on AwardWallet.com to see which account would be the best deal for roundtrip or one-way flights for getting to and from the deal above. Thankfully we were traveling in March, so the tickets weren’t terribly expensive, but they were costing more than I wanted.
I received 50,000 Avios points a while back from my Chase British Airways Credit Card, then I went to British Airways website and ended up finding two first-class tickets on Alaska Airlines (a BA partner) for 33,000 Avios points (and $11.20)! The same tickets on Alaska were going to run me 50,000 Alaska Mileage Plan miles or $239 per seat (one way!). So, after a few clicks, the tickets to start the journey out of Portland, in style (first class – free drinks and food!), were booked!
LAX-PDX (Alaska Airlines)
The last flight left was getting home after the trip and the best options on the west coast from LAX were on Alaska Airlines. Every other airline was running about $165 per ticket home for the time we needed (after 3 pm). I remembered that I had a $50 fair discount that I received from my Alaska Airlines Visa Platinum Plus card. With that discount, I ended up booking our tickets for $110 or $55 each from LA to home!
Finding a roundtrip ticket for $250 from Portland to Rome isn’t always easy to do and takes being open with your time. That being said, if you are flexible, and have options as I did above, then you too can find some killer deals!
If you have any questions about what I shared above, please comment below.
-Jason
