Cousins In Cuba (2 Free Roundtrip Flights)
Cuba, with all of its extreme sights, smells, and sounds, was captivating in the oddest of ways. Experiencing Cuba was something I always longed for, but, given a poor political relationship with my home country, never thought would actually come to fruition. Despite past negative connotations here in the US, it is a special place with truly delightful people.The country exudes a unique charm. Havana, in particular, has always portrayed itself in photos as a city stuck in time, and that was undeniably apparent. Old 1950s American cars roam the streets, the buildings are extremely dated, there is a severe lack of internet, and kids actually still play in the streets. Havana is as a city of crumbling beauty. Its lack of sound building infrastructure truly reveals how it has aged over the years. In Havana, the concept of running from the past isn’t nearly apparent as most places. Viñales was a place that was completely opposite of the chaos of Havana. It consists of a laid back country side filled with bright orange soil and lush greenery. It is a place known particularly for its tobacco plantations. Viñales served as a nice break from hustle and bustle and a new perspective of the Cuban culture. Cuba is one of the few countries left that is still left unscathed by modern tourism, and, I must say, it was undeniably refreshing for an avid traveler such as myself.
I decided to take my younger cousin along for this ride. It was his first major international trip, and I hope it was one he will never forget. I knew this wouldn’t necessarily be the easiest maiden voyage for a new traveler, but I knew it was a way to truly leave an impact about how powerful travel can be. Aside from the obvious difference culturally, Cuba lacks most of the comforts of your typical tourist destination. There is a lack of affordable hotels, a lack of the English language, and, ultimately, a lack of a similar economy to the US. The people there are much poorer in terms of what we are use to in the states. The average wage is very low and everyday commodities are hard to come by. It can be a bit of a shock when venturing out from our comfortable capitalistic haven here in the United States. However, despite being a tougher quality of life, the cubans we met were always smiling and eager to engage in conversation. I was constantly impressed just how pleasant, respectful, and humble everyone was.
Prior to this trip, and after many years of traveling for my own self interest of learning and experiencing, I gained a new sense of purpose. I acquired an urge to help others uncover the sense of fulfillment that took me so long to find. This website and these videos are a way to aide in doing that. However, since it has become a recent goal of mine to start incorporating friends and family into my trips, credit card miles and points became a crucial factor in keeping costs down. The flights for this trip cost absolutely no cash for the two of us. For this lack of a price, we flew from the west coast of the United States to the east coast, spent some time in Miami, flew to Cuba, and then flew back home to the west coast.
The major factor in getting these flights for such a bargain can be attributed to something known as the Southwest Companion Pass. If you manipulate Southwest credit cards and obtain one of these passes, you are able to add another person to any Southwest flight that you fly and they will only have to pay the cost of taxes and fees (typically $5.60 one way domestically and a bit more internationally). In addition, if you are strategic about how you get it, you can be granted the pass for up to two years! The pass can be very difficult to get by conventional methods, however, by utilizing credit cards, you can get it fairly quickly and easily. In this post, I won’t go into much detail about how exactly to get this perk. However, click here, or the link below, to read my other full post on how I earned it and how you can too. After only a couple months and a few new credit cards, I reached the threshold required to unlock the rare benefit known as the Southwest Companion Pass.
Get 2 For the Price of 1 Southwest Flights For 2 Years!
Southwest Airlines is one of the best budget friendly domestic airlines here in the USA. However, many people don’t realize that they are also starting to fly to more and more international destinations as well. After the government eased travel restrictions, Cuba became one of the destinations that Southwest decided to add routes to. I knew that this would be a great use of the companion pass and I waited patiently until routes opened up. When that day came, I searched Southwest.com and found a great deal on flights, $59 each way. The only issue was that I live in California and the only flights to Havana were in and out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. With this in mind, I thought it would be a good idea to spend a couple days prior in Miami, which is near Fort Lauderdale, since neither myself nor my cousin had ever been before. I found a flight from San Francisco to Fort Lauderdale, a flight from Fort Lauderdale to Havana, and back the same route. Here are the round trip flights and prices I found for 2 people:
SFO————>FLL
FLL————>SFO
Cost for myself= $387.88
Cost for my cousin= $387.88
FLL————>HAV
HAV————>FLL
Cost for myself= $118.00
Cost for my cousin= $118.00
Total price for two people= $1,011.76
However, since I had the Southwest Companion Pass and a bunch of Southwest points I got in order to earn the pass, I decided to go a much more pleasant route. I used Rapid Rewards points to book the flights for myself. I only had to come out of pocket for the cost of taxes and fees. Then, using the Companion Pass, I would add my cousin to my flights for just the price of taxes and fees. For all of the taxes and fees, I decided to use a credit card that gave me a travel credit for that year. The Citi Prestige credit card offered a $250 credit every calendar year for any travel purchases (click here to read about this card and an awesome trip I was able to book with it). Since the cost of all taxes and fees were less than that amount, all of the flights ended up being free for the both of us! Here is the final breakdown:
SFO————>FLL
FLL————>SFO
Cost for myself= 22,864 Rapid Rewards points + $11.20 taxes/ fees
Cost for my cousin= $11.20 taxes/ fees
FLL————>HAV
HAV————>FLL
Cost for myself= 3,744 Rapid Rewards points + $47.06 taxes/ fees
Cost for my cousin= $72.06 taxes/ fees
Total price for two people= 26,608 Rapid Rewards points + $141.52
Cost after using a credit card’s travel credit= 26,608 Rapid Rewards points + $0
By flying with Southwest, they also really made things easy when it came to entering the country. It is required that if you travel to Cuba as an American citizen, you must fall under one of twelve different categories. The one we fell under had to do with education and learning about the Cuban people. Another requirement is that you have to carry a particular type of health insurance with you while traveling. Southwest made this easy and convenient by providing us with the coverage we needed simply by flying with them. All we had to do is carry around our boarding passes for our flights and we were covered.
In the end, I can honestly say that this was one of my favorite trips so far. It had all of the essential elements. I was able to see a couple beautiful cities with beautiful people and I didn’t have to pay for any of the flights. I was also able to show a family member the significance of travel and I was able to save him some money in the process. Cuba absolutely exceeded my expectations in all aspects. I hope a return trip is in the near future.
