After an amazing New Year’s getaway in Vancouver, my wife and I had a long drive ahead of us to get home to California. Google Maps clocks it at 12.5 hours, and it is the longest I have ever done in one day (my previous record is ~10). Except…it actually wasn’t.
You see, we didn’t quite make it home. From Vancouver, British Columbia all the way to Eugene, Oregon, the weather was spectacular. It was the clearest I’ve ever personally seen the Pacific Northwest in the several times I’ve visited. We had incredible views of the Cascades, the Olympics, Mount Rainier, and Mount Hood. It was an absolutely gorgeous drive.
The clouds finally started to obscure things a little south of Eugene. Snow started lightly falling as we neared Roseburg, but overall it wasn’t too bad. We were still moving at freeway speeds. Things took a turn for the worse as we started through the mountains just north of Grants Pass, and I started to get concerned.
As we entered Grants Pass, I knew things were gonna be ugly on Highway 199 back over to the California coast. Snow was starting to accumulate on the road, and I knew things were just going to get worse through the pass.
Stymied by snow
We made it just past Cave Junction when we finally had to turn around. I didn’t have chains for the rental car, and we hit ODOT chain control just a few miles from the CA border.
It was now 5:15 p.m. and there was no way I wanted to take I-5 north again and cut over to the coast on the highway to Reedsport. We wouldn’t get home until probably 1 in the morning, if things went smoothly. Not a fan of that idea.
So we were gonna spend the night. As we neared Grants Pass, I pulled up the IHG app on my cell phone. The battery was critically low, but I hoped I could find a hotel and book it before it died. I quickly found a Holiday Inn Express in Grants Pass and booked it for 20,000 IHG points. Ten minutes later, we were there.
Cash rates were ~$130, so it wasn’t a spectacular use of points. We could have gotten a Candlewood Suites in Medford for only 10,000 points, but I was done. No more driving. I am happy to have saved the money. From mainly promotions and work stays, I raked in over 200,000 IHG points in 2016, so we had plenty to spare. Plus, I’m trying to follow the “earn and burn” principle a little more (SEE: Earn em and burn em).
Points saved the day. We didn’t have to pay walk-up prices for a hotel room (SEE ALSO: One more reason we are so fortunate in this hobby), and we can attempt the drive well rested, in daylight, and in better conditions today.
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Points and miles can sometimes act like a reserve fund for travel expenses, just like most financial people will tell you to keep a reserve fund for home expenses. We had a death in the family a few years ago and had to fly from Chicago to San Fran on 2 days notice. Even though cash fares were north of $600, I was able to get two r/t flights on American to SJC for 25k miles r/t. Luckily SJC was a Citi reduced mileage city that month, so all in it was 17.5k miles per ticket. In this case I would have paid $1200 for 2 people to get there, but it was great i only had to use 35k AA miles. I always try and keep at least 100k in points as a just in case.
Sad situation, but great thoughts! I’ll keep the points and miles “emergency fund” in mind. It’d be fairly easy to keep enough for domestic travel around all the time.
I like the idea of having an “emergency fund” of points. My wife and I recently got sick while vacationing in Europe, and weren’t having any fun at all. We decided that we wanted to just cancel the vacation and fly home, and I found some really good deals using points to pay for the flight home, rather than spending cash in change fees, etc.
Yeah miles save the day in the event of emergency. Last August i had to fly my husband out on moments notice (booked 9am Saturday morning for 5pm flight in the afternoon) so that he could see his mom one last time. I got him in United business class SFO to EWR in a flat bed, and return too, for 20K Amex points each. A comfy flight made the situation a little less difficult.
How did points save the day?
Do you not have $130 to your name?
Haha, I actually *do* have $130 to my name. But spending that extra $130 on the trip wasn’t part of the plan. Christmas money covered the rental car, and points covered our hotel in Vancouver 100%, so we were spending only about $200 on gas and attractions. Wonderfully cheap trip. The extra $130 would have increased the cost of our vacation by ~50%.
So yeah….I think they saved the day. 🙂
I’m glad you made a budget and kept to it.
And I think most readers here would rather spend 20K IHG points than an extra $130
Occasionally people try to drive through the Siskiyous ( where you were )
when there is snow and they don’t make it . The roads over to the coast have claimed a few as well .