How to manage holiday travel and booking safaris

You know the feeling. You want to gather and spend time with family and friends over Thanksgiving, but spending $1000 to travel to your hometown on the busiest travel days of the year sounds less than appealing. Thanksgiving is a holiday I've worked nearly continuously since 2007, so I tend to stay put. But when I do travel, here's what I've learned:

• Gather in another country: November is off-season for most of the world, and international flights tend to cost less than domestic flights. Could you enjoy a new experience somewhere else?
• Avoid the busiest travel days: Wednesday and Sunday are a mess, but Thursday to Saturday or Monday are more manageable. Can you fly on an off day to avoid the high cost and hassle?
• Use points for hotels, not flights: Points values for flights tend to go way up relative to other times of the year. If you plan in advance, use those points for hotel stays instead!

Make your holiday travel go further with these tips!

What I booked

This past fall, I returned from the trip of a lifetime to South Africa! We spent three days in Cape Town and four days at Dulini Moya in Sabi Sands private game reserve. We've been fortunate to have been on several safaris, but this one was really special due to the high density of wildlife and opportunities for hiking, walking, and seeing wildlife right from our lodge patio! Our entire trip was planned by Safari True, who also planned our gorilla expedition to Rwanda. I highly recommend getting in touch with them!

What's cuter than seeing a baby leopard in the wild!

Going there, we flew Qatar Qsuites from LAX-DOH-JNB booked for 75,000 AA miles.

On the way home, we flew JNB-FRA-MUC-LAX in a dream product I've always wanted to try, Lufthansa First Class! This cost 171,000 miles and about $1400 in taxes in fees. Hefty for sure, but since it was an opportunity to try first class for nearly 24 hours of travel, I couldn't pass it up!

Tip: How to book it

Lufthansa's own program, Miles and More, is not a transfer partner of any credit card, so it's not talked about much. However, it's a great example of how to buy points for outsized value.

Miles and More often sells "bundles" of points at 1.1-1.2 cents per point. Miles and More also releases tons of award space to their own members which they do not release to partners. For example, first class space is released to partners (Avianca, Aeroplan, and United) a maximum of 3 days in advance, and very few flights to the US. Since we need to plan months in advance, this wasn't an option for us.

Miles and More has a handy calendar feature, so you can easily search a large amount of dates. Business class from North America to Europe costs 56,000 miles and first class 91,000 miles. Lufthansa First was an outstanding way to conclude a wonderful vacation.

Credit Cards: My workhorse since 2016

We talk a lot about cards to open and close, but there are few we talk about keeping and using long term! The Chase Sapphire Reserve is one of my favorites since 2016 when it first came out. It earns 3x points on all travel, transit, and dining worldwide, making it a great card for putting safari spend on. This card also comes with a $300 travel credit that's very easy to use as well as lounge access (one of my favorite in the US) and some of the best travel protections you can get on a credit card. For all these reasons, the Chase Sapphire Reserve has a permanent place in my wallet for big travel spend. They also have dining events regularly, which I've really enjoyed attending!