How to travel to Ireland and Northern Ireland using points and miles
Ireland and Northern Ireland are both filled with epic beauty beautiful places to take your family. It’s easy to travel to Ireland from the U.S; the flight is only 6 hours and there are many great deals that connect these two countries.
In 2024, we had planned to spend a week in Acadia National park and then drive up to Canada. But, I found an amazing deal from Boston to Dublin, and decided to pivot entirely to book a road trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland.
From the East Coast (Boston, NY, Washington D.C and Philadelphia) you can fly direct to Dublin on the following major airlines:
Aer Lingus
Delta
United
American Airlines
Here’s how we planned our trip from the Boston to Ireland and Northern Ireland using points and miles. Below we include all the cards we used, and suggestions for how you can use points and miles to help duplicate our trip. This only discussed how we booked with mile, for our full Irish road trip itinerary, include the many posts we wrote, you can read here.
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Flight to Ireland: Boston to Dublin
We flew from BOS to DUB on Delta Airlines. However, we booked with Flying Blue points. Since Delta and Air France is a partner airlines, you can get use Flying Blue points, which are very easy to come by, on certain Delta flights. (We’re using this trick again in the US; we’re flying from Salt Lake City to Philadelphia to get home from spring break).
Total miles used: 20,500 per person/ 61,500 miles total
Cash paid: $31.20 per person/ $93.60 total
Credits card used: American Express Gold
Other cards you could use: Capital One Venture or Chase Sapphire Preferred
Hotel #1: Hilton Garden Inn Dublin City Centre
Total miles used: 100,000 points total (50,000 points per night)
Transferred from: AMEX Membership Rewards
Cash paid: $0
Credits cards you could use: American Express Gold, Hilton Honors Surpass
While 100,000 points sounds like a lot, American Express rewards transfer at a 1:2 ratio, so this was only 25,000 Amex MR points per night. We had an abundance of these points from opening 4 different credit cards over a few years, so this was our best option.
Hotel pros:
There is a great breakfast buffet included.
The standard rooms sleep 4.
It’s walking distance to the river.
It’s right next to the EPIC Museum- which beautifully conveys the heartbreaking legacy of the Irish diaspora.
Hotel cons:
This is NOT in the main sightseeing area of Dublin.
It’s not fancy, but we only used the hotel for sleeping and eating.
Hotel #2: Holiday Inn Belfast City Centre by IHG
Total points used: 40,000 points + 1 free night certificate
Cash paid: $0
Credits cards we used: Chase IHG Premier
This hotel was located in a great spot in Belfast; it was not fancy, but again, it had everything we needed for our trip. We had a car with us, and parking was free, which was a nice surprise. This allowed us to drive and park to visit the W5 museum and the Titanic Museum, both of which we highly recommend for a rainy day in Belfast.
When we wanted to take a Black Taxi Tour to learn about the Troubles and see the murals in Belfast, our driver was able to pick us up at the hotel.
The rest of our stay:
For the rest of our trip around Ireland and Northern Ireland, we stayed in bed and breakfasts. We wanted to be close to everything, which meant staying in family run places. To be honest, this was the best part of our trip. We love getting to talk to people in the morning about where we should spend our time, and it’s nice to be treated like a special guest because there are only 10 other rooms in a place.
We booked all our B&Bs on Booking.com and were able to find family rooms that offered an extra bed for our daughter in every location. If you like fancy hotels, then I would not recommend most of these. These B&Bs are for sleeping and eating, not for hanging out!
Here’s where we stayed:
Killarney: Earl’s Court House
Dingle (West Coast): Dingle Harbour Lodge B&B
Doolin (West Coast, near Cliffs of Moher): Dubhlinn House *not taking reservations on Booking.com right now
Bushmills (next to the Giant’s Causeway): Carnside Guest House
You could erase some of the purchase with points. However, we did not. When we were first traveling and on a strict budget, we often used our Capital One Venture card to erase the cost of travel. Now, we try to maximize our points, and erasing purchases is not the best way to use these valuable points.
Flight back to the US: Dublin to Boston
We flew from Dublin to Boston on Aer Lingus. We booked with British Airways’ Avios points.
JFK is a great hub if you are returning to the US, or, if like us, you can drive or train home from NYC.
Total miles used: 20,000 per person/ 60,000 miles total
Cash paid: $148 per person/ $445 (taxes and fees are generally higher with British Airways bookings)
Credits card used: American Express Gold, Capital One Venture
Other cards you could use: American Express Platinum, Capital One Venture X (These cards have higher fees, and I would not open these until you open the lower annual fee cards first.)
