Pride on points: How to use points and miles to celebrate Pride in 6 US cities this year

01.06.2024 - 00:09 / thepointsguy.com

June is officially Pride month, and it's not too late to make travel plans to celebrate Pride in major cities nationwide (or book an LGBTQIA+ cruise). Hotel rates and airfare may be higher this short in advance, but you can save money by using points and miles. We found an array of flight and hotel options that can still be booked with points at a good value. Pride is a wonderful celebration of equality, freedom and sacrifice, and any of these events would make for a fun weekend getaway.

Related: 12 underrated LGBTQIA+-friendly destinations to visit in 2024

What better place to show your pride than on the colorful streets of the Big Easy? This year's New Orleans Pride includes drag brunches, comedy shows, an art market, a formal gala and a parade through the French Quarter. It's not too late to plan a weekend getaway to join the festivities.

When searching for flights, Google Flights is a good starting point (especially since it now includes Southwest Airlines fares). It will show you cash prices only, but since cash rates often correspond to award fares (since many major U.S. airlines use dynamic pricing), it can help point you toward the cheapest airlines for your desired route. Then you can click over to the airline's website to search award flights in more detail.

For example, if you're on the East Coast, JetBlue has award fares from Boston to New Orleans the weekend of June 7-9 starting at 13,700 TrueBlue points each way.

Southwest has flights from Denver for around 20,000 Rapid Rewards points round-trip.

If you want to stay near all the action of the French Quarter, you could book the Hyatt Centric French Quarter New Orleans for only 15,000 World of Hyatt points or $239 per night. This comes out to 1.6 cents per point, close to TPG's valuation of 1.7 cents for Hyatt points.

The New Orleans Marriott is also centrally located in the French Quarter. During Pride weekend, rates start at 32,800 Bonvoy points or $219 per night. This comes out to a value of 0.67 cents per point, which isn't ideal considering TPG values Marriott points at 0.85 cents each. In this case, we'd recommend booking with cash or checking your credit card's travel portal to see if you can get a better deal.

For instance, the New Orleans Marriott is available for the same dates on Capital One Travel for only $137 per night plus taxes and fees, for a total of $274 for the weekend. Not only is this considerably cheaper than on Marriott's site, but you can pay with your Capital One miles at a fixed rate of 1 cent per mile. The two-night stay would cost you only 27,382 miles instead of the 65,600 Bonvoy points you would need if you booked through Marriott.

Booking through Capital One Travel at 1 cent per mile still gives you well