Now that I had my miles, it was time to redeem them for my flight. As I mentioned earlier, traveling in February meant that I could take advantage of off-peak rates for my flight to Paris. To review, let's take a look at the off-peak awards chart for US Airways.

As you can see, round-trip flights between North America and Europe cost just 35,000 frequent flyer miles when you travel from January 15 - February 28. The standard rate is 60,000 miles, so traveling off-peak provides a considerable savings over traveling during peak times.

And because I am a US Airways card holder, I can book award flights for 5,000 fewer miles than they would otherwise cost. This means that my 30,000 mile sign-up bonus is enough to cover my entire flight! Unbelievable!

Here is a screen shot of my itinerary.

While the total says $0.00, there was a $92.20 Fuel Surcharge and a $50 Award Processing Fee required before I could book the flight. So the total cost for the flight was $142.20.

For comparison, let's take a look at how much the flight would have cost if I paid with cash.

As you can see, paying for the flight with cash would have cost $982. So by taking advantage of the credit card sign-up I was able to save $839.80 on my flight! Not bad for about 20 minutes of work.

My fiancée also applied for the card and just like that, both of our flights were booked.

Next, we had to find a place to stay.