✈️ Passports, Points, and a Plans to Travel

Good morning ☀️ from Booked It On Points: A curated collection of travel tips and personal stories by me, Allie→ because you’re meant to experience meaningful travel no matter life’s constraints 👊🏽

Let’s dive in.

✈︎ Travel Story

✅ Passports Updated, Flights Booked, Here’s How

This week, two big things happened—we got our passports sorted and booked our flights. Suddenly, this “next trip abroad” isn’t just an idea anymore. It’s happening.

The Passport Hustle

If you’ve ever traveled with kids, you know passport timing can be tricky. For kids under 16, there’s no “renewal”—it’s a whole new application, in person, every time.

So we made an appointment at our local library when we got home this summer. Our passports weren’t technically expired yet (May 2026), but since we’ll be traveling when that deadline approaches, we needed fresh ones.

We showed up with the kids, the documents… and forgot one crucial thing: the checkbook. 🤦‍♀️ Many locations still only take checks for payment. So yes, there was a quick drive home and back before we could finish. Bonus tip: both parents need to be present, so this turned into a full family errand.

For Geo and me, it was much smoother. The U.S. now offers online renewals for adults—so easy! Fill out information, upload a “passport selfie,” pay online, submit. My new passport arrived in under two weeks. No driving, no postage, no checkbook required.

Booking the Flights

With passports in motion, it was time for the fun part: booking our flights to Greece. We’re flying Air France, and thanks to points, the tickets cost us only taxes and fees (around $100/ticket).

I searched for flights on pointsyeah.com, found what we needed and then booked within the Air France website. I transferred Capital One Venture points to my Air France/KLM Flying Blue loyalty account, which only took a couple of minutes. Then we grabbed flights at an amazing rate!

Right now, Flying Blue Promo Rewards have tons of U.S.–Europe routes for just 18,500 points one-way—a steal if you have flexibility. With 20% discount for kids under 12!

Instead of paying thousands for 4 international tickets, we used points and paid a fraction in cash. That’s the beauty of having a points strategy—it turns “someday” travel into “booked.”

🙌 Two steps down, a lot more to go, but this week made the trip feel real.

✈︎ Travel Links

• Geo takes a deep dive into moving to one of the happiest countries in the 🌎.

• Do you trust ChatGPT for your travel? Why you may not want to, yet.

• An August calendar of the night’s sky, it’s stunning, don’t miss out.

• It’s been a hot summer, here’s a list of the best weather cities, no matter the season!

• Speaking of passports, these are the most valuable (and least)!

✈︎ Poll

We hope you’re soaking up these lasts weeks of summer and maybe even have a final vacation planned! Safe travels if so!

Thanks for being here and have a great Tuesday!

Allie & Geo