Our Points & Miles Journey

$16,961.56

That’s the cash value of travel we’ve taken/booked since we started the points and miles journey in May 2024 (including trips we’ve taken and trips we have booked for later this year).  I still have to pinch myself to believe that we’re actually doing all this for *nearly* FREE.  It’s almost too good to be true – but it is!!

OUR POINTS AND MILES JOURNEY

Our family started this “hobby” about a year ago.  We weren’t necessarily planning to go all-in on the travel credit card game, but we wanted to be able to maximize our credit card spending to take advantage of discounted travel for our family of five. Honestly, we’ve never been big travellers, but as our kids are getting older we thought we might like to try to take some more trips with them.  My husband also read this (super long and nerdy) deep-dive article into the world of credit card reward programs and decided he’d be on board with giving it a try.

We began in May 2024 with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, which is universally recommended as the #1 travel credit card.  (More on that below!)  At the time, there was an elevated sign-up bonus of 75,000 points after spending $4,000 in the first three months.  My husband applied for the card first, and due to some out-of-the-ordinary big expenses we were able to meet the minimum spend fairly quickly, and so about a month later, he referred me to apply for my own card.  We shifted all our normal expenses to my card and hit the minimum spend on my card before the deadline.  So, over the course of the summer, we earned more than 168,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points: 75,000 points for the sign-up bonus on my husband’s card, 75,000 points on my card, a 10,000 point referral bonus for my husband referring me to the card, plus the points we earned on the actual spend.

We found dirt-cheap flights on Southwest to Chicago over a random long weekend in early October (less than $300 total, round trip, for our family of 5!), so we decided to use 66,000 points to book the Hyatt Regency Chicago for a five night stay.  That trip was a turning point for our family.  It was our first real travel adventure as a family of five, and we all had a really great time!  For the first time, I realized how fun family travel could really be – especially now that we are well past the diaper bag/stroller/nap schedule stage of life.  I also realized how much farther our travel budget will go when using reward points.  Our entire five night trip to Chicago – including flights, airport parking, hotel (plus a night at an airport hotel before we left), all meals, public transportation, and all activities – was only $1,422.12!!!  (I’d like to put all our trip details into another blog post soon, so keep an eye out for that if you’re interested!)

And so – having been bitten by the travel bug – we decided to jump into the world of credit card travel rewards.  We used credit cards to earn two Southwest companion passes and a boatload of Southwest points.  Between our Chase points (mostly transferred to Hyatt for hotel stays) and our Southwest points and companion passes, here’s what our travel schedule for 2024 looks like:

• Spring Break Cruise in March (family of 5)
  • Round trip flights for 5 to Orlando – points/companion pass + $56.00 in fees (we paid cash for the cruise, but used the payment to hit the sign-up bonus on two different credit cards)
• All-Inclusive Anniversary Getaway in June (my husband and I)
  • Round trip flights for 2 to Cancun – points/companion pass + $130.15 in fees
  • 4 night stay at Secrets Akumal – points + $0
• California/Disneyland (family of 5)
  • Round trip flights for 5 to Los Angeles – points/companion passes + $56 in fees
  • 7 hotel nights (1 night near the airport, 4 nights walking distance to Disneyland, 2 nights at a beach resort) – points + $0
• Formula 1 Circut of the Americas Grand Prix in Austin, TX (my husband and I)
  • Round trip flights for 2 to Austin – points/companion pass + $22.40 in fees
  • 3 nights at a hotel in downtown Austin – points + $0

Before we go any further, I want to note three very important things about credit card rewards travel.

#1 – Use Credit Responsibly. 

We pay off our credit cards in full every month.  This is a non-negotiable.  If you can’t do that, or if you have any existing credit card debt, this hobby is NOT for you.  (I highly recommend Dave Ramsey’s resources for credit card debt and budget management!)  Tracking spending across multiple cards does require organization and attention to detail.  We use the Monarch Money app to track our spending.  I also have a HUGE spreadsheet for all-things-travel-points (And I’ll share it with you!  See below!)

#2 – Your credit score will be impacted, but not harmed. 

There is a small impact to your credit score for each new card application, but it does come back up!  My husband and I have excellent credit scores (over 800) and we have no plans to need our credit score for any kind of loan, so we don’t have a problem leveraging our excellent credit and using it to open a few new cards a year.  Our credit scores are both currently within a few points of what they were before we started this hobby!

#3 – Credit card travel is never 100% FREE. 

There are minimal costs involved, like credit card annual fees and maybe choosing to pay credit card fees on higher expenses For example, I paid my business taxes with a credit card and which meant a 1.87% credit card fee, but it helped me earn a sign up bonus worth over $1,000 in travel.  And, of course, you’ll always have incidentals like food, public transportation, activities, etc. to cover when travelling, even if you’re covering your hotel and flights with points.  I see points and miles as a way to stretch our travel budget in a big way, but it’s never “free.”

So…now what?  If you’re ready to put a toe into the world of reward travel, there is one card you need.

THE G.O.A.T. OF ALL TRAVEL CARDS – CHASE SAPPHIRE PREFERRED

Why?  Chase points are absolutely the most valuable in the points & miles travel game because of their transfer partners.  You can use your points to cash out at 1 cent per point…or you can use those points in the Chase travel “portal” (kind of like an Expedia or Travelocity type portal for hotels/flights/rental cars/etc) for 1.25 cents per point.  But you can get values of ~2-5 cents per point or more by transferring your points directly to Chase’s transfer partners.  (We’ve gotten redemptions as high as 8 cents per point!)  

We haven’t branched out beyond transferring points to Hyatt and Southwest, but that’s been an amazing place to start.  They also transfer to JetBlue, United, Air France, Virgin Atlantic, Marriott, and others.  The biggest bang-for-your-points is definitely Hyatt, because their redemption rates are MUCH lower than other hotel chains with a set rewards calendar (no fluctuating demand-based prices) and no blackout dates.  For reference, you can get a night at a basic Hyatt Place starting at 3-5,000 points per night.  We paid 12,000 points per night for the Hyatt Regency Chicago (which is a super nice downtown hotel) and we’re paying 25,000 points per night for two adults at a 5 star all-inclusive resort in Mexico.

The CSP has a $95 annual fee which includes a $50 statement credit for hotels booked through the Chase travel portal, trip cancellation/interruption insurance, auto rental collision damage waiver, lost luggage insurance, and more.  It earns 5X on travel booked through the Chase Travel portal, 3X on dining, streaming services, and online grocery, 2X on other travel, 1X on everything else.  Another perk is no foreign transaction fees, so it’s a good card to use when traveling out of the country.  We earn our $95 annual fee back by using the $50 hotel credit as well as a promotional perk of $10/month towards DoorDash grocery/convenience store pickup orders.  Just with those two perks, we’re getting $170 of value – that’s before we spend any of the points!

Side note: There is a higher-end version of this card (the Chase Sapphire Reserve) but it has a much higher annual fee, so we opted for the Preferred.  However, if you do a lot of travel and would find value out of things like airport lounge access, reimbursement for TSA/Global Entry, and higher earnings on travel related spend, maybe the Reserve is a better option for you.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a GREAT card and you can get a ton of value out of using it as your everyday card.  You don’t have to get into opening multiple credit cards to be able to use points to take a nice vacation.  If you just put ALL of your credit card spend for the year on the CSP, you’ll maybe earn enough for one moderate trip per year, or a great one every other year.  Not bad!  Free travel is free travel.

If you start the rhythm of putting your normal spend towards the sign up bonus of a new card and opening 2-3 cards per year, you’ll earn a lot more.

If you get in the game with your spouse (often called “two player mode”) and you each open 2-3 cards per year AND refer each other to cards to maximize referral earning, you can be earning hundreds of thousands of points per year!  

[NOTE: if you are considering entering two player mode to maximize your travel rewards earning, do NOT add your spouse as an authorized user on your card!  There is something called a 5/24 rule for Chase-issued credit cards, and being an authorized user counts against that number, which makes it harder to get approved for future cards – google it and you’ll find lots of info!]

The beauty of it is, you can decide what works best for you.  If you’re not comfortable opening multiple cards, you don’t have to!  Either way, the Chase Sapphire is a terrific card with points that can be redeemed at a much higher rate than non-flexible currency cards (i.e. airline or hotel specific cards).  It really is the G.O.A.T. of travel cards!

**Ready to apply for your own Chase Sapphire?  I’d love for you to use my referral link here!  If you do use my link and are approved, send me a message on Instagram to let me know and I will share a copy of my giant travel spreadsheet with you!**
(if you’re reading on Instagram or Facebook, please open the referral link in an outside browser to complete your application!)

Questions?  I’m mostly on Instagram these days, so feel free to message me there.  That’s also where I post our trip highlights!  I hope you’ll come follow me there.  

Happy Travels!

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