Credit card points are useless if you have kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just redeem for cash, which is definitely not "useless."

Yes, this is what we did when the kids were younger. Now, we use it for road trips or other times when we are sight seeing and don't care too much about the hotel. We do it that way because Chase (even though we have the annual fee card) books travel through Expedia, and we previously had bad experiences with them. Haven't seen that using our points, but I would be nervous about booking like a Caribbean trip where the resort is the main draw of the trip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I gave up my chase sapphire after several years of accumulating points but never being able to find any of these amazing rewards flights or hotel stays people boasts about. I always found the available reward travel to be the equivalent of cashing out the points and buying a comparable flight directly. What people aren't honest about are the taxes and fees, so when they say they flew to Paris in business on points, they aren't telling you they also paid $1k in taxes and fees along with the points. I'm not interested in paying 1k + whatever points for a flight I can buy for 600 in economy as it doesn't get you there quicker.

However, the points are free money. I ended up cashing out all our points for a few thousand dollars. Cancelled the chase cards and signed up for two different credit cards:

Amazon Prime visa for 5% cash back on all Amazon purchases including at Whole Foods. Given that we do most of our grocery shopping at Whole Foods, this was a no brainer especially on top of the regular prime discounts and sales at the store.

For all non WF / Amazon purchases, I use a Fidelity 2% cash back card that funnels the cash back to a Fidelity money market account.

Both cards do not have a yearly fee.

Once I realized I should get the credit card that worked with my lifestyle, the answer became quite clear. The travel reward cards are not ideal for most people, including me.

Suggest you do the same.

OP here thank you so much for sharing your experience. I am start to feel the same as you once did. As others have said it seems like points are better suited for those who are flexible.

Yes this is a very reasonable response. Cash back is the best solution for many people. It's not just flexibility, it's the willingness to work to figure out how to maximize everything and play "the game". Not something most people are willing to do, understandably

[Anonymous]

One thing I hate about points is that all the good deals are for flight to Europe. I don't want to go to Europe. Hardly any deals for Latin America.

It's always Italy, Spain, Netherlands, the UK and repeat. Even most blog posts they are mostly discussing vacations to these countries using points.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope your ex wife is lounging on a beach and laughing.

Ex-wife is probably busy packing for her beach vacation she planned last year.

Totally. I agree airline points are limited and much prefer cash back cards, but Op is wildly unrealistic in his expectations.

[Anonymous]

I am really boring with points. I have an Amazon card and use the points earned to buy more on Amazon.

I have never understood how to use airline points from flights. ijust pay for flights.

And hotel points for free stays…I never seem to amass enough.

I am trying to concentrate hotels on one brand and flights on one carrier. Will see if this gets me anything.

My understanding of airline points is it pays to use a branded airline card and keep signing up for new cards to get the sign up bonus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Points are about flexibility--dates, layovers, locations. If you want this specific date to this specific location at this specific hotel, you're going to be disappointed.

Only true if you don’t have reasonable mileage and CC point systems.

We use a combination of Delta miles, Citi prestige, and Amex platinum. Hasn’t been a problem to book flatbed business to Hawaii twice, Tahiti once, and Europe a few times in the past 8 years or so.

And? Anyone can book reward flights. What you're leaving out is 1) how many points the flights required and 2) taxes and fees and 3) the direct equivalent if paying cash.

I will accept business class on points can be a deal, paying the points+taxes equivalent of, say, $1500 for a ticket that would cost $3k in cash. But you're still paying $1500 while the same airline has direct economy seats for $600.

Miles = status
We book economy and global upgrade vouchers on Delta.

[Anonymous]

We had some airline points linked to a former job that we needed to use up and tried to take five people To the west coast. We were told that we could only have four seats for points on a plane and we ended up dividing into two “teams” and pretending we were in the amazing race on the flights out and back. Not ideal but actually kinda fun,

[Anonymous]

I think credit card points are really geared toward premier travelers. The best deals are at premier hotels and business class. When you stay at a higher end accommodation everything cost more. Food is more expensive. Tips are higher. Transportation is also more expensive. The overall experience is just more expensive.

So if you are a budget travel you may be tempted to think that you are getting a good deal because you are not paying cash for your hotels. However when you do the math the extra you end up spending on food transportation etc is actually higher than if you had paid out of pocket at a more budget friendly place.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I tried booking a last minute 5 days trip leaving this Friday for me and my 2 kids to either Puerto Rico or Miami and OMG the prices (hotels and airfares) are insane.

I have hyatt points and couldn't find any availability. I also have Chase points but the cash values are insane.

What's the point of having points? I am done with credit card points.

I understand many kids will be off this week, but for most of us we can't take our kids out of a school in a random week in October because we can't afford to travel any other time because it's too expensive.

I'm just ranting.

And interestingly I looked throughout the year and the prices were elevated throughout so it's not like I waited until the last minute.

Ok rant over lol.

Costs are up for everything because of Trump and Republicans yeah maybe you should learn econ.

Last year we were able to take a non-fancy spring break trip to Florida. This year I'm having a hard time finding much below $5k for flight and hotel. Ugh. Don't want to stay home but don't want to pay that either.

[Anonymous]

Southwest points are typically easier to use and we qualify for a companion pass, which means one kid flies free.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Huh?

Last spring break, we flew to France for 120K points and $1K in taxes. 4 tickets on KLM.

This spring break, we are flying to Zurich. 140K points and $1K in taxes. 4 tickets again.

We stayed 4 nights in a suite in NYC with the kids for Veterans Day weekend. All the holiday decor is already up. It was 90K points total, I booked it one month out.

Booking 5 days out for a holiday weekend? Of course there is NOTHING left.

I don't understand this. We have Global Services status on United. About once every five years there's some great deal, but in general, using airline points are shit these days. Like we're trying to go to paris 'some time' in summer on economy plus, and United still wants something crazy like 240k points per person per round trip. 140k for 4 people is not a thing anymore.

United just had an award sale to five different European cities, I think it was 25k each way. I almost pulled the trigger on a couple of them but didn’t. Still, these sales aren’t all that unusual. Economy Plus is trickier, of course.

25k points each way is 50,000 points, or $500 in cash back value. That's comparable to Icelandair or SAS booking directly with them. The gap between points reward travel and cashing out and booking yourself is minimal these days. Might as well get a solid 2% cash back card and use the cash back on any flight you want.

If you are very strategic and spend a lot of time playing this game and hace a lot of flexibility, I don't doubt you can score some good deals. But if you're not living and breathing points. The whole rewards scheme is designed for it to be of no real benefit for 95% of users while giving 5% great deals on awkward off season flights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am really boring with points. I have an Amazon card and use the points earned to buy more on Amazon.

I have never understood how to use airline points from flights. ijust pay for flights.

And hotel points for free stays…I never seem to amass enough.

I am trying to concentrate hotels on one brand and flights on one carrier. Will see if this gets me anything.

My understanding of airline points is it pays to use a branded airline card and keep signing up for new cards to get the sign up bonus.

Generally the most effective for flights is transferring miles from AMEX, Chase, Capital One, Citi, Bilt etc to an airline. Then you can book a flight with that airline or its partners. You want to find reward or saver rates as these are discounted. Ideally you also take advantage of a transfer bonus from the credit card company to the airline. That’s how you end up with 80k round trip business flights to Europe or Asia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am really boring with points. I have an Amazon card and use the points earned to buy more on Amazon.

I have never understood how to use airline points from flights. ijust pay for flights.

And hotel points for free stays…I never seem to amass enough.

I am trying to concentrate hotels on one brand and flights on one carrier. Will see if this gets me anything.

My understanding of airline points is it pays to use a branded airline card and keep signing up for new cards to get the sign up bonus.

Generally the most effective for flights is transferring miles from AMEX, Chase, Capital One, Citi, Bilt etc to an airline. Then you can book a flight with that airline or its partners. You want to find reward or saver rates as these are discounted. Ideally you also take advantage of a transfer bonus from the credit card company to the airline. That’s how you end up with 80k round trip business flights to Europe or Asia.

80k roundtrip business to Europe or Asia is not a reasonable expectation - that's more like a unicorn. 150k to Europe and 180k to Asia is achievable if you know what you are doing and play the game well, but even those are hard now

[Anonymous]

OP this morning I got so.exoted when I find hyatt rooms at a hotel in Puerto Rico for April. Then I started look for plane tickets. I gave up.

I think points are fine for hotel rooms but horrible for airlines.

Are airlines regulated? The prices they are charging wow. I miss Europe lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One thing I hate about points is that all the good deals are for flight to Europe. I don't want to go to Europe. Hardly any deals for Latin America.

It's always Italy, Spain, Netherlands, the UK and repeat. Even most blog posts they are mostly discussing vacations to these countries using points.

Yep. Plus Maldives, Bangkok and the Far East. Frustrating.