Which travel points program/credit cards do you use?

[Anonymous]

Southwest companion pass holder 4 life

[Anonymous]

What’s a good simple option if you don’t want to make it a hobby and don’t travel much (1-2x year)?

[Anonymous]

We have the new Venture X card. One to consider since their lounge is now open at Dulles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What’s a good simple option if you don’t want to make it a hobby and don’t travel much (1-2x year)?

Citi Double Cash card. 2% back on all purchases, no annual fee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is Chase better than Cap One Venture? Can someone explain why?

We have flown overseas as a family for free, paid for AirBnBs, hotels, even tours, all via the card. And we book directly with the airline/hotel/etc, you then get credits to your card using points

CapOne Venture is essentially a cash back card. It doesn't really have any value more than say the Citi Double Cash card, which gives straight 2% cash back. That's not to disparage it- that's a solid return for everyday spending, and for the average person, who doesn't want to mess around with multiple options, figuring out award program sweet spots, etc, it's a very good approach.

If you get deep into the Chase ultimate rewards "ecosystem" you have a lot more ways to utliize points because of all their transfer partners. You also have a lot more ways to get credit card signup bonuses and spending bonuses. So you can do things like get a few card bonuses and transfer to say Air France and United for business class tickets to Europe- we did that last summer. But it takes a significant amount of work and learning to get to that point, so it's definitely not for everyone. You also have to be comfortable with signing up for a good number of cards to utilize the signup bonuses- again something not everyone is comfortable with doing, or thinks is worth the hassle/work, which is totally understandable.

There's a reason people often call this a hobby.

Thank you for this - I appreciate it!

[Anonymous]

So for those of you with Chase cards, you book travel through Chase? And is that ever an issue vs booking directly through an airline or hotel?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Marriott and Hilton redemptions are really bad. Upscale resort hotels in good areas can be easily over 100,000 points PER night. Hilton at least waives the resort fee but Marriott does not. They both make the 5th night free but you are still talking 400k points for a 5 night stay. Puts the co-branded credit card bonuses into perspective - they aren’t as big as they sound.

The benefit of the cobranded card is the annual free night. They are really worth it if you like to stay at high end places.

The Hilton Aspire is $450 annual free but gives you 1 free night at nearly any hotel worldwide. Plus a $250 resort credit which can go toward either the room rate or incidentals, plus a $250 annual airline credit which should be used for airline incidental fees but I've also had success buying southwest gift cards, lower priced southwest flights, or united travel bank reloads. I profit every year with this card.

The Marriott card that is now $650 annual fee - you get $300 year in restaurant charges credited back, so really it is $350 a year and you get 1 free night certificate for hotels that are 85k points. I am using it at the St Regis Bal Harbour for spring break and the regular rate is $1300/night. You're effectively paying for a free night at a high end hotel in advance for $350.

All of that is true. But the actual points you earn, including the signup bonus, are practically worthless.

The beauty of these cards is that you don't necessarily need to put spend on them. Just the minimum to get the various credits. We put the rest on our chase sapphire.

Ok. 150k Hilton points is 3 nights in a random Hampton inn. That’s just not that valuable to me, when I can be earning bonuses on better cards, but if it works for you, great.

Instead I could be earning 90k chase points which is 2 round trips to Hawaii. Worth a lot more.

Why "instead"? YES AND

I’m below 5/24 so I’d never waste a slot on a non-Chase card, which Hilton is.

5/24 applies to all cards, not just Chase. I believe business cards don't count though.

5/24?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So for those of you with Chase cards, you book travel through Chase? And is that ever an issue vs booking directly through an airline or hotel?

No. Transfer points to partners like United/Southwest/Hyatt/Air France, and then book award tickets directly with the airline.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I have both Amex membership rewards and Chase. Amex has historically been my go-to, but I'm branching out to Chase.

Posters have correctly advised that most of the points come from sign-up bonuses (not flying). I used to fly regularly for work in business class long haul, and in my busiest year I've accumulated maybe 120,000 airlines miles. While the same could have been had with a couple of credit cards.

The idea is to strategically acquire one card after another to collect reward bonuses.

In the last 9 months I've exhausted the rewards for Amex Platinum, and IHG Premier rewards. Currently spending down Chase Business Cash, and plan to apply for another Chase and IHG in a month or so. Read up on how often you should be doing this, I've made a couple of inexperienced mistakes.

This year's travel so far:

- going to Amsterdam with 2 kids for spring break (Air France saver awards, 34K round trip per person)

- going to Turkey with 2 kids in July (Air France saver awards, about 92K roundtrip for 3 )

- going to St. Augustine, FL in November for 5 days with the entire family (DH and I plus 3 kids)

- currently spending and saving points for a trip to London for all five of us next spring break. This will come from IHG rewards and from either Chase or Amex spend.

It's more powerful if both spouses play this game.

This is impressive. Where can I learn how to play the game? Anything I can read? We have sapphire and freedom, which I got many years ago. We have not cancelled them or gotten new cards. Are we supposed cancel the existing cards and apply for new ones to get the large sign in bonus miles?

https://frequentmiler.com/start-here/

Thank you. It looks like I will not be able to cancel sapphire reserve or downgrade it to become eligible for another round of sign up bonus. If I do that, I will keep the points, but lose the 1-1 transfer or 1.5 point conversion in the chase ultimate reward ecosystem until I get a new sapphire card, which is not guaranteed.

You can get a Sapphire Preferred (or another Reserve) bonus if it's been more than 4 years since your previous bonus. Downgrade your current card to a Freedom Unlimited, then maybe 3 days later apply for the Preferred (if it's been more than 4 years). Or you can refer your spouse, and get their bonus and a referral. Make yourself an authorized user on their Sapphire card, and then you can pool points across both people into one account.

The other, more lucrative longer run play for Chase UR is to get their business cards, which have huge bonuses, huge referral bonuses, and 3 cards, of which you can get all of them. Just refer back and forth between spouses and you can get around 120k points per new card.

Thanks for this. We don’t a business (no business tax ID or anything). Appreciate the tips about maximizing points via Sapphire.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I have both Amex membership rewards and Chase. Amex has historically been my go-to, but I'm branching out to Chase.

Posters have correctly advised that most of the points come from sign-up bonuses (not flying). I used to fly regularly for work in business class long haul, and in my busiest year I've accumulated maybe 120,000 airlines miles. While the same could have been had with a couple of credit cards.

The idea is to strategically acquire one card after another to collect reward bonuses.

In the last 9 months I've exhausted the rewards for Amex Platinum, and IHG Premier rewards. Currently spending down Chase Business Cash, and plan to apply for another Chase and IHG in a month or so. Read up on how often you should be doing this, I've made a couple of inexperienced mistakes.

This year's travel so far:

- going to Amsterdam with 2 kids for spring break (Air France saver awards, 34K round trip per person)

- going to Turkey with 2 kids in July (Air France saver awards, about 92K roundtrip for 3 )

- going to St. Augustine, FL in November for 5 days with the entire family (DH and I plus 3 kids)

- currently spending and saving points for a trip to London for all five of us next spring break. This will come from IHG rewards and from either Chase or Amex spend.

It's more powerful if both spouses play this game.

This is impressive. Where can I learn how to play the game? Anything I can read? We have sapphire and freedom, which I got many years ago. We have not cancelled them or gotten new cards. Are we supposed cancel the existing cards and apply for new ones to get the large sign in bonus miles?

https://frequentmiler.com/start-here/

Thank you. It looks like I will not be able to cancel sapphire reserve or downgrade it to become eligible for another round of sign up bonus. If I do that, I will keep the points, but lose the 1-1 transfer or 1.5 point conversion in the chase ultimate reward ecosystem until I get a new sapphire card, which is not guaranteed.

You can get a Sapphire Preferred (or another Reserve) bonus if it's been more than 4 years since your previous bonus. Downgrade your current card to a Freedom Unlimited, then maybe 3 days later apply for the Preferred (if it's been more than 4 years). Or you can refer your spouse, and get their bonus and a referral. Make yourself an authorized user on their Sapphire card, and then you can pool points across both people into one account.

The other, more lucrative longer run play for Chase UR is to get their business cards, which have huge bonuses, huge referral bonuses, and 3 cards, of which you can get all of them. Just refer back and forth between spouses and you can get around 120k points per new card.

Thanks for this. We don’t a business (no business tax ID or anything). Appreciate the tips about maximizing points via Sapphire.

You have a business ID- your SSN if your business is a sole proprietorship. If you ever earned revenue by means other than your employment, legally that's sole proprietorship business income. Read more here if you want to go down the business card road (not for everyone, admittedly)..

https://frequentmiler.com/beginner-plan-solo-business/

[Anonymous]

Is there a benefit for having the same card long term or indefinitely? You would think card companies would reward long term clients if the name of the game is constable switching cards.

[Anonymous]

I looked up how many award miles we would need as a family of four to travel business class on United to anywhere in Europe — 1 million award miles. Do people really accrue this many miles playing this game??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there a benefit for having the same card long term or indefinitely? You would think card companies would reward long term clients if the name of the game is constable switching cards.

Yes it's good to maintain a couple of no annual fee cards long term to increase the average life of your credit lines. But no reason to put major spend on them, there are no major incentives of the type you suggest. The issuers are always chasing new customers - think like Comcast, etc. Always lots of "new customer" deals not available if you are a current customer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I looked up how many award miles we would need as a family of four to travel business class on United to anywhere in Europe — 1 million award miles. Do people really accrue this many miles playing this game??

Generally no, you work hard to find saver awards that would be about half that amount - still a lot though. And takes work to find the savers, especially for more than 2 people.

But yes, people accrue 500k+ quite easily if you play the game well. Right now you can get a Chase Ink card with a 75k bonus, and a referral (spouse can refer) bonus of 40k. So with the spending, one card can get you over 120k points.

[Anonymous]

After doing a lot of research on the Chase Sapphire, I am still trying to understand if it's more beneficial than just getting a United credit card if that is the airline we use most often. Also we usually stay in Marriott properties and it seems Chase Sapphire is only worth it when booking/transferring points to Hyatt.