Anonymous
Post 01/28/2024 00:20     Subject: Why do people w/ free airfare/hotels with miles/points always reply critically to the "is 20K good for a trip posts?"
I agree it’s irritating.
We’ve run the numbers and it’s really smarter to get cash back than most travel points cards. We get 2-5% cash back on all purchases that we can then use anywhere. There’s an opportunity cost to those reqard points and most people don’t include that as part of the travel cost.
It’s also a lot of people that travel a ton for work and always fly the same airline and stay at the same hotel chain so they can do this. I fly a bit for work but always just pick the cheapest flight and closest airport so I’m really not maximizing my points.
Anonymous
Post 01/27/2024 23:54     Subject: Why do people w/ free airfare/hotels with miles/points always reply critically to the "is 20K good for a trip posts?"
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Without fail, someone will always come into the "is $20K reasonable for 2 weeks in Europe for 4 people?" posts and say that they went to Europe for 2 weeks for 4 people and spent about $4K and the OP is insane for spending anything above that. Without fail it turns out that the $4K poster had entirely free airline tickets and accommodations due to miles and points.

I always assume these people are autistic. Because it's just so tone deaf. Look, I get that you got a great deal. But it's a deal that isn't available to anyone who hasn't spend half their life on the road for work. So why criticize others for not having the deal?
People are so weird.


Agree. I’m deep in the miles and points game and have been for close to 15 years but I don’t reply about that bc I realize it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I enjoy the puzzle aspect of it and certainly the trips but I imagine it’s sort of like what couponing for others. I realize people get hundreds of dollars of things from the grocery store for virtually nothing but I can’t begin to be bothered to learn the rules. And I know other people feel that way about miles and points. So, yeah, to each their own, and I agree it’s an odd response.


Feel like I could have written this post. We mostly use our points for airfare because we all 4 do horribly in a single hotel room. We also tend not to like staying in the central business district areas where a lot of chain hotels (where you can use points) are located. So vacations aren't free by any means, but we use the points to make.them cheaper, or to make them nicer- sometimes finding business class seats on long overnight flights, or splurging for two rooms at a high end hotel for one night. But yes definitely not for everyone, and it doesn't mean travel is free.
Anonymous
Post 01/27/2024 20:22     Subject: Why do people w/ free airfare/hotels with miles/points always reply critically to the "is 20K good for a trip posts?"
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I don't have miles but we went to Europe twice as a family of three for almost 2 weeks, stayed in pretty nice hotels, and spend 7K. So I feel like that is low for a family of 4 and a few extra days but 20K is a LOT more.


When was this? Things have gone up A LOT in airfare and hotels post-covid.


Once post COVID and once pre-COVID. But we don't say "we're going to Rome let's look for tickets and hotels" rather, we say "we're going to Europe, what airport is most economical to fly into" and go from there.
Anonymous
Post 01/27/2024 20:21     Subject: Why do people w/ free airfare/hotels with miles/points always reply critically to the "is 20K good for a trip posts?"
Anonymous wrote:There’s nothing keeping you from having thousands of points, too. It’s a game. You have to learn how to play it.


I agree that it’s a game.

My time is too valuable to play it.

Look at it this way, I could work fewer hours than the amount of time it would take to play this game. I also don’t clip coupons, I just buy stuff when I need it. Same mindset.

Anonymous
Post 01/27/2024 20:15     Subject: Why do people w/ free airfare/hotels with miles/points always reply critically to the "is 20K good for a trip posts?"
Anonymous wrote:I don't have miles but we went to Europe twice as a family of three for almost 2 weeks, stayed in pretty nice hotels, and spend 7K. So I feel like that is low for a family of 4 and a few extra days but 20K is a LOT more.


Are you traveling during school breaks, or pulling your child from school? It matters a lot in terms of the prices you are able to get. You also (presumably) only need 1 hotel room with 3 people.
Anonymous
Post 01/27/2024 18:52     Subject: Why do people w/ free airfare/hotels with miles/points always reply critically to the "is 20K good for a trip posts?"
Anonymous wrote:Without fail, someone will always come into the "is $20K reasonable for 2 weeks in Europe for 4 people?" posts and say that they went to Europe for 2 weeks for 4 people and spent about $4K and the OP is insane for spending anything above that. Without fail it turns out that the $4K poster had entirely free airline tickets and accommodations due to miles and points.

I always assume these people are autistic. Because it's just so tone deaf. Look, I get that you got a great deal. But it's a deal that isn't available to anyone who hasn't spend half their life on the road for work. So why criticize others for not having the deal?
People are so weird.


Agree. I’m deep in the miles and points game and have been for close to 15 years but I don’t reply about that bc I realize it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I enjoy the puzzle aspect of it and certainly the trips but I imagine it’s sort of like what couponing for others. I realize people get hundreds of dollars of things from the grocery store for virtually nothing but I can’t begin to be bothered to learn the rules. And I know other people feel that way about miles and points. So, yeah, to each their own, and I agree it’s an odd response.
Anonymous
Post 01/27/2024 18:35     Subject: Why do people w/ free airfare/hotels with miles/points always reply critically to the "is 20K good for a trip posts?"
Anonymous wrote:I don't have miles but we went to Europe twice as a family of three for almost 2 weeks, stayed in pretty nice hotels, and spend 7K. So I feel like that is low for a family of 4 and a few extra days but 20K is a LOT more.


When was this? Things have gone up A LOT in airfare and hotels post-covid.
Anonymous
Post 01/27/2024 18:33     Subject: Why do people w/ free airfare/hotels with miles/points always reply critically to the "is 20K good for a trip posts?"
I don't have miles but we went to Europe twice as a family of three for almost 2 weeks, stayed in pretty nice hotels, and spend 7K. So I feel like that is low for a family of 4 and a few extra days but 20K is a LOT more.
Anonymous
Post 01/27/2024 18:27     Subject: Why do people w/ free airfare/hotels with miles/points always reply critically to the "is 20K good for a trip posts?"
Ok, but if I have a 1 or 1.5% cash card, and I only buy discounted hotel rooms in US, and I don't have work travel, how can I really make thousands of surplus dollars of points by having a points card?

It seems to me that 10K of real money is better than 20K worth of points that don't apply during blackout datea or aren't for the right airline. Or require American Express use.

I'd love some free airline tickets but I'm not convinced I'd end up benefitting greatly from points cards.
Anonymous
Post 01/27/2024 16:45     Subject: Why do people w/ free airfare/hotels with miles/points always reply critically to the "is 20K good for a trip posts?"
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:There’s nothing keeping you from having thousands of points, too. It’s a game. You have to learn how to play it.

Honestly we got a couple of cards but I have no interest in playing the game of getting and cancelling credit cards non stop for points. And then we can only travel during high season which means lots of black out dates. It works well if you fly often for business.


You can open/close cards all the time for the bonus points. But you can generate a lot of points by maximizing the earnings on your spending, depending on which cards you have.

Never use debit cards or checks for anything. You're throwing away points.
Anonymous
Post 01/27/2024 15:52     Subject: Why do people w/ free airfare/hotels with miles/points always reply critically to the "is 20K good for a trip posts?"
Anonymous wrote:There’s nothing keeping you from having thousands of points, too. It’s a game. You have to learn how to play it.

Honestly we got a couple of cards but I have no interest in playing the game of getting and cancelling credit cards non stop for points. And then we can only travel during high season which means lots of black out dates. It works well if you fly often for business.
Anonymous
Post 01/27/2024 14:11     Subject: Why do people w/ free airfare/hotels with miles/points always reply critically to the "is 20K good for a trip posts?"
Anonymous wrote:Without fail, someone will always come into the "is $20K reasonable for 2 weeks in Europe for 4 people?" posts and say that they went to Europe for 2 weeks for 4 people and spent about $4K and the OP is insane for spending anything above that. Without fail it turns out that the $4K poster had entirely free airline tickets and accommodations due to miles and points.

I always assume these people are autistic. Because it's just so tone deaf. Look, I get that you got a great deal. But it's a deal that isn't available to anyone who hasn't spend half their life on the road for work. So why criticize others for not having the deal?
People are so weird.


I'm the first OP you're referring to. Yeah that was annoying on the part of the $4k poster, laughable and irrelevant. Bottom line, traveling abroad has become unbelievably expensive. I feel very fortunate we can even do it, although it took a lot of sacrifice and putting off the trip until we had the funds to do it.
Anonymous
Post 01/27/2024 14:00     Subject: Why do people w/ free airfare/hotels with miles/points always reply critically to the "is 20K good for a trip posts?"
There’s nothing keeping you from having thousands of points, too. It’s a game. You have to learn how to play it.
Anonymous
Post 01/27/2024 10:51     Subject: Why do people w/ free airfare/hotels with miles/points always reply critically to the "is 20K good for a trip posts?"
I agree OP. The milers stupidly assume that everyone has zillions of miles to pay for flights and hotels for entire families, and that no one should ever have to pay cash rack rates for any travel. It is very annoying.
Anonymous
Post 01/27/2024 10:43     Subject: Why do people w/ free airfare/hotels with miles/points always reply critically to the "is 20K good for a trip posts?"
Without fail, someone will always come into the "is $20K reasonable for 2 weeks in Europe for 4 people?" posts and say that they went to Europe for 2 weeks for 4 people and spent about $4K and the OP is insane for spending anything above that. Without fail it turns out that the $4K poster had entirely free airline tickets and accommodations due to miles and points.

I always assume these people are autistic. Because it's just so tone deaf. Look, I get that you got a great deal. But it's a deal that isn't available to anyone who hasn't spend half their life on the road for work. So why criticize others for not having the deal?
People are so weird.