How I Plan Travel Using Points

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This post is a long time coming… y’all know how much I love to travel and I’ve talked about doing a post about how I use points and loyalty programs to save money on travel. I am by no means an expert.. if you’re looking for that, check out The Points Guy. I’m just a regular person who doesn’t want to have to sign up for ten credit cards and keep track of all these different offers. I’ve spent a fair amount of time researching, and settled on a few cards/programs that work best for the way I travel.

I’ve found that credit cards are the best way to earn enough points/miles for travel to make a substantial difference. I want to mention first that I’m only pro credit cards if you can be responsible in your spending and pay your bill in full every month. Dave and I put every single thing we can on a credit card, but we pay down our card every few days so that the money immediately comes out of our checking account. In essence, we treat our credit card as a debit card while still getting the points 😉 We also have a monthly budget and track every purchase, so we know we are not spending recklessly on the card. Between the two of us, we have four credit cards. Delta Amex for all of our joint expenses, I have a Chase Sapphire Preferred for personal expenses, Dave has a Chase Sapphire Preferred for his personal expenses, and I have the Marriott Bonvoy Amex for business expenses.

Flights

I think the key to earning miles for free flights is to pick one airline and try to stay as loyal to them as possible. I personally love Delta, and they make the most sense for flying out of Lexington, plus most international flights I take are through Delta as well. If you travel enough, you can also earn status so you get upgrades and other perks.

We use the Delta Platinum Amex to earn miles. You earn 3X points on Delta purchases and hotels, 2X points on restaurants and groceries, and 1X points on everything else. This card has a higher annual fee ($250), but you get a free companion pass (basically buy one ticket and a second person flies free) every year, so we can justify the fee. It also gets you a free checked bag on every Delta flight and a credit for TSA precheck or Global Entry. We used to have the Delta Gold Amex ($99 annual fee) and loved that one too, but feel like the perks are worth the extra $150. You can get 80,000 bonus miles if you sign up for the card here.

There are also a few ways to boost your mile earning – you can link your Lyft account to your Delta account and earn miles on rides (bonus miles for rides to the airport). There’s also a Skymiles shopping program where you earn miles if you make a purchase from a store on the portal if you visit via the Skymiles shopping website.

To find cheaper flights, I typically set google flight alerts. Google will tell you if a fare is less than usual, typical, or higher than usual so you can get an idea if you’re getting a good deal or not. I also pay for a subscription to Scott’s Cheap Flights, which sends you crazy flight deals (how I booked a flight to Portugal for $300).

Hotels

Again, I feel like you should pick a chain and stick with it to make the most of your points-earning potential. I try and stay loyal to Marriott and usually have no problem finding a Marriott property at a variety of budgets. I use the Marriott Bonvoy Amex for my business purchases, which is how we have points. You can earn 150,000 Marriott Bonvoy points for signing up here. You earn 6x points on Marriott, 3x points on restaurants and 2x on everything else.

We also use Chase Sapphire Preferred for free hotel stays via points. The Chase Sapphire earns 3x points on restaurants, online groceries and streaming services, 2x points on travel, 5x points on travel booked through Chase, and 1x points on everything else. On each account anniversary, you get 10% bonus points of your annual spend (so if you spent $15,000 you get 1500 points). You also get a $50 travel statement credit for travel booked through Chase. Right now membership comes with free Dashpass and six months of Instacart plus a monthly $15 credit for Instacart. But what I find most appealing about the Chase Sapphire is that you can use the points for a wide variety of options. You can get cash back, but you get the most bang for your buck if you use for travel. You can either transfer the points over to a range of airline or hotel loyalty programs or book flights/hotels/rental car/cruise directly through Chase. I typically book directly through Chase. We stayed at a Marriott in Aruba using the points, boutique hotels in Portugal, Copenhagen, Paris and more.

If I’m not using Marriott or booking through Chase (typically when traveling internationally), I’ve found a great way to find affordable, cool hotels is Hotels.com. They have access to tons of properties and you can filter via price/reviews etc. I’ve found some great boutique hotels this way, like a $30 resort in Thailand and several of the hotels on our honeymoon. Hotels.com also has a loyalty program where if you stay ten nights through them you get a free hotel night.