Travel points/airline miles/credit card bonuses….are any of these worth it?

[Ottakee]

I love to travel and hope to do a lot more of it in the future.  I keep seeing FB posts and other online stuff about travel hacks to get great flight deals using points/miles etc.  are any of these really good?  Do they work or are there a lot of hassles and black out dates etc. 

[mommyoffive]

They are real.  They work.  They can save you thousands.  If you get deep into it you can get huge value.  But even just learning a fair amount you can vacation for very little.  Basically the taxes on a flight and your annual fee if you have on far the card.  We have done this for about 10 years and gotten so many free trips for our family of 7 out of it. Seriously lost track of how many we have taken with points and miles.  Even a ton of international trips.  We have big piles and miles and points at any time and whenever we want or need to go somewhere we use them.  And we are always earning more through just our normal spends and then opening new cards when they have huge bonuses. 

My only regret was not getting started earlier.  I didn't know it was real at first too.

Edited July 8 by mommyoffive

[Katy]

I follow a few influencers who do this sort of thing. In general their husbands are high earners (above $300k, work in tech, finance, medicine, or dentistry), the wife didn’t work until the influencing turned into a business, and they run all household and business expenses through a rewards card. Since we’re talking about a lot of money they can trade a lot of points for deals. They save those points for an amazing deal. I don’t think there are blackouts, but it might take much longer to save points if you don’t spend $200k+ per year or build up a lot of points for business travel. 

One of my BIL’s travels 80% of the time for his upper management tech job. He always has miles to use without blackout dates too. He was able to get last minute tickets for a family member to come to a funeral anyway. 

[mommyoffive]

1 minute ago, Katy said:

I follow a few influencers who do this sort of thing. In general their husbands are high earners (above $300k, work in tech, finance, medicine, or dentistry), the wife didn’t work until the influencing turned into a business, and they run all household and business expenses through a rewards card. Since we’re talking about a lot of money they can trade a lot of points for deals. They save those points for an amazing deal. I don’t think there are blackouts, but it might take much longer to save points if you don’t spend $200k+ per year or build up a lot of points for business travel. 

One of my BIL’s travels 80% of the time for his upper management tech job. He always has miles to use without blackout dates too. He was able to get last minute tickets for a family member to come to a funeral anyway. 

This is such an important reason to have these, for an last minute thing where prices are nuts but you can pay with miles or points.

[Beth S]

I love watching Kara and Nate's travel/adventure youtube channel.
I'm basically an Armchair Traveler.

But they recently started "Fare Drop", which alerts you cheaper airline tickets. www.faredrop.com
There's a related yotube channel.

They also have "Daily Drop" which explains miles and points.
They hired a guy who is a genius at miles and points, who travels the world & tells you how you can do it too.

Here's one about Disney, but his newest one was a castle, which was an AirBnB OMG property.

 

[Just Kate]

Yes, it is real and yes, it works. I recommend 10xtravel.com (and Facebook group, if you use Facebook). They have a wonderful free course that I go back and reference all the time. 
 

Dh and I have just dabbled in credit card points, but we did take our kiddos on an amazing trip to a five star all inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic (Hyatt Ziva Cap Cana). We also paid for airfare with points and dd and I just flew to NYC and paid for airfare with points as well. We hope to do more travel using points in the future!

[Ginevra]

Yes. It works. I have flown to and from Paris, France (twice) for “free”; have stayed in hotels in Paris, Munich, Edinburgh and London for “free; and have had vacation expenses credited back to me using points I earned on vacation. [This last point sounds confusing, but it’s like this: I’m on a trip in Europe, using my Capital One Venture card to buy meals or activities. When I return home, I have earned, say, 5,000 points on vacation. My CC company says, “Would you like to retroactively redeem your points?” And I say yes. So, in the instance of this trip I just returned from Ireland, I had earned enough points on vacation to credit back a $300+ hotel stay.] 

I have not even “studied” this the way some people do but it’s been hugely beneficial. Capital One is my favorite, though I have also used BoA. I currently have a bunch of points on an Amex Delta Sky Miles card, but I don’t find that one’s benefits page to be user-friendly and I didn’t use it much beyond the initial bonus for sign up. Also, can’t use Amex in Europe very much, so that’s another way Cap One is better. 
 

I do not have the Capital one X card, which has an annual fee but has a very generous points system, plus airport lounges. I think it would be nice to try that one but I haven’t gotten around to it. 
 

I do think it’s a good idea not to open and close accounts often because it affects your credit score. So I’m not one to open ten cards and play the card shuffle all the time. 
 

There is also an app called Thrifty Traveler that sends its users all kinds of really good deals, including mistake fares and points deals. The app is pretty good; I had it for a year. I don’t have my phone with me during the day, though, so I decided not to continue the app. I never see the deals in time to snap them up, but for someone who has more flexible travel ability, I think it’s a good idea. Just learning to use Google Flights was a huge benefit for me, because you can see if, for example, you save $200 by leaving for a trip on Tuesday, rather than Friday. 

Edited July 8 by Ginevra
Can’t spell “to,” apparently

[MEmama]

DS is HUGE into travel points and they absolutely are worth it for him. He knows all the tips and tricks how to maximize both acquiring them and using them to his advantage. He loves the lounge access he's afforded and eats like a king on layovers, lol. And when there are flight delays or something goes wrong, he has access to an actual person who can help get him on the best next flight, or put him up in the best hotels with ease.

Of course he makes us do this stuff too, but we were reluctant and just starting out.

 Plus he travels a lot more than we do, and has friends who are equally into it. 

[mommyoffive]

I read a few different travel sites, but the one I have used the most over time is

https://thepointsguy.com/?utm_source=TPG Daily Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=10390044&utm_usr=29d633aae90dc05f4b0bbcc8984257f70188fddb1ba0399390b3f65f9eebc5d1

[Corraleno]

I used to fly a lot, and DS still flies a lot for competitions plus going back and forth between home and college, so I got a Chase Southwest Premiere card when they were offering a huge mileage bonus (I think it was 100K points with sign up). The annual fee is $99, but it includes a $75 travel credit + triple points on all SW purchases + 6000 bonus points per year.

I used it for everything, including groceries, bills, etc., as well as flights/hotels/rental cars, and within 6 months I had a free Companion Pass that allowed me to take one of my kids for free on any domestic trip for the next 18 months. I continued to use it for all expenses for a few more years, to the point where I'd accumulated 600K points, and then I switched to other cards for other rewards (e.g. gots lots of Le Creuset for free with points on a Williams Sonoma Visa). Once I've used up my travel points, I'll go back to using the SW card again.

 

[Innisfree]

I’m not deeply informed about this, but have used a Chase Sapphire Preferred card to get airline tickets a couple of times for dd to use when she was studying abroad. We don’t have a very large income, and don’t put a huge amount of money on the card. Travel plays no part in our daily life, to my regret: we’re not adding points because dh has to travel for work, for example. I am currently saving points in hopes that once Dh retires he and I can do some traveling. All this just to say that it’s not necessary to spend a huge amount on the card to get benefits that are helpful, especially for one person or two.

[Ottakee]

OK, it looks like it would be worth me looking into.

I prefer to fly out of Grand Rapids GRR but can do Detroit or Chicago if there is a huge savings and there are multiple people (but those are 3+ hours away so gas and parking fees and drive times).  So far many of my trips have been on Delta but I am not carrier loyal and will take whichever one gets me where I want to go.

I am a member of Great Lakes Travel Deals which has amazing flight deals but most of them just don't work with my "educator" schedule as they are off season and I just can't travel off season---yet.

I currently have a credit union credit card which is 2 or 3% cash back.  I have been using that as then there are zero restrictions on which airline I fly, etc. as I just use cash.   My annual income is quite low and my expenses are quite low so I maybe rack up $5000-10,000 at most on a credit Card in a year and that is putting everything I can on it.

I am willing to open another better credit card for travel/points/lounge/perks, etc. but I don't have the time or mental energy to churn credit cards, etc.  Some of them, I would have a hard time charging enough to make that "charge x amount in the first 3 months to get XXXXX points" type thing.

I need the "how to get travel rewards for Dummies" type thing.

[mommyoffive]

12 minutes ago, Ottakee said:

OK, it looks like it would be worth me looking into.

I prefer to fly out of Grand Rapids GRR but can do Detroit or Chicago if there is a huge savings and there are multiple people (but those are 3+ hours away so gas and parking fees and drive times).  So far many of my trips have been on Delta but I am not carrier loyal and will take whichever one gets me where I want to go.

I am a member of Great Lakes Travel Deals which has amazing flight deals but most of them just don't work with my "educator" schedule as they are off season and I just can't travel off season---yet.

I currently have a credit union credit card which is 2 or 3% cash back.  I have been using that as then there are zero restrictions on which airline I fly, etc. as I just use cash.   My annual income is quite low and my expenses are quite low so I maybe rack up $5000-10,000 at most on a credit Card in a year and that is putting everything I can on it.

I am willing to open another better credit card for travel/points/lounge/perks, etc. but I don't have the time or mental energy to churn credit cards, etc.  Some of them, I would have a hard time charging enough to make that "charge x amount in the first 3 months to get XXX XX points" type thing.

I need the "how to get travel rewards for Dummies" type thing.

The best way to get points is to open a card when there is a big bonus and meet the spend.  That is the fastest way to get a big pile a points.  Some of the spends are going to be $3k to $5k or more in 3-6 months.  Mostly 3 months.  

If you have any use for AA miles this is an easy card to open get the miles

https://cards.barclaycardus.com/banking/cards/aadvantage-aviator-red-world-elite-mastercard/

You get the 60k miles after you first use the card.  So you could charge $3 on it and get the points.  You do have to pay the AF of 99.  But get a lot of value out of 60k miles.

[alisoncooks]

Timely thread. We just opened a United Airlines cc to get the $300 initial credit to pay for a recent flight, plus the “spend $3k in 3 months” mileage bonus. My daughter’s bf lives 13 hours away and she’s flown there and back twice and he once. If we can get this mileage bonus, it’ll mean free flights for both of them for a few years. This card does have an annual fee (something to look out for) but $95/yr is worth it if we’re saving several hundred $ in flights. 

[Starr]

If you want an airline cc they often offer them with extra bonus points on your flight. I have friends who do different things. One traveled for business and found getting hotel points was better for her than flight points. 

[Soror]

Yes, they are for sure worth it. How many points you can accrue depends on your household spend (obviously if you have a higher income and higher spending you can get significantly more rewards and if you also travel a lot for work that helps too) 

However, even for regular folks on middle-class income you can make it worth your while. 

By far the most amount of points come from account bonuses.

Chase cards are generally considered the best due to the flexibility of their points, rewards on their cards, and high account bonuses. 

For domestic travel, the Southwest Companion Pass is the way to go. If you time it right you can have nearly 2 years of it at a time. 

Signing up for a new card might temporarily lower your credit score (different cards pull different checks) but it will bounce back shortly. Overall lots of cards will increase your score because one of the metrics of your credit score is your credit utilization- you want to have much more open credit than you use so your utilization is low. Generally, people really into this game have credit scores in the high 700s/800+. Honestly, anything over a 760+ or so will get you anything you need. Mine has stayed over 800+. What hurts me the most is that for years I was just an authorized user and didn't have any cards that were my own accounts. Credit cards aren't joint accounts. They are considered to be one person's account.

The best bang for your buck is combining flight alerts of some kind (there are tons of services out there) with those points so you can make those points go further. Some people like to rack up points to fly in first class/business. We'd rather do more travel cheaply. 

We're very much amateur level and do not have a high income but I'm trying to squeeze as much travel as I can out of rewards. When I quit I want to get into it further and see what more we can accomplish.

Resources we have used- 10xTravel

Going (formerly Scott's Cheap Flights) and Thrifty Traveler

The Points Guy

 

Edited July 9 by Soror

[City Mouse]

I will be the voice of decent and say it isn’t worth it unless you spend a lot and travel a lot. I do better with the loyalty programs instead of paying the high annual fees to maintain those credit cards. We do have some no-fee credit cards with rewards programs but the amount of cash back is minimal. 

Edited July 10 by City Mouse

[Innisfree]

1 hour ago, City Mouse said:

I will be the voice of decent and say it isn’t worth it unless you spend a lot and travel a lot. I do better with the loyalty programs instead of paying the high annual fees to maintain those credit cards. We do have some no-fee credit cards with rewards programs but the amount of chase back is minimal. 

I guess it depends how you define “worth it.” To me, one plane fare to and from Europe as a reward after a year of using a card and earning the initial bonus miles was worth it. I’d be putting groceries on some card anyway, and it’s paid off every month, no debt, no interest. If we had five people needing to go on a vacation, well, my card use wouldn’t cover that.

[J-rap]

I love our cards that collect points for travel.  I have two of them:  USBank Flex Perks and Capitol One.  I charge everything on them these days.  (Rather than pay with cash or check.)  I was even able to pay for my daughter's college tuition on it for awhile!  I always pay it off monthly.   Maybe all travel reward cards are like this, but with Capitol One, I can also use those points retroactively.  So if I'm booking a flight but don't have enough points to cover it yet, I still have time to earn points even if I've already gotten and paid for the ticket (paid for it with the card).  I think I'm given  three months after I charged the ticket when I can work toward collecting points to cover a trip that already happened, and then the money I paid is credited back onto my card.

I can also use points for a seat upgrade.  So for example, I might not have enough points to pay for the basic ticket, but I can choose the cheapest seat with no luggage allowance, etc., and then later go in and use points for the upgrade so I can choose my seat and pay for luggage.  Things like that.

 

[Corraleno]

The keys to making reward cards "worth it," even on a modest income, are (1) set a goal and choose the card that will get you there fastest and offer the most flexibility, (2) pay close attention to bonus offers and max those out, and (3) put absolutely everything on that card — that includes utility bills, medical/auto/homeowners insurance, medical/dental/medication expenses, etc., as well as the usual expenses like groceries, gas, clothes, etc. Basically your entire annual spend goes on that card. When you combine that with bonus offers, you can really accumulate a lot of points.

I got a Pottery Barn dining table, a washer and dryer, Wusthoff knives, and all my Le Creuset for free with reward points, plus tons of free stuff from Amazon and Costco with cash back on their rewards cards. And I can't even count how many free flights my kids and I have gotten — DS just flew to and from a competition for free, and he and I will both be flying for free next month and I hardly even used any points for those tickets because the flights were "on sale" as part of a special summer promotion.

Most of my cards have no annual fee, and in addition to rewards points some of them offer special deals and bonuses like $25 in your birthday month to spend on anything you want, with no minimum spend. The Southwest Premiere card has a $99 annual fee, but comes with travel credits, free upgrades, triple mileage points, plus 6000 bonus miles per year, and the fee is more than covered by a single free flight. I also have a Delta-branded Platinum Amex with a $300 annual fee, which was worth it when we were living in the UK and traveling a lot, but I will cancel that one after one last trip to see my MIL.

As Soror mentioned, having a lot of cards improves your credit rating because they look at what % of the total credit available is being utilized, so if you have 10 cards with a total limit of $50K, but you only spend $5K/month, that looks much better to credit agencies than if you have 2 cards with a total limit of $5K and that's what you spend every month. All my cards are on autopay so I never carry a balance.

[Ottakee]

Which card(s) tend to be the most flexible?  Depends on where I am going which airline is best as me driving 3 hours into Chicago (could be 4-5 with traffic or accident) and paying parking just doesn’t make sense if it is just me flying.

[livetoread]

I will be another voice of dissent, though I admit I haven't actually run numbers to know for sure that my thinking on this is correct. Just running the numbers would take a long time, and then those numbers would have to be rerun as terms change. We haven't done any specific travel cards because it seems really complicated to know if you are getting the best deal. You have to take into account so many factors like annual fee, restrictions on use, overseas usage fees, whether points expire, how much time and effort you need to put into monitoring points and so on, and then compare that to cards that are generous with simple cash back. It's not that using a travel card is a worse option, it just might not be as great compared to other options when you take into account all the factors. So certainly nothing wrong with using one, but if you are someone who can get lost in the weeds of trying to find the best deal (raises hand), it might not be worth it compared to what you already have.

We do travel making several trips a year, but not for work, and we put a fair amount of money on our cards each month, but we get cash back rewards and find other ways that benefit. For example, our main card is our Costco Visa and we get more than enough for one or two free airline tickets back on that in cash. We can then use that cash to find the best ticket on whatever airline works the best for us with no restrictions. We can also get discounted Southwest gift cards through Costco. Is there a card out there that can beat that? Probably, for a specific amount of time, but then who knows? There is so much that goes into figuring out what the best deal is, and then it changes after a time anyway. We are not interested in opening and closing accounts (our credit score is over 800) and I'm okay with knowing we are getting a good deal on our main credit card along with the flexibility to use the simple cash.

[mommyoffive]

2 minutes ago, livetoread said:

I will be another voice of dissent, though I admit I haven't actually run numbers to know for sure that my thinking on this is correct. Just running the numbers would take a long time, and then those numbers would have to be rerun as terms change. We haven't done any specific travel cards because it seems really complicated to know if you are getting the best deal. You have to take into account so many factors like annual fee, restrictions on use, overseas usage fees, whether points expire, how much time and effort you need to put into monitoring points and so on, and then compare that to cards that are generous with simple cash back. It's not that using a travel card is a worse option, it just might not be as great compared to other options when you take into account all the factors. So certainly nothing wrong with using one, but if you are someone who can get lost in the weeds of trying to find the best deal (raises hand), it might not be worth it compared to what you already have.

We do travel making several trips a year, but not for work, and we put a fair amount of money on our cards each month, but we get cash back rewards and find other ways that benefit. For example, our main card is our Costco Visa and we get more than enough for one or two free airline tickets back on that in cash. We can then use that cash to find the best ticket on whatever airline works the best for us with no restrictions. We can also get discounted Southwest gift cards through Costco. Is there a card out there that can beat that? Probably, for a specific amount of time, but then who knows? There is so much that goes into figuring out what the best deal is, and then it changes after a time anyway. We are not interested in opening and closing accounts (our credit score is over 800) and I'm okay with knowing we are getting a good deal on our main credit card along with the flexibility to use the simple cash.

Ours scores are too.  This 10000% has never hurt our credit scores.  

[Ottakee]

24 minutes ago, livetoread said:

I will be another voice of dissent, though I admit I haven't actually run numbers to know for sure that my thinking on this is correct. Just running the numbers would take a long time, and then those numbers would have to be rerun as terms change. We haven't done any specific travel cards because it seems really complicated to know if you are getting the best deal. You have to take into account so many factors like annual fee, restrictions on use, overseas usage fees, whether points expire, how much time and effort you need to put into monitoring points and so on, and then compare that to cards that are generous with simple cash back. It's not that using a travel card is a worse option, it just might not be as great compared to other options when you take into account all the factors. So certainly nothing wrong with using one, but if you are someone who can get lost in the weeds of trying to find the best deal (raises hand), it might not be worth it compared to what you already have.

We do travel making several trips a year, but not for work, and we put a fair amount of money on our cards each month, but we get cash back rewards and find other ways that benefit. For example, our main card is our Costco Visa and we get more than enough for one or two free airline tickets back on that in cash. We can then use that cash to find the best ticket on whatever airline works the best for us with no restrictions. We can also get discounted Southwest gift cards through Costco. Is there a card out there that can beat that? Probably, for a specific amount of time, but then who knows? There is so much that goes into figuring out what the best deal is, and then it changes after a time anyway. We are not interested in opening and closing accounts (our credit score is over 800) and I'm okay with knowing we are getting a good deal on our main credit card along with the flexibility to use the simple cash.

I am interested in saving travel money but wonder about the time cost/benefits and needing the flexibility to switch airlines to whichever one flys where I need and when I need.

it might be more worth it if I could be a flexible traveler to take advantage of flight deals or have room to go a day or 2 earlier or later but with my job and life and usually is not the case right now.

[busymama7]

We haven't paid for hotel rooms in over 5 years.  2 kids were married out of state, we went to Florida to leave on a cruise, got our kids rooms for thanksgiving, went to CA several times including one time when I got all the married couples their own rooms and we went to the beach.  There's more I'm sure.  Also our flights to Florida were with points from southwest as well. Oh yeah we flew 7 people to Nashville on points and used points for the hotel too.  We use ccs for every purchase and pay it off every 2 weeks. You have to be very disciplined. They make more money then they give out in points because most people aren't. But you can be!

[SKL]

It sounds intriguing, but for myself, my personal spending has gone way down.  For my nearly-adult kids, I would be concerned about taking out more credit than they are ready for.  In my young adult days, when cash was extremely tight (thanks to student loans), I took out a couple cards in order to access benefits.  I had some difficulty keeping up with payments and ended up in a much worse financial situation than I otherwise would have been.  Theoretically, I can advise my kids to do better, but realistically I don't know how that will pan out.  Managing these things requires both time and maturity.

I do use cards that have modest points deals, but I don't keep opening new cards for new benefits.

I don't like the idea of cards linked to specific vendors.  It limits options and tries to make us spend more than necessary "to make it worth it."  They reel you in with a truly good deal, but once you're in, the deals don't stay that great.

In general, I think that being influenced by "deals" actually leads to more spending, because once you're in shopping mode, you get influenced by many brilliant marketing ploys.  I think I spend less by deciding what I'm going to buy before I shop, going and buying that one item (or ordering it online), and ignoring everything else.  If I want to be curious about what's new and improved, I will window shop without buying.  Most of the time, the great deal you saw while shopping looks less attractive after thinking it over for a week or so.  For big items, I will price compare a bit before deciding where to buy, but that's it.

I'm sure some boardies are great at saving via card strategies, but I think most of us won't have such amazing results.

[gardenmom5]

On 7/9/2024 at 4:54 AM, Soror said:

Yes, they are for sure worth it. How many points you can accrue depends on your household spend (obviously if you have a higher income and higher spending you can get significantly more rewards and if you also travel a lot for work that helps too) 

 

 

My airline card (through my preferred airline.)  - how many miles varies with what I buy/where I spend it.  I might be less than a mile per dollar, and it might be three or even more miles per dollar.
I had paid for my tickets (trip cancelled) to Texas with miles - and they had a trip insurance ($20) promotion that gave you miles for your trip. I would have broken even for miles . . .
How many miles a trip costs depends upon destination (popularity and distance), and time of day.

On 7/10/2024 at 8:09 AM, Ottakee said:

I am interested in saving travel money but wonder about the time cost/benefits and needing the flexibility to switch airlines to whichever one flys where I need and when I need.

it might be more worth it if I could be a flexible traveler to take advantage of flight deals or have room to go a day or 2 earlier or later but with my job and life and usually is not the case right now.

most of the better airlines have partnerships with other airlines just so their "loyalty" members can have some flexibility.   

 2ds is saving his points to go first/business class - with a partner airline that flies there - to Japan

[popmom]

I think Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve is the most flexible. The Ultimate Rewards Points can be transferred to many airlines and hotels at a 1:1 value. Don't book travel with Chase through their travel portal. You can get much better value transferring the points to an airline or hotel if you know what you're doing.

You can "stack" points by shopping through the Chase shopping portal. I don't do this often because I'm not a big shopper. But I always check if I need to buy something like pet supplies (just an example) because Chewy or Petco might be offering 5x points through the Chase portal. Getting everything through Amazon only gets 1 point. 

[Ottakee]

1 hour ago, popmom said:

I think Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve is the most flexible. The Ultimate Rewards Points can be transferred to many airlines and hotels at a 1:1 value. Don't book travel with Chase through their travel portal. You can get much better value transferring the points to an airline or hotel if you know what you're doing.

You can "stack" points by shopping through the Chase shopping portal. I don't do this often because I'm not a big shopper. But I always check if I need to buy something like pet supplies (just an example) because Chewy or Petco might be offering 5x points through the Chase portal. Getting everything through Amazon only gets 1 point. 

Good to know.  A relative just used chase travel and it was not the best experience but she thought it would help her when they needed a last minute flight to Michigan from California.