My family just took our first trip where our flight and hotel were all paid for by points. We also have 6 more trips planned this year all for the price we paid for one trip 2 years ago. A couple of years ago, we had stumbled upon credit card rewards and finally felt like we were at the point where we could start reaping rewards from credit cards. Previously we had mainly been using them for balance transfers so if it was not a 0% APR offer, I had thrown it in the trash. We were planning to spend money on some small home renovations at the time so by a referral from a friend, we opened our first Travel Rewards Cards. I had gotten the American Express Platinum card and quickly met the minimum purchase requirements with our renovation. I also opened a Southwest Card at the time by the end of the year, we had gotten 100,000 points with AMEX and one trip away from earning a companion pass with Southwest (where one of us could fly free the following year). We were not experienced at this at all and did not plan it out properly so at the end of the year, we were ready to book a last-minute Christmas vacation trip for the year with all the points we earned. I didn’t know about maximizing points, so I used the points to buy an Airbnb gift card to pay for our room. Because it was over Christmas break and short notice (3 weeks before we were leaving) the room was triple the normal price. We ended up spending 4 months repaying the trip with the renovations from last year, no money in the following year to be able to make trips so we only used the companion pass for 1 trip the whole following year before it expired. After learning about how to truly utilize travel rewards from Chose FI Podcasts (thanks Brad!), we came better prepared for 2024. Here are some of the things we did:
- My wife opened a Southwest Personal & Business CC which gave her a Companion pass from February 2024 – December 2025, almost 2 full years of Companion Pass Usage. In addition, we opened a free Southwest Rewards account for our daughter to accumulate her own points for flights she is taking with us.
- I opened a Hyatt Rewards CC and concentrated on all our monthly allowable bills to the card to accumulate as many points as possible.
- I set up a spreadsheet with all possible trips we were going to take for the year and found the best options utilizing Southwest Flights and Hyatt Hotels. We were willing to travel anywhere if we could fly there by a Southwest Flight and stay in a Hyatt Hotel.
For flights, our first 4 trips are covered by points alone while the last 2 we must pay for (but only one ticket since mine is covered under companion). For hotels our first 2 trips are covered by points and the last 4 will be a combination of points and cash for room upgrades. We often try to get the Suite so we can have a one bedroom with a Sofa bed vs a 2 bedroom or connecting rooms with is typically much more expensive.
While 2024 will have the same costs allocated towards travel as 2022 & 2023 combined, there are few key differences:
- The points for the earlier trips will allow us to save up enough to pre-pay for all the remaining trips ahead of time.
- The money saved from my 6 free airline tickets is helping us to be able to visit and celebrate special occasions with family and friends we would have previously had to skip.
- Although we are narrowing our search to these 2 brands this year, we can experience new destinations we previously would not have looked at which has made the trips even more memorable so far.