How Travel Freely members use their miles to travel can vary based on life circumstances. While one member may choose to use their points on a life-changing trip, others choose to use their points on many trips and in many ways.
Today, we take a look at how Travel Freely member Jessica, a newbie to free travel, has spent her first year of free travel, learning the ropes and applying her knowledge to travel experiences that suit her family of 4 (and even her sister’s family, too!)
Tell us a bit about yourself. How long have you been using points and miles toward free travel?
I live in Central Florida between Tampa and Orlando with my husband Tim and our 16-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son. I am mostly a stay-at-home Mom but just recently got my real estate license to work with my husband in that field.
I just started learning about traveling with points and miles in the fall of 2021. My husband and I both got the Chase Sapphire Preferred, while it offered the 100K signup bonus. I received my bonus in August 2021 and his in October 2021.
I love to travel, but in order to make it happen as frequently as I would like, I’ve had to sacrifice luxury for low-budget travel. Case in point, before I even learned about points and miles, we had a Savannah road trip planned with a stay at a super shady AirBnB. As the trip got closer, I felt more uneasy about the location. With my first signup bonus, I was able to cancel that reservation and stay in a nice hotel in a location that was safe and close to all of the sites.
Where have you traveled on points so far? What were some of the highlights and cool moments?
- November 2021: Savannah, GA road trip (2-night stay at Savannah Courtyard Midtown on points)
- February 2022: Nashville, TN road trip (2-night stay at Hyatt Place Nashville/Brentwood after transferring Chase UR points. My first Hyatt stay! I Even earned some bonus points through the Hyatt Bonus Journeys promotion.)
- Spring Break 2022: Austin & Houston, TX, with day trips to San Antonio & Waco, TX (Used 53K Southwest points for four flights and stayed at Hyatt Place Austin/Arboretum and Hyatt Place Houston/Downtown on points)
- May 2022: Orlando, FL Anniversary weekend trip (with free stays at Gaylord Palms and Hyatt Grand Regency Cypress Resort. Definitely the most lavish anniversary so far, thanks to not having to actually pay to celebrate that way!)
- October 2022: Secrets Moxche Playa del Carmen for a birthday celebration using JetBlue sale and travel credits from previous flight changes plus Hyatt points.
Are any future travel plans in the works?
International Travel
Our nephew’s high school band has been invited to perform in Dublin to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day 2023, so I figured it was a great excuse to book our first international redemption to a place my husband has always dreamed of going!
Flights: I was able to pull points from multiple accounts, booking non-stop Aer Lingus flights for 65,000 Avios and $548 dollars (that was more than I expected but still way better than $2,000+) transferred from Citi to British Airways to Aer Lingus.
Hotels/Airbnb:
- Hyatt point stays at Hyatt Centric The Liberties Dublin in Dublin and Glenlo Abbey Hotel and Estate in Galway.
- 2-bedroom AirBnB (not the super cheap, shady kind ) in Dingle using Capital One’s $200 AirBnB credit
- Two hotel rooms in Kilkenny (one for us and one for our brother and sister-in-law) were booked through Capital One travel with the $300 travel credit.
Since my husband and I have credit cards that cover Global Entry for the next five years, we plan to hold our interviews as we return from Ireland, making travel through security that much easier going forward.
Domestic Travel
Now I am working on taking the family to Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, next summer.
I’ve already booked the flights. I knew American Airlines through British Airways was one of the lowest points options, so I took a gamble and transferred Citi points to Qatar while they were having a 40% bonus before the flight calendar was even open out that far. I know the rule of thumb is not to transfer until you find award space, but I also knew we could be flexible with our dates, so I hoped it would work out.
As the calendar started opening up, I saw that award availability was booking up quickly, so I had to act fast (not usually my method as I tend to overanalyze decisions). I was able to book the 105,000 point flights for only 75,000 thanks to the transfer bonus.
Then I signed my husband up for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card before the five-night sign-up bonus ended and planned to use those and additional Chase points for our hotel stay. I have almost enough Capital One points to cover Disneyland tickets through Undercover Tourist. Depending on our timeline, I will probably sign my husband up for Venture X to cover the rest.
What cards have you used so far?
After getting back from our first trips, I started following more points and miles accounts on Instagram and really dove into learning as much as I could. We have since opened seven cards between the two of us, and I am always thinking about which is next (taking cues from the CardGenie, of course). We have used…
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
- Citi Premier® Card (no longer available)
- The World of Hyatt Credit Card
- Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
- Chase Ink Business Cash® Credit Card
- We also just got the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless but haven’t used the 5 free night certificates yet. I’m going to try for the Southwest Companion pass starting this month as well. We were very fortunate that when we started this adventure, most of these cards had elevated sign-up bonuses!
What advice do you give someone just starting with points and miles?
Just start! There is a lot of information available and so many people to follow that it can feel pretty overwhelming at first, but just start with something small to get the hang of it, and then you can move on to more complicated redemptions.
Also, don’t feel like you have to “keep up” with anyone. While I would love to be flying business or first class at this point, I’m just trying to maximize the number of trips me and my family can go on. That’s totally worth the discomfort of flying economy, in my opinion. Maybe when we are empty nesters, we can start flying fancy.
How has Travel Freely helped you? And what do you like best about the site and app?
Besides just keeping everything organized, I love the CardGenie part of the Travel Freely app to help figure out which card to get next and also the recommendations about what to do when annual fees are due. The 5/24 and annual fee trackers are also very helpful.
