Member Success Story: Kim Saved $2,235 on Her First-Ever Points Trip to Madagascar
“I booked this trip as a 65th birthday present to myself. I knew that in a few more years, I physically wouldn’t be able to handle a trip like this, so I decided not to wait.”
That’s Kim, a Travel Freely member from Clearwater, Florida, and this was her very first time using points and miles. She booked international airfare to Madagascar, funded largely by the welcome bonus on a single starter card, and saved at least $2,235 total on her trip overall. You don’t need years of experience or a complicated strategy to reach a bucket-list destination, and you don’t need to wait until you have enough points to cover an entire trip. The key is to start.
👉 New to points and miles? Read our beginner-friendly guide: How to Get Started with Free Travel
Tell Us About Yourself
I live in Clearwater, Florida, and this trip to Madagascar was my very first time using points and miles. I’d been quietly paying attention to Travel Freely for a while, but it took a while for me to actually pull the trigger on a card.
I booked this trip as a 65th birthday present to myself. I knew that in a few more years, I physically wouldn’t be able to handle a trip like this, so I decided not to wait.
Tell Us About Your Trip
I joined a 16-night tour with a woman-owned business that specializes in small-group African destinations. We traveled across Madagascar by taxi van, 4-wheel drive vehicles, pousse-pousse bikes (which are bicycle-powered rickshaws/pedicabs), a river cruise, and domestic flights, doing lots of hiking, laughing, singing, looking for wildlife, and visiting local villages along the way.
After the tour wrapped up, I added on an additional week to go scuba diving off the island of Nosy Be, my first time in the Indian Ocean.
I went to Madagascar to see the biodiversity, but I fell in love with the people.
What Kind of Points Did You Use for This Trip?
Airfare:
For my roundtrip international flights, I used Chase Ultimate Rewards® points earned from the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. The welcome bonus at the time netted me 60,000 points.
Here’s the part that trips up a lot of beginners, so let us explain: Chase lets you move your points to airline and hotel partners, usually at an even 1:1 rate. Kim used that to reach an airline that flies to Madagascar. If transfer partners are new to you, our Chase Ultimate Rewards® guide and our guide to redeeming points and miles explain exactly how it works.
In Kim’s words: Through United Airlines and the Star Alliance partnership, I could get to Madagascar and back for 99,900 miles total, mostly on Ethiopian Airlines. I transferred my Chase points to my United MileagePlus® account at a 1:1 ratio. My mom also had some United miles she wasn’t going to use, and she gifted them to me (and even offered to pay the small transfer fee). Between her gift and my existing miles, I had enough to book my flights.
I booked in January for a September departure.
Transit hotels, airport transfers, and travel credits:
Next I opened the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. The $395 annual fee was the most I’d ever paid for a card, but I used the card benefits to more than offset the cost on this trip alone:
- Global Entry® application credit: Capital One reimbursed my $120 application fee, giving me Global Entry for 5 years.
- Capital One® Travel credits: I used the annual $300 travel credit to book transit hotels in Toronto and Madagascar, plus a pre-arranged airport transfer in Antananarivo. (It never gets old seeing your name on a piece of paper at baggage claim after a long-haul flight!)
- Lounge access: The Venture X includes free Priority Pass™ and Capital One Lounge access, which made long layovers in Toronto, Addis Ababa (twice), and Antananarivo significantly more comfortable.
- Capital One Café: On my return layover at Washington Dulles, I stopped at the Capital One Café near Terminal Z. This is a beautiful lounge offering cold grab-and-go options, hot food, drinks, and a really fun vibe.
I also plan to use Capital One’s redemption feature to reimburse myself for additional travel expenses from the trip, which helps soften the post-vacation bill.
Cards used: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
How Much Money Did You Save Using Points and Miles for This Trip?
I saved at least $2,235 across flights, transit hotels, transfers, lounge access, and café stops. The biggest chunk was the international airfare, which would have been roughly $1,900 out of pocket if I’d paid cash. Even though I wasn’t able to use points for the actual tour itself, I maxed out every opportunity to reduce the rest of my expenses.
What Were Some of the Highlights of Your Travel Experiences?
The memory that brings the biggest smile is when we had bananas smeared on our palms so the black lemurs would sit on our shoulders and climb down our arms to lick the fruit. Soft fur and soft tongues.
The first night of our river cruise, the crew built a fire and opened the evening with a song of welcome. Nearly all of us were tearing up by the end. It was so heartfelt, and they had incredible harmonies. That kind of moment isn’t something you can plan or book ahead of time. You just have to be there.
What Advice Do You Have for Someone Just Starting with Points and Miles?
Don’t wait to make your dreams come true. This trip was a 65th birthday present to myself, and a few more years from now, I wouldn’t physically be able to handle it.
If you’re just starting out and trying to figure out how to make it all work, don’t worry about perfection. Just start accumulating points, figure out your dreams, and then clarity will happen. Recruit others to help you define your goals if you need to.
One more piece of advice: Research and use every benefit your cards already include. Lounge access, travel credits, the Global Entry application credit, no foreign transaction fees, and the ability to reimburse yourself for travel costs is invaluable. Those benefits add up, but only if you actually use them.
How Has Travel Freely Helped You Achieve Your Free Travel Goals, and What Do You Like Best About the App?
Travel Freely has been such a great encouragement. Zac is so approachable and sincere in his efforts to be helpful. The app helps me keep my card stats organized and reminds me when I can apply for another one.
Final Thoughts
Kim’s story is a reminder that bucket-list travel isn’t reserved for experts or seasoned points collectors. With one starter card, one welcome bonus, and a willingness to actually use her card benefits, she turned a 65th birthday into a 16-night trip across Madagascar and a bonus week in the Indian Ocean with significant savings.
You don’t need years of experience or enough points to cover every dollar. You don’t a perfect plan. You just need to start.
👉 Inspired by Kim’s story? Start tracking your cards with Travel Freely today – it’s free, beginner-friendly, and built to make stories like this possible.
Have a success story you’d like to share with us? We’d love to hear it! Reach out to us at or fill out our form here.
Cards that helped Kim experience her dream trip to Madagascar:
