My Travel Hacking Log
A peek into my 2024 Redemptions & Savings
Okay friends, I don’t know about you, but I am definitely always curious about what fellow travel hackers are spending in annual fees, how many points they use in a year, where they’re going and how much they save. So here’s a peek into my second year of trying this out!
And don’t forget, points have value when they bring value to YOUR life & help YOU save money! There is no “right” way to use points. Just because some influencer is flying business class to some swanky resort in Bora Bora, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be thrilled about using a bank’s travel portal to book free hotels for your yearly family road trip. Use points according to what you value!
Okay, now to the fun stuff first…
Travels
Costa Rica
We returned to Santa Teresa with pals, a place we’ve been many times before and just can’t stop coming back to! We stayed at a surf hostel we loved and took an Uber/shuttle to and fro. We used a Southwest companion pass and miles for flights.
Value: $1,020 (flights)
Points Used: 25,000 (flights)
Kauai
We took our kiddos to Kauai with another family for 8 days and it was as magical as you might expect! We used one companion pass & 136,000 points for Southwest flights (some SW miles and some transferred from Chase to SW). I transferred 90,000 Capital One points to Wyndham to book 3 nights at a 3bd Vacasa rental on the North side, and then 105,000 Chase points transferred to Hyatt for 4 nights at the Grand Hyatt down south.
Value: $10,150 (flights & lodging)
Points Used: 331,000 (flights & lodging)
Kauai
Okay don’t judge…or judge, but Thomas and I went back in October to celebrate our friend’s birthday by spending a week playing pickleball in paradise with some treasures of humans (basically my wildest dreams coming true). We of course used our SW companion pass, 42,000 Southwest points, and 15,000 Capital One points booking a car rental through their portal. Our friends generously let us stay at their vacation home for free which was a huge gift.
Value: $1,680 (flights & rental car)
Points Used: 57,000 (flights & rental car)
Nicaragua
Thomas went with a group of dudes to Nicaragua in November and stayed at an all-inclusive surfing resort called Nica Waves where their guides take you to specific breaks that fit your skill level. The surf and crew sounded epic, though there was lots of rain and a broken neck (yikes). We just used points for flights for this trip.
Value: $616 (flights)
Points Used: 43,060 (flights)
We used a free night certificate and some points for random other one-off stays which are reflected in totals below…
TOTAL VALUE: $13,918
TOTAL POINTS USED: 458,000
TOTAL TAXES & FEES (for award flights): $317
**This means that each point was worth 3 cents, primarily through supersized redemptions via transferring points. So, when you think about the sign-up bonus on one card being 90,000 points, that means you could book $2,700 worth of travel through signing up for ONE card!
Cards Opened
Me:
Marriott Bonvoy Boundless- 5 free night certificates SUB (worth 250,000 Marriott points)
Chase Ink Business Preferred (40,000 referral)- 120,000 SUB
AMEX Blue Business- 15,000 SUB (this was so I have a means to earn AMEX pts instead of cash back with my Rakuten earnings)
Chase SW Priority- 85,000 SUB
Chase Ink Business Unlimited (20,000 referral)- 90,000 SUB
Thomas:
Capital One Business Venture X- 150,000 SUB
Chase Ink Business Preferred (40,000 referral)- 120,000 SUB
Citi Strata- 75,000 SUB
Chase SW Performance Business (25,000 referral)- 80,000 SUB
Chase SW Priority (25,000 referral)- 40,000 SUB
Total points earned with signup bonuses(SUB)/referrals= 1,175,000 + two Southwest Companion Passes
We were each opening one card every ~2-3 months until the fall/winter when I went a little crazy because of higher spending with Christmas, year-end giving, and booking our Europe trip. As well, Thomas’ companion pass was expiring so we did the 3 card/2 person strategy to get both of us companion passes that are active through the end of 2026! Generally though, I’d recommend opening one card every 3 months if you’re trying to be more aggressive in your point earning.
In the spirit of transparency, we were working on a house flip and did have extra spending that we were able to use towards meeting sign-up bonus spending requirements. That said, we could have signed up for at least 1/2 of those cards with our normal spending threshold. Again, I was very strategic with putting insurance premiums on cards, paying our taxes on a credit card, and the list goes on. You can also see how essential referring cards back and forth was in our point earning!
As a reminder, folks can get approved for business cards with as little as a Facebook Marketplace “business,” a house sitting for your neighbors “business,” or a $200/yr making and selling cloth diapers “business.”
Perks versus Annual Fees
Okay Hoover, you might be saving lots of money but how much are you spending in annual fees for all those cards!? And do the benefits outweigh the cost?
Total Cards: 17
Cancelled cards: 3
Annual fees: $1,667 (this went up a bunch this year because of two Venture X cards & three SW cards for the companion pass)
Annual travel credits: $600 (travel portal bookings)
Anniversary point bonuses: 10,000 received this year (worth $100 & next year it will be 44,000 pts worth >$440 if we keep cards we currently have)
Southwest Companion Pass: one person gets to fly for free with Thomas every time he purchases or redeems points for a flight (unlimited BOGO flights) & I just also got a companion pass (so two of our kids will always fly free with us)
Lounge access: Priority Pass Lounges, Capital One Lounges & Plaza Premium Lounges (LOVE the DEN Cap One lounge & loved our Priority Pass lounge in Lisbon recently)
Other perks: Instacart & Doordash memberships, $200 towards TSA PreCheck or Global entry, cell phone insurance, travel insurance, rental car coverage, lost luggage reimbursement, trip delay and cancellation/interruption insurance, extended warranty coverage
When you consider the travel credits and anniversary points, that brings our yearly fees under $1,000. Then, with ~$1.175M points earned and an average 3 cent/point value, that $970 in fees is giving us ~$35,250 worth of FREE travel (*assuming my 2024 avg. point value). Plus, we’re getting BOGO Southwest flights, free food/drinks/plane snacks at airport lounges around the world for our whole family, and incredible travel coverages/insurance. Pretty freaking awesome!
To be clear, we would never spend tens of thousands on travel in a year so the value conversation isn’t always super helpful. But travel hacking has allowed us to book trips we would have otherwise NEVER dreamed of doing which is so fun!
Credit Score
My biggest concern going into all this was my credit score tanking. Unless you’re doing this very irresponsibly, your credit score should actually increase. My score is the highest it’s ever been ~810 and Thomas is always in the 800’s. This is because the credit utilization ratio is such a large percentage of your score and that improves drastically as you increase your amount of credit available (while still spending the same).
Where to Next?
We just got back from Spain and Portugal for three weeks with the fam (trip report forthcoming) and all I have on the books is going back to Alila Ventana Big Sur for our anniversary in April. We hope to do a few weeks in Central America next January, and we’ll be doing a bit of camping and rafting of course. But who knows where else the wind will take us! Having a stockpile of points and miles makes it so easy to say yes to adventures we get invited on, as well take bucket list trips with our family and friends for a fraction of the price. It’s so freaking fun.
To traveling the world with our families,
Hoover
Note on applying for cards:
If your partner has the card you want already and can generate a referral link, apply through their link so they/you get those referral points! Otherwise, use a friend or family member’s link or your favorite travel influencer’s link to help support their content!
My starter card application links:
Chase Sapphire (60k points with $4,000 spend in 3 months, $95 annual fee)
Chase Business Ink Cash or Unlimited (75k points with $6,000 spend in 3 months, $0 annual fee)
Capital One Venture (75k points with $4,000 spend in 3 months, $95 annual fee)
Capital One Venture X (75k points with $4,000 spend in 3 months, $395 annual fee) **not a starter card per say because of the annual fee but my favorite card for high end perks and the fee pays for itself with $300 annual travel credit & 10,000 anniversary point bonus)