We are making strides toward financial independence like many families and need to save as much money as possible to get there. Needless to say, taking extravagant trips and traveling the world is not going to get us there quickly with rising grocery prices, gas, and just about everything else.
I can save all the money in the world, but if I don’t get my vacations I won’t be a happy girl. My husband would tell me, “If you like to travel so much, you need to figure out a way to make it free!” Say less…
About eight months ago my sister-in-law, who shares the same travel passion as I do, introduced me to the world of points and miles. It started with watching a few reels here and there, and then the next thing I knew, I was fully submerged in the world of travel hacking.
I listened to podcasts, watched YouTube videos, and followed all of the travel hackers I could find, from Frequent Miler to Travel Mom Squad to The Points Guy, it became my new favorite hobby! Finally, I was ready to sign up for my first card and get started.
I needed to pick a destination to showcase this new hobby to my husband and get him just as excited as I was! Our anniversary was coming up so I decided to plan a little 4 day/3 night getaway to the beach, in Aruba.
My first step was to choose the hotel we wanted to stay in. I started researching and it wasn’t hard to decide I wanted to stay at the Renaissance Wind Creek Aruba Resort by Marriott. This hotel was gorgeous with Renaissance Island and Flamingo Beach, and proximity to all of the places we wanted to visit. So I checked how many Marriott Bonvoy points a night we needed to stay, and found great off-peak rates, (our anniversary is in September) and what card I could use to get there. Chase had a great bonus offering five 50k free night certificates with their co-branded card the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless, and with the room being around 52k points a night, I would have two 50k free night certificates left over. I applied for the card made our normal purchases and paid the card off in full every month until we hit the minimum spend to receive the bonus. I took advantage of a 50% bonus points transfer to make up the difference from the 50k free night certificates. Marriott will allow you to top off your certificates with up to 15k points. So if I have a 50k free night, then I can book a hotel up to 65k points.
We already had the Chase Sapphire Preferred card which gave us 80k points to book our flights. So I looked at Chase’s transfer partner and found flights to Aruba for 23k points with JetBlue (transferred from Chase) and $31.20 in taxes and fees. We booked our flights home with Southwest for about 30k points total (again transferred from Chase) and $162 in taxes and fees. While this is not entirely free, I’ll take less than $200 for two flights to fly to Aruba any day!
Now that our flights and hotel were taken care of, I decided to take advantage of a bank bonus to earn some extra cash. I received $400 from Regions Bank to open a checking account after depositing $1000 from my paycheck, and my husband signed up for the same bonus. We had enough to book a Jeep for a day and explore this breathtaking island. We ate amazing meals, and I kept thinking, “I can’t believe we are taking a vacation like this for so little!” My husband was hooked, and thank goodness, I now have a player 2 in the game!
In conclusion, points and miles have opened up a whole new world for my family and it can for yours too. We can explore the world and do it for a fraction of the cost. Always remember to be responsible with credit, don’t spend more than you can afford, and always pay your balance in full to win the game.