American Express Platinum (Personal)

It's no secret that the Amex Gold Personal card is one of my top 3 recommended cards (reasons why here and all 3 favs listed here). However, it's big sister card, the Platinum (both personal and business) got a big makeover as of September 18th, 2025. (It looks like Amex is taking a similar approach to Chase with it's Sapphire Reserve makeover).

Take a depth breathe, because the already high $695 annual fee for the personal Platinum card, just got higher - jumping to a whopping $895 per year. Let's talk through the card and it's benefits in this post to determine if it's the right card for your wallet.

American Express Platinum (personal)

Annual Fee: $895

Current  Sign up Offer: Spend $12,000 in 6 months, earn up to 170,000 points*

Referral Link

Note the 6-month minimum spend on the personal cards instead of the usual 3-month duration! I know this really helps out low spenders.

*Amex is weird with sign up bonuses. The same link may produce a 75K offer on your phone and 100K offer on your computer. It's always best to check the link in a few different browser and devices (clear your cookies, incognito mode, on your phone), before you apply and accept - to ensure that you're getting the highest offer)

5/24 Status: This IS a personal card, therefore it will take one of your 5/24 spots. (If you're not familiar with what 5/24 Rule is, visit this post New to Points, Rule 2)

Why I Got This Card

1. The high sign up bonus and extended 6-month spend is one of the best across all flexible points banks. It's hard to beat! 

2. Rakuten: aka an online shopping portal where you earn Amex Membership Rewards points instead of cash back. Those points can really add up. In August I received 65,000 MRs from my quarterly Rakuten earnings and used those to book a 70K point one-way business class flight to Europe (with a cash value of $4,700). If you aren't familiar with shopping portals and/or Rakuten, this post will tell me you and also show you how to select points instead of cash back.

3. Honestly, I initially opened this card strategically for the sign up bonus and to get automatic Hilton status so that I could book a Hilton Property on points (transferring from Amex to Hilton at a 1 to 2 ratio) AND with Hilton status, I could pay for 4 nights with points and get the 5th night free for our Costa Rica trip... but now that the new annual fee and benefits rolled out, I think this card may be a keeper (or I'll have P2 get it after he gets the gold!)

So let's jump into the benefits!

Off-Setting the Annual $895 Fee

The signup offer and the benefits of this card can make it easy to offset the $895 annual, depending which of these you use. 

Travel-Related Benefits

$200 Airline Fee Credit: While you can't use this benefit to directly purchases flights; you can this use this benefit to cover incidentals like seat selections and/or baggage fee. However, you can also use this credit with some airlines to purchase airline credit, which you can you can use then towards cash flights.

How I used this Benefit: In my Platinum Benefits page, I selected United as my associated airline. I then went to United TravelBank and used my Platinum card to make 2 ($100) TravelBank           deposits. On my credit card statement, the charges came through and then the statement credit            appeared within a few days.

Note: As of 2/4/206, the Travel Bank hack doesn't seem to be working; but you can still use this benefit to pay for checked bags and select seats!

Value I receive from this Benefit: $200 

American Express Centurion Airport Lounge Access and Priority Pass Select Membership: To be honest, even though Denver has a Centurion, I still haven't used this benefit! I know! But I'm generally travelling with someone else and the guest benefit is essentially non-existent (or not worth the guest fee of $50 when I have other free lounges available.

Estimated Value I receive from this Benefit (to date): $50 I have utilized Priority Pass lounges and this benefits. Although f PP Lounges are better international!

$209 Clear Credit: Use your Platinum card to pay for your Clear membership and receive a statement credit each calendar year.

Estimated Value I receive from this Benefit (to date): $0 I haven't utilized this benefit. I probably         should, but again, the majority of the time I've traveling with others who only have TSA                        Precheck. But - really this is a no brainer that I need to take advantage of!

$600 Hotel Credit: Use AmexTravel to book a Fine Hotel Resort or Hotel Collection booking and receive a $300 statement credit, twice a year (Jan-June and Jul-Dec). Note - the reservation only needs to be made during this time frame and paid up front, charging the Platinum card, for the credit to be issued. You don't have to stay during these time periods.

These hotels are often more expensive, so sometimes the $300 don't go very far, but if you can find a lower cost stay (using websites like MaxmyFHR) it can be well worth it! Note the Fine Hotel Resorts allow a one-night stay, but the Hotel Collection requires a 2-night minimum  booking.

The really nice thing about Fine Hotel Resorts is that you get an elevated stay! These bookings include free Daily Breakfast for 2, $100 Resort Credit (per stay) which can be used for resort experiences like the Spa or Restaurant/Bar/Room Service. You also receive guaranteed 4pm check out, and noon checkout (when available). You may also receive a complimentary upgrade!

Estimated Value I receive from this Benefit (to date): $657 - This benefit updated 9/18/25 and I sadly didn't use the previous $200 available in Jan-June. However, I'm pretty impressed that with one night stay I'm able to find this much value! (Granted the hotel I'm using this at this charges a $60/nt resort fee and $55/nt parking; but it's well worth it!)

Automatic Hotel Status: By holding the personal Platinum card you receive Marriott Silver Status and Hilton Gold Status. Enrollment required. Hilton Gold status allows you to receive 5th night free and free breakfast for two at select hotels.

Estimated Value I receive from this Benefit (to date): $500 - I utilized Hilton 5th night free for Tabacon Resort, which was a cash value savings of $500!

Global Entry or TSA Precheck: Receive up to $120 statement credit every 4 years Global Entry (which includes TSA PreCheck) or $85 credit every 4.5 years for TSA PreCheck; when you pay your application fee with your Platinum Card

Estimated Value I receive from this Benefit (to date): $0 - Myself and my entire family have Global Entry (and PreCheck) from other credit card benefits

Rental Car Status: By holding the personal Platinum card and enrolling in Hertz, Avis, or National loyalty program - you can receive premium status for rental parks and updates.

Estimated Value I receive from this Benefit (to date): $0 - I utilize this benefit already from other credit card benefits

Dining Benefits

$20/mo Uber or Uber Eats Credit:  Assign your platinum as your form of payment for Uber and receive $20/mo credit in the Uber app - which can be used on rides or food!

Estimated Value I receive from this Benefit (to date): $160 - We utilize this benefit almost monthly. We've missed one month to date~

$120 UberOne Credit:  Use your Platinum to purchase an auto-renewing year long UberOne membership and receive a statement credit every calendar year. UberOne gives free delivery for UberEats and also discounts

Estimated Value I receive from this Benefit (to date): $0 - I need to set this up! My P2 has been paying $7.99 a month for UberOne (Grrrr!)

Summary

There's a lot of ground to cover with Amex Platinum, but that's what makes the high annual high justifiable! In fact, my annual fee just hit on this card and I'm keeping it because I find more than enough value for the fee I pay.

If you want to open this card, or any of the cards I post about, I would SO appreciate if you utilized my referral links to open cards. This doesn't cost you anything, but provides me with some extra points and keeps all of my content free! Thank you in advance!

Reminder, if you're viewing this through a Meta app, please open an external browser to apply. This protects your data and gives me credit.

____________________________________________

Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.

Trying to figure out your next card? Here is my FREE personalized Next Card Recommendation form. Simply fill this out and I'll let you know suggestions.

Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!

Finding and Booking Hotels

My last post focused on how to search for flights to use your points and this post, as the title suggests, focuses on hotels; includes which hotels chains you can book on points, some hidden fees, and some advantages.

I know hotels are not a priority for some and I can appreciate that. For years, we were a short-term rental family too. But now that my kids are a little older and we can all go to bed at the same time; hotels also can have their conveniences.

Finding and Booking Hotels

Let's start off by reviewing transfer partners. Not always, but often times, you will be able to use less points/get more value out of your points, by transferring flexible points from the bank to specific travel partners (hotels and airlines). If you don't know how to transfer points, you'll want to take a look at this post.

Each bank has their own set of partners, some which overlap and some that are interdependent to only one bank (which is just another reason to diversify your points across different banks!).

Chase Hotel Partners

• Hyatt
• IHG
• Marriott
• Wyndham

Capital One Hotel Partners

• Accor (2:1 ratio)*
• Choice Privileges
• Preferred (IPrefer) (1:2 ratio)*
• Wyndham

American Express Hotel Partners

• Choice Privileges
• Hilton (1:2 ratio)*
• Marriott

Of all the hotel partners, Hyatt has been a long time sweet spot. This is because historically Hyatt has had a 3-tier standard award chart - meaning the amount of points it costs to stay at a Hyatt are fixed, The amount of points is not tied to the cash price. Hyatt point cost depends on what Category (Luxury) Level the hotel is (Levels 1-8 or A-F for All Inclusives) and what time of year you're traveling: Off Peak, Standard, or Peak. In February 2026, Hyatt announced changes to it's award chart that expand the 3-tier points costs to 5-tier. You can read more about the award chart changes and Hyatt specific tips and tricks here.

A major downfall for Hyatt is that it has a smaller footprint (less hotels) not only in the US, but internationally.

Unlike Hyatt, most of the other award partners use what's called dynamic point pricing; which means that the point price to book a stay will vary, depending on the cash price. Because of this, most other hotels, when booked on points, cost a significant amount of points more during peak travel times (and in general, compared to Hyatt).

However, there are still opportunities to find some great non-Hyatt stays! Let's go through some hotel booking tips and tricks

Hotel Booking Sweet Spots

Transfer Ratio

If you scroll up to the list of hotel transfer partners, you'll see an asterisk (*) on some. This is because these hotels don't transfer at a 1:1 ratio.

Both, American Express to Hilton and Capital One to Preferred Hotels, transfer at a 1 to 2 ratio; meaning you DOUBLE your points when you move them to from either of these banks to the corresponding hotel.

Amex to Hilton, 1:2 transfer

Book # Number of Nights, Get a Free Night

This is another fav sweet spot to be aware. Unlike Hyatt, other hotel chains will offer a free night if you book 3 or 4 nights on one reservation, under certain criteria.

• Hilton 5th Night Free: If you have Hilton Silver Status Silver (earned by staying 10 nights, 4 stays, or spending $2,500 in a year on a Hilton card) , then you can get 5th night free on award stays!

• One of my favorite ways to utilize 5th night free is by holding the American Express Platinum Card. With this card, you will earn a hefty sign up bonus (here's my post on "Good" sign up offers) AND this card also comes with Hilton Gold Status.

• I used these benefits when I booked Tabacon Resort in Costa Rica. Booking on Hilton, the hotel was 80,000 points per night; so 80,000 * 5 nights, would have cost me 400,000 Hilton points. Because I was transferring Amex points and got the 5th night of my stay free (thanks to my Amex Platinum), then I needed 80,000 * 4 nights, 320,000 Hilton points. Because of the 1:2 transfer ratio, I needed only 160,000 Amex points (to book a 5 night stay that would have cost 400,000 Hilton points!)

• I know the high Amex Platinum Fee scares a lot of people, but this one example of utilizing just one Platinum Card benefit, saved me over $500 (compared to having to pay for the 5th night of our stay); not to mention all of the other "easy" benefits this card now has like, $300/yr Lululemon, $300/yr streaming credit (pays for our Disney/HBO!), and $400/yr Resy credit.

• IHG 4th Night Free If you hold the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card, IHG One Rewards Traveler Card, or IHG One Rewards Premier Business Card, then when you book 4 consecutive nights with points at an IHG property, you would pay 0 points for the 4th night. If you want a bit of a longer stay, you could book an 8 night trip and pay 0 points for nights 4 and 8!

• Marriot 5th Night Free All Marriott Bonvoy members automatically will receive the benefit of 5th night free, when using points to book five consecutive nights, under one reservation.

Free Breakfast

That's right, some hotels include free breakfast - which can be a huge cost savings!

• Hyatt Place: most Hyatt Place hotels include free breakfasts and several we're stayed at have more than just cereal and prepackaged muffins! (Note: some Hyatt Places are transitioning to needing Hyatt Discovery Status (10 nights) or higher, to qualify for free breakfast)

• Hyatt (with Status): Similar to Marriott, if you have top tier Hyatt status (Globalist) OR if you have "temporary" Globalist status (which is to say, you've been gifted a Guest of Honor), then you are eligible for free breakfast/food/beverage credit for up to 2 adults and 2 children. My Hyatt post mentions how I obtain Guest of Honor (GOH) awards.

• Hilton: With Gold Status or above (easily achieved by opening a Hilton card or American Express Platinum card), you qualify for Daily Food and Beverage Credit or Continental Breakfast (varies by brand and region)

• Marriott (with Status): With Marriott Platinum, Titanium or Ambassador status, guests will received $100 breakfast credit if continental breakfast isn't available; at select Marriott Brand Hotels (JW Marriott, Marriott Hotels, Delta Hotels, Autograph Collection, and Renaissance Hotels)

Family-Discount

Have a larger family or traveling internationally where room occupancy limits require you to book more than one hotel room? Select Hyatt properties offer family pricing discounts; when you book one room (on points or cash), you can add a second room at half off the standard room rate; but you must pay in cash! To take advantage of this offer, directly contact the hotel you want to book or World of Hyatt and ask for the "Hyatt Family Plan Rate". Not all Hyatt properties offer this discount.

Premium Card Benefits

In the past year, many of the major bank "premium" credit cards now come with hotel booking benefits in the bank's travel portal. Remember how I said we almost "always" want to transfer points from the bank to hotels to book directly? This is the exception.

• Chase Sapphire Reserve/Reserve Business both come with:
• Qty (2) - $250 "Edit" Credits a year: To utilize this credit, search in the Chase Travel Portal for hotels labeled "Edit" for a 2 night stay or longer. You can only use one credit at a time (they do not stack for $500 off). Using this credit not only will give you a $250 statement credit, but also gives you benefits during your stay like guaranteed late check out, possible room upgrades, breakfast for 2 and $100 resort credit (usually available to use at hotel spa, restaurants, and even parking fees). You can combine use of cash and points.
• Qty (1) - $250 Select Hotel Credit: This was added in 2026 and is a credit for select Chase Hotels booked in the portal. This credit DOES stack with the Edit Credit. If you're booking a 2-night stay or more, if your selected hotel is an Edit hotel and one of the brands that call under this category, you'll receive a total of a $500 statement credit!

• American Express Platinum Card

Summary

This post really was intended to cover tips and tricks of booking hotels with points; rather than the mechanics of "how to book" hotels on points. If you need help with the "how to", please feel free to reach out!

If you're overwhelmed, don't worry - that's natural. Earning points can be easy, but redeeming points and understanding how to redeem to spend as little points as possible, and/or maximize your point value is a skill that comes with time and practice!

If you have points you're ready to use to book, but don't have the time or patience to go down the rabbit hole of possibilities that is award flights, I'm happy to do the work for you! Check out my award booking intake form!

If you want to open any of the cards I refer to, I would SO appreciate if you utilized my referral links to open cards. This doesn't cost you anything, but provides me with some extra points and keeps all of my content free! Thank you in advance!

Reminder, if you're viewing this through a Meta app, please open an external browser to apply. This protects your data and gives me credit. If you're interested in business cards, but want more information, as well as directions how to apply for them; read here!

____________________________________________

Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.

Trying to figure out your next card? Here is my FREE personalized Next Card Recommendation form. Simply fill this out and I'll let you know suggestions.

Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!

Finding and Booking Flights with Points

We've talked a lot about how to earn points - basic info and lingo, where to start, best beginner cards, elevated card sign up offers, travel partners (Chase, Amex, and Capital One), how to transfer points from the bank to a partner hotel or airlines as well as my personal rules of thumb for how many points you should expect to spend on a hotel or flight booking. 

However, the time consuming part of using points can often be figuring out how to redeem them. There are many variables (and rabbit holes) to consider, especially compared to using points for hotels. Knowing how to search for award (points) flights, and what a "good" points price is, is a fundamental skill to maximize your points travel.

This post will take a deep dive into how we actually search for flights to book with points and walk you through the process I generally follow. I warn you in advance, this post is looooong, because I want you to know and understand all of the details so that you can repeat the process by yourself. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out via Instagram @justcallmehaha or email: justcallmehaha@gmail.com

Finding and Booking Flights with Points

Before going into detail, the general steps for searching and booking flights with points I follow are:

1. Determine Wants and Needs
2. Look up Routes/Airlines
3. Search for Flights 
4. Verify Award Flights Exist
5. Transfer Points and Book

These may seem obvious, but as with life, there are many different ways to come to the same results. My process varies a little, depending mostly on Item 1.

Step 1. Determine Wants and Needs

The more flexible you are with your wants and needs, the greater the chances of you finding award flights, often at the best price.

To increase flexibility, consider the following:

• Travel dates: do you have to fly in/out on a certain day? Or can you put some wiggle room in your itinerary; adding a day or two to your trip? Or even considering a less popular time of the year to travel?
• Airports: generally it's ideal to fly direct whenever possible; but are you willing to consider flying from your home airport to another airport before a long haul flight to get a better price? (This is called "repositioning"). Are you willing to take a direct flight from your home airport to Europe and then take a quick/cheap flight to your final destination?
• Seat Class: is a business flight your priority? Or getting there as quick and cheap as possible?
• Number of Seats: Award seats can be limited. Are you willing to break up your group and seat some in business and some in economy? Or would you rather fly in pairs on different flights to get better seats or pricing and meet at your destination?
• BOOK ONE WAY flights! I know, this is *not* what you usually hear. There's been recent news how one-way cash flights are more expensive than booking roundtrip; however in the world of points and miles - booking one-way flights increases flexibility and therefore your odds of finding better priced award flights. Points flights generally do not cost more when comparing one way verse round trip. (It often nearly impossible to find great points pricing roundtrip for international flights).

In addition, your Needs will also be dictated by how many points you have and which airlines you can use those points to book with. Take inventory of your points with each bank and each airline.

Keep in mind, all banks have airlines and hotels they partner with, and while there is some overlap (such as Air Canada and Flying Blue), sometimes the only way you can book a specific flight is if you book through an airline alliance. Of course, the easiest way is to have enough points available with a bank to transfer to a given airline to book directly; but often times, you may be able to book flights for less points if you book on an airline's alliance partner. This is why point diversification is SO important! And why my top 3 beginner cards list spans across multiple banks!

For example, Chase is the only bank who transfers to United; but if you don't have enough Chase points to book a United flight; can you find that same flight on other Star Alliance partners, like Air Canada? Then you can transfer Amex or Capital One points to Air Canada to book your United flight.

I'll talk about airline alliances more below.

Step 2. Look up routes/airlines flying

If I know where I want to go, the first place I start to research is Flight Connections. I know lot of other people who use Google flights - which can provide some of the same information: it will tell you what airlines fly where and the cash price for a given date. I prefer Flight Connections and I'll explain here what information I'm looking for and how I find it. I use the free version of this website to learn which routes and which airlines are available to get to my destination.

Flight Connection color codes their routes, so you can easily determine direct flight vs stopover routes. For example, when I simple input "Denver" as my origin, you can see on the left and on the map a variety of places I can fly to.

(if the picture is blurry, you can click on it to load clearly)

Direct Flights: Let's say I wanted to go to Paris, departing from Denver. Once I input Paris as my destination, on the left of the screen, it tells me that Air France is my airline option to fly Denver direct to Paris, from May to Oct.

With this information, I would then move on to Step 3 and search on Air France and Air France's alliance partner airlines websites for a points flight.

In-direct Flights: Let's say I wanted to go to Lisbon, departing from Denver. Once I input Lisbon as my destination, on the left of the screen, it tells me there are no direct flights but gives me a list of cities I can fly through. Even this information is helpful to start your flight searches - you don't want to drive yourself crazy looking for a direct flight when it doesn't exist!

If you select one of the Stopover cities, Flight Connections will then show you airline options to get from your origin to your stopover city and then your stopover city to your destination. In this example, I could fly Denver direct to Munich on United or Lufthansa and then I could fly TAP or Lufthansa to get from Munich to Lisbon.

An alternative to Flight Connections is looking up routes directly on an airport website or looking up an airport code on Wikipedia. 

Step 3. Search for flights 

Depending on what kind of information Flight Connections gives me and what my flexibility is, I will either start my searches directly on the airline I want to fly on and then branch out to the airline's partnership in their alliance that my points transfer to OR I will use a third-party search aggregator.

Searching Airline Websites/Apps

For the Direct Flight example above (Denver to Paris), I would search directly on Air France's website for a points flight.

For the Indirect Flight example above, I have a few options. I know that Lufthansa does not have a direct bank transfer partner. So I can't move my Chase, Amex, or Capital One points direct to Lufthansa to book. BUT, I do know that Lufthansa is in Star Alliance, along with United and Air Canada! So I could go to either United or Air Canada's website and search for award bookings for DEN > LIS and/or DEN > MUC, MUC > LIS to see what my options are

Airline Alliances

Now, as I mentioned above, there are also Airline Alliances, which are groupings of airlines that have partnered together to allow you to book one airline's flight through another airline. Why would you want to do this? Because different airlines charge different points prices and have charge differently for taxes and fees! Or maybe you have points in one bank that you want to use but you want to fly an airline who's not a direct transfer point. Lastly, maybe there's a transfer bonus in the alliance of a flight you need to book that you could take advantage

This is an entirely separate post on its own; but it is important to understand and remember when booking flights. Keep in mind - yes, this is overwhelming and a rabbit holes! It's an intermediate skill to understand how to utilize

Keep in mind different banks have different transfer partners and this is a huge reason to use Airline Alliances.

Third-Party Search Aggregators

A third-party aggregator is search tool that scans through multiple airline (or hotel) loyalty programs to report out flight availability bookable with points of miles. 

Popular flight aggregator websites include: Points.Yeah, Point.me, Roame.travel,and Seats.Aero

These sites have free versions with limitations and offer a paid subscription that allows you to filter to meet your needs and set up flight award alerts. I have used Points.Yeah for free award flight alerts. Points.me has a free version if you're an American Express card holder, Amex.Point.me - however it's results are limited to flights that you can book using only Amex points.

I personally prefer Seats. Aero and am willing to pay the $9.99/mo fee for the Pro version when I'm in search of flights. It's also easy to unsubscribe so that when I'm not in need to book point flights, I'm not paying for a service I'm not using.

Here's an example of a Seats.Aero search. From our earlier example this is Denver to Lisbon: 

You'll see the "Program" whom you would book with is American and Alaskan, Now Citi Banks transfer to American, but let's say you've just started in points and you're following my Beginner Card List. So far you only have Chase and Capital One points. We can filter "Transfer Partners" for only those banks. That way, the results you receive are actually bookable with the points you have.

In this case, we get Qantas and Turkish Air as our top results:

You may have never even heard of Qantas (an Australian based airline) and maybe you're thinking, why would I fly a Turkish airline to go from Denver to Lisbon?!

Well, for Qantas, you're not actually going to fly on Qantas. You're going to utilize the Oneworld Alliance, of which Qantas and American Airlines are members of you. You're going to click the "i" information button at the far right in the photo above, and receive the pop-up that you are actually booking an American Airlines flight, but booking through Qantas (who is a transfer partner with Amex, Capital One and Citi Bank. In our example, we have Chase and Capital One points, so we'd look to transfer Capital One points... but first, go to Step 4. Verification)

Note the "Book via" information below:

Pro's for Using Aggregators: Time saver! Instead of search individual airline websites one by one, you can have the website do the work for you. You can filter down results to meet your needs; such as the points systems you have, maximum duration of your flight travel, etc. These websites do the legwork for you, of searching through airlines and airline alliances, to identify the cheapest airline to book a flight with.

Con's for Aggregators: They are not always accurate! The data on their websites may not have refreshed and flights availability may not exist.... which takes us to the next step of Award Flight Searches

Step 4. Verify award flights exist

Before you move ANY points, you should do a "mock" booking to verify that what you want to book exists and that you know the exact points and cash price.

Go to the airline website that you want to book on, do a search for your exact dates, number of people, departure and origin cities, as well as seat class. 

This not only ensures that the flight is still bookable ("phantom flights" are known to appear in aggregator results, where a flight is shown but the availability to book does not actually exist); but this also ensures that you know exactly how many points you need to transfer from the bank to the airline to book.

From the example above with Seats.Aero flight from Denver to Lisbon; you would log into your Qantas account and verify that the flight search results Seats.Aero provided is actually a real bookable flight.

Reminder, here's what Seats Aero told us exists: 

And here's what Qantas search results yield; in this case Seats Aero was correct and we have verified the award flight exists. You can move on to Step 5!

Qantas Search Results

Step 5. Transfer Points to Airline and Book Immediately!

As soon you find a flight you want to book; make the move and transfer those points!

In the example above, you'd move your bank points to Qantas and book your American Airlines flight!

Keep in mind, that points generally can only be transferred in the thousands and that once you transfer points, it's irreversible. IE - if you transfer bank points to a hotel or airline, the points are then "stuck" in the airline or hotel's program and CANNOT be moved back to the bank.

While most point transfers are instant, some can take up to a few days. Be aware of this when finding award flights you want to book. You can always google "how long to a points transfer from X-Bank to X-airline take". Some airlines will hold your flight while you wait for points to transfer and others will not. It doesn't hurt to call and ask!

When transferring points from the Bank to an airline or hotel partner, the name on the bank credit card must identically match the name on the airline or hotel account (and should also match the name on one's passport!). Because of this, you can't take your Amex points and transfer them to your Player's 2 Air Canada account. 

Good to Know Tips

Here are a few more notes to consider when searching and using points to book flights.

Points Pricing Rules of Thumb: While you certainly will find flights priced higher than this, you can also find flights priced low than this amount of points also. Typically lower points costs can mean higher taxes and fees.

• Domestic flight, economy one way: 12,500 - 25,000 points

• International flight to Europe, economy, one way: 35,000-48,000 points* + taxes/fees**

• International flight to Europe, business class, one way: 65,000-80,000 points* + taxes/fees**

• International flight to Mexico, round-trip: 40,000-50,000 points + taxes/fees

*Note: being Denver-based, I use United as my basis of thought; however, you can often find much lower options if you're willing to do a positioning flight to fly out of another large hub airport. A positioning flight is a flight you take to for the sole purpose of getting to another airport to start your primary trip

**International Taxes/Fees vary depending on the airport. For Europe, London Heathrow (LHR), is known to have the highest taxes/fees; often 2-3X's the cost of EU airports

Virgin Air and Flying Blue (Air France/KLM), often are cost less points for flights, but can have higher taxes and fees.

You CAN book a flight for someone else. If someone in your household has points or miles, they can book a flight for you, even if they aren't on the reservation. So in the above Transfer Points section, I say you can't take your Amex points and transfer them to your Player 2's loyalty account... but you can book a flight with your points for someone else if you need to.

Summary
As promised, this is ALOT of information, that hopefully is all valuable and will help you learn how to turn your points into nearly free travel!

If you're overwhelmed, don't worry - that's natural. Earning points can be easy, but redeeming points and understanding how to redeem to spend as little points as possible, and/or maximize your point value is a skill that comes with time and practice!

If you have points you're ready to use to book, but don't have the time or patience to go down the rabbit hole of possibilities that is award flights, I'm happy to do the work for you! Check out my award booking intake form!

____________________________________________

Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.

Trying to figure out your next card? Here is my FREE personalized Next Card Recommendation form. Simply fill this out and I'll let you know suggestions.

Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!

Comparing Shopping Portals

I've shared before that in addition to earning credit card sign up bonuses, two other conscious methods I use to earn more points are:

1. Maximizing category spend (this post talks about my favorite everyday cards and maximizing category spend; which using the "right" card to earn more points on purchases like groceries, dining out, and all other purchases) 

2. Utilizing online shopping portals, like Rakuten

Now, generally speaking, the points earned from these methods are nowhere close to a sign up bonus; but at the same time - any and all extra points add up!

What's a Shopping Portal? 

As a refresher, an online shopping portal is a website or platform that acts as a gateway to online retailers, offering bonus rewards like cash back, airline miles or points, for purchases made through the shopping portal. 

How to Use Shopping Portals
Instead of going directly to a retailer's website, you visit the shopping portal first, search and click on a link to your retailer of choice, and then make your purchase from the retailers website. The portal tracks your purchase (but not your personal information like shipping address and/or credit card number), then credits your account with the bonus rewards offered.

There are dozens of options for shopping portals; from banks like Chase and Capital One, airlines like Southwest and American, and third party like Rakuten. In order to "remember" to use shopping portals, I've downloaded browser extensions, so that when I visit almost any shopping website, I get multiple pop-ups offering to activate a shopping portal.

For example, when I visit Gap, this is what happens; four pop-ups appear, all from different shopping portals, based on the web browser extensions I have downloaded for these specific shopping portals.

Payment Method

Keep in mind, when using a portal, you don't have to use a specific credit card to earn the points or cash back. Utilizing the shopping portal is earning ADDITIONAL points and/or cash back, in addition to any benefits earned from the specific card you're using to make a purchase.

For example, I can shop through Chase portal, but pay with an American Express card. I would then earn portal points from Chase AND purchase points on my American Express.

Comparing Shopping Portals

Now, generally speaking you can only use ONE shopping portal benefit for any given purchase. Naturally, you likely will want to use which ever portal is offering the highest value (unless you are trying to build points up for a specific bank or airline). Usually my goal is to get the most Chase points I can. While Chase has a "shop through Chase" portal (that I've been using for over 10 years!!), it still does not have a web browser extension, which means there's no pop-up for Chase. You simply have to remember.

This is where one of my favorite tools comes in: Cashback Monitor. This is a free website, that you can search any store and it automatically reviews all of the points and/or cash back shopping portals for the specific store. It does all of the comparison for you, so that you simply look at the options and pick which you want to use.

From our example above, searching Cashback Monitor for Gap, yields the results of:

Generally I prioritize Chase points, Bilt points, or American Express. You can earn Bilt points or American Express depending on how you set up your Rakuten account. In this case, both Chase and Rakuten are offering 2 points per dollar spent. I would then go to either Chase Shopping Portal or Rakuten to make my Gap purchase and earn 2 points per dollar.

Sometimes, there is a clear "winner", ie one shopping portal that offers a higher point yield than others; which makes it more obvious who to shop through for a given purchase. For example, lets say I was using Instacart to buy groceries (which we do for Costco purchases). Southwest is offering 1 point per dollar spent, Chase Freedom offers 2 points per dollar; but Rakuten offers 3 points per dollar, so I'm going to shop through Rakuten to make my purchase.

Keep in Mind

Shopping portal rates are fluid! They can change. What you see today may not be the same as a rate tomorrow. Sometimes there are promotions if you spend X-amount in a given time period, you can earn bonus points (I see this frequently with United and Southwest).

Or, Rakuten is known to have higher cash back/points earn for certain weeks or holidays. For example, over Presidents Day weekend, several websites that are usually 1-2 points per dollar where as high as 10-15 points!

Summary

Shopping portals add another step to online shopping; but at the same time, offer a convenient way to earn more points (or cashback) without spending more!

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Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.

Trying to figure out your next card? Here is my FREE personalized Next Card Recommendation form. Simply fill this out and I'll let you know suggestions.

Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!

Transfer Bonus Calculator (+Current Bonuses)

What is a Transfer Bonus?
Essentially - it's free points or miles!

Transfer bonuses are a limited time promotion where bank/partner programs will offer extra points to transfer your flexible bank points to a specific hotel or loyalty program. Banks frequently (sometimes monthly, sometimes sporadically) announce transfer bonuses, which means if you transfer points from the bank to the partner with the bonus, you’ll get more points for free with that partner, just for transferring! 

In order to take advantage of these bonuses, you need to transfer your flexible bank points to the travel partner with the bonus. Not familiar with how to transfer points or which hotels/airlines partner with which banks? You can learn how to transfer points here, Chase Transfer Partners here, American Express transfer partners here and Capital One's here. 

Keep in mind... once you transfer points, you cannot transfer them back to your bank. They are then "stuck" in whichever airline/hotel partner you transferred to. Transfers from banks to airline or hotel partners are irreversible.

It is NOT recommended to transfer points from a bank to a travel partner, just because there's a bonus. It's generally best to keep your points flexible until you're ready to book travel, at which point you then transfer out of the bank.

Current Transfer Bonuses

(As of 3/5/2026; these are subject to change/additional bonuses added)

American Express 

• No Transfer Bonuses at this time

Capital One

• Preferred Hotels: this hotel group joined Capital One as a transfer partner back in Sept 2025 and currently has 30% bonus through 9:59PM ET, March 31, 2026. The standard transfer is 1:2 ratio; with this bonus it jumps up to 1 Capital One mile transfer to I prefer equals 2.6 I prefer points

Chase

• Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia: 20% bonus through 11:59PM ET, March 31st, 20226

• Don't want or need to fly any of these airlines? Keep in mind Airline Alliances. With this transfer bonus, you may be able to book flights on other airlines in the same OneWorld Alliance as Alaska, American, or Qatar Airways.

• Plus all of these airlines use Avios and you can combine Avios amongst other Avios airlines, including Vueling and Finnair. Learn more here how I’ve used this transfer bonus AND Avios transferring to save on a flight. 

• Wyndham Hotels: Chase's newest Transfer Partner now has a 30% Transfer Bonus

How Many Points to Transfer

To figure out how many points you NEED to transfer, you take the amount of points needs to book your flight/hotel and divide that number by the transfer bonus (in numerical form, the percent plus 1). So say you want to book a 50,000 point flight and there's a 20% transfer bonus. You would calculate 50,000 / (1.2) to figure out how many points you need to actually transfer. In this case, it calculates out to 41,667 points.

Most programs require you transfer points in 1,000 point increments, which means for our example, with a 20% transfer bonus, you'd transfer 42,000 points to book your 50,000 point travel.

Transfer Bonus Calculator

Instead of having to figure out the math; I've created a calculator that does the work for you!

JustcallmeHaHa's Transfer Bonus Calculator

Number of Points Required Transfer Bonus (%) Transfer Ratio 1:1 1:2 1:.75 1:.5 1:.6 1:1.6 1:.8

Number of Points Required: this is how many points you need to book your travel; the points price shown on the airline or hotel’s website where you will book

Transfer Ratio: most commonly this is 1:1. Meaning if you transfer 1,000 bank points to a travel partner, you'll get 1,000 points in the airline or hotel loyalty program.

However, some banks and travel partners don't have a 1:1 ratio. You can find the specific bank to transfer partner ratio when you are in the bank's Transfer to Partners/Transfer Rewards page. For example, for Capital One to Accor hotels, it shows 1,000 Capital One miles is equal to 500 Accor points. So for the Transfer Ration menu in the calculator you would select the "1:.5" option to align.

Summary

Have you taken advantage of transfer bonuses before? While I don't wait for a transfer bonus (when I have something I want to book, I book it!), but it sure is nice when a transfer bonus aligns with something that I need to book.

Save this page to use this calculator whenever you have a transfer bonus you want to utilize. I hope it helps you save some brain cells and some points!

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Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.

Trying to figure out your next card? Here is my FREE personalized Next Card Recommendation form. Simply fill this out and I'll let you know suggestions.

Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!