To-Do Checklist after Receiving a New Card

A common question I get asked is how to keep it all straight. A lot of people hate the idea of having to manage multiple credit cards and get stressed about updating billing across multiple accounts on autopay. In this post, I'll share which expenses I update (and why), when we get a new card, in order to achieve the minimum spend quicker to earn that sign up bonus (hint: I don't update everything)

This is REALLY going to vary from household to household, depending what card you opened, what the minimum spend on the card is and how it aligns with your spending habits. My goal of this post is that it:

1. Helps break down the mental load and documents it so that it's not as overwhelming. 
2. Helps you consider your own budget, expenses, and consider how much of your time you actually need to put into updating autopayments in order to hit your next minimum spend.

So far this year I have opened one large (to us) minimum spend card and my P2 just opened the next large (to us) minimum spend card, where I really needed to be conscious about our spend strategy to hit the minimum spend in the time alloted. If you refer back to my last beginner post, I talk about knowing your budget and spending habits. From the list provided there, these are some of our common/reoccurring expenses as well as upcoming one-time costs:

Common Monthly Expenses: Childcare (including after-school care), groceries, internet, gas/electric utility, car insurance, dining out, sports/activities, beer/alcohol, prescriptions, cell phone streaming services (Spotify, Netflix, Disney, etc), Nuuly rental, coffee subscription, gas (for driving), therapy, etc

One-time/Less Frequent Expenses: These are costs you don't necessarily have every month, but are worth considering when looking ahead the next few months prior to opening a credit card, that may help you hit a minimum spend easier or quicker. Some of my households considerations are items like: Summer camp, taxes, car repair, home repair, large item purchase, medical/dental costs, car down payment, HOA, ski passes, travel, concert/sports tickets, birthdays, holidays, etc

To-Do Checklist after Receiving a New Card

When one of us opens a new card, this is the general list of accounts I update payment information on (ie add the new card to the account and set as default form of payment) to ensure we are putting our expenses on the relevant credit card that we are trying to hit the minimum spend on to earn a sign up bonus.

Re-occurring Costs:

• Apple Pay: I rarely carry a wallet anymore and typically use Tap to Pay on my phone
• Google Pay: I used to NEVER store my credit card info; however in the past year I've realized how convenient this is and how much easier it makes using the "right" card, so I've converted)
• Grocery Account: We primarily do online pick-up through Kroger for groceries; so I make sure I add the card as default since groceries are a common spend item that add up!
• Instacart: We use Instacart for Costco delivery; which typically is just once a month, but is another expense that adds up
• Amazon: I REALLY try to limit how much money we "give" to Amazon, but inevitably there are enough purchases in a months' time that this adds up also
• Childcare: Enough said - school or summer; these costs occur year-round and generally are a heavy hit.
• Xcel: Our electrical/gas utility (Typically I do NOT put this on autopay because we usually get a new card every few months so I manually pay. However, our current card we are working on the sign up bonus for is the new Sapphire Reserve Business card, which allows 6 months to hit the minimum spend. In this case, I added the card and set up autopay)
• Auto Insurance: Similar to above, I generally do not put auto insurance on autopay - I simply do manual pay monthly to remember to utilize whatever card we're working on a sign up bonus for. However, with our current card having a high spend but six months to achieve, I enrolled in autopay with that card.
  
• Nuuly (clothing rental subscription): Usually I leave this on autopay with one of my Chase business cards to have reoccurring charges and keep in good standing; however with our current card having a high spend but six months to achieve, I enrolled in autopay with that card.

Upcoming One-Time Costs:

• Epic Ski account: we signed up to renew our ski passes in April, but only paid $49 down at the time because I wanted to put the price of the pass (close to $2K for our family. Ouch! but so worth it.) on a new credit card to work towards a sign up bonus. This charge will hit in August, with whatever card is saved on file. Updating the account billing as soon as I received the new card makes it so I don't have to think about when the charge hits, if it's on the "right" card.  
• HOA: our HOA isn't terribly expensive, but it's paid once a year, so the timing was right to charge it to the new card we're working on the minimum spend for.

There ya have it! Above are some of our families major re-occurring and one-time expenses for the next 6 months. Of course, there's also a lot of beer purchased, Target runs, and dining out/carry-out that happen too. Those costs are all directly charged to whatever card we are working on the sign up bonus for (yep, I no longer use my 5% back Target debit card. In the long run, Target purchases spent towards a credit card's minimum spend to earn a sign up bonus are much more valuable to me than 5% cash back). When one of us gets a new credit card, I literally pull ALL of the other cards out of my husband's wallet to ensure he uses that card we need him to ;)

There are other reoccurring costs we have that I don't update the billing for; generally because the spend is smaller, we don't "need" those costs in order to meet a minimum spend, and I don't want to put in extra effort for a small return.

For example Spotify charges monthly to a Chase Ink Cash card for extra points, as does our internet. Disney+ is charged to my American Express Platinum to take advantage of the $20 monthly streaming credit. Etc. You can find a list of Common Charges and Benefits on my Points Tracker Spreadsheet on the "Card Benefits and Cards" tab, as well as a simple spreadsheet method for tracking monthly benefits (like $10/mo Uber/UberEats credit for Amex Gold Personal card).

I hope you found this post helpful and something you can refer back to, until you find your own groove with each credit card you open!

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

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

New to Points: Where To Begin?!

Hi friends! I'm so glad you're here! While we've been traveling both casually on points for years as well as exclusively on points in more recent years, I understand it's daunting when you want to start collecting points and traveling for free, but don't know where or how to start. There's A LOT of information out there and it can be overwhelming!

I'm taking this post to break down my recommendations on how to start in the points game; whether you want to jump right in and get card after card, or grab one card and dip your toes, here's a general frame work of what I would do and some essential rules/knowledge you need to have.

How and Where to Start with Points/Miles

Now before I even get to step one, I want to remind you of a few things:

The easiest and quickest way to earn a lot of points is by opening a new credit card and spending the minimum spend amount in the allotted time given (commonly 3 months, up to 6 months), in order to obtain the card's sign up bonus. Sign up bonuses ARE the reason to get a new credit card. Earning a sign up bonus will typically, if not always, outweigh the amount of points you'll earn verse using the same credit card daily for all of your expenses.

This WILL lead to you having more credit cards opened and more management on your end; however, you also don't HAVE to keep getting new credit cards if you don't want to. You can simply start with one new card, get the sign up bonus, and utilize those points and be done. How many cards you want to get (and manage) is up to you and your spend. 

I have drafted a separate post about closing credit cards; but I'll stick in here, never close a credit card until you've had it open at least 12 months. Closing a card any sooner than the one year mark will jeopardize your relationship and ability to get future cards with that bank.

1. Identify Your Budget 

Before you open any new credit card, you need to know what the minimum spend to hit the sign up bonus is and you need a plan to hit that minimum spend.

Minimum spend amount will vary depending on which card you're opening and also typically corresponds to the sign up bonus offer (ie: higher spends may yield higher sign up bonus). A minimum spend on a credit card sign up offer can be anywhere from $1,000 to $30,000.

Since we need to make sure you have a plan how to hit the minimum spend, before opening a new card, you need to know how many you spend in given month. If you have no idea, I recommend looking at your current credit card(s) and checking account and coming up with a rough idea of what your basic monthly costs are.

Below I'm providing examples of what reoccurring costs and one-time costs, I rely on and consider before opening a new card (note: these are items we can charge to a credit card if needed/wanted)

Common Monthly Expenses: Childcare (including after-school care), groceries, internet, gas/electric utility, car insurance, dining out, sports/activities, beer/alcohol, prescriptions, cell phone streaming services (Spotify, Netflix, Disney, etc), Nuuly rental, coffee subscription, gas (for driving), therapy, etc

(even excluding some of these smaller items, we easily hit $1,500/mo on these items; but I wanted to list out our reoccurring costs to help you think about your own)

One-time/Less Frequent Expenses: These are costs you don't necessarily have every month, but are worth considering when looking ahead the next few months prior to opening a credit card, that may help you hit a minimum spend easier or quicker. Some of my households considerations are items like: Summer camp, taxes, car repair, home repair, large item purchase, medical/dental costs, car down payment, HOA, ski passes, travel, concert/sports tickets, birthdays, holidays, etc

Based on the lists above, and your own habits/spending, you should identify a rough number of what you spend in a month. Then multiply that by three and that will give you an idea of what kind of minimum spend on a new credit card that you can hit WITHOUT going in debt and simply leveraging your normal routine costs.

From there, then it's ideal if you can preemptively think ahead of upcoming larger purchases you need to make to help to plan if and when you could take advantage of getting a new credit card and hitting the minimum spend to get the sign up bonus.

2. Identify Your 5/24 Count

Ugh, I know, we're back to this rule again! If you've been here a little while, hopefully you've already seen me talk about Chase 5/24 rule. I'll continue to do this because it is *so* critical for long term strategy. 

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, Chase will NOT approve you for new credit cards (personal or business cards) if you've got 5 or more personal* credit cards of any time in the last 24 month period. This can include bank cards (Chase, Amex, Capital One, Wells Fargo, etc), store cards (Old Navy, Lowes, Nordstrom, you name it), etc. This also includes if you have been added as an authorized user to someone else's credit card** 

Ideally, there are no "joint" cards in this game. To maximize your point earn, each adult in your relationship should have credit cards in their own name; if you have others willing to participate. This also helps from a point earning perspective because not only can you earn a sign up bonus by hitting the minimum spend on a new credit card; the person who already has the credit card can refer the second person (referred to as "player", ie "player 2" or "P2") to the card, that way in total you earn points for referring P2 to a card, and P2 earns points for the sign up bonus!

*Generally, business cards do not count in your 5/24 count (Capital One business cards do). However, you must be under 5/24 to be able to get approved for a Chase business card.

**If you are an authorized user (AU) on someone's credit card, or if you have authorized users on your credit card; you can call the issuing financial institution and ask to have the AU removed. This should free up a "spot" on your 5/24 account. 

The 5/24-rule is why it's worth considering if you can add business cards to your wallet. Read up here on business cards for "non-traditional" businesses and how to apply.

3. Understand Thy Partners

To maximize value of the points you earn; you’re going to transfer the points from the bank directly to travel partners (like airlines and hotels).

This typically allows you to use less points than booking in a bank’s travel portal!

Each bank has different travel partners (airlines and hotels) that you can transfer your bank points to, in order to book directly for lower points cost. There are some overlaps in travel partners and some companies that only transfer from one bank. For example - Chase is the only bank that has a direct transfer option for United, Southwest, and Hyatt.

American Express, Chase, and Capital One all transfer to British Airways, Air France/KLM (Flying Blue Program); which is really nice because you can pool your points from all of these banks to the travel partner to book!

While it is nice to collect a variety of bank ecosystem points, at the same time, especially when you're first starting off, it's important to know which travel partners your points can be transferred to. If you want to use points to book a domestic trip, more than likely you should focus on Chase instead of going for Capital One points.

It's not a bad thing to start with just one bank, learn their in's and out's and as you gain comfort and knowledge to then expand to other banks. In the opposite token, if you're able to continually hit minimum spends, it's not a bad thing to open up cards across various banks to earn various points. Just know that different banks have different partners that you can transfer to.

4. Apply!

While, I have my top-3 cards I recommend, I recommend these with a grain of salt because they span across three different banks (see above). I truly think that Chase is the easiest/most beginner friendly of all the banks when it comes to wanting to earn and redeem points (especially for domestic US travel), which is why I recommend the Chase Sapphire Preferred as the very first points card to open.

I am working on a google docs form to offer free credit card consultation to help you figure out what card to open next. Once that's complete, I'll add a link here :) in the meantime, feel free to reach out via email! justcallmehaha @ gmail.com

Keep in mind Step 2 - the 5/24 rule.

FAQ

Now that we've covered the basic steps to earn points and points strategy, let's talk about commonly asked questions. (If I missed a burning question from you - feel free to DM me on IG or email me: justcallmehaha@gmail . com)

How Do You Keep This All Straight?!

I get asked this questions all.the.time. I know that the thought of having multiple credit cards, let alone across multiple banks is overwhelming to a lot of people (you're not alone!). If this is you - I would recommend starting out only focusing on Chase and earning Ultimate Rewards points. You don't have to be an expert across all bank ecosystems - but you do need to choose a starting point and Chase really is the most beginner friendly (especially for US domestic trips).

I promise, once you get in a groove and find a comfort level, opening more cards and expanding across banks becomes a little less daunting.

But, I also am a numbers/Type A person, and it may not surprise you that I LOVE a good spreadsheet. I've built out a spreadsheet that I utilize to track and remind myself about our cards, benefits, trips, etc. It all lives right here in this Google Sheet!  You can save a copy of for yourself and modify as you like. (I'll do a separate post to walk through each worksheet).

Doesn't This Hurt Your Credit?

This is another misconception about the points game/opening multiple credit cards. Would you believe that our credit scores have both actually increased in the past three years that we've gotten more serious and frequent with opening our credit cards?!

In the past three years, I have opened 12 credit cards and "my husband" (aka me, with his permission) has opened 11 new credit cards - we both have credit scores at (or above) 800. Here's why:

• Credit Score is made up of several factors:
• Payment History (35%)
• We pay off our credit cards in full, every month. Just because we are spending on credit cards, doesn't mean that we are spending outside of our means. Because of this, I put all of our credit cards on auto-pay to pay off the statement balance. I do still frequently check our checking account, just to make sure that the funds needed to pay the cards are there.
• Note: when you're paying off your credit card, you need to pay off the statement balance to avoid incurring interest charges. If you pay just the minimum balance then you will incur interest charges.
• Did you know that it's actually better to wait for a monthly balance and pay once a month to improve your score? I used to pay off our credit card as we spent (say you look at your credit card balance daily and pay it off right away, or if you pay weekly, every Friday); then when your monthly statement closes, if your account is paid off, you report a balance of $0 to the credit bureaus. This isn't necessarily helpful to your credit score. By letting your credit card statement close with a balance on it and then paying off the statement balance, you report credit USE to the bureaus and this actually helps your credit score increase because they see that you are utilizing credit AND paying it off!
• Amount Owed (30%)
• This is another large chunk of your credit score and another area where opening multiple cards can actually help increase your score.
• Why? Because this is also referred to as credit utilization. The more credit you have available to you and the less of that credit you use, the lower your credit utilization; which in turn can increase your credit score.
• Let's say you have one household credit card with a $20K credit limit. Each monthly you charge $4K to that one credit card. That means you're utilizing 20% of your credit each month ( [$4k/$20k]*100 = 20%). If you were to open a second credit card and receive a second $20K limit, but maintain your monthly $4K spend on the credit cards, then your credit utilization decreases in half, to 10% (amount owed/credit available, ie ([$4k/$40k]*100 = 10%).
• Having more credit available (again, used responsibly!) can increase your score!

Those two factors above account for 60% of your credit score, and as you can see, you can actually benefit from having multiple credit cards to increase your credit score!

• Length of History (15%)
• With opening multiple cards a year, our credit histories to get impacted - however, to offset this, we both keep open our oldest credit card(s) with 15 year+ history - simply to help average out a longer length of credit history.
• Do NOT close your oldest credit cards. If you have a card with an annual fee that you no longer benefit from, before you close it, call the bank to see if you can downgrade the card to one without an annual fee. Downgrading a credit keeps the original length of credit history
• Credit Mix (10%)
• This simply accounts for the different types of debt you have and your success in managing them (credit cards, student loans, mortgage, car loan, etc)
• New Credit (10%)
• This accounts for hard pulls (inquiries) on your credit history.
• This is one area where opening credit cards can have a slightly ding to your score and cause a temporary decrease in your score when you apply. However, this generally jumps back up and levels your score with time.

Do You Ever Close Cards??

Yep, there is a strategy and thought process that goes into closing cards. I said above that my husband and I opened a combined total of 23 cards in the last three years - but no, we do not have all 23 of those cards still open at this time.

Because closing cards does require thought and strategy, I'm going to save this for it's own independent post; but I want to emphasize here - if you want to close a credit card, make sure you've had the card open for at least 12 months before closing. Closing a card before having it open for a years' time can be a red flag to a bank and jeopardize your relationship with the bank!

Summary

This is a lot of information to take in!! However, it's also a lot of fundamental information you should commit to memory (or at least bookmark this post and to come back to as you need) if you want to start earning and traveling on points, especially in a sustainable manner.

I'm also going to stick the FAQ in their own independent post - that way it's easier to find and add to in the future!

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

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

Tabacon Hot Springs (Costa Rica)

We are back from our Costa Rica trip and, as you may have guessed, it was amazing!!!

We split time in the rainforest area of La Fortuna Arenal (the volcano) and the pacific side beach area of Playa Langosta and Tamarindo. This post will focus on the hotel we stayed at with points!

Tabacon Thermal Resort and Spa

What

Tabacon is an independent 105 boutique hotel, located roughly 10 minutes outside of the town of La Fortuna (Arenal) and approximately 3-hour drive from either major airport (Liberia or San Jose).

The hotel itself is located one on section of the property and has a thermal hot spring resort on a separate section of the property. It's a 3-minute walk between the two areas or you can utilize the hotel shuttle. 

The thermal hot springs are open to the public (for a fee; for our family to get a one day pass would have cost $399!)

Booking with Points

The cost to stay 5 nights Tabacon Resort, which is part of Small Luxury Hotels, bookable with Hilton

• Cash price: ~$2,800 
• Price We Paid: $0 ($0 resort fees when booking Hyatt or Hilton on points; $0 for kids - see below) 

              VS

• Points price: 400K Hilton points (at 80k/nt * 5 nights (although it can run higher)) 
• Points paid: 160k Amex points (transferred to Hilton to book direct)

 How?!

 1. Amex points transfer to Hilton at a 1:2 ratio. So when I transferred 160k  points Amex to Hilton, I automatically had 320k Hilton points to book direct. (Here is a refresher on how to transfer points from a bank to a travel partner. Scroll down)

 2. You’re doing the math and 320k pts isn’t 80k/nt* 5 nights 🤔… you’re right. 

That’s because with Hilton, when you have Silver status or higher, if you book 4 nights, you get the 5th night free! 

I’m a personal platinum holder, which automatically got me Hilton Gold Status. I opened the platinum right before we booked this trip, knowing I would be able to utilize this benefit. For 5th night free, you need to have all of the points and status at time of booking (ie need to have 4 nights on one reservation)

American Express Family Rule: for personal cards there are the green*, gold, and platinum. The Family Rule states that you need to open the cards in lowest to highest order, in order to be eligible for the sign up bonus. For example, if you open an Amex Platinum card, then in the future you can't get a Gold card SUB. (This is NOT applicable to American Express Business cards)

*many people, myself included, skip getting the green card and go right for the gold as the green card sign up bonus is usually 15-25k points and often not "worth" a 5/25 spot. (I already had opened the Gold, before I opened the Platinum).

If you're interested in opening an Amex Gold (or Platinum), you can read more here on the Gold. As always, I share my points knowledge in hopes to inspire others but also appreciate you using my referral links!

Timing: I booked our stay roughly 4.5 months in advance. (Although it's worth noting, the hotel is already sold out for Winter 2025 holiday stays Dec 16-Jan 5. If you want a holiday stay, you need to be ready to book as soon as the dates release. For Hilton this is up to 365 days in advance)

Room Type: We booked two King Orchid Rooms since we were traveling with my parents. Each room could accommodate 3 people (2 adults on the king bed and one child on the "couch", which the staff made up into a bed).

Paying for Kids

I specifically want call out how we stayed at this resort with kids, because at first, it's frustrating and tricky. I know I had questions about booking with kids and there is little information since this resort switched to SLH/Hilton, so I hope this will help others

When you do a points search on Hilton's website for Tabacon, as soon as you add a child to your reservation, most likely, all room availability will go away. I realized when I was searching that even though I could find a room type that accommodated 3-4 people (King Orchid for 3 or Queen Orchid for 4), whenever I put in more than 2 adults for a points booking on Hilton, the room availability completely went away. 

After calling Hilton and Tabacon directly to question why this was, I was told to book the points stay for 2 adults and as long as the room type could accommodate more people, we could pay to add the kid at time of check-in, at the cost of $75/kid/night. This wasn't quite ideal, to pay $150/night to bring our kids, but we decided it was still worth it.

And guess what?! We checked in and checked out; they never charged us for our child!!! I'm not sure if we got lucky or the hotel front desk doesn’t know they’re supposed to charge; but I tripled checked our bill and we didn’t pay anything extra.

Other Tabacon Thoughts

The hotel is fairly small, but we found it lovely (gorgeous grounds) and amazing staff. Twice, we came to our room and found free “extras” like a delicious fruit plate and macaroons. 

Free breakfast for all, with omelet and waffle station; plus hot items, fresh fruit and juice, several, yogurts, toast/pastries, etc.

Cocktails were awesome and so fresh, but $17-23ea. We purchased beer from a liquor store (the room had a small mini fridge) and we able to bring them to the hotel pool without issue.

I would say it’s similar level luxury to Grand Hyatt Kauai, but a much smaller scale (and not as nice of a gym 🤣; but the free yoga classes were lovely!). Better breakfast! 

The hotel guest-only hours for the hot springs resort and the adults-only/hotel guest-only section of the hot springs were a highlight of this property for us. 

We had a rental car and were glad we did. While excursions generally offered transportation; we went to town most days and appreciated having the car for that. Valet parking was free (plus tip). 

Note: June 11-16, 2025 the resort pool with the water slide was closed under construction and is NOT advertised online from anywhere we looked. That was a bit disappointing, but thankfully we hadn’t shown our kids in advance that it existed.

Hotel Pool (for guests only)

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

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

Examples Utilizing Transfer Bonuses

We are going to Singapore and Maldives this fall to celebrate our 15 year wedding anniversary (which I'll recap in detail after the trip). While previously I booked the "major" flights, to/from Asia and U, I still had some "hopper" flights to book, ie the shorter flights between our destinations. Because these flights are shorter, they're also cheaper and were less likely to sell out, which is why I didn't book right away. I took a risk and was hoping to find transfer bonuses to align to those flights I needed. Lucky for me, it worked out!

In my last post (June 2025 Transfer Bonuses), I mentioned briefly that I was able to utilize current transfer bonuses to my benefit. In this post I'm going to share, in detail, which transfer bonuses I used, why, and how. 

Chase - Direct Book Flight Transfer Bonus (Example)

One of the flights I needed to book was a repositioning flight. A repositioning flight is flight to/from your home airport that gets you to another airport that's not your final destination. Using repositioning flights allows you to maximum your flexibility in order to book award flights.

In my case, we are flying back from Asia on a business class flight, but we're not flying directly to Denver, we flight to Toronto. Therefore, I needed to book hopper (aka repositioning flight) from Toronto to Denver. My first choice for hopper flights is Southwest, given that we have the Companion Pass, but because Southwest doesn't fly to Canada, this wasn't an option.

To figure out what my options where, I went to my default search engine for flight routes, which is Flightconnections.com. Using Flight Connections, I was able to easily determine that my only option for a direct flight from YYZ to DEN is through Air Canada or United.

Top left green indicate there are two direct route options

From there, I searched directly on both Air Canada and United's websites to confirm there was a direct flight option for the date and time I needed, as well as look at what the cash and points cost for the flight was.

Once I found a flight I wanted to book, I confirmed which banks transfer to Air Canada (as I already knew that ONLY Chase transfer to United). American Express, Capital One, and Chase all transfer to Air Canada! I figured that between one of the banks and given that I had a couple of months to book this, at least one option for a transfer bonus could pop up. (In my mind, this is why it's great to have flexible points amongst all of the major banks).

Low and behold, Chase was the first bank to offer the transfer bonus! 

To take advantage of the Chase to Aeroplan (Air Canada) transfer bonus I first had to calculate how many points I needed to transfer. I went to Air Canada and searched for the flight I wanted and found that for two people, I needed 15,700 points per person (or 31,400 points total) for our flight:

Flight cost per Person

With the 20% transfer bonus, 31,400 / 1.2 = 26,167 points. Therefore, before of the rule to transfer in thousands, I needed to transfer 27,000 points from Chase to Air Canada.

To do so,  I simply logged into my Chase account, navigated to Sapphire card > Ultimate rewards > Redeem > Travel > Transfer points to partners and located Air Canada (which I already had linked to my Chase account). Then I processed  my 27,000 points transfer request:

Transfer from Chase to Air Canada

Lastly, I logged out and back into Air Canada and was able to book our flights!

American Express - Airline Alliance Transfer Bonus (Example)

I'm sharing this example second, because it involves Air Alliances. I've talked about these before, but an airline alliance is a group of separate airlines who have united together in a group, that allows you to cross book flights from one another, which extends greater benefits without needing to book directly with one airline. 

Airline alliances can be a confusing part of the points game, but they can also be a pivotal tool to utilize to get you the best points value! After you've identified a flight you want to book, checking airline alliance partners may provide you a cheaper booking option or a method to book a particular flight when the bank points you want to use don't transfer directly to that airline.

Or, in my case, when you have a specific flight you want to book and one of the airline alliance partners has a transfer bonus. 

I needed to book us a flight from Maldives to Doha, in order to catch our business class flight back to North America. The only airline that flies direct from MLE to DOH is Qatar, so that part was easy to identify. I knew I would need to book a Qatar flight, so I searched Qatar's website and found the flight I wanted:

Qatar Airlines flight for Two

American Express transfers directly to Qatar Airlines. I could have transferred my points to Qatar Airlines and booked directly. However, in my wait to book these flights, American Express announced a transfer bonus to British Airways. From my research, I knew that British Airways is in the same airline alliance as Qatar (which is the One World Alliance). 

So instead of booking on Qatar, I went to British Airways website and searched with "Book with Avios" option for points flights, inputting my flights requirements. The results indicate that there are no British Airways flights available, but it does show me that same exact Qatar flight, as above, is an option to book.

Locating a flight via an airline alliance partner

Selecting the flight, I then saw that the flight was available for 35,000 points, the same as on booking direct with Qatar (note, British Airways also shows the fees up front. Qatar Airlines also would have charged fees at checkout).

Now that I confirmed the flight I wanted is available to book on British Airways, I went back to American Express to make the transfer. On American Express' website, Rewards and Benefits > Earn and Redeem > Transfer Points. I then located British Airways from the list of partners, double checked my British Airways linked account and calculated my points needed. 35,000 / 1.3 = 26,923 points, which rounds to 27,000 points needed.

American Express points transfer calculated conveniently confirmed transferring 27,000 points would result in the 35,000 British Airways Avios I needed to book my flight above.

Transferring points from American Express to British Airways

After transferring points, I logged back in to British Airways, my points were already there. I was able to proceed and book my Qatar flight with points on British Airways, which allowed me to take advantage of the 30% transfer bonus on British Airways, instead of booking directly with Qatar.

Another *important* thing to keep in mind

Not all bank transfers to travel partners are instant. Some transfers may take a few business days. For example, noted in the above photo, Estimated Transfer Time from American Express to British Airways can take up to 48 hours (however, in my case, the transfer was instant). 

This is important to remember, especially if you're trying to book a flight that shows there are only one or two seats left. There is a risk that you may transfer points and if it doesn't happen instantly, the flight/hotel you want to book may no longer be available and then your points are stuck in that travel partner.

Also, not all flights can be booked through an airline alliance partner. Typically only "Saver" flights can be booked via an alliance partner. For example, to take advantage of the current 20% Chase transfer bonus to Aeroplan and book United flights "20% cheaper" via Aeroplan, you can first search United's website for the flight you want and if it's indicated as a "Saver" flight, then it's more likely to be bookable via Aeroplan/Air Canada.

Note the top flight is a "Saver Award" but the lower is not

In Summary

With the two examples above, I was able to save over 12,000 points across these two transfer bonuses; which is easily enough points for a future flight or hotel night in itself! 

When aligned with trips you need/want to book transfer bonuses are a great way to use even less points!

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

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

June Transfer Bonuses

It's that time of the month again! Not that one, it's time for new transfer bonuses.

Every month the banks typically 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! In order to take advantage of these bonuses, you need to transfer your flexible bank points to the travel partner with the bonus. You can learn how to transfer points here!

Put this on Your To-Do List: Partner Program Enrollments

You need to be enrolled in the travel partners program in order to connect your flight/hotel partner to the bank and to transfer points. Some programs require that you be enrolled for a certain about of time before you're eligible to transfer points in or book reward flights. It's best practice to spend a minute signing up for ALL of the travel partners a bank offers as soon as you can. That way, in the future, you won't miss out on a waiting period to be able to transfer and book.

How to Calculate 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. But most programs require you transfer points in 1,000 point increments, which means you'd transfer 42,000 points to book your 50,000 point travel.

On the flip side of the equation above, if come across a 20% transfer bonus, that means it you were to transfer 10,000 bank points to that travel partner, you would get 10,000 * 1.2, or 12,000 points with the travel partner after your transfer! 

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.

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.

June Transfer Bonuses

(these are subject to change/additional bonuses added)

American Express 

• British Airways: 30% bonus through July 15, 2025
• Aer Lingus: 30% bonus through July 15, 2025
• Iberia Plus: 30% bonus through July 15, 2025

Note, Amex will conveniently show you automatically how many points (in this case Avios) you'll get when you transfer your Membership Reward points, so you don't have to necessarily do the math:

Chase

• Air Canada Aeroplan: 20% bonus through July 17, 2025*

• Virgin Atlantic: 25% bonus through June 15, 2025**

Air Canada/Aeroplan Tip*

What's cool about Air Canada transfer bonus is that they are in Star Alliance, the airline alliance that includes United. So you could potentially book United flights for 20% off with this promo! However to do this, you need to search Air Canada and ensure that your United flight is bookable on Air Canada's website and actually book through Air Canada (after you've transferred your Chase points).

Virgin Atlantic Tip**

Virgin Atlantic also happens to be the lowest points options to book a flight from the US to Europe, at as low as 6k one way points. However, they do have higher fees than the traditional $5.60 of other airlines

Wrapping up... 

Will you be utilizing any of these transfer bonuses? I am using two! I'll create another post to share how.

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

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

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes for Southwest

If you've heard about impending Southwest Airlines changes and have been meaning to book a Southwest flight for sometime between now and 1/26/26 (what the current calendar is open through currently), here's why you may want to consider booking today. I'm not going to hit all of the nuances, but will cover some of the "major" changes, which will go into effect tomorrow, May 28th, 2025.

Southwest Policy Changes

The biggest change that has caused an uproar initially is that you no longer get 2 Free Checked Bags per Customer, however, if you a flight reservation that you've already made that flies after today, you'll still get your free bags. If you have a flight booked for yourself, but have not added a companion yet, you (primary flier) will still get two free checked bags, but if you add your companion after today, they won't. First bag will be charged at $35.

Buuuuut, not all is lost. If you have ANY Southwest credit card, then you and up to eight guests on your same reservation, will each get one free bag for flights booked after today, that utilize the credit card to pay fees/taxes at a minimum.  Honestly - we don't fly Southwest places where we need more than one checked bag per person, so this policy change doesn't have a huge impact to me personally.

Source: Southwest

Before you run out and sign up for a Southwest credit card right now... remember, if you're interested in earning a Southwest Companion Pass (SW CP), which gives you buy one, get one free cash or points flights for the remainder of year you achieve the bonus and the entire following year,  there is a timing strategy to open one or more card (typically 2 cards) in a calendar year; or at least time these cards so that the sign up bonuses hit in the same calendar year to earn a SW CP. Most people try to maximize this by opening Southwest cards at the END of the year. I'll hit on this more in a future post, but hold off on that Southwest card for now (or reach out if you want help strategizing the timing to earn SW CP).

Flexibility with Cheapest Fare is Leaving. Currently SW has 4 fare classes and all of them offer flexibility to cancel or change a flight with no fees. This has been extremely convenient because flight prices (cash or points), can be volatile and change. Southwest allows you to receive a credit if you notice that your flight dropped in price after you booked (see reel here showing how).

Moving forward, Southwest is creating a Basic Fare, which does not allow flexibility to change existing flights. However, you'll still be able to cancel a Basic Fare flight, and rebook if you see the price drop. However, when you cancel, you will not receive a cash refund. Your cash/points will stay within Southwest.

If you want the ability to change a reservation, then you'll need to have a Wanna Get Away Plus, Anytime, or Business Select fare. You can also upgrade from Basic Fare to one of those listed above.

Flight Credits are changing. Any flight credit issued before 5/28/25 will not expire. However, moving forward flight credits WILL expire within one year or less of issuance. The length of a flight credit's validity will depend on the fare type purchased.

If you currently have a flight credit to use, and use it after 5/27/2025 and later need to cancel that reservation, that flight credit will have an expiration date.

Earned Rapid Rewards for Paid (Cash) Flights are decreasing. Honestly, again, this isn't part of my household's strategy - earning RRs by paying for flights, but if you count on this, it's something to be aware.

Here's Southwest's summary card for new fare classes and benefits:

Really for us, since we both hold a SW credit card and primarily fly SW with points bookings; these changes don't yet seem too detrimental, that we will continue to fly Southwest. However, I'm curious to see if the rules for companion pass will be impacted in the future - which would change our strategy. What about you? How do you feel about these changes? 

Let's Talk Business (Cards)

This post has been a long time coming. If you've been playing the points game, you likely already know about the power of business cards; but if you're just starting to dabble in points travel - you're probably thinking business cards don't apply to me, and that's where you may be wrong, and want to read on.

Below are some things to know about obtaining a business credit card and their importance of sustainability in opening credit cards for points travel, but let's start with the most obvious reason why people get business cards, if they don't have a "real business" and that is...

Why to Pursue Business Credit Cards

Strategy!!! 

This goes back to that critical rule: Chase 5/24. Remember how I said that Chase won't approve you for a new credit card of any kind (personal, business, co-branded, Chase exclusive) if you have opened 5 or more credit cards in the past 24 months? 

Well, it just so happens that business credit cards don't count in this 5/24 rule. Why? Because while you will have a credit pull to open a business credit card, once opened, business credit cards generally do not show on your personal credit report. Business credit cards are associated with a business and not an individual person.

Therefore, opening business cards for sign up bonuses and not having it count against your 5/24 is a major strategy to allow you to open more cards and maximize your point earn. Using business cards as part of our household strategy and referring one another to business cards, allowed my partner and I to earn hundreds of thousands of points!

In addition your points earned from your business cards are easily combinable with your points from personal cards (American Express combines these automatically for you).

You don't need a registered business to open a business card

What?! That's right, while registered businesses certainly can open business cards using their Employer Identification Number (EIN), which is a unique nine-digit number that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) assigns to business entities operating in the United States (sort of like a social security number for a business); individuals actually can open a business credit card as a Sole Proprietor, utilizing your social security number instead of an EIN.

Okay, so what does that mean?

It means that if you do anything outside of your W2 job with the intent to make money, then you can qualify that as a business to open a business credit card under sole proprietor. Drive for Uber or Instacart? Business. Babysit or walk dogs? Business. Sell your used items on Marketplace or locally? Business.

Not to be confused with EIN above, but these types of sole proprietor businesses should report income of $400 or more to the IRS, but the business itself isn't taxed separately from its owner.

(I'm going to out on a limb and guess that many of may already be "running" a "business" and not even 

know or report those earnings)

Okay, ready to fill out a business card application? Here's how!

Here are step by step instructions for Chase; but all banks are generally similar.

1. Authorizing Officer: Select "Owner" from the dropdown

2. Fill out your Personal Details.

3. For Identification: fill out the information requested. Ensure that the Tax-ID is selected as Social Security Number and enter your SSN.

4. Fill out your home address.

5. Provide your contact information.

6. Authorize the SS check.

7. Provide your gross annual household income (reminder: this is not only for yourself, but also includes the income of anyone living in the same household).

Here's where things get more "business-y".

8. Legal Business Structure: select "sole proprietorship"

9. Legal business name and name on card: This should be your legal name. That's it, nothing else.

10. Select "No" for DBA.

11. Input "0" for Number of employees

12. Under Business Tax ID, from the dropdown menu, select Social Security Number and input.

13. Select "yes" your business address is the same as your personal address.

14. Provide your personal phone number.

15. Business Financials: input your anticipate annual revenue (how much many you guess you make in a year). Honestly, I know people who have put $500 and gotten approved. There's no verification or uploads required to prove this number.

Similarly, for estimated monthly spend - there is no one tracking your spend on a business card nor is it monitored by the IRS. When we are working to hit the minimum spend on a business card, we put all of our life charges on that card, so my estimated monthly spend is usually a few grand.

16. Business Classification: This is really the last step of the business card application, and maybe the most daunting for some. There is a drop down window to select from. While you may not see your exact business model, select whatever you find is closest.

(For me, I resell a lot of items on various Facebook groups. I select Retail: Books, Music, Sports, Hobbies, Health, Fashion, Gas, Misc, for my category).

17. Once you select a business category, a new box will pop up for Business Type.

(Again, since I sell used items, for my business type, I select Used Merchandise Stores, which leads to a Sub-Type and I select Used Merchandise Retailers).

18. Employee Card: I do not add any employees (ie my husband). I keep that at 0.

And that's it! Then you submit your application and cross your fingers!

A Few Things To Note

Credit Limits: Especially with Chase, Business card credit limits can be infamously low, especially if you're applying with a business that only anticipates to make a few hundred bucks a year. Don't be discouraged by this, especially when trying to hit a minimum spend requirement that is higher than your credit limit. Simply spend, pay off, and spend more to get to that limit (It is NOT recommended to call immediately and request that the bank higher your credit limit).

Business Card Options: Like personal credit cards, there are a variety of business cards with various benefits and differences. In addition, the right business card for the right minimum spend can be a great way to take advantage of upcoming large costs or projects you have (for example, if you're getting a new deck and going to be spending thousands on it, consider getting a business card with a higher minimum spend (and therefore higher sign up bonus), than you could usually afford with you every day spends like groceries, insurance, utilities, and childcare. I did this with American Express Gold Business, when I realized how much we would owe on our federal taxes). I will go in to detail on some of these card options in a separate post.

Accessing Your Business Account: For Chase, you WILL need to create separate business log in credentials from your personal account. However, you can then call Chase and have your personal and business accounts linked. That way, in the future, when you log in, you can view both your personal and business accounts simply by using your business login credentials.

That's all folks!

Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here
Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!