My Everyday Cards

In points and miles, the "easier" way to make point earning sustainable is the ongoing opening of new credit cards to earn sign up bonuses. This strategy really is how you continue to earn enough points (without significant spending) to book travel and to keep replenishing your points inventory.

BUT....for some people, it's too much. It's too much to manage and too much to think about. When you're wondering:

What Card do You Use Everyday?

This post will cover cards which cards we use for every day costs based on type of spend. Keep in mind, 90% of the time, my household is working on a minimum spend on a new card to earn a sign up bonus, but there are times we aren't working on a new card spend. 

Everyday Spend Categories

Which Cards I use and Why

1. Groceries
Likely like many of you, groceries are a frequent purchase and a large portion of our budget. My first choice card for groceries is Chase Sapphire Preferred (learn more here), which earns 3x's times points per dollar spent for online groceries. 

This is great if you do online grocery orders for pick up (or Instacart), but if you shop in store, you won't automatically get 3x's points. This also excludes Target, Walmart and Wholesale Clubs.

One work around for in store shopping, is that if you shop at Kroger owned stores (in Colorado, that's King Soopers or City Market), you can add your CSP as your form of payment to in your Kroger Wallet. Then when you check out in store, open your King Soopers app, go to My Account > Wallet > and click "Kroger Pay" at the bottom. A screen will appear for you to select "Use at the register" and a QR code will appear for you to scan and pay. This method earns 3x's points on your grocery spend, even though you're shopping in person!

Grocery Runner Up Card: American Express Gold Personal (learn more here)

Now, Amex Gold Personal actually earns 4x's points on groceries (that's 1 point more than Sapphire Preferred); however, because I find Chase points harder to earn, I generally use my CSP for groceries when I can get the 3x's points.

But, there are some stores where the pay via app wallet hack doesn't work, and/or there are times when we have plenty of Chase points so I'll use the Amex Gold instead to work on building up our Amex point start.

Costco Tip: Costco doesn't accept Amex directly.... but you can order Costco through Instacart (even without a Costco membership! Although if you do have a Costco membership, enter it in Instacart for better pricing) and you can use an Amex card for Instacart!

I don't do this on the regular, but when I'm working on an Amex minimum spend to hit a signup bonus, I feel its worth both the spend and the 4x's points. Don't forget, Instacart is also on Rakuten, so you can earn even more points (or cash back!). Several credit cards offer Instacart membership, which gets your free delivery and reduced fees. Some cards (like Chase Ink Cash or Unlimited), even come with $20mo Instacart credit!

2. Dining 
This is another common expense in our household. When dining out or ordering directly from a restaurant, similar to above, my first preference is to use Chase Sapphire Preferred (learn more here), which earns 3x's times per dollar spent on dining and maximizes our Chase point earn. 

Dining Runner Up Card: American Express Gold Personal (learn more here)

Amex Gold Personal actually earns 4x's points on dining (that's 1 point more than Sapphire Preferred per dollar spent); however, because I find Chase points harder to earn, I generally use my CSP for for dining when I can get the 3x's points.

The Caveat: 3rd Party Delivery Services

This would be orders from Uber Eats, Door Dash etc. These services also earn 3x's points for CSP or 4x's points for Amex Gold. We have several credit cards that offer monthly credits as a benefit as well as "membership" for free delivery and lower fees. This includes:

• Amex Gold Personal: $10/mo Uber credit
• Amex Platinum Personal: $15/mo Uber credit + UberOne membership (free delivery/lower fees)
• These 2 Amex Card benefits stack, so we get $25/mo Uber credits and free delivery. I pay the remaining UberEats amount owed with Amex Gold to earn 4X's points
• Chase Sapphire (Preferred, Reserve, and Reserve for Business) all come with annual DashPass, which is free delivery/reduced fees for DoorDash. The Reserve cards come with $5 restaurant monthly credit. Even though this is minimal, I generally pair this with a door dash giftcard to order once or twice a month and use this benefit. Note, the Reserve for Business does NOT earn extra points on restaurants/dining.

3. Travel
It isn't as common for us to be spending cash on travel since we primarily book flights and hotels on points; but for the times we do elect to pay cash, I want to maximize our point earn.

Generally, my go-to card for this is the Ink Business Preferred (which currently has an elevated offer! details here). The Ink Preferred earns 3x's points on travel and does not have foreign transaction fees. IMO, this is a GREAT low-fee card to keep in your wallet, especially for international travel!

*An example of using these benefits: I opened this card for my P2 before we went to the Maldives; because we knew we would have a hefty bill for food and drinks at the hotel. Not only did we use the bill towards the minimum spend to earn a sign up bonus; but we also earn 3x's points on our bill because hotels code as travel!

Tip: When staying at hotels, I always try to charge any purchases at the hotel (coffee shop, bar, restaurant, poolside, etc) to our room. That way, when we check out of the hotel, all of our charges as charged by the hotel and we earn the points multiplier (3x with Ink Preferred or 4x points with Sapphire Reserve Business)

Travel Runner Up Card: Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business (learn more here)

This card earns 4x's points for direct purchase/booking on hotels and flights. This is a little bit better than Ink Preferred, but is also limited to hotels and flights; whereas Ink Preferred "Travel" costs can include airlines, hotels, rental cars, trains, third party travel services (like tours booked through Viator), etc.

4. Everything Else

This one is a no brainer for me; it's Capital One Venture Card (learn more here) or Venture X (learn more here). Both of these cards earn 2x's points on ALL purchases and have no foreign transaction fees.

Keep in mind, Capital One introduced "family rules" at the end of 2025, that they want you to open the cards "in order" to earn sign up bonuses on each card. That means, you'll want to open a Venture Card before the VentureX, so that in a 48-month time period, you're eligible to earn sign up bonuses on both.

(If you open VentureX before Venture Card, you will not earn a sign up bonus on the Venture Card until 48mo have passed from the VentureX sign up bonus)

At the time of publishing this post (Feb 2026); the Venture Card has an elevated offer! Learn more here.

Bonus Categories

Chase Travel Portal: When shopping for flights and hotels, it almost always costs less points to book travel by transferring points out of the bank to book directly with airline and hotel partners.

However, there are times that it IS cheap to book in Chase Travel Portal. For these bookings, I use Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business, which earns 8x's points on portal bookings.

Chase Freedom Quarterly Bonus: This post covers Chase Freedom cards and mentions that Freedom and Freedom Flex cards have quarterly bonus categories to earn 5x's points on purchases, up to a $1.500 purchase limit. I try to utilize the quarterly bonus as much as I can.

(Reminder: Chase Freedom is a no annual fee card that you can downgrade a Sapphire card to!)

Summary

So, while we generally are working on a minimum spend for a sign up bonus, the Chase Sapphire Preferred, American Express Gold Personal, Ink Business Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business and Capital One Venture Card (or VentureX if you already have a Venture and want more Capital One points) are always in my wallet and my go-to "back-up" cards!

Because of their extra point earn, the majority of these cards are "keeper" cards for me - meaning that myself or my Player2 (husband) will always have one open! (Just not the Reserve Business due to the annual fee). This post talks about when and why to close or downgrade cards.

If you want to open one of these cards, 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!

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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!

2025 Travel Recap

Once people start to earn some points, the next question I'm often asked is "where can I go?!"  The answer is you can pretty much use points to take you anywhere around the world (literally if you want!. Here's a recap of our 2025 travel. 

As a reminder - here's my general rule of thumb for how many points to anticipate spending for hotels and flights

Our 2025 Points Trips

January

Winter Break 2024-2025, we spent 5 nights in Maui at Hyatt Regency and 5 nights in Kauai at Grand Hyatt. Both of these hotels were booked a year in advance by transferring Chase points to Hyatt to book directly.

We used our two Southwest Companion Passes to fly from/to Denver and also in between islands (which meant that instead of using points to buy four flights to/from Hawaii, we only had to buy two and got two free!)

I used the $300 Capital One Venture X travel credit to book our Maui rental car (via Capital One Travel portal) and for Kauai we had booked a Turo but they cancelled last minute and I was able to get an awesome last minute deal with Hertz directly, paying cash.

Trip Cash Value: $18,000+

February

No travel for me, besides skiing; but my boys went to Palm Springs to visit my in-laws, using Southwest Companion Pass. I got a KILLER price going there - of just 2,617 points. Thanks for SW CP, my son flew free!

Trip Cash Value: $500

March

The first half of spring break we had our condo-share and skied; then at the end of break we went to Arizona to see Cubs Spring Training and stayed at Grand Hyatt Scottsdale for 3 nights. I booked this stay only a month (exactly) in advance, by transferring Chase points to Hyatt to book directly. We flew Southwest and used Companion Passes.

Trip Cash Value: $6,000

May

We spent a night at Gaylord Rockies, a Marriott property, as a staycation to celebrate our daughter's birthday. I booked directly with Marriott and used a mix of expiring Marriott points and Chase points transfer to Marriott during a transfer bonus (which is the ONLY time I consider using Chase points for Marriott!)

Trip Cash Value: $400

June

We were joined by my parents for a trip to Costa Rica! We flew United direct from Denver to Liberia, and had a rental car (directly booked with Hertz). We spent the first five nights in La Fortuna, staying at Tabacon Resort. I booked Tabacon by transferring Amex points to Hilton, at a 1:2 ratio (essentially doubling my points) and also got the 5th night of our stay free (for holding Amex Platinum Personal card, which automatically gives you Hilton gold status). Read all the details here!

From there, we spent 6 nights in Playa Langosta/Tamarindo area at an short term rental (which I put on a new credit card to earn a sign up bonus!). We flew home on Southwest, using our Companion Passes.

Trip Cash Value: $9,000 (including cash airbnb)

Aug

I booked a last minute (like two weeks in advance), trip to meet my sister in Copenhagen over Labor Day weekend! I flew Edelweiss Business Class there (booked by transferring Amex points to Air Canada), using Chase Sapphire Reserve points boost and cash to stay 3 nights at 1 Hotel and then moved to Hotel Skt Annae (which is a Mr and Mrs Smith hotel under Hyatt) for a cheaper last night stay. I flew Lufthansa economy home (booked by transferring more Amex points to Air Canada)

Trip Cash Value: $9,000

September

If you have followed me for at least one fall season, you know I'm obsessed with fall colors! I used points for some quick getaways in the nearby mountains to soak up all of the gold we could find!

Stay 1: I used Chase Points Boost with P2's Chase Sapphire Reserve Business card and booked one night at Indigo Hotel Silverthorne for 13,000 points. I highly recommend this hotel; but note during ski season it costs a lot more! The 13K stay seems like a lucky find.

Stay 2: I used my $300 Hotel Credit from my Amex Personal Platinum card to book a night at Grand Hyatt Vail; one of my fav local hotels. This one benefit use basically covered the high annual fee cost! I wrote about it in this post.

Trips Cash Value: $900+

October

October was our big 15-year anniversary trip! This include one night at Hyatt Regency Seattle, Business Class Singapore Air flights direct from SEA to SIN (16.5 hours long! but a breeze in business), 3 nights at Andaz Singapore, economy Singapore Air flight to Maldives, sea plane transfer from Maldives airport to our resort, 5 nights at Alila Kothaifaru Maldives (a Hyatt brand, booked direct by transferring Chase points to Hyatt. I then emailed the resort and paid cash $100/night plus taxes and fees, to upgrade to an overwater villa), sea plane back to MLE airport, business class flight from Maldives to Doha, one night stay at Doha Hyatt Regency and business class QSuite flights on Qatar Airways to Toronto. Unfortunately prior to our trip, our flight back to Denver from Toronto changed times, which resulted in us needing to spend one night at Hyatt Place Mississauga/Toronto, before flying Air Canada back to Denver.

(I'm still working on break out posts for this trip, more details to come! I was able to book this trip just five months in advance, which is pretty lucky to find saver award space on both Singapore Air and Qatar Airlines not a year in advance).

Trip Cash Value: $34,000+

November

Girl's trip to Blue Ridge, Georgia to celebrate a 40th birthday! I used my SW CP to fly the birthday girl for free!

Trip Cash Value: $700

December

After a big year of travel (which is not quite our norm!), I was glad that I had kept this year's winter break pretty easy. We went to Palm Springs for 5 nights and stayed at Grand Hyatt Indian Wells. I booked this trip a year in advance, as holiday points bookings often sell out quickly). I booked us Southwest flights as soon as the dates released and I'm glad I did. We still have companion pass, so we only had to pay for 2 flights, which were 23,000 points each going there and only 11,000 points coming back. After I booked, the point cost jumped up to around 60,000 points each, one way, and never seemed to drop!

I used the $300 Capital One Venture X annual travel credit to book our rental car only 3 weeks in advance (with Hertz via Capital One Travel portal) 

For this trip, I used a Guest of Honor award; which got us free parking ($32+/night), free daily buffet breakfast ($130/day), and upgraded room from two queen beds to two king beds.

Trip Cash Value: $5,000+

Summary

In total for 2025, for the trips mentioned, we spent around 50 nights away and over $75,00 cash value for less than $8,000 out of pocket.  2025 definitely was not a "normal" travel year for us; we generally don't travel this much in a year! But we had some big celebrations, incredible trips, and memories made!

I'm grateful to points and for your support to make it happen!

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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!

American Express Partners

 In my last post, I doted on the Personal Gold card and why I love it....and in my beginner post, Rule No.3 is to Know Thy Partners, so in this post, I'm going to focus on American Express transfer partners to help you figure out how to maximize your hard earn points and get more value!

American Express Transfer Partners

Similar to Chase, each bank has their own set of travel partners (airlines and hotels; Chase listed here) that they pair with in order to allow you to transfer your points directly to a travel affiliate to book travel; often for less points than the fixed point redemptions you'll find on Amex Travel Portal.

One really nice thing about American Express is that if you hold multiple point earning cards, they automatically pool your points together for you!

Hotels:

Amex has 3 hotel partners; note that Hilton transfers at a 1:2 ratio, which doubles your Amex points into Hilton points when you transfer to Hilton (this what I used to book Tabacon Resort in Costa Rica!)

Airlines:

Amex has 17 airline partners! If you don't see an airline you want to book listed, then the next step is to see if the airline is in an airline alliance and can be booked through a partner (for example: Amex doesn't transfer to United, but United is in Star Alliance with Air Canada. Amex transfers to Air Canada; so you may be able to book your United flight through Air Canada's website and get to use your Amex points).

Not all of these airline partners transfer as a 1:1 ratio, and a few have changed recently. Refer to Amex Transfer Partner page directly for the current points ratio.

Remember: for each transfer partner, you will need to have created a loyalty account directly with the partner, and then will link your loyalty account to your Amex account.

How to Transfer Points

1. Log into your account and locate your Membership Rewards Points. From the menu across the top, click "Earn and Redeem"

2. On the drop-down menu, under Redeem, select "Transfer Points"

3. This will bring the up the home page with all of the Transfer Partners. Find the company you want to transfer to and select "Show Details"

4. Ensure your loyalty account is linked and input the amount of points you want to transfer. NOTE: not all points are instant transfer. The points transfer page shows the estimated time, but you can google for accuracy.

Summary

I hope you found this post helpful! Some of the ways I've recently used Amex points are:

• Transfer to Hilton (at 1:2 ratio) for Tabacon Resort, Costa Rica
• Transfer to Air Canada to book business class flight on Edelweiss Air from Denver to Copenhagen
• Transfer to Air Canada to book economy flight on Lufthansa from Copenhagen to Denver
• Transfer to Singapore Air to book business class flight to Singapore
• Transfer to Qatar Air to book economy flights from Maldives to Doha
• Transfer to Qatar Air to book business class "QSuites" flights from Doha to US

Looks like I'm overdue for some documented points use/travel posts! But as you may read into, I really value my Chase points for Hyatt and Southwest; on the flipside, I really value my Amex Points mostly for international flights - but I wouldn't hesitate to use them domestically (it's just that with Southwest Companion Pass, that's primarily who we fly domestic right now!)

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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!

American Express Gold (Personal)

In the summer when Chase rolled out their revamped Sapphire Reserve (Personal Card) and their new Sapphire Reserve Business Card, I did a write up for each, which outlined the sign up offer as well as the card benefits to help outweigh the annual fee.

Similarly, this post is going to highlight one of my top 3 cards to always have and why.

American Express Gold

Annual Fee: $325

Current (Elevated) Sign up Offer: Spend $6,000 in 6 months, earn up to 100,000 points*

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 bonus offer can vary. 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).

If you get a low offer; clear your cookies, wait 24 hours, and apply again.

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 LOVE this card:

1. This card offers 4 points for every dollar spent on Groceries, Food Delivery, and Restaurants, which are my family's two highest routine spend categories, and one points per dollar on everything else. This is often my go-to card when we aren't working on a new card's sign up bonus. 

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.

These two items are why I keep this card!

Off-Setting the Annual Fee

The signup offer and the benefits of this card can make it easy to offset the $325 annual, depending which of these you use. Card Benefits:

• $7/mo Dunkin Donuts credit

This is a bit annoying, as I rarely go to Dunkin, but what I did realize, was that instead of going to Dunkin monthly, I can simply buy a $7 Dunkin gift card monthly and then add that to a Dunkin account; which adds up to $84 a year. If you don't have a need for this, then you could still build up the credits and then be a nice person and bring a dozen donuts into work or school a couple of times a year

        Your Dunkin Card can also be used at Basket Robbins (hello ice cream birthday cake!) 

• $100 Resy annual credit: Twice a year (Jan-Jun and Jul-Dec), simply dine at a Resy restaurant and pay with your gold card to receive a $50 statement credit. (I've used this credit not even meaning to! lol)

• $10/mo Uber Cash: This can be used for rides or for UberEats. Simply pay with this card

• $10/mo Dining: Use your card at Grubhub, Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com and Five Guys to be reimbursed $10/mo. <A great way to use this benefit is to order a pickup meal via Grubhub!

• Earn 3X's points on flights: Booked directly with airlines
• $100 credit towards Hotel Collections stay: Book 2-nights or more with Amex Hotel Selection properties and receive $100 credit. (Note, these hotels tend to be expensive, so I never use this credit)

American Express Family Rule

Another important item to know about Amex is it's "Family Rule" for personal cards. The Family Rule dictates that you need to get Amex personal cards in tiered "order", otherwise, you aren't eligible for future sign up bonuses of lower tier cards.

Basically, Amex has Green, Gold, and Platinum personal cards. If you get a Platinum card as your first Amex Personal card, then you are not eligible to get the sign up bonus for the Green or Gold cards in the future.

I personally don't think the Green card offer is worth a 5/24 spot, so I recommend starting off getting Amex Gold Personal before an Amex Platinum Personal.

Summary

Since we earn a lot of non-sign up bonus points with my Amex Gold card between 4x points on restaurants/groceries and Rakuten; I will make sure that one of us always has an Amex Gold Personal card in our wallet!

As always, I appreciate your support and utilizing my referral links! Be sure if you're viewing this in a Meta app, to open a new external web browser to complete your application, which protects your data and gives me credit!

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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!

Using SW Elevated Offer for Companion Pass

My last post covered what Southwest Companion Pass is, how you can earn it through credit card sign up bonuses, how long it's good for AND the criticality of timing when your points hit, and traditional methods of earning. If you missed the basics, you can read them here.

However, with the current elevated Southwest personal cards having a sign up bonus of 100,000 points with a $4,000 spend in a 5-month time period; I've received SO many questions about how to use this offer to earn companion pass that I'm doing another post - focused on strategy with this offer.

Keep in mind, this 100,000 point offer will end 9/17/25!

If you already have a SW personal card and it's been at least 24 months since you opened the card and received a sign up bonus, you are eligible for this offer. First close your current SW personal card and wait a week. Then apply for this offer.

Companion Pass Basics

• What: Buy one, get one free flights for a designated companion. Pay only taxes and fees for the companion. Flights for primary flier can be purchased with cash or with points.;
• How: To earn a companion pass, you need to earn 135,000 points in a calendar year, Jan-Dec (CP earning points reset to zero every year, 1/1)
• Timing: Once you hit 135,000 points, you earn companion pass after that statement close. The companion pass is good for the remainder of that calendar year and the ENTIRE calendar year following.

How to use the 100,000 Personal Card Offer towards Companion Pass

Critical questions to think about before opening this card:

1. When do you want the Companion Pass to be valid for? 

A: Remainder of 2025 and all of 2026

B: Most of 2026 and all of 2027 

I will come back to this, but your answer to this question will determine your timeline for hitting your minimum spend. (Keep in mind, the strategies I'm sharing are based on current companion pass requirements, which may change in time).

2. Do you already have Companion Pass earning points?

If you're flown Southwest at all in 2025, then you may already have earned some points towards a companion pass! If you have at least 20,000 points here, then you simply only need to open the 100,000 point SW Personal Credit Card and don't need to worry about Question 3.

To check your status:

• Log into your Southwest Rapid Rewards account
• Click "My Account"
• Locate "My Rapid Rewards" 

As shown here, this person already have 43,905 of the 135,000
 points needed to qualify for Companion Pass this year

3. Do you have someone you can refer to a Southwest card?

The easier way to get a big chunk of points, in addition to a sign up bonus, is to refer someone to a Southwest card. Standard Southwest referrals are worth 20,000 points with a limit of 5 referrals per card per year.

Here's Your Plan and Timeline

If you want 2025/2026 Companion Pass

If your response is to Question 1 was  "A - Remainder of 2025 and all of 2026", then you are going to open the 100K Southwest Personal card offer before 9/17 and spend spend spend (within your means). 

Again, open this card ASAP!

Ideally, you would also refer someone else to the 100K point offer before 9/17 so that they can take advantage as well. However, any referral before December should have referral points hit in 2025 to count towards your goal of 135,000 points in 2025.

With this, once you hit the $4K minimum spend and refer someone, within the next statement close, you should receive your sign up bonus (100,000 points) + points for you minimum spend (a minimum of 4,000 points at 1 point per $1 spent, but more points if you are spending directly with Southwest, or 2 points per $1 spent if you are using for groceries and/or dining out) + 10,000 point boost* for holding a Southwest card + 20,000 points (for someone using your referral link. They do not have to hit the minimum spend in order for you to get your referral bonus).

*Southwest gives each Rapid Rewards member who holds any credit card a 10,000 point boost towards Companion Pass annually. Note this is per account and not per Southwest credit card held. So if you hold a SW Business and a SW Personal card, you will only receive 10,000 point boost; not 20,000.

All of the numbers above add up to 134,000 points (100,000 + 4,000 + 10,000 + 20,0000); hitting in 2025. Hopefully of that $4,000 minimum spend, $1,000 of it was spent at groceries/restaurant and then you would earn an additional 1,000 points; which puts you at the 135,000 threshold!

If you want 2026/2027 Companion Pass

If your response is to Question 1 was  "B - Most of 2026 and all of 2027", then you are going to open the 100K Southwest Personal card offer before 9/17 and slooooooooow roll.

Again, open this card ASAP!

Ideally, you want to wait until mid-December to start spending on this card. That way, any spend you put on the card, will be included in your January 2026 statement and therefore, have the points awarded in 2026. Remember, each January 1st, companion qualifying points will reset to zero.

So, for you, my friend - open the card before 9/17 and put it in a sock drawer.

December 15th start spending. Spend up to $3,500 on the card before January 1st and then STOP! Put the card away again and don't pull it out until January 1s.... just to be safe! 

After January 1st, spend the remaining amount of the $4,000 minimum spend on the card (note: the longer you can wait to spend on this card until 1/1, the better/more conservative; but I know it's hard with the holidays! But this helps guarantee your points earned per dollar spent hit in 2026)

Also, come January 1st, refer someone else to any Southwest credit card.

With this, once you hit the $4K minimum spend and refer someone, within the next statement close, you should receive your sign up bonus (100,000 points) + points for you minimum spend (a minimum of 4,000 points at 1 point per $1 spent, but more points if you are spending directly with Southwest, or 2 points per $1 spent if you are using for groceries and/or dining out) + 10,000 point boost for holding a Southwest card + 20,000 points (for someone using your referral link. They do not have to hit the minimum spend in order for you to get your referral bonus).

All of the numbers above add up to 134,000 points (100,000 + 4,000 + 10,000 + 20,0000), hitting in 2026. Hopefully of that $4,000 minimum spend, $1,000 of it was spent at groceries/restaurant and then you would earn an additional 1,000 points; which puts you at the 135,000 threshold!

What if We Need Two Companion Passes?

If you're similar to me, and a family of 4, wanting two companion passes for most of 2026 and all of 2027, it's likely going to take you 3 cards between the two of you to get there. Here's how:

Player 1 opens Southwest Personal card 100,000 offer before 9/17. Again, open this card ASAP!

9/17 - 12/15: do not use the card

12/15: Similar to above, December 15th start spending. Spend up to $3,500 on the card before January 1st and then STOP! Put the card away again and don't pull it out until January 1s.... just to be safe! 

After January 1st: spend the remaining amount of the $4,000 minimum spend on the card (note: the longer you can wait to spend on this card until 1/1, the better/more conservative; but I know it's hard with the holidays!)

Also, after January 1st, Player 1 refers Player 2 to any Southwest Business Card (it's recommend to open between cards before Personal cards to ensure that you can get approved and the strategy will work)

After 30 days OR after hitting Player 2's minimum spend (whichever is longer, you need a minimum of 30 days between credit card applications for the same bank): Player 1 refers Player 2 to Player 2's second Southwest card. This card can be another Southwest Business card or a Southwest Personal Card.

Player 2 should have accumulated enough points with two sign up bonuses, minimum spends, and 10,000 point boost to hit the 135,000 point threshold to earn their companion pass!

In Summary

There are many ways to strategically utilize Southwest credit card sign up bonuses and referrals to earn companion passes without flying Southwest 100 fights a year or spend $135,000 on the same Southwest card you've had forever!

Utilizing my referral links help me keep my content free for you! If you're going to open a Southwest Credit card, I appreciate you using my referral link here!

I hope this helps, but as always if you have any questions, feel free to reach out! justcallmehaha@gmail.com

Chase Sapphire Reserve

Yesterday I shared about Chase Sapphire Reserve's new big brother, or maybe we should say cousin since one is a personal card and one is a business card; the new Chase Sapphire Reserve Business. I can understand why that card isn't for a lot of people with such a high minimum spend AND high annual fee; but I do think the CSR is worth considering for a personal card if you don't currently have a Sapphire.

Today I'm going to break down the CSR and it's benefits.

It's also worth noting that Chase changed the Sapphire rules in Q4 2025; you can now hold the Sapphire Preferred AND the Sapphire Reserve at the same time!

Chase Sapphire Reserve

Annual Fee: $795 (I know, this is super high, I'll speak to this below!)

Current Elevated Offer (elevated, meaning it's a limited time higher offer than the standard offer worth taking advantage of!): Spend $6,000 in 3 months, earn 150,000 points

Note as of fall 2025, the standard offer is: Spend $5,000 in 3 months to earn 100,000 points

Referral Link Thank you for supporting my small business! This is free to you, but provides me points in exchange for the knowledge I share.

5/24: This is a personal card and therefore WILL take up one spot in your Chase 5/24 count. (What's Chase 5/24? Read Rule 2 in This beginner post)

Why I'd Get This Card

Chase is the easiest bank to figure out credit card points and how you transfer them to partners to book free travel. Chase is the only bank that you can direct transfer points to Southwest AND United (no other banks directly transfer to either! Although there are creative ways to book United flights with other banks, through partner airlines (like Air Canada who is in the same air alliance)

You also need to hold a Chase "premium" card, in order to have the ability to transfer your points to travel partners. A "premium" card for Chase is basically a Chase card that has an annual fee. So having some type of Sapphire card is a must!

Off-Setting the Annual Fee

$795 annual fee IS high! And it's worth noting that the annual fee is typically charged within a month of you opening the card. It does not count towards the minimum spend for the sign up bonus.

But there's one benefit that is SO easy to use, I automatically take this off of the $795 annual fee because I know we'll use this and that's the:

• $300 ANNUAL travel credit: this doesn't have to be utilized in Chase travel portal; just charge anything travel related to your card and you'll get a credit on your next statement. (This benefit renews annually)

So with that, $300 we likely would have spend on travel anyways, that takes the annual fee "net cost" to $495. Here are additional benefits that help you get more value out of Sapphire Reserve card:

Travel 

• Global Entry/TSA Precheck: $120 credit every 4 years; charge this card for your application and receive a statement credit
• Airport Lounge access for Sapphire Lounges and Priority Pass good for you and 2 guests to get in free; you can pay for additional guests
• 2 - $250 Edit Credits annually: book select hotels in Chase Portal and receive benefits like free breakfast, hotel credit, early check in and late checkout; requires a 2 night+ stay
• 1 - $250 Select Hotel Credit: book select hotels in Chase Portal and receive $250 off! This can be paired with the Edit Credit!! (and is great for IHG hotels like Kimpton); requires a 2 night+ stay
• Complimentary IHG Platinum Elite Status, through 12/31/2027 (complimentary room upgrades, early check-in, late checkout, welcome amenity (drink or points)

Dining 

• $300 Dining Credit; get $150 statement credit bi-annually for dining and paying with your Sapphire at Sapphire Reserve Exclusive Restaurants through Open Table; Jan-Jun and Jul-Dec (note - some people have reported that if you simply purchase a giftcard to these restaurants you will receive the statement credit)
• Doordash benefits: honestly these are kind of annoying to use; but you get the following below when you use your CSR as form of payment in DoorDash account to 
• DashPass, which gives you $0 deliveries
• 2 - $10/mo non-restaurant credits
• 1 - $5/mo restaurant credits

Lifestyle 

• $10/mo Lyft credit: add your Reserve as your method of payment and you'll receive a monthly in-app credit
• $300 for Stubhub credits annually; $150 every 6mo. Purchase with your CSR and receive a statement credit
• Free Apple TV and Apple Music ($289 value if you use these); similar pay with your CSR and reserve credit statement 
• $10/mo Peloton credit: add your Reserve as your method of payment and you'll receive a monthly credit

Points Earn/Use Related

• Points Boost: Get more than 1 cent per point on select hotels when redeeming points in Chase Travel Portal (this is another great benefit to pair with Edit and/or Select Hotel Credits to use less points to book hotels!)
• Earn 3x points on restaurants
• Earn 4x points on direct booked hotels and flights
• Earn 8x points on Chase Travel Portal booked hotels and flights

Long Term Plan

Honestly - I would take advantage of getting this card with it's elevated sign up offer now  and use the above benefits to offset the annual fee the first year.

Then, after you've had the card for 12 months and the next $795 annual fee is coming, you can decide if it's worth keeping the card and utilizing the benefits OR once you've hit your year mark with the Sapphire Reserve, you can call the bank and request to downgrade from the Sapphire Reserve to the Preferred (read here about downgrading and closing cards). 

The Preferred only has a $95 Annual Fee and still allows you to keep your points and credit history, as well as allows you to transfer your points to travel partners. If you're charged the annual fee with Chase (like next summer), you have 30-40 days to call and downgrade and they'll refund you the fee!

Summary

If you can't accommodate a $795 fee right now, then I would go ahead and apply for the little sister card, which is the Chase Sapphire Preferred. I have several posts about why CSP is a great beginner card. Read here! 

You can use the same link to apply for either card! As always, I appreciate your support and utilizing my referral links! Be sure if you're viewing this in a Meta app, to open a new external web browser to complete your application, which protects your data and gives me credit!

If you're unsure, fill out my next card recommendation form, and I'll give you my two cents!

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> 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!