Now, before I get any farther, I feel obligated to say that credit cards are not for everyone. If used responsibly, there are benefits; but if in the wrong hands, they can send you in a downward spiral. For us, we charge almost everything we can to card BUT immediately going online and pay it off, typically within the same day. We don't carry over balances and rarely do we have a balance on our card at all.
Okay, that being said, here is my limited credit card reward knowledge! As a note, we used Chase for all of our banking so I've gravitated to the Chase credit cards for the easy and accessibility of having accounts in one place, making it easy to pay balances.
We've had a Chase Freedom credit card for 8+ years. It's a good "starter" credit card (in my opinion) that allows you to earn one point for every dollar spent (1% back). It also offers quarterly category bonuses that offer 5% back with a $75 maximum. The categories are practical every day purchases like gas stations or grocery stores. There is no annual fee but there are foreign transaction fees. For the longest time, this was the only credit card we had and used it for everything.
A few years ago, we added the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card to our accounts (note - this referral link will get you sign up bonus points if you hit the minimum spend and give me referral points). The interest in this card was two-fold: First, unlike Freedom, there are no foreign transaction fees (which are typically a 3% fee for every purchase made not in the US), making it a great card to use for international travel. Second, is that Sapphire Preferred gives you three points for every dollar spent dining and time times the points for travel. Given that we budget to eat out 3 meals a week, this adds up. This card does have an annual $95 fee; but if you're using the points to travel, the benefits well outweigh the fee (I'll hit on redeeming points below). Plus you get a $50 hotel credit to book through Chase Ultimate Rewards.
After realizing we typically fly United a few times a year, this year we added the United Explorer Mileageplus Chase credit card (another referral link). I had debated on the Frontier card, but decided United was a better fit with our international travel goals. The perks of the United card have actually improved since we got it. Now it's similar to Sapphire, with double points for every dollar spent on food and travel, plus you get a free checked bag for you and accompanied guest. Since United now charges for basic Economy bags, this saves $100 per roundtrip for two (at $25/bag/person/flight). So while this card does have a $95 annual fee after the first year, the fee pays for itself if you fly basic economy and use the card benefit to check bags. As a cardholder, you are also eligible for free upgrades on flights as well as discounts on reward flights (info below). This card also has a $100 credit to use towards Global Entry (or TSA Precheck).
My friend Breanne got me into miles a few years ago. She and her husband actually quit their jobs and traveled the world for over six months using miles they accumulated. She gave me tips how to earn additional miles; something I will be forever grateful for!
What I use most frequently is shop-through sites for miles. Are you familiar with Ebates, a website which allows you to log-in and search for a store, click on a link to be taken to that stores website and shop on the stores website but you get a small percent back for what you spent in an Ebates account? Well guess what? Both United and Chase Ultimate Rewards (how you access your Chase credit card points) also offer shop-through options to earn points and miles! And, the rewards for those sites is typically higher than the percent given back by Ebates.
For example, on United MileagePlus Shopping, I log in and search for Target. Target comes up at 1 mile per $1 spent. I click on the link and I'm off to shop! If I spent $50 on diapers, then I get 50 miles deposited to my MileagePlus account. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but United also runs promotions where if you spent X-amount in a month, you'll get bonus miles. Last summer I use this to spent $250 in three months and I was given 1,500 bonus miles in addition to the reward miles for every dollar spent. I've been using Mileage Plus shopping for a little over three years and look at the top right for how many miles I've earned; this is NOT how many dollars I've spent.
Similarly, Chase Ultimate rewards offers the same program. Log in, selected Shop through Chase, search your store, select and shop!
The last way, which we don't use very often is MileagePlus Dining. Log in with your Mileage Plus account, save a credit card to the account and then every time you use the credit card at qualified purchases, you earn additional points (on top of the 2 points for every dollar with Sapphire or United card).
A huge perk to take advantage of ioth the Sapphire and Mileage Plus credit cards is their offer for initial bonus miles if you meet 3-month spending criteria. Sapphire offers 50,000 bonus miles if you spend $4k in the first three months; so we timed this card with work we were doing on our house at the time. MileagePlus offers 40,000 bonus miles if you spent $2k in the first three months (which unfortunately was easy with daycare). Some merchants, such as daycare, do charge a smile credit card fee, but it was worth paying $36 in fees to use the card to get the 40,000 miles (which as mentioned below is equivalent to $400 in rewards). You also can receive 5,000 bonuses for each card by adding an authorized user (for me, Ben).
Okay, so there's the three credit cards we use (Freedom, Sapphire, MileagePlus Explorer) and what they all offer as common rewards, so how do we accrue our points and miles? and how many miles does it take to get some where?
In general, points and miles are redeemable at every 1000 points equals $10. Chase credit card points (i.e. Freedom and Sapphire) are earned and tracked separately for each card, but they can be combined together. As mentioned above, Chase points can be earned or redeemed through their Ultimate Rewards program. You can also book travel on their website at up to 25% off retail by redeeming with points.
We pretty much exclusively use our Sapphire card (because a lot of where we use our cards is dining out or breweries); however, I do pay attention to Freedom quarterly bonus categories so that we can take advantage of the 5% back (verse Sapphire 2% back on restaurants and travel and 1% back on everything else). We use the Sapphire card over the United because Chase points can be redeemed on their (see Ultimate Rewards info below) OR they can be transfered to travel partners, like United. The miles we earn with the MileagePlus credit card DO NOT show up in our Chase account; they only show up as United miles and cannot be transfers elsewhere (however, they do not expire).
However, the big for your buck is transferring Chase points to travel partners, such as United. Chase Sapphire has a travel partners that allows you to convert your points to miles for the travel partner account. So 50,000 Chase Ultimate rewards points transferred to United becomes 50,000 United Miles. United offers reward travel called Super Saver at below dollar-value flights. I keep all of our Chase points in our Ultimate Rewards account until we are ready to book a United flight. I then log on to Ultimate Rewards and transfer to United, where they're instantaneously available and book. Once you transfer points to miles, you can't undo the transfer
Generally a roundtrip domestic reward flight is 25,000 miles (12,500 each way); when you think of the 1 to 100 ratio, this means you can get a domestic reward flight for $250. Now, there are a lot of domestic flights you can generally find under $250, so unless in a pinch, this isn't necessarily a huge savings in regards to bang for your buck. However, longer flights are easier to see the benefit. A "good rate" for an international reward flight is 60,000 miles (30,000 miles each way).
For both domestic and international flights, there are reward flights available for more than 12,500 and 30,000 one-way but these are not really getting your money's worth... so I only book rewards flights when the flight miles follow the rule of thumb above (12,500 or less for a one-way domestic flight and 30,000 miles or less for an international flight).
I'm not sure if any of this making sense, so here's an example.
However, the same flights booked as reward flights as a Mileage Explorer cardholder is 45,000 miles, which is equivalent to $450 (plus taxes). Comparing the cash to miles costs, for a roundtrip flight to Hawaii, you could save $275 after taxes; well worth it! (Especially when you consider that you could have 45,000 miles when you first get your card if you earn the initial spending bonus and add and authorized user).
It's also worth noting that when we booked our Hawaii flights we didn't have the United card so we paid 50,000 miles. Now searching for flights as a cardholder, having the card offers a Saver Award rate, saving you "$50", when you compare the reward flights mileage of 45,000 to 50,000.
The examples above are partnering Chase points with United. We haven't used other Chase Travel partners, but if you google there are tons of blogs to help you get the most use out of your miles and other airlines or airline alliances, like Star Alliance. I really like The Points Guy
Another way we have used our Chase points was to book our Iceland Babymoon trip directly through Chase Ultimate Rewards. As advertised, we booked our flights for 25% less miles than the dollar equivalent.
Similar to above, for our fall trip we just booked we paid 120,000 miles + $505 (you still pay taxes on flights; we also paid 10% fair fee for Grayson for international lap infant rate); which equates to $1,705 ($1200+$505). Had we paid cash for our flights, it would have been over $3,300! We basically paid half of what the flights would have cost if we paid cash. Obviously points well spent!
Another way we have used our Chase points was to book our Iceland Babymoon trip directly through Chase Ultimate Rewards. As advertised, we booked our flights for 25% less miles than the dollar equivalent.
We booked our flights for Iceland using Ultimate Rewards and spent 79,608 Chase Points total for two flights, which is $796 value. However, Chase considers it a $995 value with their 25% savings booking through them. Compared to the flight cost outright, granted this is 15 months later, but looking now on Iceland Air's website, two flights from Denver to Reykjavik would cost $1,788.
So similar to our fall 2019 trip, using miles basically we got our flights for half the retail price!
(Although I have learned since that typically you will get the best/lowest point cost for a flight by directly transferring points to Chase Travel Partners. However, like our Iceland trip, sometimes the portal is worth it!)
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| Flights booked with Chase Ultimate Rewards |
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| Flights booked with Iceland Air directly |
There you have it, how I've learned to earn miles and use them efficiently without flying on a regular basis to accrue miles. I hope you were able to follow and that this insight inspires you to make your adventure dreams come true! Remember, spend only what you can afford, but take advantage of the rewards available. I would not recommend signing up for a credit card if you cannot meet the minimum spend to obtain the sign up bonus.
2023 Update: I've learned that the true ability to maximize point earn really comes from credit card sign up bonuses. If you're already spending the money, might as well take advantage and get a new card to get a trip out of it!
