Many of you requested a blog post on how we utilize our credit cards to maximize our travel rewards and benefits. So here it is. Ask and you shall receive.
Keep in mind that this article is not an in-depth comparison of the credit cards we use. It is simply how we use them and why. There are plenty of other resources out there for you to do a detailed comparison of what credit cards may be good for you and your financial picture.
Also, we are by no means “experts” at the points and miles game. This is simply how we do it as busy parents who try to take a nice trip every once in and while. We obviously do not have the “find the deal drop and go” ability like all those points and miles credit card influencers. We are not advocating for any card in particular because whichever card(s) you sign up for should be dependent on your own financial picture and goals. You should always spend responsibly and pay them off in full each month. We will never advocate spending beyond your means to achieve any travel goal.
TL;DR: How We Get Our Luxury Travel Perks
- We use different cards for different categories of spending to maximize point earnings on purchases.
- We check for point transfer bonuses and/or cash back deals on the credit cards’ apps regularly.
- We utilize shopping portals like Rakuten that allow us to “stack” multiple point currencies (you can opt for Amex points instead of cash back.)
- We strategically maximize the benefits offered by each card for various travel needs.
- We look for sweets spots months into the future for airline and hotel bookings.
The Big Three
In our mind, using credit cards to obtain travel benefits for your vacation(s) boils down to three broad questions:
What are your biggest spending categories each month?
What airlines and/or hotels do you prefer to travel and/or stay with?
Are you able to get “the value” out of the card versus the card’s annual fee?
Remember, the answers to these questions will vary wildly. It is always worth considering these three questions when signing up for a credit card.
Our Credit Card Line Up
Disclaimer: we have more than a few cards. Many people think having a lot of cards is a bad thing. It’s not – as long as you spend within your means and pay them off monthly. Like anything, credit cards are a tool to help you get where you want to go (literally, in this case). Learning how to optimize and categorize spending by points earning potential and card benefits has helped us maximize our point earnings while giving us a better picture of our monthly spending.
Here’s our cast of cards (and just a few perks of each:)
The American Express Platinum – airport lounge access, hotel and airline credits, room upgrades, lifestyle perks, and more.
American Express Gold –4 x points on food and groceries.
Chase Sapphire Preferred – access to Chase’s transfer portal and point transfer bonuses.
Bilt – point “stacking,” ability to earn points on rent, unique transfer offers.
Chase Freedom Unlimited – cash back on recurring expenses.
Marriott Bonvoy Boundless – stays at Marriott hotels and Gold level status.
Hilton Surpass – stays at Hilton properties and Gold level status.
IHG Premier – stays at IHG hotels and Platinum Elite level status.
United Mileage Plus – free check bags, priority boarding.
How We Break Down Our Spending
Groceries – American Express Gold
Our biggest spends each month are groceries and what we like to call “general expenses” – things like car insurance, utilities, gym membership – that must be paid every month. You can also lump in hopefully sporadic expenses like visits to the doctor’s office or car repairs.
For groceries, we use the American Express Gold Card. It gets us 4 times points on each trip to the food store. Since we pretty much only eat at home, it gets us an outsized number of points on our food bill. For example, if our weekly groceries are $250, that’s 1,000 points per week or 4,000 points per month just on this category of spending. You also get 4 times points on restaurants. We don’t use this card for eating out simply because (1) we don’t do it a lot and (2) it helps us track our grocery spending if that’s all that’s on the card.
General/Recurring Expenses – Chase Freedom Unlimited
For general expenses, or expenses that simply don’t qualify for any kind of real “bonus” points, we use the Chase Freedom Unlimited. It has no annual fee, and you get 1.5 times points on each purchase regardless of the category. It’s an easy way to get extra points on purchases that normally don’t qualify for any kind of additional point earning. While technically a cash back card, you get the cash back in the form of points. You can then pool them with either the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve cards. This then allows you take advantage of Chase’s travel portal and transfer those points to one of Chase’s airline or hotel partners. We have a Chase Sapphire Preferred and have been able to use this pooling to get over the top for some sweet point redemptions we wanted.
For many people, housing is one of their biggest expenditures each month. A lot of people rent, and for those individuals the Bilt card would be a no-brainer. While we don’t rent, we do have a Bilt card, which we love (and they announced you can now earn points on buying a home!). But if we did rent, we would use our Bilt card for paying it since they don’t charge any fees to do so, and you earn points. Plus, Bilt has great deals for points earning on other categories on the first of every month and has some great travel partners that even Chase or American Express don’t have (like Alaska Airlines). Additionally, Bilt’s program let’s you link your other cards so you can earn Bilt points when using those cards for qualifying purchases (for example, using your Amex Gold to pay for a meal and earning Amex points, but also earning Bilt points on top of that). Pretty sweet if you ask us.
Restaurants – Chase Sapphire Preferred or Bilt
While we don’t eat out often, when we do it is typically when we’re traveling. For dining out at restaurants, we typically use either our Chase Sapphire Preferred or Bilt cards. They both offer 3x points on restaurants globally. It’s easy to rack up points anywhere you go with these two cards. While the American Express Gold Card offers 4x points on dining, there are places that don’t accept American Express, so we’ve found that either the Chase Sapphire (Visa) or the Bilt (Mastercard) are safer bets across the board, especially internationally.
Airline Tickets – American Express Platinum, United and Alaska Cards
What credit card we use to book flights typically boils down to what airline we’re flying. I’ve had a United Mileage Plus card for years, and if we fly United, we use that to maximize the points earnings on United. If we’re flying Alaska, I’ll use my Alaska credit card to maximize those points earnings.
Since we fly United or Alaska the most, it makes sense for us to use these co-branded cards. Plus, they have other perks like discounts on inflight purchases like WIFI and free checked bags. We’ve been able to book business class to and from Europe on points through our earnings on both of these cards.
If we are not flying with either United or Alaska, then we will use our American Express Platinum card. We get 5x times points on the flights we book directly with the airline or through Amex’s portal. The best part is that American Express pools your points across each of their cards, so you can pool the points you earn from the Gold with the points you earn from the Platinum.
We personally get a ton of value of the Platinum which we find offsets the high annual fee (streaming credits, airline fee credits, Uber credits, lounge access, hotel status, hotel perks, etc.). If you’re not loyal to any particular airline or don’t have status, then the Amex Platinum is worth looking into.
Getting Around Town – Chase Sapphire Preferred, American Express Platinum, Bilt
We don’t rent a car often, but when we do, we typically will use either our Amex Platinum (if there is a discount offer) or Chase Sapphire. We tend towards the Sapphire because while both cards offer insurance for rental cars, you earn more points with the Preferred on the rental itself. The Platinum gives us status with multiple rental car companies, which often gets us a free upgrade, so actually having both cards has been a nice combination.
For taxis and ride shares, we will use either the Sapphire Preferred (5x times on Lyft rides, 2x on taxis) or Bilt (same), or pair with our Amex cards (which combined give us $25 a month in Uber credits).
Hotels – American Express Platinum, IHG Premier, Hilton Surpass, Marriott Boundless
We will typically use the co-branded hotel cards or Amex Platinum for booking hotel stays.
To be honest, the Amex Platinum is the card we use for booking hotels the most these days. You get a whole suite of benefits including credits, status, and upgrades just for booking through their portal. You also get 5x points if you book with Amex, which is great earnings. We’ve gotten easily over $1,000 worth of value each of the places we’ve stayed simply by having the Platinum card and booking through their portal (especially if they’re not hotels that offer any kind of loyalty perks). It is especially beneficial for booking upscale hotels that don’t offer any kind of status or points earning like the Four Seasons.
Sometimes, the trip is too short or simply not ideal to maximize the value out of the Platinum card for a hotel. When that’s the case, it really boils down to which hotel brand has a hotel in the location we want to be.
We recently took a trip to Barcelona, and we were able to get a free room upgrade and dining credit at the Kimpton Vividora because of the IHG Platinum Elite status we have through our IHG Premier credit card. Plus, we earned 26x IHG points on the stay.
If we’re going to stay at a Hilton property, we’ve gotten a lot of use out of our Amex Hilton Surpass Card. We had some pretty big expenditures the last couple years, and the Surpass allows you to earn free night certificates based on spend in addition to offering Hilton Gold Status. We were able to parlay that into three free nights in London during the Queen’s funeral a couple years ago, as the free night certificates are good at any Hilton property worldwide if there’s standard room availability.
If we’re staying at a Marriott property, I’ll slap it onto our Marriott Boundless card since it offers 6x points for Marriott stays plus extra bonus points. It’s a great card to rack up Bonvoy points if that’s your jam and we have our eye on staying at a few Marriott properties next trip to Europe.
Keep in mind you can also transfer points to IHG, Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott from Chase, Bilt, and Amex, but the earnings rates will be lower (although there are often transfer bonuses). For example, I was able to transfer Amex points to Hilton at a 100% bonus and booked us in Rome for 35,000 points a night in peak season at the Hilton Cosmopolita. In our view, it’s great to have both co-branded cards and a card like the Amex Platinum since you can pool points to hit whatever redemption you’re aiming for. Again, this all comes down to your preferences and spending habits and what hotels you like to stay at.
A few extra *tips* to make the most out of your points:
1. Regularly check the credit card apps for discount offers and transfer bonuses.
2. If you’re anticipating making a big purchase regardless, open a new card to easily hit the signup bonus spend requirement.
3. Be flexible and open minded. The best redemptions are usually the ones you typically don’t consider.
4. Have fun with it. The whole point of using points and miles is to enjoy yourself and experience new things.
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