Are earning and using credit card points for travel worth it? I would answer that question with a resounding yes. For example, my wife and I were able to use credit card points to book 14 nights at hotels and 8 one way flights for a total of $155 on a 17 day trip this summer.
This post isn’t to brag about what we were able to do with credit card points. It is to show you one example of what you can do when using credit card points to travel. Using points allows you to save money when traveling. It also allows you to do more things on your trips and to travel in ways that you wouldn’t, otherwise.
In this blog post, I want to share with you how my wife and I earned numerous credit card points, why we got certain points, how we used the points, how much money we saved on our trip, and some lessons I learned along the way.
Credit Card Points We Used
Hilton Honors Points
Tonya and I got a Hilton Honors Card about 10 years ago. We had some points on the card that we hadn’t used. We used them on this trip for one of our stays.
- Why these points
I originally got this card when I first dabbled into credit card points. There were points leftover from when we first got the card.
IHG Points
There were two different credit cards that we got to earn the IHG points. Tonya got the IHG Premier credit card. There was a 140,000 point sign up bonus on the card when she got it. We had to spend $3,000 in the first 3 months to earn the sign up bonus.
I got the IHG Premier Business card and it also had a 140,000 point sign up bonus. We had to spend $4,000 in the first 3 months to earn the bonus. We ended up with just over 302,000 points between the two of us after earning the sign up bonuses and spending on the cards.
Part of our trip was spent in Glacier National Park. It was a beautiful park and I highly recommend visiting it. I have a 3 day itinerary that we did while in the park that you can read. You can also checkout the 10 hikes that we went on while in the park.
- Why these points
We got IHG cards because there was a Holiday Inn Express 45 minutes from the west entrance of Glacier National Park. We also stayed two nights in Bozeman and one night in West Yellowstone using IHG points.
Southwest Rapid Reward Points
I took out two Southwest Airlines credit cards which earn Southwest Rapid Reward points. The first card was the SW Premier Business card. The sign up bonus on the card was 60,000 points. We had to spend $3,000 in the first 3 months to earn the bonus.
I also got the Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus Credit Card. It had an elevated 75,000 point sign up bonus. To earn the bonus, we needed to spend $3,000 in the first 3 months. Between the two cards, we ended up with 142,000 Rapid Reward points after earning the sign up bonuses and spending on the cards.
- Why these points
We got SW Airline points since we wanted to earn the SW Companion Pass. The pass allows you to bring a companion with you on a flight, as long as there is availability, only paying taxes and fees. Taxes and fees on domestic flights are $5.60 one way.
We used the points we earned from the cards to pay for my flights. I just had to pay the $5.60 in fees for each one way flight. We ended up paying $44.80 for 8 one way flights.
If you want to learn more about how to earn and use the Southwest Companion Pass, you can go to my post to read all about it.
Chase Ultimate Reward Points
Over the last few years, Tonya and I have taken out numerous cards and have earned quite a few Chase Ultimate Reward points. A few of the cards that we have gotten over the years include: Sapphire Preferred, Freedom Unlimited, Ink Business Preferred, Business Unlimited, and Business Cash cards just to name a few of them. Each one of the cards have different sized bonuses and amounts that you need to spend to earn the sign up bonus.
- Why these points
Chase Ultimate Rewards are some of the best points to have in the credit card points hobby. You can transfer the points to 11 airlines and 3 hotel programs. Hyatt hotels are one of the best transfer partners. We transferred points to Hyatt to book a number of stays.
Total Points vs. Cash Breakdown
Hilton Honors Points
We had a one night stay at the Embassy Suites Columbus Airport. This was the lowest redemption that we had on the trip.
Overall Hilton Points Redeemed– 40,000
Overall Cash Value– $134.54
IHG Points
We had a 4 night stay at the Kalispell Holiday Inn Express & Suites. You get the 4th night free when using points with IHG.
Points Redeemed– 167,000
Cash Value– $1,692.69
We spent 2 nights at the Belgrade Holiday Inn Express & Suites. One of the nights we used a free night certificate.
Points Redeemed– 54,000
Cash Value– $683.25
We spent one night at the Holiday Inn in West Yellowstone.
Points Redeemed– 62,000
Cash Value– $455.54
Overall IHG Points Redeemed– 283,000
Overall Cash Value– $2,831.48 – $110 Points Transfer Fee (I address this fee in “Lessons Learned and Tips”) = $2,721.48
Chase Ultimate Reward Points
We had 3 different stays in Hyatt Hotels on the trip. We transferred our Ultimate Reward points to Hyatt to cover these stays.
We spent 4 nights at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa. I booked the VIP Suite to surprise Tonya. It was a beautiful room and resort.
Tip: A nice perk when using Hyatt points at resorts is the fact that you don’t have to pay resort fees. It saved us $160 on our stay by using points.
Points Redeemed– 96,000
Cash Value– $3,141.26 + $160 Resort Fee Savings = $3,301.26
We had a one night stay at the Hyatt Place Colorado Springs/Garden of the Gods.
Points Redeemed– 9,500
Cash Value– $188.53
Our last stay was at the Hyatt Place Denver Airport for one night.
Points Redeemed– 8,000
Cash Value– $178.91
Overall Chase Points Redeemed– 113,500
Overall Cash Value– $3,668.70
Southwest Points
We had 4 one way flights on our trip. I used points for my flights and Tonya didn’t have to because of the Companion Pass.
Columbus to Bozeman
Points Redeemed– 14,031
Cash Value– $420
Bozeman to Albuquerque
Points Redeemed– 13,631
Cash Value– $400
Albuquerque to Denver
Points Redeemed– 4,160
Cash Value– $138
Denver to Columbus
Points Redeemed– 10,415
Cash Value– $300
Overall Southwest Airlines Points Redeemed– 42,237
Overall Cash Value– $1,258.00 – $44.80 Taxes and Fees = $1,213.20
Total Overall Cash Value– $7,737.92
Annual Fees: What we paid and was it worth it?
It would be awesome to get all kinds of points without paying annual fees. There are cards that have no annual fees but most of the time that isn’t the case.
Even though we paid annual fees on these cards, they come with perks that make it very worth while. For example, the IHG Premier credit card comes with a free night certificate. Even though we paid an annual fee of $99 on the card, we got way more than $99 worth of value from the free night certificate.
IHG Premier Card– $99
IHG Business Premier Card– $99
Southwest Premier Business Card– $99
Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus Card– $69
Total Annual Fees- $461
If you subtract the annual fees from the value we got from using the points, we would still have $7,276 in value. If someone came to you and said that if you gave them $461, they would give you over $7,700 back, would you do it? I truly hope that you said yes.
As you can see, we were able to save a lot of money even when paying annual fees on the cards. Those savings allowed us to do things on the trip that we wouldn’t be able to do, otherwise. For example, we took a balloon ride in Albuquerque, went to a Red Rocks concert, took a Red Bus Tour in Glacier National Park and stayed in a VIP Suite at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort and Spa to name just a few of the things.
Lessons Learned and Tips
- The one mistake I made was transferring points from my IHG account to my wife’s IHG account. I had to transfer 22,000 points so that we could book one of our stays. You have to pay $5 for every 1,000 points that you transfer. You don’t have to pay if you have top level Diamond status or if you are an IHG Business Rewards member.
The easy way to get around the fee is by becoming an IHG Business Rewards member. It is free to sign up for the program. I knew there was a way to transfer for free but I thought it was by having the IHG Business card. So, it was a $110 mistake that I made.
- When deciding what cards that you want to get to help you travel, you need to decide what your goals are and what credit cards will help you reach your goals. Flexible points like Chase Ultimate Rewards are usually the best way to begin. Flexible points allow you to transfer points to various programs.
Co-Branded cards should then be your next level of cards. We got the Southwest and IHG cards for specific reasons for this trip. I have a post about how to credit card travel hack that you can reference to help you to pick out cards.
Final Thoughts
As it comes to credit card points, I wish I would’ve gotten into the hobby much sooner than I have. The trip that Tonya and I took was truly enhanced because of using points. We were able save a lot of money which allowed us to do many more paid activities on the trip, as well as, stay at a very nice hotel.
I hope that this post has given you some idea of what you can do when you use credit card points to travel. I also hope that it has shown you that you can travel more when using credit card points.
If you have any questions, I would love to hear from you so please leave a comment.
You can go to my travel blog Travelwidstom if you want to learn how to save on travel, travel itineraries, how to earn and maximize credit card points and miles and more.
