Traveling in Style
Sometimes it’s the journey itself, not just the destination.
Twenty years ago, my family started using airline, hotel, and credit card points to help us plan more frequent and longer vacations. It worked pretty well, but it took us years to earn enough points for those trips. Since we wanted to travel more often and visit far-off destinations while still experiencing comfort during our flights and hotel stays, I started looking for better ways to accrue those points.
Several years ago I was able to book three first-class tickets to Europe on American Airlines by combining flown miles with credit card points. We all thoroughly enjoyed the lay-flat seats, abundance of personal space, and ability to arrive at our destination well-rested and ready to begin our adventures.
In the years since, we have shifted from using an airline credit card to one from American Express and then to several from a few different banks, in order to collect points that we could use for multiple airlines as well as a variety of hotels. Our last trip abroad had us flying in Business Class seats on Air France to Copenhagen, and returning home on British Airways, also in lie-flat Business Class seats on the huge, double-decker Airbus A380. Again, we were well rested and able to hit the ground running once we reached our destination, and overall we were able to do and see more during our trip because we no longer spent time recovering from the long flights.
On a recent trip to New York, we were able to stay at the Park Hyatt, a hotel that routinely lists rooms between $900-$1200 per night, for free by using Hyatt points. My family has also booked trips at the Grand Hyatt in Kauai Philadelphia Marriott and the Park Hyatt Paris Vendome, all with points.
My upcoming trip is now booked in Business Class on Air France with seats paid for with points.
How am I doing this? Well, the short answer lies in applying for the right credit cards - the kind that provide a large sign-up bonus if you meet a set spend within a few months. If you open up a few cards, it’s possible to quickly earn enough points to book international First Class or Business seats to amazing destinations all over the world. These cards often have an annual fee, but considering the thousands of dollars my family has saved on airfare I’m okay with that. A few of those cards also give us lounge access in airports all over the country, another perk we really enjoy.
Some cards are better than others, depending on how and where you want to travel. Stay tuned - I’ll share more about the cards I use to get travel points in another post!
Would you prefer to fly first class, or sit in economy and take even more vacations? The sky’s the limit!
