How To Use Credit Cards To Maximize Points
The travel world is more accessible than ever these days. It’s also more complicated than ever. While there are limitless opportunities to maximize your travel and manage your budget, it takes a lot of research to really know how to master the game. One of the best ways to become a travel pro is to use credit cards and earn points to offset a lot of expensive costs. However, it can be confusing to know where to start. In a time where there’s so many options to earn points and get free flights and hotel stays, I hate to hear of people still paying full price for their travels. The basic idea of a travel credit card is to use it on everyday purchases, and get rewards in the form of points just for putting these purchases on their card. Keep reading to learn about the credit cards I use, the benefits, and the details of some great cards to start earning points for your next trip.
Things to know
- Watch out for annual fees. Most cards have a reasonable $99 annual fee when you sign up for their card, and often a lot of them waive the fee for your first year.
- Pay attention to the spending limit. Make sure when you apply for a card that you’re positive you can hit the spending limit in the given time frame.
- Keep track of your cards in a spreadsheet to know if you want to cancel a card before the annual fee hits again. After you get your initial point bonus, you can decide whether or not to keep that card going or cancel it.
- You don’t have to spend all the money yourself! What I do is use it for my purchases, but I also have my parents use it for their bills and they transfer the money back to me. That way, purchases we would already be doing are put on the card and earning points towards free flights, hotel nights, and more.
Chase Sapphire Preferred
- 100,000 points after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first 90 days.
- $95 annual fee
- Works by transferring your points to eligible travel companies:
Aer Lingus, AerClub
British Airways Executive Club
Emirates Skywards®
Flying Blue AIR FRANCE KLM
Iberia Plus
JetBlue TrueBlue
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards®
United MileagePlus®
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
IHG® Rewards Club
Marriott Bonvoy
World of Hyatt®
AAdvantage Citi Platinum Select
- 50,000 points for $2,500 in purchases
- Annual $99 fee, waived for the first year
- Travel benefits: first checked bag free on domestic flights, preferred boarding on American Airlines, 25% savings on inflight food & bev when you use your card
AAdvantage Aviator Business Barclays Mastercard
- 50,000 miles after spending $1,000 on purchases in the first 90 days. Additional 30,000 after spending a total of $6,000 on purchases within the first 12 months.
- Annual $95 fee
- Travel benefits: first checked bag free on domestic flights, 25% savings on inflight food & bev when you use your card, preferred boarding on American Airlines
Emirates Skywards Rewards Elite Mastercard
- Annual $99 fee
- 30,000 points for $3,000 minimum spending limit in the first 90 days
- *To retain Silver status after the first year, cardholders will have to spend $20,000 on the card during the course of the card membership year
JetBlue Barclays Mastercard
- 10,000 points after spending $1,000 in the first 90 days
- No annual fee
- Travel benefits: 50% savings on inflight food & bev when you use your card, points never expire, no blackout dates on JetBlue flights
Amex Hilton Honors Express
- 100,000 points after spending $1,000 in purchases in the first 90 days. Additional 50,000 points after spending an additional $4,000 in the first 6 months.
- No annual fee
My best advice: don’t be overwhelmed by all this information. Also, don’t be afraid of credit cards. The first step is to choose what you want to be earning points for: do you want airline miles, or hotel points? You can definitely choose more than one card, but the next step is to figure out what you can reasonably spend in the given time frame; you want to make sure that you can realistically hit the spending limit to get the point bonuses. Credit cards can be very intimidating, especially when all you hear about is the horrors of credit card debt. In reality, it’s very easy to stay on top of your credit card payments. Each card has an app so you can check your balances in your phone. You can also get into the practice of paying it off as soon as you put a purchase on it. All in all, it’s a really easy way to earn points for purchases you’ll already be making. Why not get something in return to make your travels a little easier!
