Playing The Game: How to get that Free Trip

We’ve been thinking about the best way to show you how to unlock the value of Points & Miles. How about some examples of how you can score a free trip? First, some assumptions:

• Your trip (for two persons) will take place sometime in 2022. We’ll show you how to use your points to cover airfare and hotel.
• You’ll be able to qualify for three cards (current sign-up bonuses in parentheses):
  • Chase Sapphire Preferred card (60,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $4,000 in the first three months)
  • World of Hyatt card (50,000 World of Hyatt points after spending $6,000 in the first six months, including $3,000 in the first three months)
  • The American Express Platinum Card (75,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $5,000 in the first six months)
• You’ll charge an average of $3,500 in total each month to your cards, including–
  • $1,000 per month for groceries (all charged to the Amex Platinum card)
  • $200 per month for restaurants
  • $100 per month for gasoline (all charged to the Amex Platinum card)
  • $1,000 in total for airfare and/or hotels during the nine months

If you follow these guidelines, you should have approximately the following point totals by October 1:

• 76,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points
• 64,000 World of Hyatt points
• 150,000 American Express Membership Rewards points

You should be able to use your American Express Membership Rewards points to book round trip economy airfare anywhere in the US (including Hawaii), Caribbean or Europe. You might have to fly mid-week if you’re going to Hawaii or Europe, but you should still be able to cover the entire airfare with points. If you elect a seat upgrade, those charges can be offset by your $200 annual airline incidental charge credit on the Platinum card.

That leaves us with hotel charges to cover. You can transfer your Ultimate Reward points to Hyatt on a 1:1 basis, which would give you as much as 140,000 World of Hyatt points. Here are some of the hotels at which you could stay for seven nights:

•  The Confidante, Miami Beach
• Hyatt Regency, Orlando
• Hyatt Regency, Bonita Springs, FL
• Royal Palms Resort, Phoenix, AZ
• Park Hyatt Aviara Resort, Carlsbad, CA
• Grand Hyatt, San Francisco
• Andaz London, Liverpool St.
• Hyatt Regency, Paris Etoile
• Hotel SOFIA, Barcelona
• Grand Hyatt, Baha Mar, The Bahamas
• Hyatt Regency Grand Reserve, Puerto Rico

Those are just a few of the wonderful week-long trips you could take where your airfare and hotel would be free. Of course, there are many other places you could go, depending on the season and availability. Or you could spend some of your own money for lodging and stay a second week. Our point is that you have great flexibility and a lot of choices. The value of one of these trips would range anywhere from $3,000 to $5,000.

And the cost to you? The Amex Platinum card carries a $550 annual fee, while the other two cards each charge a $95 fee. But, as you will learn if you read our post on annual fees, the benefits that come with each card equal or exceed the annual fees. Our assumption is that you’re already paying the amounts we assume you’ll charge to each card. . .you just need to focus on converting as much of your monthly spending as possible to your new credit cards. We’ve done it, and you can, too.

There are plenty of other strategies to employ for The Game. You might prefer having a companion fly free with you everywhere you go in the Southwest Airlines system. If so, sign up for a couple of their cards and hit the minimum spend as quickly as possible. Once you exceed 100,000 Rapid Rewards points, you qualify for their Companion Pass, which gives your companion a free ride as long as a seat is available on that flight. If you fly Southwest monthly with that companion, you could save $2,000 to $5,000 per year. And the Pass is good for the remainder of the year in which you earn it PLUS the following calendar year.

There are many ways to play The Game. If you can amass a fair amount of points in the “currency” of your choice, your travel savings can be significant. By applying for the right cards when the sign-up bonus is attractive and shifting as much of our spending as possible to those cards, we have averaged over $10,000 per year in travel savings. That has opened the door for us to explore great places, new and old. Learn more by checking back here and by clicking into the sites we like. . .see our Points & Miles page for those links.