What even are Points and Miles?

Points and Miles for Beginners

Once upon a time I blew ALL my points to pay for one month’s statement balance. I decided to use my THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND Amex points in my portal to pay the $1,800 payment on the card. (For reference: 300,000 points is a LOT of points… like whole family of 6 trip to France or Japan or Dubai, way more than $1,800 worth of travel.) But at the time, I was naive, and pretty pumped.

“No payment for July?! DUH. SCORE.”

*SMACK* NO, Charissa

About 5 months later, I began learning about points and miles from my physical therapist who, when he wasn’t busy helping me rehab my shoulder, was traveling the world with his fiancé on credit card points. I was inspired, but cautiously optimistic. He was doing this as a young, single guy, and I was married with 4 kids. Was it even possible to travel hack with kids? I decided I needed to dive in and see if I could help pay for my upcoming trip to Europe to see Taylor Swift perform in Sweden. Much to my dismay, as I began digging, I realized I actually already had two points earning cards open, and I had wasted ALL the points in the account by using them to pay the statement balance in July.

I died. I cried. I pouted.

Once I stopped moping around regretting my life decisions, I went online and applied for the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Before long I had just enough points to buy our flights to and from Europe for basically free, and I was HOOKED.

In case you were wondering, it only took 140,000 points to fly the 6 of us to and from Europe. So if you’re doing the math, I could have done that TWICE with the points I blew on that $1,800 statement credit. WAHHHH.

Since that first trip to Europe, points and miles have allowed us to take our family on some pretty epic adventures, as well as helped us fund trips to see family, something that’s really important to us. We’ve taken the family to Disney World twice, to Colorado and the Rocky Mountains, to Hawaii for an extra long spring break, to Newport, RI for a summer beach trip, to a family wedding in Savannah, GA, to Times Square NYC, and glamping in Acadia National Park, plus several smaller trips to see family.

That one huge mistake hurt, but it showed me what was possible! So let’s break down what points actually are, so you don’t have to learn it the hard way like I did.

The Basics

Reward credit cards fall into two major groups: cash back cards and points-earning cards. Cash back is pretty self-explanatory, so this post focuses on points-earning cards.

Credit card points are a reward currency, awarded by banks for spending on one of their cards. You earn points at different rates depending on the card and what you’re spending on. Some cards earn more on groceries, others on gas, others on travel itself. For a family running a busy household, that spend adds up fast without you trying. Those numbers get even better if you have a business like we do, but any amount of points earned from normal family spending is enough to help you offset travel expenses and start taking epic adventures with your family.

Once you’ve earned points, there are two ways to redeem them, depending on which card you have:

REDEEM WITHIN THE BANK’S PORTAL

This is the most common path: cash back, gift cards, paying the statement balance (which we’ve just learned is a NO FREAKIN’ WAY, the worst redemption value for your points), or travel booked directly through the bank’s own travel site.

OR

TRANSFER OUTSIDE THE BANK’S PORTAL

Some cards earn points that are transferable to airline and hotel partners. This is where “travel hacking” lives, and it’s usually where you get the most value per point.

Transferable points are exactly how we took that first trip to Europe (and many trips after that). Instead of spending $800+ per person for round trip flights to Europe, I spent 140,000 of my newly earned Chase Ultimate Rewards points instead. That’s $4,800 versus 140,000 points. If you’re doing the math, that means my original 300,000 points could have been worth over $9,000 in this same scenario if I hadn’t blown it on that $1,800 statement balance. (Don’t cry, Babe. Not here.)

Why This Matters More With A Big Family

When people think “travel hacking,” they usually picture a young single person flying business class and staying at high-end hotels around the world. And that’s definitely a version of it. But for me and my family of 6, it just means using the spending we already do for our family and businesses and leveraging that for epic adventures and memories together. We don’t fly business class or always pick the fanciest place we can, because I would rather take the same points and go on 4 trips than 1 super fancy, super splurgey trip. But you do you! If you want to take your whole family in business class across the world, you definitely can!

The opportunity for family adventure is staggering. Here are just a few of our redemptions, big and small, and the type of points we used to get there:

• 3-day park tickets to Disney World, “erased”: Capital One
• 6 round trip flights to Hawaii from DC over Spring Break (peak season): Amex
• 5 nights (buy 4, get the 5th free) at the Grand Wailea Resort in Maui, Hawaii: Amex
• 1 of our 2 rooms on our Disney cruise, “erased”: Capital One
• 5 nights at a budget hotel near my brother’s house for a family trip: Chase
• 3 nights glamping outside Acadia National Park: Chase
• 3 nights getaway for my husband and I at Miraval’s all-inclusive wellness resort in Austin: Chase

What if next year you could take even just ONE of these trips with your family? What if instead of one family vacation, you could take two, or even three? Those are the types of possibilities that make learning this system worth the time and effort.

Getting Started

This is intentionally the short version, getting started is really its own series of posts (coming soon), but the simple steps are:

1. Figure out which card (or cards) fit your family’s spending.

2. Understand whether your points are transferable or portal-only.

3. Start small. Just one card, understood fully, beats five cards you don’t understand and can lose track of.

4. Book your first travel with points.

Questions My Friends and Family Ask Me Most

Will I go into debt to earn points?

Short answer: no, if you’re following one simple rule. You must pay the balance of the card off off IN FULL, every month.

Don’t spend more than you make. Be ruthless with your budget. Not a dollar over what you’re bringing in. If you need a good budgeting tool, I like You Need A Budget. If you don’t already know how to manage your personal finances, start there before you open another credit card. W

Will opening all these cards hurt my credit?

Short answer:
Not in any meaningful way in the long run, but there’s a right way and a wrong way to do make sure of this. Full post coming soon.

Side note to my previous point on managing your finances well – many of these points-earning cards require you to have a pretty decent credit score. If your credit score isn’t great, you’ll need to work on bringing that up. We talk about credit scores in another post, but to summarize, here are some tips: Pay the statement balance every month. Don’t overspend your budget. Never miss a payment. Never close your oldest cards, especially if they’re free to keep them open.

Most Commonly Asked Question: Which Card Should I Get First?

This depends a lot on what you’re family spends the most on. In THIS POST I’ll show you exactly which cards I recommend for newbies, how to leverage the spending you’re already doing to earn points, and how to decide what the best use of points is for your family.

Buckle up, kids! Epic adventures await.