Prioritizing travel is important to our family, but so is saving money. We have a lot of ways we save money on travel (searching for flight and hotel deals, finding budget friendly destinations etc), but using credit card points is our biggest money saver.
We know credit cards can have mixed reviews, but in our experience – if used correctly, can really make a huge difference! If you ever have a question, reach out! I’m happy to show you exactly how we use the points.
Disclaimers
- credit card interest rates are really high! If you are not planning to pay your card off in full each month, using a credit card is likely not the correct route.
- if you use my referral links, I do get a small point incentive at no cost to you. But – I’m only adding referral links to cards we personally use and love – I would not recommend something we don’t 100% love!
- the sign up bonus offers change occasionally – I added what they are now, but it’s possible they may change.
Our Simple Strategy
- Put every single purchase possible on a credit card. Never use cash/debit
- When there are good sign up bonus offers, apply for a new card!
- Review the annual fees of your card each year and make sure you’re still getting value from it to offset
- Strategize the best cards for our family: some cards, both of us have because they are so valuable, while others, only one of us has (specific airline or hotel cards)
- If you want me to put something on my card and pay me back – great!! 🙂 More points!
Below is an example of what we redeemed in 2024 and 2025 (including this gorgeous beach front hotel in Nice, France)
2025 Savings!
Below is a list of things that we did in 2025 and how much we saved by using credit card points!
- $400 – at least 20 lounge visits – free food and drinks saving us meal costs
- $400 – weekend in Florida (flights and hotel)
- $896 – Disney Hotel, rental car, and flights
- $400 – flights to Charlotte for a wedding
- $100 – overnight basketball tournament hotel
- $995 – Krakow Apartment in the center of old town
- $104 – Warsaw hotel (partially covered)
- $516 – Denver hotel & flights
- $90 – hotel in Michigan to see DMB
- $390 – Vienna hotel – 2 rooms
- $308 – flights to Serbia
- $1624 – Weekend in Seattle to see DMB – flights and partial hotel
- $2496 – Trip to Albania – flights
- $978 – Nashville hotel for long weekend
- $115 – Orlando hotel
Minus fees ($1,075)
TOTAL SAVINGS: $8,737 in FREE TRAVEL
2024 Savings!
- $180 – At least 9 lounge visits – free food and drinks saving us meal costs
- $257 – hotel for an overnight soccer tournament
- $400 – Nashville hotel for a weekend getaway
- $1575 – hotels in France (100% free lodging for this trip!)
- $830 – car rental and a swanky hotel in Zurich while in Switzerland
- $705 – 3 nights in hotels in Knoxville and Atlanta before our trip to the beach
- $928 – Minneapolis for an essentially free weekend, flights, rental car and hotel
- $250 – hotel on the long drive back from Disney World
- $200 – Global Entry fee
TOTAL: $5,325
And so far… in 2025 we are over $7,000 redeemed!! This is just points that we are getting from our normal daily spending and from sign up bonuses when we apply for new cards. There are annual fees we are paying, so there is a slight offset (about $700 total) from each year. But even with that, the savings is undeniable!
Just for some travel inspo… here are a few pics of the views from hotels we got for FREE!
Types of Cards
There are 2 main types of travel specific credit cards:
- Co-branded cards
- these are things like hotel or airline branded cards
- the points from these cards can only be used at that specific brand
- these are beneficial if you like to use a certain hotel or airline regularly, but can limit the value you get, because… what if you don’t have a need to book a Delta flight anytime soon
- General travel cards
- these cards give you much more flexibility, earning you points that can be used for hotels, flights, rental cars and more
- you can even use these points to transfer to specific airlines for even more value for your money
- these are the most flexible cards, in our opinion!
Our Favorite Cards
Each of us has quite a few credit cards that have helped us over the years. Below we will share our favorite cards, and why! I’ll also explain ways in which we’ve used these, and the benefits.
Chase Sapphire Preferred
- Annual Fee: $95
- Benefits:
- 75,000 bonus points when you meet min spend (worth $900 in travel) – this is a ton of value from the initial sign up bonus!
- $50 annual hotel credit – each year, you can get $50 off any hotel booked in the travel portal (basically like Expedia)
- 3x points on dining and grocery – makes for a great, every day card
- Free Door Dash deliveries – essential 😉
- Real Life Example: This is my most used card and one of the first travel credit cards I applied for. I’ve used the sign on bonus plus points through normal spending to get the following travel experiences:
- 3 nights free in hotels in California and Oregon ($686 value)
- Flights to Lisbon, Portugal ($1382)
- 2 nights in Istanbul ($466)
- 1 night in a medieval village in France ($375)
- Two other hotel nights $50 off ($100)
- Plus – lots of free door dash!
- Referral Link:
Capital One Venture X
- Annual Fee: $395
- Benefits:
- 75,000 bonus points when you meet min spend (worth $800 in travel)
- $300 annual travel credit – use on anything from hotels to rental cards to flights
- 10,000 annual travel $ (worth $100) – combined with the $300 credit each year, the annual fee is covered!
- Credit for TSA Pre Check – save the hassle of standing in long lines
- Free Lounge Access – you get an awesome Priority Pass Membership, allowing you access to 1,500+ lounges around the world where you can get free food and drinks. ***NOTE – a change was made this year where only the card holder gets in for free (no guests without a fee). We both have this card, so no problems there, but we can’t bring our kids.
- Real Life Example: We love this card. Having access to lounges is a game changer when traveling – just to have a nice place to relax before a flight is amazing.
- Rental car in Denver (using $300 travel credit)
- 2 nights nights a nice downtown Atlanta hotel (using $300 travel credit)
- Flights from Rome to Istanbul for our whole family ($690)
- One night in super expensive city of Zurich – right in the center of town ($400)
- At least 10 visits to lounges for my family with free food and drinks!
- Referral Link:
IHG One Rewards Premier
- Annual Fee: $99
- Benefits:
- 70-100,000 bonus points when you meet min spend. Many hotels book for 10-15k points!!
- Credit for TSA pre check
- Potential room upgrades and free breakfast – we’ve gotten this many times! I just email ahead of time and ask if we can get an upgrade since we are premier members!
- Buy 3 nights get 4th free – great for longer stays
- Free Night Every Year! This perk helps offset the annual fee. Every year, we get a free night in an IHG hotel!
- Real Life Example: This is a great hotel card. There are IHG hotels EVERYWHERE, and we find the value for the money really good on this card. With those bonus points alone this means – without exaggerating, you could book 7 nights in a hotel. This is likely close to $1000 or more in value by my estimates. Like I mentioned, this card has given us a TON of value.
- 5 nights free in hotels in Disney ($1200 value)
- 5 days of free breakfast in Disney ($200)
- 2 nights in Nashville ($500) – this was my 2 free night awards!!
- 3 nights on South Dakota trip ($690)
- Upgrade to HUGE room in Nashville (priceless!)
- Referral Link:
Marriott Bonvoy Boundless
- Annual Fee: $95
- Benefits:
- 3 Free Nights when you meet min spend (plus up to 50k extra points!)
- 3x points on dining, gas and grocery
- Free Night Every Year! This perk helps offset the annual fee. Every year, we get a free night in an Marriott hotel!
- Real Life Example: We really love Marriott hotels. I know many people that are super loyal Marriott members. We tend to find IHG a little bit better bang for your buck, but we always get good value out of this card every year.
- 2 nights free in a gorgeous downtown Atlanta hotel ($480 value)
- 1 night free in Knoxville – walking distance to cute restaurants ($225)
- 2 nights in Minneapolis ($488) – this was my 2 free night awards!!
- Referral Link:
Why Credit Cards Can Help You Travel for FREE
If used correctly, travel credit cards are a great way to get good value for your money. Offsetting travel costs helps us do more of what we love – exploring the world! By carefully tracking what we spend, and the value we get from each card, and optimizing sign up bonuses… credit cards are a game changer for us. Reach out if you want help seeing how they can help you travel!
Note: we also have referrals for: United Airlines, Chase Freedom Flex (cash back card) and more.
