Save Big On Your Next Vacation, Here's How

When you are planning your trip, sometimes it's hard to use miles and points. Depending on where you want to go or if there are certain flights you want or very specific days you want to travel, it may be nearly impossible to use your points and miles.
So what do you do?
A great credit card to have in your toolbox is the Barclays Arrival Plus. Right now, you get 50,000 points bonus for signing up and spending $3000 in the first 90 days which is like a $500 travel credit. Then you get 5% back every time you use the card on travel purchases like airbnb, fees and taxes for airlines, hotels, train ticket etc.
So when we traveled to Costa Rica a few years back, we needed to fly on a certain flight on a certain day. Plus we were going with extended family and they wanted to all fly on the same Delta airlines flight. Delta is not my favorite airline and I don't usually collect miles or points for Delta.
But since I won't pay full price for plane ticket, I had to find a go around.
Here's where the Barclays card came in. I could buy 2 plane tickets and essentially get the 3rd ticket FREE with the bonus and 10% back in travel credit.
My mother in law opened a card too and knocked thousands off the cost of the trip since she picked up many of the hotels and meals.
It's been 2 years since I've had the Barclays card so I just signed up again. Plan to put my property taxes on the card to reach the minimum spend. Even though I will be charged 3% in credit card fees, it's worth it to get a $500 travel credit since I think I will have to buy my husband a one way ticket next summer to meet us in Europe.
That's how you do it....almost FREE family travel!