Summer is here, but you should be thinking about next summer!

Summer has arrived! I took my son to the beach yesterday and it was packed. You could smell the sunscreen and barbecue in the air. I love summer! And we have a big summer trip planned for next month. Woohoo!
But guess what? I'm already thinking about next summer's trip and the holidays 2018. Why? Because if you want to take advantage of award travel with a family, the secret is to plan ahead and I mean, way ahead.
I usually tell my clients to plan about 18 months in advance. You can change your plans or narrow your focus, but you need to make a generalized plan.
So my family and I were talking the other night about next summer vacation plans and due to the kid's summer plans, a big summer 2018 trip is probably out. So we moved on to the holidays 2018. My daughter is headed back east for college so a warm holiday vacation seems like a good idea.
Where should we go? I'm always on the hunt for new countries as a I have a personal goal of 50 countries by the end of my 50th year. Combine that with a warm climate for the holidays and we focused on Central America or the Carribean. Both great vacation spots and both are accessible using American Airlines.
Now our focus is narrowed so we can look around for credit card bonus offers that will help us reach this goal.
We have a big purchase coming up in July, first college tuition payment. Yikes! With any big purchase, I run through the pros and cons of putting that purchase on the credit card. You always have to weigh whether paying a convenience fee for using the credit card and is worth it. It's not usually worth it just to put a large purchase on the credit card for points if you will be charged a fee, but if you are eligible for a bonus then it may make sense.
So for her college tuition payment, I decided it would make sense to put part of the payment on the credit card and increase my American Airlines miles.
I'm over the 5/24 rule for Chase so those cards are out for me. I looked at other banks offering cards and the highest bonus right now is the Citi Advantage Platinum Select. That card offers a 60,000 bonus for $3,000 minimum spend and the $95 annual fee is waived for the first year. There is a business version and personal version, but you can only have this card once every 2 years and still earn the bonus.
If I put the minimum spend on the card with the college tuition payment, I'm looking at approximately $90 in fees. But 60,000 miles is worth 2 domestic air tickets or 2 tickets to Panama City from LAX valued at $682 each.
Now we are talking! $90 is a small price to pay for that value.
I also decided to have my daughter apply for her first credit card now that she is 18 years old through our bank. It's a student card, but comes with a $200 travel credit which will help pay for her flights home from college. It also will establish her credit history. More on this in another post.
Planning early pays off! Since you can book airline tickets 335 days in advance, you need to be ready with your stash of points and miles if you want to do almost free family travel.