How To Get Started With Miles And Points

For the past 5 years, I have been talking to you about how to travel as a family using points and miles. This weekend, I traveled to New York City last minute. Check my blog post on how to travel last minute with points and miles. 

But on the way home, I sat next to a young woman whose mom had just passed away suddenly. 

So she is now flying every few weeks from San Diego to Chicago to resettle her father and pack up her mother's belongings. A tragic story in itself. 

 I asked her if she is using points and miles to buy her plane tickets, she said no. I said you do have a frequent flier number so you are at least collecting miles? Yes, she said. Do you always fly the same airline? She said no and added that she had to pay $70 for checked bags. She told me she even looked into flying Spirit. 

I told her about the blog and she said she was just thinking that she should open a credit card. I'm writing this article to help her get started. I don't know her name so I'll call her Sarah. 

In this situation, there are a few ways to go. I call it leveraged spending which to me means that you are making every purchase, purchases that you would make anyway, work as hard as you are. So for Sarah, she is buying plane tickets every few weeks so how can we leverage that spending to get her a few free tickets or collect points/miles for an awesome trip in the future. 

1. Apply for a Capital One Venture card with a 50,000 sign up bonus for a $3,000 minimum spend and a $95 annual fee waived for the first year. Sarah should charge everything to this card including her next few flights. She will get the bonus and then can use it to "erase" at least one flight if not two flights to Chicago.  When you log into your Capital One account, you will see any travel charges listed and the points needed to "erase" them. If you fly various airlines or use trains or airbnb, then this card will do the trick. 

2. If Sarah decides to stick to a particular airline, she may want to try a co-branded credit card like the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select credit card. She would get 40,000 bonus miles with a $2,000 minimum spend and the $95 annual fee is waived the first year. She would get a FREE checked bag and preferred boarding. United Airlines and Southwest also offer co-branded cards. 

3. Another option may be to open a Starwood American Express or Chase Sapphire Preferred.  Both of these cards come with bonus offers for a minium spend. You can use the points to transfer to dozens of airlines for FREE flights or hotels for FREE rooms. 

I hope Sarah reads this. Though I didn't get her name, I did give her my website address. Prayers and hugs go out to Sarah and her family. 

That's how we do it at almost FREE family travel.