Real Client Case Study: Building a Points Strategy from Scratch

Real Client Case Study: Building a Points Strategy from Scratch

Recently I sat down with a new client to audit her credit card setup and figure out how she could earn and redeem points more effectively. Here's exactly what we went through — and what we decided.

Her Starting Point 📋

• Cards she holds: Chase Sapphire Preferred, Delta Amex Gold, Wells Fargo no-annual-fee card
• Airlines she flies: Primarily Delta, but price-sensitive — so JetBlue, Frontier, and Spirit (RIP ✈️) make regular appearances
• Big recurring expenses: Rent and tuition (paid twice a year, but may incur a 3% credit card fee)
• Home airport: Salt Lake City (SLC)

She was using the Sapphire Preferred for almost everything and the Delta Amex only for Delta purchases. No specific trips on the horizon yet.

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The Strategy: Go Deep on Chase Ultimate Rewards 💳

Since she has no destination locked in, flexible points are her best friend right now. She already has a small stash of Chase Ultimate Rewards from her Sapphire Preferred, so we decided to build on that foundation rather than start somewhere new.

One big win here: Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer 1:1 to JetBlue — one of her go-to airlines. That's a genuinely useful transfer partner given her flying habits.

💡 Quick tip: The Chase Sapphire Preferred includes a $50 annual hotel credit when you book through the Chase Travel Portal. With a $95 annual fee, that brings your real cost down to $45.

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The New Card Conversation: Freedom Unlimited vs. Freedom Flex

Both are no-annual-fee Chase cards that funnel points into the same Ultimate Rewards bucket — meaning they work with her Sapphire Preferred, not separately from it. You can read about how to combine CUR points here. 

Chase Freedom Unlimited

• 1.5x points on all purchases (better baseline than the Sapphire Preferred)
• 3x on dining and drugstores
• Current offer: 20,000 points after $500 spend 🎉

Chase Freedom Flex

• Rotating 5x quarterly bonus categories (this quarter includes Amazon — easy way to stack up to 7,500 bonus points fast)
• 3x on dining and drugstores
• 1x on everything else
• Current offer: 20,000 points after $500 spend 🎉

Both are worth considering — the right pick depends on whether she prefers a consistent flat rate or wants to actively track and maximize rotating categories.

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Two Free Accounts Worth Opening 🛍️

We also talked about signing up for Rakuten and Bilt:

• Rakuten — shop through their portal and earn cash back or points on purchases you'd make anyway. Use a referral link to get $50 or 2,500 Bilt points after your first $50 purchase.
• Bilt — lets you transfer points to dozens of different airlines and hotels. You can also open a Bilt credit card to earn points on rent payments with no transaction fees, but it's a bit complicated so we decided to table this one for right now. 

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What About the Delta Amex? 🤔

We discussed cancelling it. Here's the logic:

• $150 annual fee
• She rarely uses it
• It's not her oldest card, so the credit score impact would be minimal

Bottom line: keeping a card "just in case" when it costs $150/year and sits in a drawer isn't worth it.

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Where Things Stand

She's in a solid position. By consolidating around Chase Ultimate Rewards, adding a no-annual-fee earning card, and plugging into Rakuten and Bilt, she'll be sitting on a healthy stash of flexible points whenever she's ready to book something. No trip needed yet — just a smart setup so the options are there when she wants them. 🗺️

Want more personal help using points and miles for almost FREE travel? Join my Travel Coaching Program and we will design your personal strategy to travel for almost FREE and guide you through the process. Right now, you can use the promo code "FREETRAVEL" to get $50 off the program. 

Or you can book a consulting call with us for just $100. I would love to help you make priceless family memories affordable. 

***In honor of every new paid client, we will make a donation of 10% to one of our favorite charities.

How Transfer Bonuses Can Stretch Your Points Further 🚀

One of the smartest ways to get more value out of your flexible points is to transfer them to airline and hotel partners. And here's a little bonus (pun intended) — almost every month, one or more partners run a transfer bonus ranging anywhere from 10% to 80%. That kind of boost can make a real difference. 💪

Not every transfer partner is worth your points even with a bonus, but the good ones become genuinely great when a promotion hits.

This Month's Standout Deal 🌟

Chase Ultimate Rewards is currently offering a 20% bonus on transfers to Air Canada Aeroplan — and this one is worth acting on. On the flip side, IHG even with a 70% bonus is not usually a good value, however, if you need to top off your account, it might be good option with the bonus. 

Aeroplan consistently offers strong redemption rates, and it's one of the best ways to book flights on United Airlines without actually using United miles.

Here's a real example to show you what that looks like:

Booking Method	Cost
Aeroplan miles (San Diego → Denver)	15,000 miles
Chase points transferred to Aeroplan (with 20% bonus)	13,000 points
United miles for the same flight	15,000 miles
Chase Travel Portal	~18,000 points

Transferring Chase points to Aeroplan with the current bonus saves you money compared to every other option though you will pay $47 in taxes. That's a real win. 🎯

How to Transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards Points 📲

It's easier than you might think. Here's how to do it:

1. Log into Chase and click "Redeem Points" — the same button you'd use for the travel portal
2. Select "Transfer Partners"
3. Enter your loyalty number to link your accounts
   
   
   
4. Enter the number of points you want to transfer (in increments of 1,000) — for our example, you'd transfer 13,000 Chase points to receive 15,000 Aeroplan miles
   
   
   
5. Confirm the transfer — it usually processes immediately, though occasionally it can take a couple of days

Once the transfer goes through, pop over to the Aeroplan website to confirm the miles landed in your account, then book your flight. Done! ✅

Keep an eye on these transfer bonuses — they rotate regularly and can quietly deliver some of the best value in the points world. 👀

Want more personal help using points and miles for almost FREE travel? Join my Travel Coaching Program and we will design your personal strategy to travel for almost FREE and guide you through the process. Right now, you can use the promo code "FREETRAVEL" to get $50 off the program. 

Or you can book a consulting call with us for just $100. I would love to help you make priceless family memories affordable. 

***In honor of every new paid client, we will make a donation of 10% to one of our favorite charities. 

Atmos Rewards Is Back With a 100,000-Point Bonus 🎉

Atmos Rewards (Alaska Airlines) just brought back its 100,000-point bonus offer — and this one is worth paying attention to.

I usually steer my clients toward flexible point programs like Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Amex. But after jumping on this offer last year, I can confirm that Atmos Rewards holds its own when it comes to flexibility — especially for families.

Why Atmos Points Are More Flexible Than You'd Think ✈️

Alaska Airlines partners with 13 alliance members, including some heavy hitters:

• American Airlines
• British Airways
• Aer Lingus
• Qatar Airways
• Singapore Airlines
• Cathay Pacific
• Fiji Airways
• Finnair
• Iberia
• Japan Airlines
• Malaysia Airlines
• Qantas
• Royal Air Maroc
• Royal Jordanian
• Sri Lankan Airlines

That's a lot of booking options. To put it to the test, I ran a few searches:

• San Francisco → Sydney, Australia — multiple options on Fiji Airways and American Airlines ✅
• New York → Madrid, Spain — solid choices on Iberia and American Airlines ✅

• Seattle → Tokyo — non stop even business class bookable on Hawaiian Airlines  ✅

Could you sometimes find a better deal booking directly, say on Iberia using Avios? Possibly. But Atmos points shine when you need options fast. A client of mine needed a last-minute flight to Austin — cash prices were brutal, but we found a redemption for just 12,500 Atmos points. That's the kind of win that makes keeping a points stash worthwhile. 🙌

The Two Card Offers Right Now 💳

Summit Card — 100,000-point bonus

• Spend $6,500 in the first 3 months
• $395 annual fee
• Perks: 50% flight discount code, 8 lounge passes, and a 25,000-point global companion award

Ascent Card — 80,000-point bonus

• Spend $4,000 in 4 months
• $95 annual fee
• Perks: 50% flight discount code, $99 companion fare, and one free checked bag for you and up to 6 guests

Both are genuinely strong offers. Whether you go big with the Summit or keep it lean with the Ascent, having a healthy Atmos points balance gives you real booking power when you need it most. 🗺️

Want more personal help using points and miles for almost FREE travel? Join my Travel Coaching Program and we will design your personal strategy to travel for almost FREE and guide you through the process. Right now, you can use the promo code "FREETRAVEL" to get $50 off the program. 

Or you can book a consulting call with us for just $100. I would love to help you make priceless family memories affordable. 

***In honor of every new paid client, we will make a donation of 10% to one of our favorite charities. 

You Have the Points—So Why Are You Still Paying Cash for Flights? ✈️

Both new clients I met with this past week had a serious stash of points and miles—and were still planning to pay cash for their next flights. 🤔✈️

The first client had 800,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points sitting in their account… and had just purchased a flight to the East Coast. When I asked why, she said she was saving them for a “big trip someday.”

Family trip to Finland to see the Northern Lights

The second client? 2 million Amex points. Yes, really—two million. And they were about to pay cash for round-trip flights to Europe.

And here’s the kicker: both are still actively earning points every month.

This isn’t unusual. I’ve seen it over and over:

• A client with 100,000 Chase points planning to pay cash to fly to California
• Another with 275,000 Chase points doing the same for a West Coast trip

So what’s going on? Why do smart, points-savvy people collect all these miles… and then not use them?

I asked ChatGPT, and the answer lines up exactly with what I see in real life:

1. Mental accounting
Points feel like a “special” currency—too valuable to touch. Cash feels easier to part with. If you have a steady paycheck, paying $500 for a flight doesn't seem like as much as paying 50,000 points even though it's the same value. 

2. Loss aversion
It took effort to earn those points, so spending them feels like losing something.

3. Endowment effect
Once you have a big balance, it starts to feel like something to protect. People hold out for a “perfect” redemption that rarely happens.

4. Optimization paralysis
Transfer partners, award charts, dynamic pricing…it can get complicated fast. When people aren’t sure they’re getting the best value, they freeze—and default to cash.

5. Future fantasy vs. present reality
Points get saved for a dream trip someday, while real trips—family visits, college tours, quick getaways—get paid in cash.

Here’s the reality:
Points and miles don’t get more valuable over time. They quietly lose value. Meanwhile, your travel life is happening now.

Once we talked it through, each of these clients made a shift:

• 800,000 points → used 100,000 for a round-trip flight to Europe ✈️
• 100,000 points → used 40,000 for a round trip California trip 🌴
• 225,000 points → used 40,000 for a round trip West Coast flight 🌊
• 2 million points → used 492,000 for two round trip business class flights to Europe 💺✨

Did they use their points well? Yes. The round trip business class flights to Europe priced out at $14,000.  
Do they still have plenty left? Also yes. That same client has 1.5 million Amex points left. 
Are they still earning more? Absolutely.

Over the water bungalow in Moorea paid with points

And maybe most importantly—they’re actually enjoying the benefits of what they’ve earned.

If you’re sitting on a pile of points and thinking about paying cash for your next flight, let’s take a look before you book. A quick consult can save you thousands of points—or help you finally use them with confidence.

Want more personal help using points and miles for almost FREE travel? Join my Travel Coaching Program and we will design your personal strategy to travel for almost FREE and guide you through the process. Right now, you can use the promo code "FREETRAVEL" to get $50 off the program. 

Or you can book a consulting call with us for just $100. I would love to help you make priceless family memories affordable. 

***In honor of every new paid client, we will make a donation of 10% to one of our favorite charities. 

Client Success Story! 100,000 Point Bonus Earned

 

Love getting emails from clients about their wins! This one made my day because it’s the first time this client has used points and miles for a trip—and it’s a big one. 🎉

They’re heading to Europe to celebrate their anniversary. The plan starts in Amsterdam during tulip season 🌷, then a flight to Prague, followed by a train ride to Vienna. Not a bad way to celebrate an anniversary!

Honestly, I wish I could tag along.

They reached out because they had some Chase Ultimate Rewards points but weren’t sure how to use them effectively. They wanted help turning those points into a memorable anniversary trip to Europe.

We talked through the best strategy: how to use their Chase points for flights, how to structure the itinerary, and how to leverage the rest of their travel spending to earn even more points that could offset additional costs.

Here’s what we put together:

✈️ Flights

• 75,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points covered two round-trip flights from LAX to Amsterdam

🏨 Hotels

• $300 Capital One Venture X annual travel credit applied toward a hotel stay

💳 Additional travel

• 100,000+ Capital One bonus points available for hotels and their flight from Amsterdam to Prague

We estimate this client will save approximately $3,000 on their anniversary trip! Woohoo! 😄

And that brings up a great question: What can you do with 100,000 Capital One points?

Quite a lot.

Depending on transfer bonuses and award availability, that balance could potentially cover multiple flights to Europe or several hotel stays.

Here are a few of the ways we like to use Capital One points:

✈️ Transfer to airline partners for award flights
🏨 Transfer to hotel partners for hotel stays
💳 Use the travel purchase eraser to offset travel charges
🌍 Book through the Capital One Travel Portal

You can read here about how I used Capital One points to get a free rental car and Lavatubing tour in Tahiti or how I used Capital One points for a 2 week family trip to Ireland. 

One thing we generally don’t recommend: redeeming points for gift cards or statement credits. Those options typically deliver the lowest value for your points.

If this is your first time using points and miles, this is exactly the kind of strategy that can turn a pile of credit card points into a memorable trip. And honestly, there’s nothing better than seeing it all come together. ✈️🌍

Want more personal help using points and miles for almost FREE travel? Book a 1:1 consulting call, download my ebook, custom tracker or Join my Travel Coaching Program and we will design your personal strategy to travel for almost FREE and guide you through the process.

Right now, you can use the promo code "FREETRAVEL" to get $50 off the coaching program. I would love to help you make priceless family memories affordable. 

*For every new client, we will donate 10% of the proceeds to one of our favorite charities.

How To Get Thousands of FREE Airline Miles Without Spending Extra $

I talk about shopping portals all the time because they’re one of the easiest ways to earn airline miles and hotel points on spending you’re already doing. 🛍️✈️

Today I want to show you a few real examples — plus some bonus offers that can help you stack even more points and miles.

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Rakuten is my current favorite shopping portal 💻✨

Rakuten.com has become my go-to for earning extra rewards on everyday purchases.

For example: I buy cat food from Chewy.com every few months. If I take the extra step of starting at Rakuten and then clicking through to Chewy, I’m still shopping at the exact same website — but now I earn:

• 2% cash back from Rakuten

• Plus 1x–2x points from my credit card

Chewy is listed on a bunch of shopping portals, so it’s always smart to check cashbackmonitor.com before you buy. When I checked, most portals were offering 1x points or miles at Chewy… but the Chase Freedom portal was offering 2x. 👀

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The best part: Rakuten can pay out in points 🎯

Rakuten lets you earn rewards as:

• Cash back

• American Express Membership Rewards points

• Bilt points

I linked my Rakuten account to Bilt, so every 4 months my Rakuten rewards automatically transfer into my Bilt account.

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Quick Bilt refresher (because these points are legit)

Bilt points are a newer flexible currency — similar to Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex, Citi, and Capital One.

You can transfer Bilt points to airline and hotel partners like:

• Southwest

• Alaska

• Iberia

• Virgin

• Flying Blue (Air France/KLM)

• Hyatt

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A huge current Rakuten offer: Kraken 💰

Right now on Rakuten, the crypto platform Kraken is offering:

$150 back on a $225 deposit and purchase

If you’re earning in Bilt points, that’s essentially 15,000 Bilt points (since it transfers 1:1).

To put that into perspective:

• My last flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles cost 4,500 Alaska points

• The one before that cost 2,500 Southwest points

• And yes, I brought a companion along for free 😅

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Want to stack the deal even more? 🔥

If you open a Rakuten account using my referral link, you’ll get an extra 5,000 points after you spend $50.

So if you did the Kraken offer, you’d be looking at 20,000 Bilt points total.

And just to show how real this is: transfer those points to FlyingBlue.com and you can potentially book a one-way economy ticket on Air France from Los Angeles to Athens. Seriously.

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Not into crypto? Totally fair 😄

If crypto isn’t your thing, you can still use the referral offer and earn the bonus on a normal purchase.

I used it once to send flowers to a friend as a thank-you and earned the 5,000 points that way. You could also use it on something basic like… cat food. 🐾

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More bonus offers to earn points on everyday life ✈️🍽️🚗

United + Instacart 🛒

If you link your Instacart account with your United account and make a grocery purchase within 60 days, United will give you:

• 500 miles for free

If you’re a new Instacart customer and make 4 orders in 8 weeks, United will give you:

• 5,000 miles

I just did this and added another stack. I clicked on Rakuten.com which was offering 3x points on Instacart then placed an order with my Capital One Venture X to earn 2x points and 500 bonus United miles. Woohoo! 

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Lyft partnerships 🚙

Link your Hilton, Alaska, Bilt, or United account with Lyft and earn points every time you ride.

Prefer Uber? You can link Uber + United for extra miles too.

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Airbnb miles 🏡

• Book through Delta Airbnb to earn Delta miles

• You can also earn British Airways Avios on Airbnb stays through their earning portal

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Rental car miles 🚗

I’ve linked my Budget Rental account to my Southwest Airlines account — so every rental earns me 500 Southwest miles.

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VRBO + United 🧳

United also has a partnership with VRBO, so you can earn United miles on stays.

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Dining points through IHG + OpenTable 🍷

On the IHG website, you can access OpenTable and earn:

• 150 IHG points every time you dine out

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The takeaway

None of these require extra spending — they just require one extra click or a quick account link. And over time, these little wins can add up to real flights and hotel nights. 😎

There are even more offers like this out there, so check the websites (or social pages) for your favorite brands and see who they partner with for rewards.

Want more personal help using points and miles for almost FREE travel? Book a 1:1 consulting call, download my ebook, custom tracker or Join my Travel Coaching Program and we will design your personal strategy to travel for almost FREE and guide you through the process.

Right now, you can use the promo code "FREETRAVEL" to get $50 off the coaching program. I would love to help you make priceless family memories affordable. 

*For every new client, we will donate 10% of the proceeds to one of our favorite charities.

Have You Used Your Chase Sapphire Preferred $50 Travel Credit Yet?

Have you used your $50 Chase Sapphire Preferred promotion in the Chase Travel Portal yet? ⏳ It expires in June 2026, so it’s worth using sooner rather than later.

Last year, Chase started giving new (and “new-ish”) Sapphire Preferred cardholders a free $50 credit to use on any purchase in the Chase Travel Portal — and now that promo is approaching its expiration date. Don’t let it quietly disappear!

Where to find the Chase Travel Portal 🧳

The Chase Travel Portal lives inside your Chase.com account and includes:

• ✈️ Flights

• 🏨 Hotels

• 🎟️ Activities

• 🚢 Cruises & tours

• 🚗 Rental cars

You can pay with cash or Chase Ultimate Rewards points, and in many cases you’ll still earn bonus points when booking. It’s run through a third-party booking platform, but you still have Chase Travel support if something goes sideways.

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How to use the $50 promotion 💳

1. Log in to your Chase.com account

2. Click Redeem points to enter the travel portal

3. Search for your flight or hotel stay

4. Click the option you want and add it to your cart

5. If you have the promo, you’ll see “Promotion available” under the trip total

6. Click to apply it

7. The total will drop by $50, and you can still use points to cover the rest

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A real example (because numbers make this fun) 😄

A client recently booked a flight for $234 in the portal, applied the $50 promotion, and used 18,672 Chase Ultimate Rewards points (still worth 1.25¢ each in the portal). Older points are worth 1.25 through the end of 2027. New earned points are only worth 1x in the portal. 

So she paid just $0 for the flight. Woohoo. 🎉

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One important note 👀

You usually won’t see the promotion until something is in your cart. But once it shows up, you can toggle it on and off while you’re deciding — it doesn’t lock in until you actually purchase.

So if you’ve got that $50 sitting there, go grab yourself a discounted flight, hotel night, or even an activity. Future-you will be glad you did. 😊

If you don't have a Chase Sapphire credit card yet, the Reserve is offering 125,000 bonus right now and the Preferred is offering 75,000 bonus. Talk to me first though to confirm these cards make sense for you. 

Want more personal help using points and miles for almost FREE travel? I can plan your entire trip using your points and miles or offer a 30 minute consult to answer questions or you can  download my ebook, custom tracker or Join my Travel Coaching Program.

Right now, you can use the promo code "FREETRAVEL" to get $50 off the coaching program. I would love to help you make priceless family memories affordable. 

*For every new client, we will donate 10% of the proceeds to one of our favorite charities.