Even though it is already February, I wanted to share my 2024 year end summary. I recommend to all my clients to do a year in review to see what points they used, how they used them and look for trends.
This exercise will help you in planning your travel goals for the next year.
During the January live group coaching session last month, we did this exercise as a group. One of my clients completed the task and said
"Wow! I knew we saved a lot of money this year by using points, but until I did this exercise, I didn't realize how much."
Amazing!
Lessons Learned From My 2024 Year End Summary
I do the same exercise with my own points and miles journey because we are always learning. So when I look at the above summary, here are some things I notice:
- I see that my family and I took 48 FREE flights in 2024 which is incredible. Most of those were on Southwest Airlines so we got a lot of use out of the Southwest Companion Pass. My pass expired December 31st, 2024, but I am working on earning another one for 2025-2026.
- We stayed 28 FREE nights at hotels. Most of those were Hyatt Hotels which I really just discovered this past year and I love the value the chain offers. Most of those FREE nights were booked transferring Chase points to Hyatt. Most of those hotels cost between 5,000-12,000 point per night and included breakfast.
- I used Capital One points for 1 FREE car rental that saved me $1,200 and 1.5 weeks in an Airbnb. Both utilized the "travel erase" feature. I don't tend to transfer Capital One points to airlines or hotels rather I use them to "erase" purchases that I can't use points for like car rentals, tours and Airbnb. This strategy may not be the right one for you, you may extract more value by transferring the points.
- I only used the Chase Travel Portal one time to book travel using points. Just interesting to note.
- I utilized my IHG points for a college family weekend stay because you can book 3 nights with points and get your 4th night FREE. This was a huge win because I booked the hotel early for very few points and as the college family weekend got closer, the rates skyrocketed and the hotel sold out.
- For the March East Coast College Trip, we stayed at a lot of chain hotels that included breakfast so were able to use FREE nights that came with credit cards and minimal amount of points per night. The hotels varied between Hyatt, Hilton, IHG and a Marriott or two.
Lessons Learned From My 2024 Year End Summary
Reflecting on how I used points and miles this past year for travel:
- I'm excited that I was able to save approximately $40,000 and take my family on a spectacular 3 week trip to Tahiti.
- I also love how we were able to visit lots of colleges and not stress about the cost of the trip.
- We also spent more money on experiences and restaurants because we knew the flights and hotels were FREE.
- I feel very good about how I spent miles and points and the value I was able to extract from them.
What will I do differently or improve for 2025? I would like to keep better track of the benefits and FREE nights that come with my cards. I just realized that Lyft Pink membership comes with my Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card and would have saved me $150. I also ended the year with one FREE night at an IHG hotel that almost expired without being used.
