Avios Just Got WAY More Flexible

Avios Just Got WAY More Flexible (And I'm Here for It!) ✈️

Hey travel friends! You know I'm obsessed with flexible points like Chase Ultimate Rewards and Capital One miles, but there's another loyalty program that's quietly becoming a powerhouse player. Let me introduce you to the Avios ecosystem - it's about to become your new best friend! 🌟

Meet the Avios Family 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

Avios points work across multiple airlines, giving you tons of booking options:

• British Airways 🇬🇧
• Iberia 🇪🇸
• Qatar Airways 🇶🇦
• Finnair 🇫🇮
• Aer Lingus 🇮🇪
• Vueling ✈️
• Loganair 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Transfer Partners Galore! 💳

Here's where it gets exciting - Avios partners with practically everyone:

• Chase Ultimate Rewards
• Citi ThankYou Points
• Capital One miles
• Bilt Points
• Wells Fargo Rewards
• Marriott Bonvoy
• American Express Membership Rewards

This means you can funnel points from multiple credit card programs into one super flexible currency!

Sweet Spot Alert! 🍯

Want to cross the Atlantic without breaking the bank? Iberia flights to Spain start at just 16,000 Avios + $50 in taxes for economy class. Meanwhile, Aer Lingus makes hopping over to Ireland surprisingly affordable. These are the kind of deals that make my travel-planning heart sing! 💚

Game-Changer: New Transfer Tool 🔄

Here's the really exciting news - Avios just launched a tool that lets you move points between different airline programs within their family. Found an amazing Iberia deal but your points are sitting in British Airways? No problem! Transfer them over in minutes.

Sometimes Iberia has the sweet spot, other times British Airways comes through with the perfect routing. Now you can chase the best deals across the entire network without being locked into one program.

How to Set It Up 🛠️

Getting started is straightforward:

1. Log into your Avios account 
2. Link your accounts with the other Avios airlines
3. Double-check that all your accounts have identical name and contact info (this is crucial!)
4. Set everything up BEFORE you need it - trust me on this one

Pro tip: There's no minimum transfer amount, and you can move points back and forth as many times as you want. The flexibility is incredible! 🙌

Why This Matters for Your Family 👪

For families like ours, having multiple options means better chances of finding award space for everyone. Instead of being stuck with one airline's availability, you can check across the entire Avios network and transfer points to wherever the best deals are hiding.

This kind of flexibility is exactly what we need to keep family travel affordable and accessible. The more options we have, the better our chances of scoring those sweet award flights that make international family trips possible! 🌍

Ready to dive into the Avios ecosystem? Start by linking those accounts and watch your booking options multiply!

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. 

My FREE Gift To You: 1,000 Airline Miles

My Go-To Strategy for Affordable European Adventures ✈️

When it comes to crossing the Atlantic without breaking the bank, I keep coming back to Flying Blue, the loyalty program that powers both Air France and KLM. Here's why this program has become my secret weapon for European travel.

The Sweet Spot for Award Flights

Flying Blue offers some genuinely solid redemption rates:

• Economy seats: 25,000 points one way (or just 18,750 during their regular promotions)
• Business class with lie-flat seats: 50,000 points each way 🛏️

What really sets them apart? Both airlines include free stopovers in their hub cities (Paris for Air France, Amsterdam for KLM). This means you can essentially visit two destinations for the price of one award ticket.

A Recent Win That Made My Day

Earlier this year, I snagged a flight from Athens to Los Angeles for only 20,000 points plus $50 in taxes. The cherry on top? When I missed my connection in Paris due to delays, Air France stepped up big time – covering my hotel, meals, and even sending me an $800 compensation check. Sometimes travel hiccups work out better than expected! 🎉

Easy Ways to Earn Flying Blue Miles

The beauty of Flying Blue lies in its flexibility. You can transfer points from all the major credit card programs:

• Chase Ultimate Rewards
• Citi ThankYou Points
• Capital One Miles
• Bilt Rewards
• American Express Membership Rewards

The New Player Worth Watching

Here's where things get interesting – Rove Miles just entered the scene as a shopping portal meets flexible points program. They've partnered with over 12,000 online merchants, letting you earn miles on everyday purchases that you can then transfer to Flying Blue and other airlines.

Their airline partners include Flying Blue, Finnair, Aeromexico, and Turkish Airlines, giving you plenty of redemption options.

Limited-Time Opportunity 🎯

I've got something special for you – 1,000 free Rove miles just for signing up (no purchase required). The signup process takes under a minute, and you can transfer those miles to Flying Blue if that's your preference once you have earned 2,000 Rove miles.

Important: This offer expires September 17th, so don't let it slip by if you're interested in building your points balance.

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. Not ready to dive into the coaching program, download the ebook or custom tracker or book a 1:1 consulting call with me.  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 Applied Yet?

Now that summer is in full swing, you might have some fomo watching all your friends go on fab trips or you are enjoying your trip and already planning the next one. 

Either way, the new Chase Sapphire offers could help you make those vacations super affordable. We don't know when this latest offer will end so it's better not to wait. 

Chase announced three whopper deals on its Sapphire line of credit cards. We will detail these for you and help you decide if you should jump on any of these offers. We knew the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card was undergoing a refresh and you can check the details here to see how you will be affected if you already hold the card. It's good! 

 

Now if you don't have a Chase Sapphire Credit Card yet or if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card, there are some awesome new benefits on this card too plus a 75,000 bonus offer. Not as good as the 100,000 bonus offer that ended in May, but better than the regular 60,000 point offer. 

The new Reserve business credit card has a crazy high minimum spend of $30,000, but if you can swing it, the 200,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points bonus is outstanding. 

You can read here about why we love Chase Ultimate Reward points and their flexibility. 

Let's break down the offer on each card:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred - Bonus offer 75,000 points (valued at $750) with a $5,000 minimum spend in three months. This is our all time favorite travel credit card. Annual fee of $95 and it comes with a $50 hotel credit when you book through the travel portal. You earn 3x points on dining, 3x on online grocery, 2x on travel, 5x on travel booked in the Chase Travel Portal and 1x on everything else. It also comes with a $120 DoorDash credit and points boost when you book in the Chase Travel Portal. 
• Chase Sapphire Reserve - Bonus offer 100,000 points (valued at $1,000) with a $5,000 minimum spend in three months. This was our all time favorite premium travel credit card, but it now has an increased annual fee of $795. We still think it's a great deal, but you need to make certain that you will use the credits to make the high annual fee worth it. We detailed the credits and benefits of the new refreshed card here. 
• Chase Sapphire Reserve Business - Bonus offer 200,000 points with a $30,000 minimum spend in six months. This is a brand new card and if your business can swing the spend, it's a great deal for you. You can squeeze as much as $4,000 value out of those 200,000 points. Plus annual credits on the Chase Travel Portal, DoorDash, Zip Recruiter, Edit Hotels, Google Workspace, Lyft and more. 

Another big change is the 48 month rule. You are now only eligible for a bonus on a Chase Sapphire card once in a lifetime. Chase will alert you when you apply if you are eligible or not. Even though you can technically hold two Sapphire cards at the same time now, you will not be eligible for a bonus if you already hold one.

And if you have had a Sapphire credit card before, but no longer hold the card, you can only apply for one you have never held before and get the bonus. It's similar to the Southwest credit card strategy with personal cards. Another option is to downgrade your Sapphire card to a non Sapphire and then apply for a Sapphire card you have never had before. 

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. Not ready to dive into th coaching program, download the ebook or custom tracker or book a 1:1 consulting call with me.  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 I Scored A Flight To Europe for $50 And 20,000 Points

  

Number one million why I love flexible points! You have been hearing a lot about Chase Ultimate Rewards points these days because of the recently announced incredible bonus offers, but this story is about another brand of flexible points. One that you don't hear about as often and one that doesn't get enough credit. 

How I Scored A Flight To Europe for $50 And 20,000 Points 

We are talking about Avios, the loyalty points program for British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Qatar Airways and Finnair. But it doesn't stop there because these airlines are part of the One World Alliance that also includes partners like American Airlines, LATAM, and Vueling. 

The flexible part here is that you can transfer the points between the main four airlines depending on which one offers you the best deal. And you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points and Capital One points to Avios too. 

Let's look at the path I took to find this great deal of 20,000 points and $50 on a one way flight from Chicago to Madrid, Spain. 

How I Scored A Flight To Europe for $50 And 20,000 Points 

1. Start with Google Flights to see your options. We find this American Airlines red eye flight for $464 in economy. 

2. Next let's check American Airlines. Now I actually don't have any American Airlines miles and it is not a transfer partner for any flexible points, but let's check anyway. It's being offered for 27,000 miles and $5.60 so that gives us a starting point. We are looking at off peak fares.  

3. I always like to check seats.aero to see what other options may be out there. You can see 90 days out with a free account. 

4. Then I check the Chase Travel Portal and the Capital One Travel Portal to see if the flight is listed and how many points are needed or the price if I decide to buy it in the portal and earn 5x points. 

Now that the Chase Travel Portal has added the "Points Booster", it's always a good idea to look because you never know what you are going to get and it changes constantly. The Capital One Travel Portal is always one cent per point so it's usually a better place to pay cash, earn 5x points and then erase the purchase with your points. In the Chase Travel Portal, the same flight would cost 30,993 points. In the Capital One Travel Portal, the same flight would cost 46,400 points.  Big difference! 

4. American Airlines is in the One World Alliance with British Airways so we try searching there. The same flight shows up for 20,750 Avios and $213. I like the the number of points, but those taxes, Yikes. 

5. So can we do better? Since Madrid is the base for Iberia Airlines and we have a stash of Avios from the Iberia Airlines credit card bonus offer a few years ago, let's see what's happening there. 

Wow! 20,750 Avios and $51.70, now that's a deal. Remember when we mentioned that Iberia is part of the One World Alliance with American Airlines? This deal is for the same American Airlines red eye flight from Chicago to Madrid. Crazy, right?

And guess what? We look for the return flight and snag that one for just 16,000 Avios and $100 taxes. That's how we do it here at Almost FREE Family Travel. 

So if you just got your Chase Sapphire Preferred 100,000 bonus, this could be one way to use those points. Click here to read about other ways. 

Want more personal help using points and miles for almost FREE travel? Book a 1:1 consulting call 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. 

Avios 

20,000 $50 Chicago to Madrid 

16,000 $131 Madrid to Chicago 

Iberia Avios 

How Does The New Chase "Points Boost" Work

 

Part of the new refreshed Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card is the "Points Boost" bonus in the travel portal. The "Points Boost" is replacing the fixed bonus 1:1.5. But we noticed that the points boost is also live in the portal for existing Chase Sapphire Preferred card holders where the fixed bonus was 1:1.25 points. Reserve card holders as of June 22nd 2025 will still have the fixed bonus through October 25th 2025. In theory, you should be offered the better bonus offer.

So how does it work? It went live today and here's what we found. 

When you click on the travel portal and enter your search criteria, the first thing you see is a banner with "Points Boost" offers applied. I entered a search for hotels near Seattle Tacoma Airport in my Chase Sapphire Preferred account. These two hotels were offered to me with the points boost bonus which appears to be approximately  1.5 value of points. 

When you open the map view, you see little rocket icons next to the hotels where the points boost has been applied. I was happy to see that the majority seem to have the rocket icon. I clicked on the $169 to see the offer. The portal points out that the boost has increased this offer to better than the usual 1:1.25 value. 

Then I clicked on the travel portal in my Chase Sapphire Reserve account and entered the same search for hotels near Seattle Tacoma Airport to see the difference. 

Here's what it gave me:

It returned the same banner, but this time with point booster offers on Edit hotels in the area. The Chase Sapphire Reserve comes with a $500 credit ($250 every 6 months) for Edit hotels booked in the portal so that makes sense and can help you decide whether to use your credit or points.  

When I open the map, there are less options near the airport, but the $169 hotel is on there. 

But you can see the points boost offers are better than when I accessed the portal with the Sapphire Preferred. The boost does not appear to be a full 2x though. 

Points boost promised up to 2x. 

I also tried searching for flights. The points booster showed up primarily for business and first class flights in a banner across the top. 

On a different search, the banner offered me a variety of fares with the points boost. Again, first or business was offered at a better points boost than the economy plus fare on the same flight and the price difference was only $6. 

If I scrolled down though, some flights had points booster rocket icons next to various fare rates, but I couldn't figure out why some flights were targeted for a boost. Again, you can see on this search that the points needed for the first class fare end up being less than economy even though the flight is priced higher. 

At this point, you might want to check any reservations you already have booked to see if you get a better offer and can rebook. Just be careful if the original reservation is non refundable or offers you a credit. 

We will have to wait and see how the points booster evolves.

If you want to apply for the new refreshed Chase Sapphire Reserve, use this link to get the 100,000 bonus points and $500 travel credit.  

If you want to apply for the 75,000 bonus on the Chase Sapphire Preferred, use this link. 

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 book a 1:1 consulting call.  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. 

New Chase Sapphire Offers Are Announced And They Are Big!

 

Wow! Chase just announced three whopper deals on its Sapphire line of credit cards. We will detail these for you and help you decide if you should jump on any of these offers. We knew the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card was undergoing a refresh and you can check the details here to see how you will be affected if you already hold the card. It's good! 

 

Now if you don't have a Chase Sapphire Credit Card yet or if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card, there are some awesome new benefits on this card too plus a 75,000 bonus offer. Not as good as the 100,000 bonus offer that ended in May, but better than the regular 60,000 point offer. 

The new Reserve business credit card has a crazy high minimum spend of $30,000, but if you can swing it, the 200,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points bonus is outstanding. 

You can read here about why we love Chase Ultimate Reward points and their flexibility. 

Let's break down the offer on each card:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred - Bonus offer 75,000 points (valued at $750) with a $5,000 minimum spend in three months. This is our all time favorite travel credit card. Annual fee of $95 and it comes with a $50 hotel credit when you book through the travel portal. You earn 3x points on dining, 3x on online grocery, 2x on travel, 5x on travel booked in the Chase Travel Portal and 1x on everything else. It also comes with a $120 DoorDash credit and points boost when you book in the Chase Travel Portal. 
• Chase Sapphire Reserve - Bonus offer 100,000 points (valued at $1,000) with a $5,000 minimum spend in three months. This was our all time favorite premium travel credit card, but it now has an increased annual fee of $795. We still think it's a great deal, but you need to make certain that you will use the credits to make the high annual fee worth it. We detailed the credits and benefits of the new refreshed card here. 
• Chase Sapphire Reserve Business - Bonus offer 200,000 points with a $30,000 minimum spend in six months. This is a brand new card and if your business can swing the spend, it's a great deal for you. You can squeeze as much as $4,000 value out of those 200,000 points. Plus annual credits on the Chase Travel Portal, DoorDash, Zip Recruiter, Edit Hotels, Google Workspace, Lyft and more. 

Another big change is the 48 month rule. You now are only eligible for a bonus on a Chase Sapphire card once in a lifetime. Chase will alert you when you apply if you are eligible or not. Even though you can technically hold two Sapphire cards at the same time now, you will not be eligible for a bonus if you already hold one.

And if you have had a Sapphire credit card before, but no longer hold the card, you can only apply for one you have never held before and get the bonus. It's similar to the Southwest credit card strategy with personal cards. Another option is to downgrade your Sapphire card to a non Sapphire and then apply for a Sapphire card you have never had before. 

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 book a 1:1 consulting call.  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. 

Got My 100,000 Chase Bonus, Now What?

 

Woohoo! Thank you Chewy. That one purchase put me over the $5,000 minimum spend for the 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards bonus on the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card. 

This was the incredible bonus offer that ended May 15th. You may still be working on reaching the minimum spend or you may see the bonus pop up in your account soon!

It is interesting that I have not even made the second payment on this card yet, but they gave me the bonus points. It used to be that Capital One was the only issuer that would award the points before you paid the bill. 

• This means that you could actually put the points towards a statement credit on this payment so you knock $1,000 off your credit card bill. Pretty cool. 

But we can actually squeeze a lot more value out of 100,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points. 

How can you squeeze more value out of your CUR points? 

• One way is to transfer them to an airline that usually gives fantastic points redemption on flights like Flying Blue (KLM, Air France loyalty program) and Iberia Avios. 
• But you can also find some great surprise redemptions on airlines like Emirates like this 7,500 points for a flight from Malta to Cyprus. 
• If you were to buy this flight, it would cost you $284.  
• I like to use the tool seats.aero to find out what award flights are available. The tool is FREE unless you want to search more than 90 days out.  

Another way to squeeze more value out of CUR points is to transfer them to Hyatt. You can find Hyatt Place and Hyatt House hotels for as low as 3,500 per night. Incredible. 

And you can also transfer the points over to a Chase Sapphire Reserve account and use them in the Chase Travel Portal for 1.5:1 or use them in the Chase Sapphire Preferred Travel Portal for 1.25:1 value. 

This is why I love flexible points like CUR, Amex and Capital One. 

If you don't have a Sapphire card yet, you could apply for the Chase Sapphire Reserve before June 23rd to lock in the $550 annual fee. Right now, it offers 60,000 bonus points for a $5,000 minimum spend. 

The Chase Sapphire Preferred is back to its regular offer of 60,000 points for a $5,000 minimum spend and $95 annual fee. We hear that some better offers might be announced next week so you may want to hold off for a few days. 

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 book a 1:1 consulting call.  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. 

Should You Hang Onto Your Chase Sapphire Reserve?

 

The Chase Sapphire Reserve has been my favorite credit card for quite awhile. Even when the annual fee increased to a whopping $550 a few years ago, I held onto it. But today Chase announced that the annual fee is going up again, this time to $795. So now the question is should you hold onto it? I'll tell you right now, the answer is yes!

Should You Hang Onto Your Chase Sapphire Reserve?

But let's break down the benefits and dig deeper. 

Now worth and value are very personal. What's treasure for me, maybe trash for you. But let's see if we can investigate the changes and benefits and see if it's worth it for me and that might help you decide if it's worth it for you. 

How do I use this card right now? 

• I charge all of my travel and dining to this credit card. Why? 
• Currently, it earns 3x points on dining and travel. It also has amazing travel cancellation, rental and interruption insurance. I made a claim a few months ago and though it took several times uploading the same documents, they eventually reimbursed me. I always charge rental cars to this card because it earns 3x points and has awesome car rental insurance so I can pass on the insurance offered by the rental agency. 
• Moving forward, it will continue to earn 3x points on dining and 4x points on travel booked directly with airlines and hotels. But other travel like car rentals, Airbnbs, and tours will only earn 1x points so that's disappointing. 
•  I combine all of my Chase points onto this card to use them in the Chase Travel Portal. Why?

• Currently, when you book in the portal, you earn 5x points on airlines and 10x points on hotels. When you use your points to purchase, the points are worth 1.5 in the portal. 
• Moving forward, when you book in the portal, you will earn 8x points on all travel purchases booked through the portal. Current cardholders will still be able to get 1.5 value for points in the portal for a two year grace period. But the card is moving towards a "points boost" up to 2x points on certain travel purchases marked with a rocket ship. We are unsure right now how much travel will be eligible for a boost. 
• $300 Travel Credit - I use this credit every year since it is automatically applied to travel purchases. Though it's not really a benefit, it does bring down the annual fee by $300. 
• Moving forward, this credit will remain so it brings the annual fee down to $495. 
• Global Entry credit - you can use this once every four years so it's valued at $30 per year as a benefit. 
• Moving forward, this benefit remains. 
• Priority Pass Lounge and Sapphire Lounge Access - remains a benefit on the Sapphire Reserve. 
• Moving forward, there's no change 
  
• Earns 5x points on Lyft and 10x points on Peloton. 
• Moving forward, there's no change. 

Should You Hang Onto Your Chase Sapphire Reserve?

Other changes: 

• Authorized users - price is going up from $75 to $195 per user. I don't recommend adding authorized users to any cards, but if you want to, Capital One Venture X allows you to add authorized users for free and let's them use the lounge access, but we hear this benefit may be ending. 
• You could only hold one Sapphire card at a time. 
• Moving forward, you can hold both cards at the same time. This could be huge! The Sapphire Preferred has an annual fee of $95 and is one of my favorite cards. I usually advise my couple clients for one person to hold the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the other to hold the Reserve. Now one person could hold both. Instead of downgrading, you can just apply for the other Sapphire card and get the welcome bonus again. 

• Other new credits:
• $500 credit to use on Edit Hotels (Chase curated list).(split in two $250 credits) A quick search showed most properties were 5 star and came with perks like breakfast and $100 property credit. 
• $300 credit on StubHub or Viagogo
• $300 in monthly Doordash promotions 
• $300 credit at Sapphire Reserve Exclusive Tables (split in two $150 credits)
• $250 annual credit for Apple TV and Music 
• $120 Doordash membership 
• $120 Peloton Membership 
• $120 Lyft in app credits 

If you spend more than $75,000 on the Reserve card annually, then you will earn some added benefits  like status at IHG and Southwest, $500 Southwest travel credit, and $250 credit at The Shops at Chase. 

Chase says the refreshed Chase Sapphire Reserve will offer $2,700 value of benefits, but the question is how many of these benefits will you actually benefit from? 

It's enough to make your head spin, but rest assured, if you already have this card, the new benefits will kick in June 23rd and you won't get charged the increased annual fee until after October 26th 2025 when your annual fee is due.  

So if your annual fee is due July 1st like mine, you will end up in the sweet spot. You will get to enjoy the new benefits until July 2026 and the old benefits until October 26th 2025, but only pay the old annual fee of $550. Then you can decide if you want to pay the increased annual fee next year. 

If you don't have this card yet, you could apply before June 23rd to lock in the $550 annual fee. Right now, it offers 60,000 bonus points for a $5,000 minimum spend. 

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 book a 1:1 consulting call.  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 Score The Best Travel Deal With Points And Miles

 

Sometimes the best option for using your points and miles is not the most obvious one and as always I am going to make another plug for why I love flexible points like Chase Ultimate Rewards.  

The most obvious is using your points and miles to book directly with the airline or hotel. But we always recommend checking multiple options before you book because you may be surprised. 

Sometimes it's a better plan to transfer miles or points to a transfer partner that may offer the same flight for less miles or use the points in a travel portal. 

Let's take a look at an example: 

We are looking to book a one way flight from San Diego to JFK in New York. 

• First, we check google flights to see what options are available. Then we check seats.aero to see what points and miles options may be available. Seats.aero is free for search 60 days out and $9.99 per month for search one year out. 

We see on Seats.aero that there are flights available on Jet Blue, Delta and American. Jet Blue is a new transfer partner with Chase so we check Jet Blue. Delta is offering flights from 15,900 points so then we hop over to Delta to see what's available. 

We see a few good options Jet Blue for 13,100 points and Delta for 14,900 points. 

The Delta flight has better timing so we check the Chase Travel Portal just to see if any of these flights are listed there and we can get an even better deal. 

Bam! We find that the Delta flight is being offered for just 11,900 points through the Chase Sapphire Reserve travel portal. CUR points are worth 1:1.5 so we can get the same flight for even less points than if we booked right on the Delta website. 

That's how we do it here and that's why we love flexible points. 

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.