For those that are new to this blog, I am not a travel blogger. This is simply a blog about my life - my interests and the dreams I chase. It helps me live my life to the fullest and hopefully shows that anyone can accomplish their dreams with knowledge and perseverance.
The first time I brought up travel hacking here was on a post last year where I talked about all the Rabbit Holes I'd fallen down lately (post is HERE). Since then I've been steadily racking up points and dreaming of vacations. So here is what I've learned and the details of my first big travel hacked vacation.
Some travel hackers will tell you to start with a vacation goal in mind, then work towards getting points for where you want to go and where you want to stay. For me though it's more about finding the time to go somewhere and what the rest of my family is doing. I decided to start with Chase Ultimate Reward (UR) points because they were the most flexible. I wouldn't be tied into an airline or hotel chain this way. Chase UR points are most valuable when you have one of their Sapphire cards because these are the only cards where you can transfer your points to a travel partner. The other cards that offer UR points are actually cash back cards. The catch is that the Sapphire cards also come with an annual fee. The good thing though is that once you have a Sapphire card you can transfer points from any of your other Chase cards to your Sapphire card.
So... here was my strategy. Since I didn't have a goal trip to start with, I simply wanted to rack up as many "free" points as I could. Once I had a decent number of points I would then open a fee card so I could transfer points to wherever I needed them to go.
First card I opened (August 2017) was a Chase Freedom. No annual fee and 15,000 UR points after spending $500 in 3 months. Easy peasy.
Next card I opened (November 2017) was a Chase United Explorer Mileage Plus card. It has an annual fee of $95 but is waived the first year. It earned 50,000 United miles for spending $2000 in 3 months plus 5,000 miles for adding an authorized user (for free) and comes with a $95 TSA or Global Entry credit plus two United lounge passes. I think it also gets you a free checked bag. I did not fly United that whole year I had the card so I didn't use the lounge pass or bag benefit.
The reason I opened the United card was because I had collected about 60,000 United miles over a very very long time (like YEARS). I had to have activity in my account every 18 months to not lose those miles. I didn't want to lose the miles but there were many years I was hard pressed to do something to keep them. In the past I had ordered gift cards and magazines with a couple hundred miles. Lately I'd been using the gas station option where I linked my BP rewards card to my United account and got miles for each gallon of gas I pumped. (This option goes away on 9/30/19) Getting a United branded credit card was an easy way to keep my miles active and not think about it. I had no intention of paying an annual fee. What I got out of this card was free TSA precheck, 55000 free miles, and at my one year anniversary I called up Chase and had my card downgraded to the no fee United Mileage Plus card. You can only get the no fee United Mileage Plus card if you've had the United Explorer card. The no fee card still earns miles but you have none of the other benefits of the Explorer card.
Besides for the flexibility of UR points, the reason I started with Chase cards is because Chase has a 5/24 rule - meaning you can only open 5 credit cards (and this means ANY credit card, not just Chase cards) in 24 months. If you try to open a Chase card after opening 5 or more other cards in the preceding 24 months you will be denied. HOWEVER, there are some exceptions to this rule. I learned that business cards do not count for your 5 cards, BUT, if you already have opened 5 cards in 24 months you will be declined for a Chase business card. Capice?
So, next card I opened (May 2018) was the Chase Ink Business Cash card. No annual fee and 50,000 UR points after spending $3000 in 3 months. I used my Etsy shop as my business and applied as an individual proprietor.
I pulled the trigger in July 2018 and opened a Chase Sapphire Preferred card. The offer at that time was 50,000 UR points after spending $4000 in 3 months and the $95 annual fee was waived the first year (It has changed since then; now it is 60,000 points but you are immediately charged the fee). I had amassed over 120,000 United miles by now (including the ones I started with) and with the Sapphire bonus I would have over 100,000 UR points. I figured that would be enough to go on a nice vacation somewhere in the next year, then if I wanted, I'd down grade the Sapphire card to a no fee Freedom card or pay the $95 annual fee if I felt the card was worth it.
Having been on my vacation now, I am DEFINATELY paying the $95 to keep this card!
My husband and I both turned 50 in 2018. I had thought maybe we would go on a nice tropical vacation. We could never find a good time though... then I thought we'd take the family to Europe. Well, I'd need more points for more people.
In December 2018 I found out about the Chase Ink Business Unlimited card. Almost too good to be true. 50,000 UR points after spending $3000 in 3 months and no annual fee. It was added in a heartbeat.
I had thought about getting an IHG branded Chase card for some time for the same reason I got the United card. I had a handful of IHG points and they were always on the verge of expiring. What prevented me from getting the card earlier was because their current card has an annual fee of $89 and, well, so far I had managed to rack up 165,000 UR points and 55,000 United miles without paying a single annual fee... Also, I had heard that IHG redemptions just weren't that great. However, I also learned that there were far more options for better IHG redemptions in Europe. Other perks included a free hotel night credit on your credit card anniversary and a $95 TSA or Global Entry credit.
The deciding factor ended up being Europe. My younger daughter is an aspiring ballet dancer. She was accepted into a two week summer program with the Dutch National Ballet in Amsterdam. I didn't want my 16 year old to fly to Europe by herself so my husband and I decided we'd fly over with her, check her into her housing and make sure she knew how to get around the city, then spend the rest of the time vacationing while she stayed in Amsterdam.
I got the Chase IHG card in March 2019. It offered 80,000 IHG points after spending $2000 in 3 months and an additional 40,000 IHG points if you spent a total of $5000 in 3 months. I got billed the $89 on my first statement. On the flip side, I used the $95 TSA credit right away by getting TSA pre-check for my daughter.
So now I was at 4/24 for personal credit cards. The other Chase cards I am interested in are the Chase Southwest Business card and the Chase Southwest personal card however I'm not planning on applying for those until this December. If I get those in December and complete my bonuses in January 2020 I can get a Companion Pass for my husband that will be good until December 2021. Plus, my Chase Freedom and Chase United Mileage Plus cards will have fallen off the 24 month mark by then... but back to the present. I thought I'd get one more card before our trip.
I left Chase and got the American Express branded Hilton Honors card in April 2019. It offered 100,000 Hilton Honors points after spending $2000 in 3 months.
So, in summary, these are the bonus points or miles I earned after travel hacking for 21 months:
165,000 UR points
55,000 United miles
120,000 IHG points
100,000 Hilton Honors points
2 free TSA pre-checks
I paid $89 for one annual fee.
The total in minimum spending requirements for all 7 cards was $19,500 over 21 months. This averages to less than $930 a month. In other words, I spent no extra money than I would normally spend, but for putting the spending on the right credit card I got a whole lot of benefit. I charge EVERYTHING to my credit cards - car insurance, utilities, gas, groceries. Everything. As long as the card gets paid off in full every month you will come out ahead.
The totals above also do not include all the points and miles I accrued by using the cards for their minimum spends. Many of the cards also offered bonus categories where I got anywhere from 2-5 times the number of points per dollar spend for travel, restaurants, gas, groceries, etc. Adding in the UR points that I had earned by actually buying things over the last 21 months I had over 252,000 UR points.
Now to spend the points!
First order of business was plane tickets for 3 people. We did not have any flexibility with our dates and since I already had a bunch of pre-existing United points I decided to find flights on United. There may have been a "cheaper" way to do this by using United partners but I have yet to master that part of travel hacking so I just went with what was on the United website. The other challenge is that our "home" airport is Indianapolis. There are very few direct flights in and out of Indy...
What I found...
Indianapolis to Amsterdam on Saturday July 13: 30,000 United miles + $5.60 in taxes per person
-pretty darn reasonable
Amsterdam to Indianapolis on Sunday July 28: You might as well forget it! Something like 85,000 miles
Amsterdam to Chicago was slightly more reasonable at 55,000 United miles + $51.23 in taxes
All the flights back looked awful. The one we chose had a 7 hour layover at Dulles (Washington DC).
I ended up booking our return flight back to Chicago and figured we could get a Mega bus ride back to Indy. Then, my husband came up with a better option. Unfortunately it was several days later and I could no longer change my United plans without a fee. He found a Southwest flight from Dulles into Indy that left 3 hours after we landed in Dulles. We would have to go through customs in Dulles so we would have all our bags with us. We decided to "throw away" our last leg from Dulles into Chicago and get on the Southwest flight. Hubs is not a travel hacker but he just happened to get a Chase Southwest credit card this year that offered a Companion Pass after a $3000 minimum spend. He bought his ticket and my daughters with points and I flew free + $5.60 tax each.
So, total for 3 round trip tickets from Indianapolis to Amsterdam:
255,000 United miles + $170.49 tax
26,266 Southwest miles + $16.80 tax
I had to transfer 118,000 UR points to my United account to cover the tickets
Once in Amsterdam my daughter would be staying at the StayOkay Hostel and she had a meal plan. All this was included in her summer program costs so I am only going to list what my husband and I did for lodging. In parenthesis is what the dollar cost of the room would have been.
Day1: Stayokay Youth Hostel - $68.22 for a 2 person room
- We decided we'd spend the first night where our daughter was staying so we knew she'd be settled in. She would be in another part of the Hostel that had 6 person rooms.
Day 2: Holiday Inn Express Amsterdam City Hall - 35,000 IHG points (175 Euros)
Day 3: Holiday Inn Express Dusseldorf City - 20,000 IHG points (81 Euros)
- We drove to Germany on Day 3
Day 4: Holiday Inn Express Dusseldorf City - 20,000 IHG points (81 Euros)
Day 5: Holiday Inn Express Dusseldorf City - 20,000 IHG points (81 Euros)
Day 6: Hilton Doubletree Amsterdam Centraal Station - 60,000 Hilton points (199 Euros)
- We drove back to Amsterdam on day 6
Day 7: Hotel de la Paix Tour Eiffel - 20,763 UR points ($259.54)
- We drove to Paris on day 7
Day 8: Hampton Inn Amsterdam Airport - 25,000 Hilton points (87 Euros)
Day 9: The Wild Atlantic Lodge in Ballyvaughn, Ireland - 9608 UR points ($120.10)
We flew into Dublin, Ireland on Day 9. I transferred 51,000 UR points to KLM for round trip plane tickets for two plus $86.18 in taxes
Day 10: The d hotel in Drogheda, Ireland - 8784 UR points ($109.80)
Day 11: Carnegie Court Hotel in Swords, Ireland - 13,090 UR points ($163.63)
Day 12: Moxy Amsterdam - 25,000 Marriott Bonvoy points ($125)
- We flew back to Amsterdam on day 12
Day 13: Moxy Amsterdam - 25,000 Marriott Bonvoy points ($125)
Day 14: Courtyard by Marriott Amsterdam Airport - 25,000 Marriott Bonvoy points ($146)
Day 15: We flew home
Marriott Bonvoy points were my husband's.
I booked the hotels in Paris and in Ireland through the Chase travel portal. This was a nice option because there were very few chain hotels in Ireland.
Summary of spending for 3 round trip plane tickets from Indianapolis to Amsterdam, 2 round trip plane tickets from Amsterdam to Dublin, and 14 nights lodging:
221,245 UR points
137,000 United miles
26,266 Southwest points
95,000 IHG points
85,000 Hilton Honors points
75,000 Marriott Bonvoy points
$348.01 cash paid for taxes + Hostel on Day 1
Woohoo!! Stay tuned to hear about what we actually did each day.
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