Dave & Brenda
After doing this for as long as I can remember, I can get most of my trips almost completely for free. I take it as a challenge but sometimes you want to do something in particular and the points can help it be way more affordable.
For example, my parents love to cruise. Other than Casino Deals, cruises are not as easy to get free. Points can help with other things needed when you travel for a cruise. My parents (Dave & Brenda) have booked a few upcoming cruises. After they decide on their cruise, I step in and help them book the airfare and the hotel for the pre-cruise night all on points. My parents have no interest in churning out credit cards. They are retired and their expenses are relatively low. However, by making some strategic decisions we have been to get them free flights and hotel to offset the expenses of their upcoming trips.
I will say this over and over again, I love Southwest for free flights. The point-to-dollar ratio is way better than most airlines. You can get some amazing deals. Also with Southwest, if you book a flight on points and the price drops you can rebook and get the point difference added back to your account. My parents have one cruise out of Seattle. We sat down and looked at what points they had available. They have the Chase Sapphire Reserve and a Chase Southwest card. First, my mom had almost 90,000 southwest points she did not even know she had. We were able to book them round-trip tickets on Southwest to Seattle for just taxes $22.40. Since I advise you to always fly in early for a cruise we needed to book a hotel near the cruise port in Seattle. My mom didn’t have any hotel points but that is where the Chase Sapphire card I suggested her get came in handy. My favorite hotel partner of Chase is Hyatt. I had my mom open a rewards account with Hyatt. We were then able to move the amount of points she needed to get a free room from her Chase Ultimate Rewards to her brand new Hyatt account with minutes. I was able to take that 90,000 points my mom didn’t even know she had and booked not only her trip to Seattle but two round trips for both of my parents to Ft Lauderdale and she still has points left over.
