Family Travel on the Cheap

Let me start with a disclaimer. What I am about to discuss involves using credit card sign-up bonuses for “free” travel. If you are not in a good spot with credit cards (been there, trust me), it is probably not a good idea to continue reading. Okay, now onto the fun :)

I started a new job in April 2016. One of the perks of the new job is that I get a good amount of vacation time. I've never had much vacation time in the past, so I was excited to use it! The vacations I did take prior were typically taken to the same destinations. While I would love to travel to new destinations, traveling with my budding family sounded very expensive.

On a business trip to New Jersey, I chose to fly Delta Airlines. On the flight, I was reading about the Delta Airlines American Express Gold Card. I thought I might be doing some traveling with my new job, so getting some more miles via a sign-up bonus sounded good. I have a healthy respect for credit cards due to pain from the past, so I was a little gun shy. After speaking to my wife, we decided to go for it. I think the bonus was 30,000 SkyMiles (now 50,000 for some) if you spend $2000 in 3 months and 1 point per dollar spent. Some cards can reward a much higher ratio of points per dollar spent, depending on card and spending category (dining, travel, etc.) There is a yearly fee for the Delta card, but it is waived the first year. I figured as long as we put most of our expenses on the credit card, we could hit $2000 in 3 months. I was right. We blew through that in no time. Using the card for monthly internet and cell phone bills helped.

It was then that things changed. I saw a suggestion to like “The Points Guy” on Facebook. A friend also liked him, so I checked him out. This individual devotes all of his time to utilizing perks, mostly travel, from credit cards. He provides pointers on which cards offer the best value. I was very intrigued. I read about people called “churners”. Churners are people that sign up for credit cards, get the sign-up bonus, and move on to the next bigger and better card and bonus.

Again, I have a healthy respect for credit cards, so I talked everything over with my wife before we made the decision together. The next card was the Amex Starwood Preferred guest card. I think the bonus was 25,000 points if you spent $3000 in 3 months. I thought if we were going somewhere, we would need to stay at a hotel. We talked about going to Florida. It was a destination I frequented in the past, but never with my wife and family. It offered some nostalgia...for me anyway.

The Starwood offered me some free rooms, but not a week's worth of rooms. I was on the hunt for another hotel card. Enter the Chase Hyatt Visa. Two free nights if you spend $3000 in 3 months.

After getting the Hyatt bonus, I got the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Essentially this would give us 55,000 reward points (w/ authorized user) after spending $4,000 in 3 months. This one scared me on the spending, but we did it...always paying off each credit card each month with no remaining balance.

Before you start thinking that all of these cards are putting my FICO score in the toilet, please read the following:

http://thepointsguy.com/2016/08/debunking-credit-card-myths-does-applying-for-card-permanently-impact-credit-score/

One more detail that I want to mention before I disclose what this strategy gave us. The Starwood Points are transferable to most major airlines along with a 20% bonus. With the spending bonuses from Delta and Starwood and dollar for dollar points, we ended up with 70,000 Delta SkyMiles.

Here is what we did (There are extra charges, so I'm not going to sugar coat it):

• Found 4 round-trip tickets to San Diego from a Midwest city for 72,000 SkyMiles total + $11.20 per ticket.

• Paid $70 for 2,000 SkyMiles to give us enough to purchase the tickets.

• Reimbursed for $50 as a perk from the Delta Gold card for Delta spending in first 3 months.

• 2 “free” nights at Hyatt Mission Bay Hotel and Resort using Hyatt bonus ($37 parking fee per night).

• 2 “free” nights at Knott's Berry Farm hotel in Anaheim using Chase Ultimate Rewards. ($10 parking fee per night). Used the location to go to Disneyland and California Adventure on our dime.

• 3 “free” nights at Paradise Point Resort and Spa in Mission Bay (resort fee and parking for the three nights totaled $200).

• Close to free rental car for the week using Chase Ultimate Rewards at Alamo for Toyota RAV4 or similar. Was able to pick my own car. Chose a Kia Sorento (knew the car seats would fit since we have one).

• We spent money on going out to eat mostly. We highly recommend Snooze for Breakfast and Pacific Beach AleHouse for fish tacos.

We also received a $300 credit for travel reimbursement thanks to the Chase Sapphire Reserve card Travel Credit. I didn't mention this earlier because I didn't want to scare you. $450 annual fee, but you get it back in other ways. Plus it allowed us to drink champagne in the Minneapolis airport Escape Lounge thanks to the Priority Pass. I'll explain later.

We had an amazing time as a family. We never would've planned this because honestly we wouldn't have been able to afford it. We are already planning our next trip. Also, I highly recommend Delta for traveling with children. Our children sat in their car seats on the plane. One child was rear-facing, so we offered to buy the person in front of our child a drink since they couldn't recline. The flight attendants and passengers were very nice and accommodating.

Feel free to ask any questions. I would do a few things differently, especially now that I know about Chase's 5/24 rule. I love talking about points and travel. It's my new hobby...okay, addiction :) Until next time...