January 2, 2025
Alex’s 2024 Points and Miles Recap
Alex
2024 was another year full of earning and redeeming points and miles for nearly free travel! This year we took more family trips than we have ever before. It was a great year full of making great memories! Here’s Alex’s 2024 points and miles recap!
Alex’s 2023 Points and Miles Recap
January
2024 started with a great tip to the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal. This is a pretty aspirational property in the points-and-miles world and one I’ve had my eyes on for a while! That month, my husband and I celebrated our 15-year wedding anniversary, and this was the perfect place to spend it and the perfect escape from Utah winter!
To pay for our stay we used Hilton free-night certificates (two each, for four nights total). We flew Delta Airlines direct from Salt Lake City to Cabo but I booked it via Virgin Atlantic because they were charging way fewer points than Delta.
We had a great time in Cabo!
February
When my kids turn ten, they go on a solo trip with my mom and me. We celebrated my second-oldest’s tenth birthday this year and took him to San Antonio, Texas.
Our stay was at the Thompson San Antonio, which was beautiful, although the service was disappointing. We had a great time together visiting Natural Bridge Caverns, going on a tour of the Alamo, seeing a movie, doing some birthday shopping, eating out, and visiting the Riverwalk.
A San Antonio birthday trip was a great use of points and miles!
Also in February, my family went to St. George, Utah for my older three boys’ soccer tournament. We used some Marriott free-night certificates to stay at the Springhill Suites for three nights and a Hyatt free-night certificate to stay at Hyatt Place St. George for one night. Bonus—my second-oldest son’s team took first place!
Enjoying the sunshine in St. George between soccer games.
March
March was a busy one!
The month started with a trip to Disneyland with my oldest three kids, my mom, two of my sisters, and a couple of my boys’ cousins. There were some super-cheap flights out of our local airport on Breeze Airways, so we didn’t use points for flights because cash made more sense this time. We split the cash cost of our suite at the Hyatt House Anaheim, but I did use a category 1-7 Hyatt free-night certificate for our first night at Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach. Everyone had a great time visiting Disney with family!
These cousins loved playing at Huntington Beach!
Also, in March, my mom and I went to Austin, Texas, for the iHeartRadio Podcast Awards. Points Talk with the Travel Mom Squad was up for the best travel podcast award. We didn’t win, but it was an incredible honor to be nominated!
While there, my mom and I stayed at the Hyatt Regency Austin. It seemed a little older, but we really enjoyed our stay and would happily stay there again. The location is great!
The big TMS trip of the year was our trip to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. I texted Jess and my mom about an award sale on flights to Singapore for Jess to share about it on Instagram stories, and then the next I knew, Jess had us convinced to book a trip!
We had a great time and are excited to continue on big annual TMS trips like this!
Our trip to Singapore was so much fun!
April
After a busy March, April was a little slower. For spring break, we took a family trip to San Diego. We flew Southwest Airlines and stayed at the Park Hyatt Aviara in Carlsbad. My parents joined us and both my mom and I used Hyatt Suite Upgrade Awards to book amazing suites!
We love visiting Southern California!
We visited the San Diego Zoo Safari Park— now we are ready for the real thing!
June
In June, Mitch and I spent a week in Europe! We spent two nights at the Grand Hyatt Athens and then headed over to Santorini where we spent 3 nights at Canaves Oia Suites. To finish the trip, we went to London, where we spent two nights at my sister’s house. From London, we flew home from Denver on United Airlines premium economy. (We used points for economy and then paid around $200 each to upgrade to premium economy about a week before the flight home.)
Santorini was beautiful!
Stopping in to visit King Charles.
July
In July, we took a big family trip (and when I say “big,” I mean BIG—there were 29 of us!) to Florida with my parents, siblings, and everyone’s kids. We used Southwest Rapid Rewards® to fly in and out of Panama City Beach (Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport). The trip started with two nights at Hyatt Place Panama City Beach. From there, we moved to a Vacasa rental property (we didn’t use points for this part) near Destin.
Great ocean views from the Hyatt Place Panama City Beach lobby
Later in July, we spent three nights at the Hyatt Place Park City, using Hyatt free-night certificates for this stay. My two oldest boys were both playing in Park City for a soccer tournament, so we made a trip of it. This tournament was so fun, but the highlight was my oldest son’s team taking first place!
August
In August, the kids and I flew Southwest to Denver to visit family. Our trips to Colorado are always a highlight of the summer!!
Boating with cousins was so fun!
As August stretched into September, my mom, three sisters, and I went to Portugal. Four of us flew Virgin Atlantic business class to London to meet up with my sister, and from there we took a cheap flight to Lisbon. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Lisbon for three nights and then flew to the Azores and stayed on the island of São Miguel for the next five nights. I flew United premium economy home.
We loved our time in Portugal!
Visiting Lagoa das Sete Cidades
October
My kids have a fall break in October, so we went to Europe. We flew KLM to Amsterdam and spent a couple of nights at the Hyatt Regency Amsterdam. Next, we flew to London and stayed four nights at my sister’s house. We flew Delta home (booked via Virgin Atlantic). It was the kids’ first time in Europe, and it was a hit! They are already asking to go back to visit their cousins in England again!
Exploring Amsterdam
December
This month, we have a trip planned to Hawaii. It’s a surprise for the kids and we can’t wait! Stay tuned for more information about that one later on.
Cards Applied For
In 2024, I opened four cards and Mitch opened eight cards.
Alex’s Cards:
- AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard®: This card had an increased offer of 75K points if you added an authorized user.
- card_name: I opened this card when there was a tiered elevated offer.
- card_name: I’m always looking to earn more of my favorite points!
- Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card: This card had a great limited-time offer earlier in the year and included a bunch of points and a free-night certificate.
All information about the AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard® has been collected independently by Travel Mom Squad. The AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard® is no longer available through Travel Mom Squad.
Mitch’s Cards:
- card_name: This card had an increased offer of 90,000 points at the time.
- American Express® Business Gold Card: Another increased offer, this time for 130,000 points.
- The Business Platinum Card® from American Express: This offer was too good not to get it for Mitch too—250,000 points!
- Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card: I had to get this one for Mitch, too!
- card_name: More of our favorite points!
- The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express: Mitch was targeted for a 50,000-point offer on this card, so of course, he had to get it 🙂
- card_name: We were running very low on United miles after using a bunch this year for flights home from Europe, so when I saw this 70,000-point offer, we had to get it.
- Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard®: I wasn’t planning on us opening another card this year, but we couldn’t resist with all the holiday expenses, and this card had a great 75,000-point offer.
All information about the American Express® Business Gold Card has been collected independently by Travel Mom Squad. The American Express® Business Gold Card is no longer available through Travel Mom Squad.
All information about The Business Platinum Card® from American Express has been collected independently by Travel Mom Squad. The Business Platinum Card® from American Express is no longer available through Travel Mom Squad.
All information about the Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard® has been collected independently by Travel Mom Squad. The Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard® is no longer available through Travel Mom Squad.
Altogether, we will have earned 1.68 million points from welcome offers on the cards we opened in 2024. That does not include any points earned on meeting the minimum spend or points from referring each other to those cards.
Plans for 2025
Here are the trips I have booked for 2025 so far:
- St. George, UT for a soccer tournament (using free-night certificates for the hotel stay)
- Kimpton Roatan, with my mom
- Costa Rica (Andaz Papagayo and Tabacon), the whole family + my parents
- Spain, with Jess and my mom
- Maui, Westin Nanea (I’m doing a timeshare presentation for a discounted stay), and the Andaz
- Hilton Conrad Bora Bora, with Mitch
Bottom Line
I hope 2024 was a wonderful year for you as well, and I hope you enjoyed reading about my 2024 points and miles recap. Let me know in the comments how you used points this year or what you have planned for 2025! We can’t wait to see where points and miles take you.
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