American Express Membership Rewards are one of the flexible currencies we use in the credit card points and miles game all the time. However, AMEX has changed some of the application rules for their cards. Let’s get clear on the American Express family language!   American Express Cards Earning Membership Rewards You used to be […]

Grace is a points and miles beginner, but she was still able to book an amazing vacation to Cabo. We love that you can quickly learn the game and have success with credit card points and miles! Only two cards opened, and she was in Cabo for her babymoon! Here is her story: This is […]

Booking flights and hotels is definitely more complicated than earning credit card points and miles. Luckily, we have so many search engines to help us book award travel for both.  We have talked about some of them in separate posts, but I wanted to put them all down in one post and link to the […]

We keep most of our hotel-branded credit cards year after year. This is because the benefits of the cards typically outweigh their annual fees (especially those hotel cards that come with an annual free night certificate). Some of our favorites are our Marriott annual free night certificates!  Marriott allows you to “top off” free night […]

One of our readers, Christy, just sent this reader success story to Japan to us – talk about an ultimate redemption and trip! Here’s her story: My husband and I just returned from a nearly 3-week trip to visit our son living in Japan, visiting the cities of Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Himeji, and Iwaki. This […]

Japan is on many people’s travel bucket lists! And for good reason. I loved my recent trip to Japan! Since so many people are interested in traveling there, here is the Ultimate Guide to booking flights to Japan. On points and miles, of course! I like to check out nonstop options for the city I […]

Currently, two of the Marriott cards have welcome offers of five free nights (up to 50K points per night) after hitting the minimum spend on each. We have to ask, “Are the Marriott five free nights offers a great deal?” It depends. First, here are the two cards with that welcome offer:       […]

It may seem too good to be true when we show you how to take a nearly free vacation on points and miles. However, we have hundreds of stories of readers who have also used credit card points and miles for nearly free travel. This proves that ANYONE can do this—even YOU! Here is a […]

Alex and I recently took her second son, Cruz, on his 10-year-old birthday trip to San Antonio. This trip became a tradition after we took her son, Eli, to Washington, DC. The ability to start fun traditions like this is made possible by points and miles and something that I always look forward to. The […]

Creating family memories is what we are all about. Recently, I had the pleasure of making those memories with three generations in Cabo on points/miles. Initially, my daughter Kasey and I had decided to go to Cabo and use points to stay at two different hotels—The Cape and the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal. At […]

I just returned from my most recent trip planned around an award redemption, Etihad Apartments, first class for only 65K Air Canada miles. While there, my daughter, Lindsey, and I did a little Hyatt hotel-hopping in Abu Dhabi. First, I had NO intention of returning to Abu Dhabi again, but the opportunity to try out […]

Nothing causes more analysis paralysis than this question, “Are you getting your best points/miles redemption?” You’ve done the work of earning all those credit card points and miles for that nearly free trip, and now you worry if you are doing it “right”. We see a ton of messages in our Facebook group where people […]

I originally found Jess through a viral real.  I was a lurker for some time, thinking, “why in the world would people pay an annual fee on a credit card when there are free ones?”  Finally, I said YOLO and used Jess’s link to sign up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred.  We met the spend […]

On a recent podcast, we all talked about our strategies for 2024 and that we all planned to earn a million points or more again. I also mentioned two other things: 1. I have over 4 million credit card points and miles, and 2. One bank doesn’t like me now (not approving me for their […]

Recently, Alex, Jess, and I met in Scottsdale for our annual retreat. We make plans for the coming year, enjoy good weather, eat great food, get massages, and have a lot of fun. Of course, we stayed at a Hyatt. Here is our review of the Andaz Scottsdale Resort.   Location of the Andaz Scottsdale […]

Credit cards that offer points that can be redeemed for hotel stays are an important part of our points and miles journey.  Sometimes, we get a card and don’t want to pay the annual fee, but did you know that there are hotel credit cards worth keeping every year? I have several that I get […]

Hailey’s new mom reader success story is brief but oh-so-sweet that we just HAD to share it with you. Being moms ourselves, we can totally relate to the struggle of wanting to be with your young children and also wanting to travel. In today’s world, that can be next to impossible on one income. Luckily, […]

Do you love Delta Airlines? Do you live near Atlanta, Salt Lake City, or another Delta hub? If so, you will be interested in our latest airline card news. The Delta credit card welcome offers have increased! If you’ve been waiting for this, you have a little time to get that new Delta card. You […]

As an award travel newbie, we recognize how hard it is to keep up with all the new vocabulary and rules. Hence, we give you our Award Travel FAQs that we hope you refer to often. We will give you a short explanation and link you to our articles that give you a more detailed […]

One of my favorite ways to fly to London in business class is by positioning to Boston and flying on Virgin Atlantic. Even better, I can get this cheaper by booking it through the Air France site rather than the Virgin Atlantic site. Yes, the surcharges are high at about $700 for a round-trip ticket, […]

Right now, the welcome offer on the United Business card has increased.  If you’ve been waiting to get a card for United MileagePlus miles, the time is NOW! Even better, this card won’t count against your 5/24 status since it is a business card. This offer is for 100K United miles after spending $5,000 in […]