I thought it would be fun to hear from some of our readers, particularly our Award Travel Academy Students, about their points and miles journey. I asked them to tell us about their first redemptions and their journey from beginner to booking that first trip with credit card points and miles.

Olivia’s Story with Credit Card Points and Miles

First up is Olivia – here is what she has to say:

My name is Olivia; I started using points and miles in “earn” mode, I believe, in September of 2022 and made my first redemption in May of 2023.

Since then, here are my redemptions:

• Round-trip biz flights to Jamaica for two with minimal taxes and fees
• RT flights to Savannah for two and a four-night stay at Andaz Savannah. Included champagne arrival, daily appetizers, daily wine tasting, and snacks in the room daily
• RT AF biz flights to Italy for two, 8 nights at The Tribune Rome
• RT flights to Washington DC for two, 4 nights at Grand Hyatt DC
• RT JetBlue flights to Punta Cana for two, 4 nights at Secrets Royal Beach AI
• 2 different one-night hotel stays in NYC for positioning flights

Olivia only started in 2022 but has been a rockstar with credit card points and miles!

Christina’s Credit Card Points and Miles Story

I broke my tibia last year and was healing. I wanted to explore using credit card points and miles for travel, so I signed up for your course. I went to AAA and asked how much a trip to Hawaii would cost for my child, and me, and they quoted me the minimum price. They said about $7000. I am a single mama and professor, and I couldn’t afford that, of course. And someone shared your work with me. It was expensive, but I also just loved being able to support other mamas.

This February will be our big trip to Hawaii; we have paid for it all – the flight and stay at the Grand Hyatt – with points. Of course, along the way this year, we have done a bunch of different Hyatt stays and have enjoyed getting to know the system. But we can’t wait to report back about our trip to Hawaii in February. Thank you so much!

Christina will love the Grand Hyatt Kauai, and we can’t wait to hear back from her after her trip!

Jessica’s Credit Card Points and Miles Story

Jessica just started in June of 2023 and has already booked a trip for her family for Spring Break 2024! That is how fast it can happen if you approach it quickly. They are going to Portugal, and within a few months of learning with our course, she had enough points to book 5 roundtrip flights and 8 nights of Airbnb in Portugal! She is flying DFW to Lisbon on Air Canada and will be in Lisbon and Lagos.

She used 427,446 points and decided to book her flights through the Chase Portal because she wanted her flights and accommodations to be as close to zero as possible and didn’t want to pay the taxes and fees.

Here’s what she said:

 

Within two months of starting to use credit card points and miles for travel Jessica booked tickets to Lisbon for her family.

 

Christina’s Credit Card Points and Miles Story

Hi Pam! I have not stayed yet, but have booked my first redemption. I bought your ATA course on October 27th, pretty sure I had done a bulk of it within 2 days. We are staying 6 nights in September 2024 in Maui at the Hyatt Regency Maui. We live on the East Coast, so we are doing Southwest flights from Florida to LAX. We will be staying at a Hyatt near the hotel (on points also) and flying to OGG the next day.

On the way home, we are doing the same thing. We booked on the Turkish Airlines site and flew to LAX, staying at a Hyatt (on points again) and using Southwest to fly back to Florida the next day. We got the Southwest Companion Pass which helps with a family of 6! September cannot come quickly enough!

We used Capital One Venture Miles to transfer to Turkish for our flights to Hawaii from LAX and Chase Ultimate Rewards for the hotels. We used Southwest Rapid Rewards for the other flights.

 

We hope Christina enjoys her stay here as much as we always do!

Bottom Line

If you are one of those people who are still lurking around but haven’t made the jump into points and miles yet, DO IT! Each of these readers has had wonderful experiences because they got off the bench and started booking that first trip with credit card points and miles! You can do it too!