We still don’t understand why more people, especially our friends, don’t use credit card points and miles for nearly free travel. Who doesn’t want to travel? Especially for almost free? One of the comments we get most is, “I could never keep it all organized!” Is that something you struggle with, too? Let us introduce […]

Do you have a place you want to travel to (or several)? Maybe a type of flight that you have heard about and you really want to fly sometime in your lifetime? Alex, Jess, and I have had a multitude of bucket list travels that credit card points and miles have made possible.  The amazing […]

I don’t use card points and miles for cheap seats. Now that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t, but I have some reasons I’d like to share with you regarding why I’ve made that choice. Free is free, though. If you are buying 4 airline tickets domestically, I know it can add up. It may make total […]

Sometimes, you may want to downgrade a card instead of canceling it. Let’s go over the basics of how to downgrade a Chase card.   Steps to Downgrade a Chase Card You can downgrade a Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve by calling the number on the back of your card. The credit card number and […]

It’s easier to earn points than it is to find award flights—we can all agree on that. We love using search engines like AwardLogic and Point.me to help us find award flights. I just checked out Roame, a new search engine for award flights, and was pleasantly surprised at the speed at which it worked […]

There are so many ways that you can use credit card points and miles, and credit card issuers constantly give you ideas. Not every idea is a great point or mile redemption, so let’s go over the do’s and don’ts of credit card point redemptions.     How NOT to Use Your Points Shop at […]

Chase Card spending bonuses occur every quarter and are a great way to get some extra points/miles on some of your favorite cards. You just need to go here and enter the information on each card to see what you are eligible to earn. This example below was for purchases between April 1 and June […]

One of the benefits of several credit cards is an airline incidental credit. These are usually offered on the cards with higher annual fees, so you want to use these benefits to make the annual fee seem lower. Using credit card airline incidental credits can be tricky because most things you can use don’t cost […]

If you are like me, most of the time I travel, I head to the airport wondering if I did everything I needed to do before I leave. In that vein, here is a list of 15 important things to do before you travel. I’ll check these off before every trip so I feel less […]

You may have heard someone talk about fifth freedom flights and using points and miles to take one. And you may have been totally confused. We’re hear to clear up that confusion as we talk about fifth freedom flights today. A fifth freedom flight or route is flight that operates between two countries that are […]

My husband and I are in Sydney, Australia, as part of a great trip to Tokyo, Australia, and New Zealand. We should have left for Auckland this morning, but the weather changed dramatically on the North Island of New Zealand. We noticed the following scenes in Auckland on tv the night before we were to […]

What is airline elite status? Is it a big deal? Should you try and get airline elite status? One year I bought an economy-plus subscription from United so I could always fly in comfort. That is when I decided flying in comfort was worth it. That economy-plus seat was much nicer than regular economy. I […]

Last year we paid our federal taxes by credit card. Is it worth paying your taxes with a credit card? My husband is self-employed, and we had a tax bill of about $30,000. I hate writing a check for taxes and getting nothing back. Taxes are hard enough to pay anyway, right? I decided I […]

  We love credit card points and miles! Without them, we wouldn’t be staying at fancy hotels in Maui, flying business class to Greece, or going on nearly free vacations to Thailand. Before you can redeem your points for free flights and hotel nights, you have to earn them. Today we are going to talk […]

It’s that time of year to review whether you’ve used all your credit card annual benefits. If not, get to it! Nothing is worse than realizing you left some benefits on the table that you could have used. Let’s review the major benefits of some of our most popular credit cards! It’s time to check […]

As we often say, it is important to start earning and then booking for peak travel times EARLY! That means if you are wanting Spring and Summer travel, you should start earning those points NOW! We are heading into holiday time and which means we will all be busier than ever. Once the holidays are […]

You are probably wondering why we are writing about bank account bonuses when we are usually talking about credit cards. Well, credit cards are great for paying for your flights and hotels but what about food, tours, rental cars, and massages? We found another way to fund these items.  Bank account bonuses come into play […]

When it comes to  Chase Ink Business cards, many people are wishing they could get one again or wondering, “can I have both?” The answer is YES! Let’s go over how to get a business card again using our favorites, the Chase Ink Business cards, as an example. Chase Business Cards Chase has three business […]

Using your credit card like a debit card is the way to meet minimum spending and earn a lot of nearly-free travel. Remember when we used to use checks to pay for things? So old school, right? Then we changed over to using a debit card for most of our purchases, and that was such […]

One of the best cards out there is not available to apply to anymore. The Ritz-Carlton card is one of my favorite cards that I keep and have no plans to get rid of. You may not be able to apply for it anymore but you can get it through a product change. These are […]

One of the questions that beginner points and mile users ask the most is, “When is the best time to get a new credit card?” I really wish I had a magic ball that could foresee when a bonus is going to go higher so I could answer that question. Recently, I finally got under […]