Supporting our travel hobby has not been easy on our pocketbooks. We aren’t rich, I’m just a poor school teacher, so finding ways to get out of town and not go broke has been challenging.
Using points helps to make the cost of travel a little easy.
To maximize your free travel, the first thing you need to do is to sign up for all the points clubs from your most frequent airlines. Anytime you travel, make sure that your account is on file, and you will accrue points as you fly. It’s as simple as that. Most major airlines let you book tickets using points now, so traveling on the cheap can be easier than you think.
One of the ways that Nova and I maximize our travel is through travel credit cards. These accounts usually tie into your points account with those airlines that you set up earlier. Using credit cards can be a dangerous lifestyle, but if it’s used the right way, it can help indulge a travel addiction.
While my wallet is full of different types of cards, I would say my favorite card has been the Chase Sapphire Preferred.
What makes the Chase Sapphire Preferred so good to me is all the benefits that come with it.
On the Chase Sapphire Preferred, every purchase you make nets you at least 1 point per dollar on Chase’s system. Any purchase that you make on food or travel gives you 2 points per dollar. What I tend to do is put everything on my credit card. Every purchase that I am able to make on the card usually goes on the card.
Sadly, grocery stores are not considered food, but things like uber and lyft are. If you use those frequently, you might be able to get more mileage out of a card like this. If you also use things like MileagePlusX, these purchases get considered travel most of the time, so you get even more points than normal. This makes this card better than most of the standard travel cards that only gives you 1 point per dollar unless you buy on their airline.
Putting everything on your credit card can be dangerous if you don’t manage your money well. I try to pay my card off every Friday. This way, the total doesn’t become overwhelming. This also helps me realize how much I’m spending every week. So it’s a double bonus for me. Although, things can get out of control if you aren’t on top of paying it off, or how much you actually spend in a week.
Since most of my money goes to food the points build up fairly quickly.
Unlike most airline travel cards, Chase has it’s own points systems where it stores your points. You can use Chase’s system to book travel. Chase has a portal where you can book through them. If you use your points, they give you 25% more credit since you are using their system. So your points will go further. I’ve booked some rent cars on there, but I haven’t really had much luck on flights there. Usually, when we book a flight, we find a good deal on one of the airline’s pages, and the deal doesn’t make it onto chases page.
But the other cool thing about the Sapphire card is that you can send your points to other airlines and hotels. This is where the bulk of my points get used. I like having the one repository where all my points build and then I can use them as needed on whichever airline is having a deal, or where I already have points built up.
This system helps me stay flexible. I can usually take any airline that is having the best deal at the moment. I don’t like being locked down to one.
The card also comes with tons of other travel perks. Some cards offer these same things, but again, it’s the flexibility in this system that really shines here. With the card, you get auto rental collision damage waiver, trip cancellation/trip interruption insurance, baggage delay insurance, lost luggage reimbursement, trip delay reimbursement, and Travel Accident Insurance.
You also get these nontravel related perks: price protection for 90 days after a purchase, Extended Warranty for 1 year, purchase protection for an extra 120 days, and extended return for an extra 90 days.
I use an app called Shift to help me monitor all my protections and perks.
They also don’t charge any forgien transactions fees, so you can use it all over the world without having to worry about any surprises other than the conversation of Euros to dollars. But if you stay on top of the conversation rate, you should be fine.
So are there any drawbacks to the Chase Sapphire Card? There is the yearly fee of $99. A small price to pay I feel like for this card. You also might not be making some of the higher points programs of some points systems since you are transferring points in and not build them with that company. However, after using my card for 3 years and taking numerous free trips all over the world, I haven’t really found that to be much of a problem.
There is another Sapphire card too, which might draw your attention, The Sapphire Reserved. That card is similar to the Prefered which I’ve written about here. The Reserved offers a few more perks like 3 times the points on dining and travel, a $300 flight credit, $100 credit if you sign up for Global Entry or TSA Pre for up to 4 years, and entry into some airport lounges for free. All of this seems great, and I’ve debated upgrading to this card, but the yearly fee is $400. So sure you can make $300 of that up in travel, but that’s still a hefty price to pay. I’ll keep you posted if I do end up upgrading though, and I’ll report back to how it fairs against the Prefered.
If you are thinking of getting a travel card, signing up for the Chase Sapphire Prefered isn’t a bad deal. If you sign up now and spend $4000 in the first 3 months you get a bonus 50,000 points. Spending that much money might seem like lots of money, but if you’re putting everything on the card, you should be good.
If you sign up with my link, you also help me feed my travel addiction as well.
Travel Safe everyone!
jarrva world wide 