traveling using points/miles/etc

[LivingAlmostLarge]

When you guys travel do you count miles or points etc as free? Do you count it as if you were paying? I ask because I read blogs and they always talk about traveling for free. But then they say they are traveling for "free" using miles so they didn't pay for their flights. But then when you try to replicate that it's impossible. Do you consider costs if you are using miles or points?

[rennigade]

But then when you try to replicate that it's impossible.

What do you mean, when you try to replicate what they're speaking of its impossible?

I consider flights almost free when I sign up for credit card promotional offers. Sometimes there is an annual fee, which doesnt make the flight that free, usually no more than $100. Most of the time, annual fee is waived for the first year. No matter what, from my experience, there is a fee when booking with points/miles. For AA, its around $12.50 round trip per person. Some sort of tax or airline surcharge thing. Thats about as cheap as you can get a flight, $12.50 per person. We've done in a bunch of times from the east coast to hawaii/alaska. Its not difficult. Ive talked about it before. I will say, if you suck with credit cards....do not attempt this!

If you're not signing up for the massive promotional offer and you're using a rewards credit card to accumulate points/miles, I wouldnt consider that free at all. Instead you could be using a credit card that pays you in cash money, instead of points/miles. So instead of receiving money from your spending habits, you're getting a flight instead. Not free.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I guess like if you don't have enough points to cover your family? Like for example to go to hawaii if the airfare is 80k in miles and there is 4 of you. How do you get 320k miles so quickly every year? Or twice a year? How do you generate 700k miles a year? I have miles now but i try to maximize my miles usage to 1.5 cents per miles as a friend who does mileage runs and on those flyer talks tells me.

I find it hard to have enough miles for a family of four to always fly free so much. I'm not sure if it's because we fly a lot or because we are a family of four. I mean even how many cards and how often do we need to be signing up? I though once a year? Because there is spending minimums to get the miles.

For example next June we are going to Asia it'll cost 70k miles per person at least. So there goes most of our miles on that one trip. Plus we'll fly at least 3-4 more times places next year. I need miles for Feb 2020 to hawaii. So how the heck would I get that many miles so quickly? Fake CC for kids? I just do me and DH.

[disneysteve]

When you guys travel do you count miles or points etc as free?

Do you consider cashback from a credit card to be free money? If so, then points or miles would also be considered free.

We use a Marriott Visa as our primary credit card so we rack up a few thousand points every month. I actually have our current statement in front of me and last month we earned 7,705 points. The prior month we earned 10,495 points. To put that in context, free nights start as low as 5,000 points and the places we tend to stay are usually 15,000 points/night. We are going away for a long weekend this week and will rack up about 25,000 points from that stay as we are paying cash, not using points. So it's not hard to see how we can accumulate enough points for a free trip fairly quickly. We currently have about 450,000 points in our account so at 15,000/night, that would get us 30 free nights.

So yes, I consider those reward stays to be free. It doesn't matter if my CC gives me points or dollars. Either way, it didn't cost me anything.

[disneysteve]

If you're not signing up for the massive promotional offer and you're using a rewards credit card to accumulate points/miles, I wouldnt consider that free at all. Instead you could be using a credit card that pays you in cash money, instead of points/miles. So instead of receiving money from your spending habits, you're getting a flight instead. Not free.

Do you not consider cashback to be free money? It didn't cost you anything to get it assuming you only used the card to make purchases you would have made anyway.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Steve we may have to switch to your card

[disneysteve]

Steve we may have to switch to your card

If you actually want to, let me know and I can send you a referral code that I think gets us both some sort of bonus. I love our Marriott card. We've had it for years. In fact, earlier this year I upgraded to their higher tier card which provides more benefits and racks up points faster (the fee is a little higher but well worth it).

[LivingAlmostLarge]

what is the bonus for signing up? I will do it after I finish our rewards for alaska visa

[disneysteve]

what is the bonus for signing up? I will do it after I finish our rewards for alaska visa

I'll message you the details.

[cypher1]

My CC covers the first $300 in travel expenses as free, but I definitely count them as costs, since I have a much higher annual fee. As for the points themselves, I only redeem them on international flights and not for the whole flight but just a portion of it.

[corn18]

My CC covers the first $300 in travel expenses as free, but I definitely count them as costs, since I have a much higher annual fee. As for the points themselves, I only redeem them on international flights and not for the whole flight but just a portion of it.

Is this the Cause Sapphire Reserve card? We are considering switching to that from our 2% cash back card with Fidelity. We spend about $10k / mo on the card, so that would be quite a few points.

[cypher1]

Is this the Cause Sapphire Reserve card? We are considering switching to that from our 2% cash back card with Fidelity. We spend about $10k / mo on the card, so that would be quite a few points.

Correct. While it has a high annual fee, the annual 300 travel credit helps me justify the cost. Also includes free global entry/TSA precheck fee, and Priority Pass at airports for perks. I'm back in school part-time, so I'm able to charge my tuition with it as well.

[riverwed070707]

I guess like if you don't have enough points to cover your family? Like for example to go to hawaii if the airfare is 80k in miles and there is 4 of you. How do you get 320k miles so quickly every year? Or twice a year? How do you generate 700k miles a year? I have miles now but i try to maximize my miles usage to 1.5 cents per miles as a friend who does mileage runs and on those flyer talks tells me.

I find it hard to have enough miles for a family of four to always fly free so much. I'm not sure if it's because we fly a lot or because we are a family of four. I mean even how many cards and how often do we need to be signing up? I though once a year? Because there is spending minimums to get the miles.

For example next June we are going to Asia it'll cost 70k miles per person at least. So there goes most of our miles on that one trip. Plus we'll fly at least 3-4 more times places next year. I need miles for Feb 2020 to hawaii. So how the heck would I get that many miles so quickly? Fake CC for kids? I just do me and DH.

Honestly, I wouldn't try to cover long flights like Asia and Hawaii on miles - I'd rather pay the fare and earn miles, and then spend the miles on shorter flights where miles earning would be less.

Not sure my experience helps you, but to address the original question, I do not count a "cost" associated with spending points. I earn a lot of points through work travel and meetings and spend them on personal travel so there isn't a cost or process required to redeem them.

[disneysteve]

Honestly, I wouldn't try to cover long flights like Asia and Hawaii on miles - I'd rather pay the fare and earn miles, and then spend the miles on shorter flights where miles earning would be less.

I tend to do the same thing with hotel points. The hotel we're staying at this weekend is nearly $500/night. I could have used points but I saw it as a great opportunity to rack up points instead. I think we earn 18 points/dollar spent so if the bill is $1,500, we'll earn 27,000 points. That will get us a couple of free nights at a more modest hotel on a future trip.

[disneysteve]

I earn a lot of points through work travel and meetings and spend them on personal travel so there isn't a cost or process required to redeem them.

That's the best deal of all. My job doesn't involve travel but I have a number of friends with that set up. Either they pay with a company card or pay with a personal card and get reimbursed but they get to keep all of the rewards for themselves. I do get a continuing education reimbursement so if I go to a conference, I can charge it, get reward points, and get reimbursed, but that's no more than about 3K/year of charges.