Revised June 2024
Written By: Jeremy Chipps
Length: 25 minutes
How would you like to earn hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars worth of points and redeem them to TRAVEL MORE?
Introduction
Before we begin, I want to make sure you noticed the green number in the image above. Good. Let's continue.
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One of the most popular questions we get from friends, family, and our following is:
"How are you guys able to travel so much?"
This answer is quite complex. Many things come to mind: no pets, no children, setting priorities, using points/miles, maximizing our time etc. We had regular jobs when I originally wrote this, but currently we are traveling full-time and doing part-time remote work. EDIT: We have a kid haha but still some great information here that will still enable us to travel often.
Anyway, I think what people are truly curious about is how we easily afford to fly so much. This blog will focus on our personal experience using credit cards to earn and redeem tons of travel rewards. The goal is to educate and inspire you. If you want to learn to earn BIG rewards, this is worth your time. Are You Ready?
Backstory
After graduating from UCF in 2017, getting married, and moving from FL to NC, Jenna and I began to realize how much we love to travel. One day, I opened the “Podcasts” app on my iPhone and began searching for travel podcasts. I discovered "Zero To Travel", hosted by Jason Moore and "Extra Pack of Peanuts", hosted by Travis Sherry, (would recommend both!)
Travis is quite the credit card nerd and this topic hooked me. At the time, I had just one credit card (like most normal people.)
Credit Cards
A note about credit cards in general: some people hear “credit card” and negative connotations flood their mind. Thoughts about spending money you don’t have, late payments, debt, and crazy interest rates. These are all real concerns, but they are NOT the way we use these cards. Every card is set to “Auto-Pay” and responsibility is key. If you have credit card debt, I encourage you to handle that 1st, before getting into this.
A note about Credit Scores: using credit cards responsibly is an easy way to build good credit. In fact, the more cards you have, assuming you pay them all off on time, the more you can be trusted as a borrower.
In fact, my credit score was around 740 when I began this journey and there it is below, as of October 2022.
As you can see, over the many years my score has actually increased. It went down after taking out a loan, but since everything is being paid accordingly, it's surpassed where is was!
If you're concerned that your credit is too low to be approved for many credit cards, you might be right, but you should still read ahead, try to learn the approval requirements for cards you may want, and know that you can always call the lender and see if they'll reconsider (this can really work!)
Good News & Bad News
The bad news is that you are going to have to spend money to earn points. But spending happens pretty much daily. No worries. The good news is that the points you earn from your everyday spending are only part of the equation.
The real way to earn large sums of points is through the Sign Up Bonuses that you can earn when approved for a new card and after meet the minimum spend.
If you still use a debit card or cash on a regular basis, you might want to consider using a credit card to at least earn something in return for all of the money you spend!
Strategy Overview
Credit card strategies will be different for various types of travelers and lifestyles. Some of you may not spend as much, or may travel less frequently, meaning you may not want/need as many points or cards.
Some of you, (I'm assuming the majority), want to travel often and figure out how to (responsibly) earn as many points as possible. That's us.
The basic steps for earning lots of points are as follows:
1. Apply for and Receive New Card
2. Set Up Auto-Pay
3. Meet Minimum Spend
4. Earn Sign Up Bonus
5. (When appropriate) Apply for New Card and Repeat
Keep in mind that credit card companies want customers to continue using their cards, therefore, many of the more valuable cards have annual fees that you need to account for. The sign up bonuses and the points earned from spending should largely outweigh these fees, but long term, you don't want a bunch of cards with annual fees that you aren't using on a regular basis to diminish the value of the bonuses you earned initially for signing up.
Eventually you'll slow down your credit card "churning" and you can decide which cards are best for you and your everyday spending, based on their bonus categories (ex: 3X points for Travel and Dining). You can close the cards with annual fees that you've decided are not the best for you.
The general rule of thumb to keep your credit score healthy is to keep more than half of your credit cards open. The cards with no annual fees, you can likely keep open forever. The only cons I can think of to keeping a card open that you don't use are as follows:
1. If you did not set your card to auto-pay and somehow miss a charge, you could end up paying fees/interest and it may damage your credit score.
2. Each card has a credit limit and your total credit limit between all of your lines of credit may have some cap based on your income (and other factors). If there's no room for more credit to be extended, this could lower your chances of being approved for a new card.
Where We Started
After a lot of learning and excitement building up, I applied for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and the rewards journey began!
Important Note:
If you do choose to apply for any of the credit cards we teach you about in this blog, please apply using our links because we can earn some compensation for referring you. There will be a green apply button at the bottom of each card segment.
Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is an excellent credit card. It has a reasonable $95 annual fee and the benefits are great.
Before getting into why I chose this card, let's answer the question of "Why Chase?" The best thing about Chase cards is the flexibility of the points that not many credit cards have. Example, we have a Hilton credit card where the points can only be used for Hilton reservations and a United Airlines credit card where the points can only be used with United Airlines.
Also, Chase can be somewhat strict in approving people for cards. The "5/24 rule" means that, generally, if you've been approved for 5 credit cards (or maybe other lines of credit) in the last 24 months, they'll likely deny you're application. Thinking long-term, if you plan on accumulating a lot of cards, this is why you'd be wise to start with Chase cards before moving to other cards with potentially more lenient approval requirements.
Chase refers to their points as Ultimate Rewards points. The sign on bonus is a whopping 75,000 points right now! This is worth $750 if you simply cashed it out, but it could be worth $900 if you were to book travel reservations through the Chase travel portal on their website.
Get more out of your points by redeeming for travel!
Having the Chase Sapphire Preferred gives you a 25% bonus if your points are redeemed for travel through their website. It's a simple search engine, like Expedia, where you can book flights, hotels, car rentals, and more. If you want to keep it simple and get cash back, you have that option, but if you want to maximize your rewards and use them to book travel, this is an excellent way!
Incredible flexibility with Ultimate Rewards points!
Ultimate Rewards points can also easily be transferred to many Travel Partners, such as Southwest, Marriott, and Hyatt.
Here's an actual shot of us moving points to Southwest. Very easy to move points around!
Now that you better understand the value of Ultimate Rewards points, let's continue with the benefits with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card outside of the 75,000-points bonus.
- 2X points on Travel and 3x now on Dining! To learn more about the details of those categories, here's a link to the page on the Chase website.
There are others and these change often, so check out their site to learn more!
- 1 point per dollar on everything else.
- No foreign transaction fees.
- Travel and purchase coverage.
- 24/7 customer service specialists.
The main “downsides” to note with this card is that there is an annual fee of $95. The sign-on bonus ($750-$900) obviously blows that away, so it’s really no big deal. Also, if you decide to make this your primary spending card, you should have no issue earning more than $95-worth of points every year.
Most importantly, this card currently (these offers change) has a minimum spend of $4,000. This means that in order to earn the 75,000-point sign up bonus, you have to spend $4,000 in the first 3 months of having the card. This is a larger-than-average minimum spend, but again, excellent value!
If you anticipate the minimum spend being an issue, or potential deal-breaker, you'll want to check out the following articles that will help you think through about how you can meet the minimum spend, without doing anything extreme.
25 Ways (and counting) to Meet Minimum Spend Requirements
10 Ways to Meet Credit Card Bonus Minimum Spending Requirements
Now that you have a foundation in credit card knowledge and have learned all about my #1 recommended card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card, if it suits your needs, you can apply by clicking the big green button below! Feel free to read about the rest of the cards below before making your first decision. Take your time. This is a marathon, not a sprint!
Southwest Companion Pass
Early 2018 is when this whole journey began. Around the same time that we applied for the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card, I heard about the "Southwest Companion Pass." This pass offers BOGO flight tickets for you and the companion of your choice (which can be changed up to 3 times)!
After the pass is earned, it's valid through the end of the following year. For us, we earned it in May 2018 and it expired at the end of 2019. It's without a doubt, one of the greatest flight perks I have ever learned about and we were able to earn it by signing up for two of the Rapid Rewards credit cards and meeting the minimum spend requirements. One of these cards was a business credit card, which are surprisingly easy to get, if you have any form of a side-hustle (I will talk about this more later).
This flight was booked using points that were transferred from our Chase account. Notice that we only came out of pocket $11.20 for Jenna's ticket. This $11.20 is simply the government-imposed September 11th Security Fee which is $5.60 per one-way trip.
After booking, simply look for the words, "Add Companion" and you only owe the $11.20 for your companion to fly with you! A whopping grand total of $22.40 for both Jenna and I to fly to across the country AND back!
More details about the Companion Pass, how it works, and how to earn it can be found on their site, linked below.
https://www.southwest.com/rapid-rewards/tiers/companion-pass/
You don't need a physical pass, but it's exciting and looks cool!
Chase Sapphire Reserve
This card is basically the "top-tier" version of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card that you learned about previously. The Reserve now offers a 75,000-point bonus after you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months.
Despite the lower bonus, it's one of the most valuable travel cards on the market. It's geared towards frequent travelers who value and utilize the 3X Travel & Dining bonus point categories (versus 2X with the Sapphire Preferred card), the $300 annual travel credit, and the other benefits, like the complimentary Priority Pass (which allows you free access to over 1,000 airport lounges around the world) and the Global Entry or TSA Pre✓® application fee statement credit.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve is great and it's one of our most-used credit cards, but it's not for everyone. It comes with a hefty annual fee of $550 compared to just $95 for the Preferred. If you reach the $300 annual credit, you could subtract that and, theoretically, call it a $250 annual fee.
Just like with the Sapphire Preferred we talked about earlier, there is a bonus incentive with the Sapphire Reserve to booking travel via Chase's Travel Portal. With the Reserve card, this is a 50% bonus (versus a 25% bonus with the Preferred). This could make the 75,000 bonus points actually worth $1125!
If you plan to add an authorized user with the Sapphire Reserve, there will be an extra $75 annual fee. If you're trying to meet a minimum spend, it may help to have your spouse (or whoever) have their own card to use. This user will have access to their own Priority Pass and will earn the same points in the Travel & Dining categories. They do not, however, get the same $300 credit or Global Entry or TSA Pre✓® application fee statement credit.
It's worth mentioning that if both of the Chase Sapphire cards appeal to you, you will have to select just one of the 2 we've talked about, because one person cannot have both. Also, if you want the Global Entry or TSA credit, but don't think the Reserve is the right card for you, there are other cards with this same benefit and you will learn about one later.
Chase Freedom Unlimited
All of the cards mentioned thus far have annual fees, which can sometimes drive people away. If you'd like to start small, and/or you don't spend much money, and/or don't plan on accumulating many cards, we also have acquired plenty of great cards with no annual fees such as the Chase Freedom Unlimited.
This great card currently offers a $200 bonus after you spend just $500 in the first 3 months. The $200 bonus is actually given in the form of 20,000 Ultimate Rewards points, which gives them the same great flexibility.
The Freedom Unlimited also offers 0% intro APR for 15 months and unlimited cash back. You will earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase (normal is 1% with most cards). If this is your everyday spend card, you could earn hundreds of dollars annually in rewards - with no annual fee. Why not take advantage of these rewards!
This card also has some compelling bonus categories that get it pretty close in value to the Sapphire Preferred! Like 3% on Dining!
Using Cards in Combination to Maximize Rewards
There are a handful of other cards we have that I will discuss later, but this combination strategy is relevant to all of the previously mentioned cards. If you're fairly new to this, I may have already overwhelmed you, but this strategy of using multiple Chase cards in combination is excellent.
Here's the details. Both the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Reserve cards offer the bonus incentive of redeeming Ultimate Rewards points for travel, (through Chase), for the 25% or 50% bonus, respectively. These cards also have the Travel & Dining bonus categories, but they only earn 1X (or 1%) on all other purchases.
You just learned that the Freedom Unlimited card earns 1.5X on everything, but there is no 25% or 50% bonus incentive with redemption of these points.
Comparing these facts alone, if you have the Sapphire Preferred card and you spend $1 on something in the "everything else" category and then you redeem it for travel through the Chase portal, it's worth 1.25 points (thanks to the 25% bonus).
Now, if you do the same thing with the Sapphire Reserve card, and redeem for travel, it's worth 1.5 points (thanks to the 50% bonus).
Lastly, if you do the same thing with the Freedom Unlimited card, it's worth 1.5 points because that's what everything earns with this card and there's no 25% or 50% bonus incentive.
Here's the cool part. With Chase, you can combine points from various cards. To be clear, you can earn points with one Chase card, then transfer those points to the points associated with another Chase card. This can make your rewards even more valuable! Let me explain.
Let's take that 1.5 points that you just earned by spending $1 using your Freedom Unlimited card. Let's now "combine" or transfer your 1.5 points over to the points associated with your Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Now, if you redeem these points for travel, thanks to the 25% bonus, your 1.5 points are now worth 1.875 points.
Looking back, if you made that same "everything else" purchase with your Sapphire Preferred card, instead of the Freedom Unlimited card (and redeem for travel), your points will only be worth 1.25, versus our new value of 1.875. This is a 50% increase!
With the Sapphire Reserve card, the comparison would be 1.5 points alone, compared to 2.25 points, by using the Freedom Unlimited card for "other" purchases, then transferring them to your Reserve card to redeem for travel for the 50% bonus.
Listen, these numbers aren't life-changing, but it's a great strategy that could potentially give you an extra $100 (on top of all the other value you're receiving) to spend on travel annually, depending on how much you spend.
To sum up this strategy, get one of Chase's Sapphire cards (the Preferred or Reserve) for your Travel & Dining expenses, then get the Freedom Unlimited card for everything else. Transfer the Freedom Unlimited points to the Sapphire card, then redeem for travel.
Other Cards We Have
Chase Ink Business Unlimited
Bonus: $750
Minimum Spend: $7,500
Annual Fee: None
Bonus Categories: Unlimited 1.5% cash back
This was our primary business card and the same strategy applies regarding the combination of points. At the time we applied, this blog did not exist. To get approved for this business card, we simply used the fact that Jenna occasionally tutored and babysat on the side. Now we're using Quench Your Adventure as a business.
Point being, it's not hard to get business credit cards, and if you're not trying to earn any money on the side, why don't you consider it?
Chase United Explorer Credit Card
Bonus: 60,000 miles
Minimum Spend: $3,000
Annual Fee: $0 intro year, then $95
Bonus Categories: 2 miles per $1 spent at restaurants & hotels and on United purchases
Other: Free first checked bag, priority boarding, and 2 United ClubSM one-time passes
This card is great if you often fly on United Airlines (or any of the 27 other Star Alliance member airlines). In my experience, United Airlines is a quality airline and redeeming your miles is actually easy. Their website's search engine is user-friendly and it includes most (if not all) of the alliance members.
There seems to always be good availability for reward tickets on United. With some other airlines, earning points may be easy, but redeeming them can be challenging. And those United Lounges are awesome!
Lastly, there are multiple United cards. Read the details of each before selecting which one is most fitting.
Note:
It's worth mentioning that many Chase cards (and credit cards in general) offer other benefits such as Zero Liability Protection, Fraud Protection, Purchase Protection, Travel and Emergency Assistance Services, Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver, Extended Warranty Protection, No Foreign Transaction Fees, and more.
Also, when redeeming Ultimate Rewards points for travel with their search engine, you can use a combination of cash and points. I love this feature, because it gives you even more ability to use your points, even if you don't have enough for a full reservation. Not many platforms have this feature.
Hilton Honors Credit Card
Bonus: 80,000
Minimum Spend: $1,000
Annual Fee: None
Bonus Categories: 7X on purchases with participating hotels within the Hilton portfolio, 5X at US restaurants, 5X at supermarkets, 5X at US gas stations, 3X on all other purchases.
Important Note: At first glance, if you assumed these points hold the same value as all the others we've learned about, this card may seem incredible - but this is not exactly the case.
The value of points always depends on how you use them, and typically, it's best to use them for their primary purpose. Example: Chase Ultimate Rewards points are typically the most valuable when redeemed through the travel portal, instead of transferring to a partner, and especially instead of redeeming for a gift card or product.
Hotel points hold less value per point, generally about 1/3 to 1/2 of the value. So in this case, the bonus of 75,000, might be more like 25,000 Ultimate Rewards points, which might be worth $250 - $375. These are simply ballpark estimates, but they should help you evaluate and compare.
In April 2019, we booked a night at Hampton Inn Prescott (Hampton is in the Hilton Portfolio and it's our favorite for it's value and complimentary breakfast!) for 23,000 points. I don't know the room rates, but we can guess around $100. So if we did this 3 times with our bonus of 75,000, that's a $300 value with some leftover points.
This great for a card with no annual fee and such a low minimum spend! The downfall is that these points don't have flexibility and can only be redeemed for nights at a hotel within the Hilton portfolio, but the options are great, it's easy to do, and you can use a combination of points and cash - which I love!
REI Co-op World Elite Mastercard®
Bonus: $100 REI Gift Card
Minimum Spend: Simply make any purchase within 60 days!
Annual Fee: None
Bonus Categories: 5% back at REI, 1% back on all other purchases
As avid adventurers, travelers, and lovers of the outdoors, REI is an excellent place to shop for gear. The employees know their stuff and REI also leads adventure trips, educational classes, workshops, and events.
This card is only available to members, but it's only $20 lifetime to be a member and the benefits will totally make up for the cost. The primary benefit is the annual dividend. You'll earn back 10% of eligible purchases (I think this means full-priced items). So, if you have this card, that's 15% back on full-priced items, and 5% back on everything else.
If you do choose to apply for this card, the application will ask for both your REI Member Number and the "Referring REI Member Number." If you'd like to say thanks, please use our member number: 21699354.
Conclusion
Amazingly, this does not include all the credit cards we've accumulated, but it does include all the cards that I felt were relevant and valuable - especially for travelers.
If you do dive deep into all of this, I encourage you to stay organized, make a spreadsheet, set reminders, and do routine check-ups. Due to minimum spend requirements and potential overwhelm, you will likely want to take things one card at a time. You don’t have to be a super nerd like me, but you really ought to take advantage of this stuff! You can do it!
If you made it this far, I applaud you. I hope that you're feeling educated and inspired. If necessary, bookmark this blog so that you can refer back to it. Please, let me know if you have feedback or questions.
Now get out there and Quench Your Adventure!
A desert sunset in Phoenix, Arizona from a trip booked using points and the Southwest companion Pass.
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