Marty's Points Journey
With high prices dominating the travel industry, many are looking for ways to cut vacation costs. Before I got into the points and miles game, I would pay cash for every trip. Granted, on flights, I would go for economy seats and the cheapest hotels (those Howard Johnson's days were rough in hindsight). But now I know how to pay for vacations with points, miles and less cash than booking an economy ticket or staying at a Howard Johnson's.
This is my friend, Marty. After seeing all the travel I've done over the past few years, she wants to get into the game. So we searched for "beginner cards" to slowly dive into it. Originally, I suggested the American Express Green card. For $150 annual fee, It offers:
a Welcome Bonus of 40,000 Membership Reward points on a $2,000 spend within the first 6 months of getting the card.
3X points at restaurants, on travel and on transit.
$189 CLEAR credit which expedites security lines at airports (a godsend!)
$100 LoungeBuddy Credit -- which pays for access to airport lounges within the LoungeBuddy network every year you have the card.
No foreign transaction fees
Marty did some research and asked me about the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. For an annual fee of $95, the card offers:
a Welcome Bonus of 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points on a $4,000 spend within the first 3 months of getting the card
Up to $50 in statement credits on hotel stays every year you keep the card
5X on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards -- this excludes hotel purchases that qualify for the $50 annual credit mentioned above.
2X on other travel purchases
3X on dining, including delivery services like DoorDash, UberEats and Grubhub
3X on grocery purchases
3X on streaming services
1x on all other purchases
Every year, you earn bonus points equal to 10% of all purchases you made the previous year. So $25,000 in purchases over that year would yield you a 2,500-point bonus.
No foreign transaction fees
When comparing the two, you would think the Chase Sapphire Preferred is the better card -- and it is. But my concern was the higher amount of spend in the shortest time period for the welcome bonus -- not everyone can spend $4,000 in three months. But Marty says she can, so we went for it. Plus, she already has a Chase banking account, so she can pay it off easily with a few clicks.
Marty has plans to go to Greece and Amsterdam with friends in October. Her friend had found the following itinerary:
Leaving Saturday, October 7th at 5:30am on Delta Airlines, 5+-hour layover in ATL, then onto Athens arriving at 10:35
Leaving ATH on Wednesday, October 18th on KLM Flt 1574 at 13:35, arriving at AMS at 16:15, overnight stopover in Amsterdam, then leaving AMS on Flt 601 on Thursday the 19th at 09:50 on Thursday to LAX
Price: $1,167 (which has since increased to $1,867) for economy seat.
With points, I found her the following deal:
Leaving Saturday, October 7th at 6:20pm on Air France, 4+-hour layover at CDG, then onto Athens arriving at 22:30.
Leaving ATH on Wednesday, October 18th KLM 1574 at 13:35 to AMS arriving at 16:15, next leg leaves Friday, October 20th on KLM Flight 0603 from AMS at 12:50 arriving at LAX at 16:15
Price: 84,500 Points and $284.65 cash for taxes and fuel surcharges for economy.
On my itinerary,
Marty would get to sleep in Saturday morning rather than race to the airport at pre-dawn hours,
an hour less time at the connecting airport (plus, CDG is a better airport than ATL IMHO)
On the return, the original itinerary would only give Marty a roughly 15-hour stopover in Amsterdam -- and most of that time is at night even though the sun sets later in that region than in the US. My itinerary gives her an extra day to enjoy Amsterdam
With points she accrued from everyday spending, she would only need 84,500 points and pay only $284.65 out of pocket.
Now, you're probably thinking "even with the spending bonus, she doesn't have enough points". Well, that's where transfer bonuses come in. Chase has a 25% bonus transfer to Air France/KLM going on until mid-May. Let's say she accumulates 65,000 points from spending and the welcome bonus. A 25% transfer bonus would get her 81,250 points -- and she would only need 3,250 points to make it happen -- and that's achievable if you take advantage of what I called "point accelerators" -- 3X on dining, groceries and streaming services. Chase also offers bonus categories every month to help you grow your points stash. So the 3,250 difference is easily achievable.
As we go along. I will update our progress and let you know what Marty does. It's exciting for me to teach her the points-and-miles game so she can enjoy travel on the cheap.
If you would like to learn more about the points-and-miles game and save some serious money on that next trip, hit me up at globalistguru@protonmail.com and I will respond in a few days.
Safe travels!