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What can a year of credit card sign-ups get your family?

If you focused all of your family’s spending with a specific strategy, what could that get you? The answer is a whole lot! You could earn the coveted Southwest Companion Pass, where a friend or family member can fly with you for free (plus taxes of $5.60+ each way) anytime you buy a ticket either with cash or points. You’ll also have at least 115,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points (worth about $1,700 in airfare) and $500 in Southwest gift certificates to use to pay taxes on those flights. In addition, you will earn 180,000 airlines miles… that’s enough for two tickets to nearly any destination in the world! You’ll also have at least 162,000 Hilton Honors points to book rooms and one free weekend night at ANY Hilton worldwide. Plus, you’ll have diamond status (Hilton’s highest tier) to get you free upgrades (possibly to suites), hotel lounge access and free breakfast.

Now, this is a just vague strategy for a fake family, but we can tailor your plan specifically for your family. The assumptions we made were that our fake family spends about $20,000/year, that you live near to an airport that services Southwest Airlines, and that one member of the family is eligible for small business credit cards. More people are eligible for small business cards than may even realize it. Besides the obvious owners of traditional businesses, you may qualify if you drive for Uber, sell products through a MLM organization or rent your home through Airbnb or several other situations for example.

Application calendar

For our example, we will generally have the two partners alternate credit card applications. P1 will refer to the person who is eligible for small business credit cards, while P2 will be their partner. You’ll have a total of six credit card averaging a new application about every two months.

ApplicantDateCard NameMinimum Spend
(MS)
MS TimeBonusAnnual fee
P23/2019Hilton Aspire (our link, thank you)$4,0003 months150,000$450
P15/2019Ink Preferred (our link, thank you)$5,0003 months80,000 UR$95
P28/2019United MileagePlus Explorer$3,0003 months50,000 MP Miles$95 waived
P110/2019Southwest Rapid Rewards Business$3,0003 months60,000 Rapid Rewards$99
P112/2019Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus$2,0003 months50,000 Rapid Rewards$69
P12/2020Chase Ink Cash$3,0003 months50,000 UR$0

Why these cards?

For this example I wanted a mix of domestic air miles (Southwest), international air miles (United), flexible points (Chase Ultimate Rewards), hotel points (Hilton) and interesting/useful perks (Southwest Companion Pass, Priority Pass lounge access, Hilton diamond status, airline gift certificates and Global Entry). I also wanted the total required spend to be right at the $20,000 mark, which did limit me just a touch. Lastly, I wanted to try and hit Chase a little harder at first. Chase has a number of limitations on being approved for new cards, so getting them first is almost always a good idea.

The Hilton Aspire is currently my favorite of the “premium” cards. These cards charge a high annual fee, but come with a whole host of great benefits. This is a card that we will probably continue to hold year after year, despite having to pay $450 to have it. The first big benefit is the $250 airline incidental fee. This fee is meant to be used for things like seat assignments, checked bags and change fees. However, we use it to buy Southwest Airlines gift certificates which can be used on flights or to pay the taxes owed on award flights. Priority Pass lounge access is another benefit we love (We most often use it in Denver when flying on Southwest). With Priority Pass you get $28/person (up to three people) in credit for free. We try to get a meal before leaving on our trip and again upon our return and all we usually have to cover is the tip. You’ll also get a weekend free night at any Hilton hotel in the world. In my opinion, the benefits far outweigh the costs year after year.

The Ink Preferred is an outstanding small business credit card. You’ll get 80,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points after spending $5,000 in three months. The best thing about Ultimate Rewards is that they are very flexible. Worst case scenario is you can cash them out at a penny a point making your sign-up bonus worth $800. A better option is to redeem them for travel (airfare, hotels, rental cars) through Chase’s portal. Then each point is worth 1.25 cents, making your sign-up bonus worth $1,000 in travel. My favorite way to redeem them, however, is through transfer partners. Chase lets you transfer your Ultimate Rewards Points to a number of airlines and hotels. One Ultimate Reward Point will equal one airline mile or hotel point in twelve different partners. My favorite partners to transfer are (in no particular order) British Airways, Singapore Airlines, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Air France/KLM for airlines. However, the only hotel partner that’s really worth transferring to is Hyatt. By transferring to these partners, you can get well over two cents per point, making your sign-up bonus worth over $1,600! Peakawardbooking.com can really help you maximize the value of transferable points like these.

The United MileagePlus Explorer card is a great card to help you get started on international award flights. Not only will you get 50,000 points after spending $3,000 in three months, but you’ll also get a few extra little perks. My favorite is increased award availability. By either being an elite member of United or by having this card, United opens up additional economy awards on their flights. This is mostly helpful if you live near a smaller airport as these flights can get you to major international gateways for your dream trip. You will also get reimbursed for Global Entry or PreCheck (I recommend Global Entry since it basically includes PreCheck as well). Global Entry will allow you to speed through customs and give you expedited security at US airports via the PreCheck lane. The Explorer card will also get a few extra perks as well, such as priority boarding and two free checked bags.

The Southwest cards, in my opinion, are really only worth getting if you can get both the business and the personal. If you time your applications and bonuses properly, you will earn over 110,000 Rapid Rewards points early in the year. This will unlock the greatest perk in domestic air travel, the companion pass. The companion pass allows you to designate one person to fly with you for free (minus taxes which start at $5.60 each way). The perk lasts for the entire year you earn it as well as the following year! You can have almost two years of free flights from two credit cards. Since point redemptions on Southwest are tied to the price of the ticket, you and your friend could use those 110,000 points for up to 22 round-trip flights! Sure, you’ll still owe taxes, but that is what the gift cards from your Hilton Aspire card can be used for.

Lastly, I threw the Chase Ink Cash card into the mix. You’ll get 50,000 more Ultimate Rewards points after $3,000 spend in three months. You can combine these with what you’ve earned from the Ink Preferred to either redeem or transfer as you wish. You could transfer your 138,000 to United to end up with over 190,000 United MileagePlus miles. That is enough to fly two people anywhere that United or any of their Star Alliance partners fly. There is no annual fee on this card and it earns 5x points on office supply stores, as well as internet, cable and phone services.

Your total cost for these cards is $713 in annual fees, but the approximate value of the points and perks is over $5,000. If you really leverage your benefits and points, this could be worth over $10,000!

What is the right plan for you?

This is just one credit card application strategy example. Maybe you don’t live near an airport Southwest serves. Maybe you aren’t interested in hotel points or don’t qualify for a business. Whatever you situations, Peakawardbooking.com can build an application strategy that is specifically designed for you. Reach out to us and we will have you traveling in style and saving thousands as well.

South America 2015: Our First Award Trip

My wife and I have always wanted to go to Machu Picchu.  We are a little obsessed with ancient archaeology and love being able to see these places in person.  What made this trip even more memorable is that it was our first major trip with our son.  Once we had settled on Peru, we decided to add on another stop, mostly because we could.  We tacked on two more flights to get us to Iguazu Falls.  We ended up with a total of 11 flights and we paid only taxes on those.  We had 12 nights in hotels and only paid out of pocket for one.    We did have some big expenses as both Brazil and Argentina had very high visa fees ($160/person) and we hired a private guide for our time in Peru.  Outside of those costs and normal food, souvenirs and entrance fees, we basically did the whole trip on four credit cards, Chase Ink, Chase United and two of the Amex SPG (now Bonvoy).

We were able to fly out of our home airport of Colorado Springs.  Airline miles makes this much more affordable.  Previously, we had to drive up to Denver, pay more for parking, deal with bigger crowds and longer security lines.  Now when we use points we usually can fly out of our smaller airport (that even has a Priority Pass lounge!).  We used United miles for our flights to Peru and returning from Brazil.  50,000 miles each got us flights that would probably run around $2,000 each.  We earned these miles through a combination of Chase Ultimate Rewards credit card sign-ups and United MileagePlus card sign-ups.  You can get the required 150,000 miles from either two or three card sign-ups. 

To get to Cusco, Peru we took a combination of airlines.  We flew United from Colorado Springs to Houston and then on to Panama City.  We intentionally built in an overnight in Panama City to give ourselves and our son a break.  The next morning, we flew from Panama City to Lima on Copa before taking Avianca from Lima to Cusco.  Even once we landed, we still had an almost two-hour drive to the town of Urubamba where our hotel, Tambo del Inka was located. 

Tambo del Inka in Urubamba Peru

At the time we visited, Tambo del Inka was rated as the #4 hotel in the world by tripadvisor.com and was a member of Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG, now Bonvoy after combining with Marriott).  Due to recently completing a status challenge, we were Platinum members with SPG.  As such, we received free breakfast, late check-out if needed and possible room upgrades up to a suite.  We were not disappointed. 

When we checked-in, they confirmed our status and also confirmed that we received an upgrade to a junior suite.  At some hotels a junior suite is not really a suite at all, but just a slightly larger room.  A junior suite at Tambo del Inka was much more.  We did in fact have two separate areas, a living room and a bedroom.  We put our son up in the living area with his own portable crib, the Lotus Travel Crib (we highly recommend it), while we took over the main bedroom. The view of the Andes out of our windows was also breathtaking.

Each day the staff not only made up our bed, but they always made-up and organized his travel crib.  It was such a small gesture, but really showed attention to detail and their eagerness to go above and beyond.  The room we were given goes for around $500/night and we were only out points.  The hotel also has it’s own dedicated train station for the trip to Machu Picchu which is a nice perk. 

Písac Ruins in Peru

Once we finished seeing the sites around and within Cusco, we left for Iguazu Falls.  We used British Airways Avios (their mileage currency) to fly on LATAM.  These miles also transferred over from Chase Ultimate Rewards; their many partners are why they are my favorite points currency.  Flights on this itinerary normally go for over $700 per person, although you could do it for about $550 with an extra stop and 10 more hours (no thank you).  We had a quick connection in Lima again before our four-hour flight to Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil.

Our hotel in Brazil, Hotel Bella Italia (don’t ask, it was cheap), included an airport transfer and breakfast in their $68 fee.  They had a terrible Italian Buffet at the hotel that we settled on since we didn’t want to take our son out anymore.  However, getting non-native ethnic food when traveling abroad is usually a poor decision and this was no different.  Breakfast the next morning was fine, and then we were off once again.  We arranged again for a private driver to take us to the National Park and the surprisingly nice Parque das Aves (bird park) near the Brazilian entrance to the falls. 

Iguazu Falls

After leaving the bird park we caught our first glimpse of the falls from the Brazilian side. The falls were breathtaking!  I’ve been to Niagara and these blew them away.  Our boy got a several hour stroller nap while we wandered around the park.  There are a few nice trails and you can even check out the Belmond Hotel (beautiful) for something a little different.  Our driver then took us across the border to Argentina.  We picked up some black-market Argentinian Pesos (new experience for me), before we got dropped off at the Sheraton Iguazu (now the
Gran Meliá Iguazú).

The view from our Falls View Terrace Suite

Due to our status, we were upgraded to a Falls View Terrace Suite.  The room was nice but nothing great. The terrace though, was nearly the same size as the room and had an amazing view of the falls.  Since the hotel was in the park and just steps away from all the trails, we usually retreated to our room for a mid-day nap.  Our son would snooze and my wife and I would sit on the terrace and enjoy the view, while fighting off the monkeys.  Breakfast was enjoyable and included with our status.  The rest of the food however, was a little rough.  Because of this, we ate lunch at the Subway restaurant that was inside the park each day and dinner was usually something quick from the lobby bar.  We spent three days exploring the park, which was the perfect amount of time.  Since the Sheraton Iguazu was re-branded as the Gran Meliá Iguazú, it has gotten some much needed updates.  Unfortunately, the prices for the hotel have also risen, and they are no longer a member of a major brand with which to redeem points.

After our three nights, we once again had a pre-arranged transport from the hotel across the border back into Brazil and to the airport.  Our flights home were interesting and a bit complicated.  We flew from Foz do Iguaçu to Viracopos (a small domestic airport that more closely resembled a bus-stop), to Rio de Janeiro, to Houston, to Denver and finally home to Colorado Springs.  Little man did well until the flight from Rio to Houston where he decided to lose his mind.  Once he cried himself to sleep, everyone on the plane was much happier.  It was a full 24 hours of travel, more if we count the transfer from Argentina, and by then we were all ready to be back in our own beds.

Amazingly, the flight redemptions are still exactly the same number of miles as it was in 2015. The Tambo del Inka is actually slightly cheaper on points, but as I mentioned before, the Sheraton Iguazu Falls has re-branded and is no longer available on hotel points (however, it still can be reserved with basic travel credit card points).

Since this time, we’ve taken many other trips on points, both with our son and as just a couple. You can use these same techniques to take your family anywhere in the world. There is almost no limit to where points and miles can take you and your loved ones. Contact us to get started on your next journey!

Anatomy of an Award: Maldives for Two

Photo by Ishan @seefromthesky on Unsplash

For most people the Maldives are little more than a dream. You let your mind wander there during your planning committee conference call every Thursday, but that’s about as close as you get.

With Peak Award Booking, not only can we help you get there (and back, if you really want to) but we can get you there in style. This plan includes arguably the best business class flat-bed seats in the world along with an over-water bungalow for six nights. This is probably the most expensive booking that we do that includes all accommodations and airfare. Having to take a seaplane to the resort is about half of the total expense. Out-of-pocket expense for this trip would be $1,645.46 whereas retail would be over $21,000. I’ll detail these as we go through the booking and I’ll show a breakdown at the end.

Getting you There

Qatar Airways’ Qsuites are consistently ranked as the best business class experience. Not only do you get lie flat seats (important for such long flights), but if you have an actual closing door on your suite and if you pick your seats correctly, you can have a double bed to share with your partner.

Meals are fantastic as well. Qatar business class offers Dine-on-Demand, meaning you can order whatever you’d like whenever you’d like. You can have a four-course meal served on a white linen table cloth by candlelight with champagne, or you can have each of the desserts four times with a diet Pepsi. You make the call!

Qatar Airways Qsuite promo video

If you google Qatar Qsuite reviews you’ll end up with a ton of reviews about how amazing your flights will be.

With this plan you will be able to fly business class on Qatar one-way, and with a little work both ways. We will assume you get enough points for both ways.

The total cost of these flights would be $7,582/person but by using points, they will be yours for 140k miles and $101.73/person! Ultimate luxury for the same price as a Frontier Airlines flight to Des Moines.

ACCOMMODATIONS

How does an over-water bungalow for six nights at a resort that was ranked by Time Magazine as one of the “World’s Top 100 Destinations in 2018” sound? The Conrad Maldives is one of the only resorts to offer over-water bungalows on standard award pricing. With Hilton’s fifth night free and using a free weekend award certificate you can get six nights for the same number of points as four.

Your private Water Villa will have either a sunrise or sunset view, a private sundeck with jetted plunge pool and steps that lead into the lagoon below. You can snorkel right off your deck each day.

With our plan you’ll also be visiting with the highest level of Hilton loyalty status, Diamond. While you most likely won’t be getting an upgrade to a better bungalow, it will grant you free breakfast, afternoon tea and daily happy hour. These benefits are especially valuable as food prices in the Maldives are ridiculously high. Many people have used the afternoon tea and happy hour in place of a meal in order to stay on budget.

The only downside is getting to the resort. The Conrad Maldives is on its own two islands. Unfortunately, you do have to take a seaplane to get there and there really isn’t a way to hack it. We will use our $250 resort credit obtained with the Hilton Aspire card to reduce this fee a little. The transfer runs $526/person, but you do get a cool 30-minute seaplane flight out of the fee, so there’s that.

Your total cost for the hotel stay itself is only the plane transfer, $1,052. Actual paid price for the same room and seaplane transfer would be about $6,029 (and that’s with taking advantage of a great limited time sale)!

the details

For the flights you will need 280,000 American Airlines miles. Luckily there are a few credit cards to earn these miles. For our example, we will focus on Citibank and Barclays. Both offer both a personal and business card, but we will assume you don’t have a business (although, most people can qualify for a business card).

From here on out I will refer to the two people traveling as P1 and P2. The order you apply for cards is somewhat important, and I can provide more details in a personalized plan, just send me a message through our “Contact Us” page.

Airline miles are the most important factor as dates are much more limited for good flights than the hotel awards. P1 will start off with the Citi AA Platinum card (not a referral link, I get nothing for this). Currently they are offering 60,000 miles with $3,000 spend in 3 months with the annual fee waived for the first year. It is possible to match this to 75,000 miles, but it does take a little work. P2 will apply for the Barclays AA Aviator Red Card (also not a referral link) at the same time. This card comes with 60,000 miles after only the first purchase (Twix bar?). Unfortunately, you do have to pay the $95 annual fee upfront, but it’s a small price to pay for so many miles.

Once P1 has met their spend requirements we will flip the script. P2 will then apply for the Citi AA Platinum card and P1 will apply for the AA Aviator Red card. Once you’ve completed the spend requirements on those you both should have at least 139,000 if you matched the Citi offer to 75,000 each. The last 1,000 miles can be obtained through more spend or simple tasks American occasionally offers (ie. dining plan, shopping through their portal, signing up for dog walking service…).

Now that our airline miles are taken care of, it’s time to get our over-water bungalow (yes I’m going to keep reminding you of the over-water bungalow). The Conrad Maldives is a member of the Hilton family and we will need 380,000 points for 5 nights and a weekend certificate for the 6th night. Luckily there are several cards that earn Hilton points.

P1 will first apply for the Hilton Aspire (this is a referral link, thank you for supporting the site by using it). This card currently offers 150,000 Hilton points after spending $4,000 in 3 months. It does come with a $450 annual fee, but it carries a number of great benefits including automatic Hilton Diamond status for as long as you hold the card. Hilton Diamond gives you free breakfast at all hotels, 5th night free on award bookings, space available upgrades up to a one-bedroom suite (most likely won’t happen in the Maldives, but great at other resorts) and executive lounge access. The Hilton Aspire also gives you a free weekend night certificate after approval and then an additional free night each year when you pay the annual fee. You will also get a $250 airline incidental fee credit each calendar year (we can show you how to best take advantage of this) and a $250 resort credit each card member year (which we will use at the Conrad Maldives for the seaplane transfer in this example.

Once P1 has met the spend on their Aspire they can refer P2 to the regular American Express Hilton Card (this is a referral link, thank you for supporting the site by using it). You will have to send them a referral link that you can generate through American Express. This card currently has an offer of 75,000 points, but if you use a referral link (such as ours here), you will receive an offer of 100,000 points with $1,000 spend in 3 months, also the member sending the referral will gain 20,000 points.

Lastly, P1 will refer themselves to the regular American Express Hilton Card (this is a referral link, thank you for supporting the site by using it). Yes you can refer yourself, we’ve done it ourselves. This will grant you an additional 100,000 points after spending $1,000 in 3 months as well as the 20,000 referral point bonus. Once P1 and P2 have gained all of these Hilton points, they will need to be pooled into P1’s account.  This should put you at over 408,000 Hilton points and a free night certificate.

Booking

Now the hard part… If you’d like you can leave this up to us here at PeakAwardBooking.com so that we can find you the best routing, with the best connections and the best service. Best of all, there is no fee unless we find you a routing you want. This can be especially important for flights like these since Qatar doesn’t fly their Qsuite equipped planes on all routes and flights.

Once you’ve gotten the points it is best to start with the flights. Award flights can be tricky, so it is best to nail down your flights and then work on hotel and activity reservations. It is best to be flexible and book out as far in advance as you can. We generally like to make our reservations as soon as the airline booking window opens. With American Airlines that is 331 days before the flight, or about 11 months. For this example I used a random number generator to pick one of the 50 largest cities in the US and we landed on Charlotte, NC. I was quickly able to find flights on my first look at about 6 months out from now. This was an extreme stroke of luck and usually doesn’t happen this easily.

The first flight will be on American Airlines domestic first class from Charlotte to Boston leaving on a Thursday. Then you will fly Boston to Doha in Qsuites and Doha to Male in the Maldives in Qatar business class where you will land on a Friday. You will use your free weekend night certificate for the first night at the Conrad Maldives and then follow that up with five award nights. You’ll depart from the Maldives on a Thursday and your return routing will be slightly different. Qatar business class from Male to Doha, Qsuites from Doha to Atlanta and then American domestic first from Atlanta to Charlotte landing on a Friday. WARNING: Once you’ve flown long-haul in a great business or first class product, coach becomes almost unbearable.

the final numbers

This package would cost over $21,000 to book without points and miles. Using miles your cost would be $203 for airline taxes on award flights, $640 in credit card annual fees and $1,052 for the seaplane flights. You’ll also get rebated $250 of your seaplane flights from your Hilton Aspire credit. Total out of pocket expense (before food, tours, souvenirs, etc.) would be $1,645 resulting in a savings of $19,548! You’ll also end up with $500 in airline gift cards to use for a future trip as well as some leftover Hilton points you can use while you still have diamond status.

This is an unusual booking.  Trips on points usually don’t require this much cash, but there is no way around those pesky seaplane flights.  It’s also a bit complicated and the numbers can make it confusing.  Airlines, hotels and credit card companies intentionally make it difficult to end up with these aspirational trips.  They don’t want you to redeem for the highest value, but that’s where Peak Award Booking comes in.  We can tailor this specific plan or any other trip you can dream up to your advantage.  We will do the number crunching and searching so you can get on your way, with champagne in hand!

How we got started

About six years ago I stumbled onto award travel. My wife and I enjoyed traveling, but were somewhat limited in the same way everyone is, BUDGET. We could afford a nice vacation about every other year and we alternated that with a smaller trip (usually to go see family). It was before one of our bigger trips (Mauritius) that I thought there had to be a better way than always paying retail. Maybe we could save a few bucks or earn enough points for a trip to see my parents once a year.

What I discovered was a whole different world. After hours and hours of research and studying I approached my wife with this idea of “travel hacking.” She was a bit skeptical, but agreed to trust me.

We dove in head first, made a few mistakes, but kept learning. Since that day we’ve earned well over 2 million miles and points (probably more). We’ve flown over 100,000 miles around the world just using points. Our only limitation has been paid time off.

Our family travels exclusively on points

We have since added a third person to our travels. Our son, now five years old, gets to go on some of our adventures (other times he gets to play with his grandparents while we go off on our own). Having a child hasn’t slowed us down a bit. If anything it has created a new reason to explore as we try to expand his horizons. We love watching him experience new cultures!

Exploring Machu Picchu at 21 months old

Now I’ve decided to take the knowledge I’ve gained over these last few years and put them to use for others. Let me do the dirty work of finding the best redemptions and routings so that you can enjoy your vacations and travel in luxury.

Cheers!