First of all, congratulations! Seeing those points hit your account is the most exciting time because you know a vacation is coming. The fun is not here YET however, there’s a little more work to do. It’s research time.
Before you can book your vacation you have to ask yourself if these points are enough to book the vacation you want to go on? Do you want a completely free vacation or do you want a discounted vacation where only your hotel or airfare is paid for by points?
In order to do your research you have to create free accounts with the hotels and airlines you’ll be looking to transfer your points to. If you do not know what credit cards transfer to which hotels and airlines, go to my instagram page and find the reels I created for Chase, American Express, Citi, and Capital One.
For example, since I started with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, I created accounts for Hyatt and Southwest Airlines because I knew they were great transfer partners and would stretch my points. So those two are always my starting point.
Plug in your dates and destination and MAKE SURE you hit the points section. From there you can get an idea of how many points your trip will cost you and whether you can start booking now or you have to open another credit card to get enough points.
Tip: Don’t get fooled by the cheapest hotel point redemption you see on the list. I always search by map view so I can see how many points it will cost me to stay in the area I want to stay in. Closer to the city center will always cost more than staying close to the airport.
Let me know if you have any questions. I’m happy to help. Happy travels.
