There are so many accounts and tools out there on how to use points for travel. It can be a little overwhelming reading through the blogs that tell you the absolute best way to use your points. So before we share what works for us, just know there is no ONE way or RIGHT way to travel hack and use your points. The goal is to figure out what works for YOU and maximize it to the fullest.
Here’s what works for us
Having airline loyalty as much as possible has worked for us to maximize the points earned on one or two carriers. Lots of people will fly all sorts of different carriers and choose whichever one is the cheapest. We are the opposite, we will stick with one carrier family (in our case One World) and even pay slightly more to fly with them. This way we can maximize the amount of points we accrue and then be able to redeem for trips.
By flying One World partners and using our AAdvantage account, we’re able to earn miles and redeem them for long haul business class flights.
Hotels
The same goes for hotels. We try and stick to Marriott as much as possible and earn status. By having status we’re able to get free upgrades to better rooms. While this isn’t always the case, we have been able to get some insane free upgrades with Marriott as well as free internet and breakfast with our Titanium Elite status. That’s not to say we won’t stay at non-Marriott hotels or Airbnbs, we just ten to prioritize Marriott as the loyalty and elite membership tends to pay off for us.
Car rentals
Unfortunately we just switched rental car loyalty. Our go to rental car used to be National and they are amazing but slightly more expensive than others. The advantage to National is their reward days once you start racking up rental days. These come in handy when you are renting internationally and cars are more expensive or returning to a different location.
They are still our favorite but since Nate’s company switched to Avis it just makes sense to use them for our personal travels. When we first switched to Avis we did not have the best experience, but since using Avis primarily internationally during the past 6 months, they’ve been excellent to work with.
Loyalty Programs
We try and stick to loyalty 85% of the time. It doesn’t always make sense, like say there are no One World carriers or the Marriott hotels are crazy expensive. In these cases we will switch things up but still pay using one of our points credit cards typically Chase.
If you’re interested in a Chase card a good one to start with is the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Click here for our referral link.
