Vacation is always nice but paying for it, not so much. Years ago, I was fascinated with how to use credit cards and bonus points to get my dream vacation. It all started with my first trip to Europe (FIRST CLASS round trip!) using American Airlines points. Since then, I’ve always tried to get my trips paid for by points completely or at least partially. Recently, I spent 3 days and 2 nights at Marriott Solaz Resort Los Cabos which cost me $0 for the hotel stay. Here’s how: I had an SPG (part of Marriott) credit card from American Express a few years ago and I received an offer…

Back in 2016, it was a lot easier to obtain first class tickets on American Airlines (AA) for a cheaper price. Since then, AA changed their award system and unfortunately it was disadvantageous for overseas trips. When I booked my round trip first class ticket with AA, it cost me $893 for taxes/fees and 125,000 miles. To be clear, when I say first class, most of the flights were first class such as San Diego (SD) to Phoenix (Phx), Phx to London and London back to SD. The rest were either Business Class or Economy as some small airlines in Europe didn’t offer first class service. The only reason why…

If you’re new to the points game, you probably think that the only way you can earn airline miles or hotel points for travel redemption is to pay for a ticket and fly or stay at a hotel. I’m here to tell you that is NOT the case. You can earn points or miles by using online shopping portals. Your points may be additional ultimate chase points which can be converted to hotel points or airline miles or any mileage program you chose. Here are examples of online shopping portals I use often: Chase Ultimate Rewards If you’ve read my post about the Best Travel Credit Cards for 2019 (click…

How did I score cheap flights to Asia and pay only $138 for TWO roundtrip tickets? I wanted to visit my family in Cebu, Philippines next year. However, I also did not want to pay thousands of dollars in plane tickets.  The solution?  Pay my tickets using points.  Here’s how I did it: I had a targeted offer from the Chase United credit card for 60K points with a $95 annual fee which is not waived in the first year for my offer.  Luckily, you can get the value back by using the $100 credit for Global Entry and 2 United club passes. Therefore, I’m not counting this fee as a…