Beginner's Guide to Points and Miles

This isn’t a blog about how to collect or redeem points and miles. There are so many great ones already out there! Of course, everyone knows the OG, The Points Guy, and then there’s Points Talk Squad and Katie’s Travel Tricks, 2 of my favorites.

This blog is about using your points and miles to chill out at a beach bar.

What’s my points strategy? Get some points and use them. Repeat.

When I find a thing I’m interested in, sometimes I can get a little obsessed with it. (House plants are my other obsession!) I started listening to all the points and miles podcasts I could find, I read articles and websites about maximizing redemptions, I bought annual subscriptions to helpful apps. There’s something about the whole hobby, though, that they don't tell you. It can be complicated! Transfer bonuses, booking through partner airlines, cents per point values, it’s a lot.

I'm busy, just like you, and I was feeling very overwhelmed by all of the information, so I decided that my focus had to shift to just getting points and using them. And if I get a terrible redemption, so be it! But I'm going to make sure that I get to fly to the Dominican Republic. In first class. For (almost) free.

If you haven’t dipped your toe into the credit card points and miles water yet, here are some tips to get you started.

1. The best, and easiest, way to collect a lot of points quickly is to open credit cards and earn the signup bonuses. Katie’s Travel Tricks has a great 3 year plan for earning 1.5 million points!

2. Optimize your everyday spending to earn maximum points. Once you’ve opened a few cards, you’ll see which ones have the best spending bonus categories for you. My husband and I like the American Express Gold Card because they offer 4x on both groceries and restaurants, where we spend most of our money.

3. NEVER open a card you can’t afford! If you’re not able to pay off your credit card balance in full every month, this may not be the best hobby for you. 

Be sure to check out the blogs and podcasts of creators who are way more savvy than I am at the points and miles game. Need some more recs for creators to follow? Reach out, I’m happy to share more of my favs!

Cheers,

Katherine