Travel To the Dominican Republic for...Free?

Flying away from the cold and snow

The first time we went to the DR was 2012, with our kids and my mother. My 80 year old mom forgot to grab her carryon, the one that contained all of her meds, out of the airport transfer van. Thankfully we got them back, but that was the most stressful first 4 hours of a vacation I’ve ever had!

Then, my son was at the same resort in March of 2020 with his college buddies for their senior year spring break trip. They were at the pool when they got the email that their university was shutting down for COVID. They were heartbroken to be losing out on the last 2 months of college fun and graduation.

I guess we’ve had some trauma in Punta Cana!

But this blog is about real life, not perfectly filtered Instagram posts in idyllic locations. Life happens, we take a deep breath and figure out how to deal with it. Then we find the beach bar!

In January 2025, to get away from the snow and cold, we went to the Dominican Republic again. We stayed at the Melia Caribe all-inclusive resort Punta Cana. It’s a mid-priced all inclusive with pretty decent food, a swim-up bar, and BEAUTIFUL grounds.

And, of course, a beach bar!

For this trip, we paid cash for the resort, and used points for our flights. I had been in the points and miles game for about 5 years and had an impressive stash of points, so to treat ourselves, I booked our first ever business class flights. I may never go back!! Just having that wider seat and extra legroom was such an amazing luxury!

This is something you can totally do too! We're not wealthy. We're just normal, middle class people, and as a hobby I open credit cards to get the welcome bonuses. I never spend more than we can afford, and always pay my bill in full. We simply use the cards for our everyday spending.

Here are 3 tips to get you started:

1. Assess your situation. Do you have the discipline to pay your credit card bill off every month? Because if not, then this hobby is not for you. Once you begin to carry a balance and pay the insanely high interest, you're no longer getting the benefits you should be from the earned points and miles.

   
   

2. Do a little research before opening your first card. Find a blog you like that has details about the current best card offers or has a beginner's plan for opening cards. Katie's Travel Tricks is one of my favs. My first credit card mistake was opening an Amex Platinum card early on. I thought I was so fancy! But what I didn't know was that Amex has stupid card rules...once you have the Platinum card, you can never have one of their "lower" cards...so I totally screwed myself out of ever getting the Amex Gold. (My husband has it, and it's one of our favorite cards!)

   
   

3. Don't overanalyze! I frequently suffer from analysis paralysis. Read a few blog posts and then go for it. You'll never get almost-free first class seats from JFK to Punta Cana unless you fill put that credit card application first.

Cheers,

Katherine