Disney World is high on travel wish list for many families, and for good reason! It might seem like using points and miles to make your Disney World on vacation achievable isn’t an option, but the truth is, there ARE ways to use points lower the cost for your Disney vacation, AND ways to maximize points earning for the portions you don’t book on points!

Flights

• Southwest
  • companion pass
• United
  • Look for “Saver” awards
  • Remember you can also book United flights through Air Canada to use Amex points
• American Airlines
  • Transfer Citi Thank You Points
  • Can also book through Alaska using Bilt points.
• Delta
  • Generally not a great deal transferring your transferrable points here, but can earn on a cobranded card or book through Virgin Atlantic for a better deal

Don’t rent a car – rideshare, Disney transportation, hotels in walking distance, outside hotel shuttles. City bus is an option!!

Rideshare- don’t forget to link Lyft to Bilt account. Pay with CSR and CSP 5x points. CSR $10 per month. Uber- UberOne free with platinum, $15 per month, extra $25 in Dec.

Disney World on- property lodging

• Book any hotel on property and purchase erase with Capital One
• WDW Swan and Dolphin- deluxe on property resorts
  • Bookable on Marriot points, often 50-65K (sometimes more)- dynamic pricing. About once a year Marriot offer for 5 free night certs up to 50K, which can be “topped off” to up to 65K!
• Do you work in a field where you could attend a conference?
  • Primary Care MER conferences. Book deluxe hotels at a discounted rate and then get reimbursed by your employer if you have CME funds.

Off Disney property lodging

• Hyatt Place Orlando/Lake Buena Vista
  • Shuttles to parks (Hollywood Studios or Magic Kingdom)
• Hyatt Regency Orlando
  • 20 min drive from Magic Kingdom
  • Family Suite with 2 queen beds and a double Murphy bed for 30 K
• Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress
  • Shuttles to all parks

Park Tickets

• Undercover Tourist or Get Away Today code as travel – erase with Capital One. Remember to click through a shopping portal like Rakuten to get to Undercover tourist to earn extra points for the purchase!
• Book a PACKAGE through Disney that includes hotel and tickets
• To EARN a lot of points on tickets/discount on tickets
  • Book on Undercover tourist through a portal
  • Sam’s Club GC at discount
  • Target – buy $100 GC get $10 Target gift card
  • Rove Miles- 3.2-6x on Disney GC through giftcards.com- can pair that with an “offer” on your card for 10% off purchase!!!
    • Sign up - www.rovemiles.com/?signup&referralCode=9CPGSRPO

Food

• Codes as Travel and can purchase erase with Capital One Venture X if dining package booked

Combine at Disneygiftcard.com

Keep in mind they can combine up to $1000, and can only use one GC per purchase. Could split tickets into multiple purchases

Disney Inspire credit card – SUB is $300 statement credit (after $1000 spend in 3 mo), $300 Disney Gift card (immediate)

In this episode I unpack the details of the recent changes to the World of Hyatt Program, and what this means for the future of this beloved points program.

In this episode I share how my family was able to enjoy a trip on points to San Antonio, TX at Hyatt Regency Hill Country. This is an incredible family-friendly resort that we would love to return to!

Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort and Villas- https://www.hyatt.com/hyatt-regency/en-US/sanhc-hyatt-regency-hill-country-resort-and-villas

Sample schedule of activities at the resort- https://www.hyatt.com/content/dam/hotel/propertysites/assets/regency/sanhc/documents/en_Us/special-events/Hyatt-Regency-Hill-Country-Resort-And-Spa-Activity-Guide-Summer-2018.pdf

Mr. Ice Cream - https://share.google/ZrzGr8o1dJoORjX1Y

Japanese Tea Garden- https://saparks.org/japanese-tea-garden/

Amex points have a lot of awesome uses, but my favorite use for Amex points are international flights! This is one of the ways to get amazing value out of your points. Similar to Chase, you have 2 main ways to redeem points for travel – portal bookings and transferring points to partners.

Portal bookings

Pros of Portal Bookings

• Simplicity
• Fine Hotels and resorts- With Amex Platinum you get $300 semi annually for Fine Hotels and Resorts hotel bookings (min 2 night stay). You also get late checkout, $100 credit, free breakfast for 2, and upgrades as available!
• You can book things you couldn’t by transferring points out – rental cars, cruises, certain hotels (like 4 seasons). I prefer to do these bookings on cash and use as a points-earing opportunity

Cons of Portal Bookings

• Hotel stays don’t always count towards status
• Glitches related to using a 3rd party booking service – harder when things go wrong
• Not getting the best value. But remember, there is truly no “wrong” way to use your points! But there are ways to use them so that points stretch further.

Transferring points to partners

• Hotels
  • Hilton (1:2)- transfer bonuses!
  • Choice Hotels 1:1 ( Citi is 1:2)
  • Marriot- avoid this
• Airlines
  • Jet Blue (250:200)
  • British Airways
• Flying Blue- Air France-KLM
  • 25% off award tickets for ages 2-11
  • Promos every month
  • Lots of business class award availability
• Avianca Life Miles
• Virgin Atlantic
  • Super low points prices
  • Watch for taxes and fees!
  • Can use to book Delta flights
• Emirates (1000: 800)
• Air Canada
  • Flights to Europe
  • Can use to book United flights
• Delta- likely won’t get great deals

How to Transfer Points From Amex

• First create a loyalty account for the program you want to transfer into
• Membership tab on bottom (star)--> Redeem rewards (under your total points number)--> Scroll down to transfer points
• Amex points can NOT be combined between people

There’s the basics on how to best use Amex points to book travel for free or very close to free! Booking in the portal is always an option, but transferring your points out to partner programs and booking with them directly is typically the best way to unlock amazing deals. I tend to use my Amex points to book flights. My most common pairing is a Hyatt hotel booked with Hyatt points from my Hyatt card and Chase points transferred to Hyatt paired with flights booked on Amex points. Now you’re one step closer to scoring amazing travel deals with your Amex points!

Amex Gold Referral Link: American Express

Rakuten Referral link: www.rakuten.com/r/COURTN29066?eeid=28187 Sign up to earn $50 (5,000 points) after spending $50. Rakuten is a great way to earn Amex Membership Rewards Points

Amex points are some of the easiest to accumulate a lot of. They can be transferred to a long list of hotel and airline partners. I love using these for international flights! Tthe secret to getting more value from your points is transferring points out of your Amex and to partner programs, then booking directly through that program.

Amex Personal Credit Cards

• The order of the personal card applications is important!
• Amex Green--> Amex Gold --> Amex Platinum
  • Amex Gold earns 4x on groceries and dining
  • Referral Link for Amex Gold: American Express
• Co-branded cards: Hilton, Delta, Marriot

Amex business cards

• Blue business- $0 annual fee! SUB 15,000 for 3,000 in 3 mo, 2x on all purchases up to 50K per year. 0% APR for 12 mo
• Business Gold- Spend $15,000 in 3 months- up to 200,0000
• Business Platinum - Spend $20,000 in 3 months

Rakuten!

· Rakuten Referral link: www.rakuten.com/r/COURTN29066?eeid=28187 Sign up to earn $50 (5,000 points) after spending $50

· Sign up, go to bottom right corner for account à Choose how you get paid à select Amex points. You need your PHYSICAL Amex card to be able to do this (the mobile one you get right when you are approved will not work!).

· If you already have an account you can change the way you are paid from cash to Amex points. This is so powerful because you will get WAY more value from the points than the cash. For example- Shutterfly 20x on Black Friday. Spent $400 on photo albums- 20% cash back is $80. 20x is 8,000 points! You can get a flight from US to Europe for as low as 6,000 points on Virgin Atlantic. Add in a transfer bonus and you are getting WAY more than $80 in value.

Amex points are versatile and can be easy to rack up quickly! They are a great asset to your points profile, and pairing with Rakuten can seriously boost your earnings. Join me next time to hear about how to redeem your Amex points for the greatest value.

One of the most common questions I get when people are interested in travelling for almost free on points and miles is “won’t this ruin my credit score?” While it IS true that you should have decent credit and your finances generally in order to get started, this hobby does NOT have to hurt your credit score! In fact, I have seen my credit score actually improve since I have started this 2 years ago. My credit score was good, but now its over 800! How is this possible? Let’s dive into how your credit score is calculated.

• Payment history – 35% of your score. This means that you want to pay on time and in full each month
• Credit Utilization – 30% of your score. How much of your available credit are you using? It is better to have a lot of available credit and not use very much of it vs. having a small amount of credit and using most of it. Adding more cards helps SIGNIFICANTLY improve this by adding to your available credit.
• Credit age or history – 15% of your score. Keep your oldest accounts open
• Account mix – 10%of your score. How diversified is your credit? Home loans, credit cards, etc.
• Account inquiries – 10% of your score. This is the one part of your score that is negatively impacted by applying for new cards. Your credit score will often dip a few points after an application, but it quickly rebounds and typically higher than before because your credit utilization is going to improve with increasing the total amount of credit you are extended.

How to use this knowledge

• Keep your oldest lines of credit open
• Pace your openings- 30 days min, I recommend 90 days
• Pay off full balance every month

My credit score has only improved since I got into this hobby. I was brought up with the notion that credit cards are bad and using credit cards should be avoided. In reality, as long as you are smart about credit card use and pay off your full balances every month, you will likely boost your credit score rather than hurt it!

One of the biggest hangups when booking award flights or hotel stays is knowing whether or not you are getting a good deal by spending your points, or if booking with cash makes more sense. I don’t book ALL of my travel on points- I save my points bookings for when I am going to get the greatest VALUE for my points. This means that I am able to stretch my points further by choosing to book some things with cash. Let’s dive in to how to take the guesswork out of this. In this episode, I'll demystify figuring this out, so that you can book with confidence!

Award redemption value (Cents per point/ccp)

• Calculating the value of an award redemption requires a simple formula: Redemption value = (cash price – taxes and fees) ÷ points or miles used × 10
  • This gives you the value of each point or mile in cents (Cents per Point or ccp)

Example1: 3 night stay in Hyatt Place in Kansas City- ($585-0)/15,000 points = 3.8 ccp

Example 2: Flight to Portugal($1018-372)/24,000 points= 2.7 ccp KLM flight booked on Virgin Atlantic (Points transferred from Amex)

How to decide if it’s a good deal

• Compare portal booking cost in points
• Think about reasonable redemption value (RRV)- RRVs are intended to be mid-point values that are reasonably easy to achieve for that specific points type.
  • RRV 1.5 ccp for Chase and Amex
• Is the value there for you and your situation personally?
• How many points do you have and how many are you willing to part with? Other upcoming trips?
• You may decide that getting a rental car and “purchase erasing” with Capital One miles makes sense if you want to bring your purchase cost to zero
• Think about a lowest acceptable ccp – for me it’s usually 1.5 ccp for my transferrable points

Example: Flights to Charlotte

• American Airlines- I had miles in that program. American AAdvantage RRV = 1.4 ccp
• 124,000 points or $1674 - ($1674-22)/124,000 points= 1.3 ccp
• 1.3 ccp is less than reasonable redemption value, but I’m ok with that! We booked Air BNB on cash, and I wanted to limit my out of pocket cost. Not an amazing deal, but I got my family there for almost free!

Keep in mind hotel points for many chains are often lower- Hilton 0.4 ccp, IHG 0.6 ccp, Marriot 0.6 ccp, that’s why you don’t want to transfer Chase points to Marriot in general- not going to be a good deal

Calculating ccp is a simple way to assess whether a book is a good deal. Avoid analysis paralysis! If it is below the RRV for the type of transferrable points, think about it. It might be a better points earning opportunity- in that case look into how to earn the most points for that booking. If it’s “good enough” and it gets you a free trip, go for it!

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Chase points are some of the most valuable points, but you have to know some tricks to get the most value for them. By learning how to transfer your Chase points to partner programs like Hyatt, Southwest, Virgin Atlantic, and Flying Blue, you can get 2-5x the value (or even more!) from each point you redeem.

Knowing how to effectively redeem your points is the difference between taking one trip a year and taking several trips a year!

There are 2 main ways to redeem Chase points- portal bookings, and transferring points out to partners. In general, you are going to get the most value from your points if you transfer your points to partners rather than booking in the portal.

Portal Bookings

• Pros of portal bookings
  • Simplicity
  • You can book things you couldn’t by transferring points out – rental cars, cruises, certain hotels. I prefer to do these bookings on cash and use as a points-earing opportunity
  • Fixed value (sort of)- 1 cent per point (ccp), unless “points boost” which is 1.5-1.75 with Chase Sapphire Preferred or 1.75-2 ccp for Chase Sapphire Reserve
  • Cons of portal bookings
• Cons of portal bookings
  • Hotel stays don’t always count towards status
  • Glitches related to using a 3rd party booking service – harder when things go wrong
  • Typically not the way to get the best value for your points. But remember, there is truly no “wrong” way to use your points!
• I like to use the portal to EARN points with cash bookings – 8x points on my Chase Sapphire Reserve, and $500 annually ($250 every 6 mo) for The Edit Hotel bookings

Chase Transfer Partners

• Hotels
  • Hyatt – This is my favorite hotel chain and favorite way to use Chase points! Most of my points go here, because it is incredibly easy to get outsized value from my points when booking with Hyatt.
  • IHG – This includes luxury brands like Kimpton and InterContinental, and more budget brands like Holiday Inn and Staybridge Suites. I typically would NOT recommend transferring Chase points here- the transfers are 1:1 and a Chase point can be worth a LOT more than an IHG point.
  • Marriot –I typically would NOT recommend transferring Chase points here- the transfers are 1:1 and a Chase point can be worth a LOT more than a Marriot point. Marriot is great, but transferring points from Chase is not the best way to book with them.
• Airlines (Not all listed)
  • United
  • Southwest
    • If you’re loyal to Southwest, a cobranded card is likely worth making a part of your strategy. If you travel a lot domestically with a partner or a family, you should consider trying to earn a companion pass. I will do a deep dive on this later
  • Jet Blue
  • British Airways
  • Virgin Atlantic
    • You can book Delta and Air France/KLM through them- often for fewer points
  • Air Canada
  • Flying Blue – Air France/KLM
    • 25% off kids' flights
    • Monthly deals

How to transfer points out

• Create a loyalty account for the program you want to transfer into
• Bottom R of app “more”—down to Rewards and Benefits à redeem points on R and select your Chase Sapphire Reserve or Chase Sapphire Referred to click on transfer points

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