Teach me how to use credit card points

The Coffee Shop
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I keep going to The Points Guy reading for an hour and zoning out, I just can’t do it. On the other hand my wife and I currently put a lot of money through credit cards and I’m painfully aware I’m not maximizing potential rewards. Anyone got a (very) simple strategy?

Fact pattern:

  • $15-18k a month spend on credit cards.
  • Currently we use (don’t laugh) (1) a citibank double cash rewards mastercard because it’s simple and also inertia (we quickly rack up tons of points but typically end up just buying statement credit because nothing else seems like a dramatically better deal), (2) an occasional USAA Amex for ticket presales etc. and (3) a CostCo card for Costco, foreign stuff (no fees) and cheap gas.
  • We typically fly (5 of us) domestically 2-4 times a year, and internationally 1-2 times. I’d estimate a “typical year” would be $10k in flights (all economy). I live in NYC am not loyal to any particular airline, though I’d be willing to try to shop one network / alliance if a particular loyalty program made it worthwhile.
  • We don’t use hotels much at all.
  • We dine out a lot and like live music so access to restaurants etc. is relevant.
  • I’m open to buying points, buying status and annual card fees if the payoff is there.

What I really want:

  • to save money on stuff I’m going to buy anyway, but also…
  • for whether or not to upgrade to business class or even premium economy on occasional flights to be an actual dilemma, because the incremental cost in terms of points, $ or a combination thereof is somewhat reasonable.
  • to not have to think too hard - the fact I’m only trying to game this now indicates how much time I have for this stuff.
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Need to figure out what card benefits will best suit your spending habits and desired rewards.

I don’t know if there’s any other way to do it than leg work to find out which cards offer what benefits.

My wife and I use chase sapphire reserve. It’s got a high annual fee but $150 per year reimbursed on travel and triple points on food expenses.

It’s also worth finding cards that offer bonus rewards for adding authorized users.

We flew out to French Polynesia for our honeymoon and were only able to do so because we played the cc game for a few years. The flights alone from NY were our budget. So thankfully we were able to experience something we never thought we could.

Other than that, I have no advice. It requires leg work up front.

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It drives my wife nuts that I use my REI card when I can/she not around so I can earn REI bucks.

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Have been doing the points game for close to 30 years. Unfortunately the deals these days are not so great. The days of flying the family to Europe business class are long gone.

A good place to start is Chase Sapphire as you can transfer points to United, BA, Southwest and some hotels.

Marriot has decent card with a sign up bonus and an annual free night that justifies the annual fee. Hilton has similar but instead of a free night it has a 25$ quarterly credit. You can also get some points when you “refer” your spouse and they sign up.

I generally have had limited success upgrading with points so I use most of mine for economy flights.

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I have two cards. One that gives me United points, the other Marriott.

The number of free or low cost trips and upgrades I’ve gotten are incredible.

For example, my total time I’ve spent in Hawaii on vacation on my dime has been eight weeks. I think I paid for my hotel rooms using points for six of those eight weeks and I don’t stay in cheap places. I don’t think I’ve ever paid for a flight to Hawaii and flew twice first class.

Used points to cover flights and hotel stays in South America, Caribbean, and Sweden.

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American express Delta Skymiles Reserve if you are willing to “align” with Delta. With your spend - Free companion ticket (including 1’st class), you will get their highest “status” which gives a lot of benefits, about 100 “deals” each month, probably 5 or 10 will be worth while. Others said Marriott - but without hotel - not worth it.

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I’ve been doing the points game for about 20 years with some early on manufactured spend fun(until all the easy stuff dried up). At this point I have only 3 main cards - Delta Skymiles platinum(based out of ATL), Marriot Amex(work usage), and Chase Sapphire. As Nutella recommended, the Chase Sapphire is probably the most versatile. But really you need to build it off of what gets you the most bang for your buck. For me it’s the Delta Amex. I fly almost all Delta, so it helps me earn status, get free bags, get free Companion ticket, I get $120 a year in Uber credits, $150 in Delta Travel, $120 in Resy, plus credit towards Global Entry or TSA precheck.

The one game I’ll give you is look for good sign up bonuses. Take advantage of those, cancel as soon as you can and move on to the next card. Never accept the upgrade offers, as they are never as good as the initial card offers. You can usually cycle through all the tiers of a given card(Delta Amex Gold, Platinum, and Reserve, plus Business versions) collecting sign up bonuses on all of them.

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Good point on the sign up bonuses. I think Amex has been getting more strict on the “one bonus per card lifetime” but you can sometimes get away with it with Chase after the 2 year window. The global entry credit is a good one as it also gives you precheck.

Some cards also give bonus for category of spend. I think we are using the Hilton card for groceries and gas right now as it gives 6x points. Same for restaurants.

On a related note Amazon has a card that gives 5% cash back for Amazon purchases and Whole Foods. They often offer an additional 1%, so 6% total, if you delay your shipping and bundle your packages for a specific day.

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First of all, if you’re getting 2% cash back, give yourself some credit, that’s respectable. All the other advice has been spot on, it sounds like you need something flexible, that’s what makes the Sapphire card desirable.

I used to be big on Capital One Venture (even got $1,100 for the sign up) and 2% rebate applied to travel, but it was no longer functional as we have United and Marriott cards for those specific purchases, so we maximize our points with those two entities (due to either geography or other factors). The extra points from Sapphire made it feasible to plan a trip with business class, which is why we switched 2 years ago. Sapphire also gives you triple points for dining out, so it could be worth examining.

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But to get the 5x points (or however many), don’t you have to use Chase Travel?

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I think so but I do not use it to book travel. I use it mostly to buy everything else, like bourbon, and then transfer the points to use for travel.

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I’ve been at the points game for a while, and like you, I also have a substantial monthly spend. Many of the points websites will recommend a strategy that’s based on opening new accounts as often as possible to obtain the substantial sign up point bonuses. I don’t want that logistical headache and I still earn more points than most based on spend alone.

Another commonly recommended strategy is to use the right card to maximize bonus points on a given category - for example, some cards give you 2x or 3x points for hotel spend. Much of my spend does not fit into these categories, so for me, that doesn’t do much. And I don’t want to spend the time and effort to manage that spend differently.

So I follow what seems to be the concensus for people like me - I use a Chase Ink card for uncategorized business spend, and transfer points to Chase Sapphire to then transfer to travel partners and/or book through portal. Many will say that using the Chase travel portal is not the best use of points, but I find that it maximizes my ability to get what I want, when I want it. So I may upgrade from Sapphire Preferred to Sapphire Reserve, as you get more $ per point when redeemed through that card.

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My takeaway is, the simplest approach is one single card for all, like you already have.
Tracking and prioritizing, etc, can be a fulltime hobby or job - hence sites like TPG.

With a $10K annual spend, you may see some benefits if you choose to focus on one airline or alliance.

My suggestion for you - consider an airline card, depending on location plans for the next year or 2. And, a general card like Chase Sapphire, Capitalone Venture, etc.

I always compare redemption vs direct booking spend for trips. If I am flexible, I have found favorable redemptions for longhaul premium class, either direct with points/miles, or cash to book econ, then miles to upgrade. Sometimes these come when doing the checkout, sometimes in days leadin up to the flight.
I have:
A no fee united card, downgraded, since I was not flying united much. Keeps my miles active, ~300k.
Delta, $120 fee, free check bag, got status last year, a few upgrades, discount on miles redemptions, $200 flight award after spending $10K per year, covers the card fee.
Marriott - $95 fee, 35k night award annually, jumpstart on status. Got a few upgrades last year. And with status, if you get walked like I did, the corporate policy is generous for compensation. Got 200k points, used for 5 nights next the sphere in vegas for phish last year. I think it was ~$1500 retail.
REI - no fee, decent rebates, good return policy (no card needed).
Amazonprime - $140 fee, 5% back on amazon purchases, I think 1% on others, some target - dining, gas, etc. I am leaning towards canceling prime, hence this card.
Chase Sapphire - $100 fee? I think. $50 hotel credit, along with some others. Good redemptions across most brands for hotels, flights, card. I have used this for decent redemption when I have to book a flight for the next day, on my own funds.

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OK, edge case, maybe someone here can help me out.

US citizen, live and run a business in NZ. USAA member if it counts for anything. Biz monthly spend about 120kUSD.

NZ credit cards are shit, and the best ones are limited to AirNZ for rewards, which is fine most of the time but not all the time. What might a good option be for a US-based card (that I could theoretically get as a US citizen…?) that has good travel redemptions?

tl;dr, at 120kUSD/mo, I feel like I should never pay for a flight again, looking to escape the bad NZ credit card offerings.

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I like to gamble at casinos owned by Caesars. They give me free booze, food, suites and Norwegian cruises. I also have their credit card which boosts my status and I use their points to get more free food at restaurants owned by Caesars.

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Check out AmEx options. I agree with that level of spend, you should rack up a lot of points

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I only have one credit card for PenFed credit union. That is also how I have a mortgage with for my vacation home in Long Beach. I have a work card but Obviously can’t use that for personal expenses. For my personal card, I get one point for every dollar on all purchases and then they select every month something that will give you bonus points like groceries or filling up gas or eating and restaurants going to shows I still regardless put everything I can from my water bills to my insurance cost all on the credit card and then at the end of the month just pay that off And then get reimbursed through the HSA plan so that you can get points for your medical bills and get them paid off with tax free money. Our hospital says if you pay within the first month of getting your bill, you also get a 20% cost savings right off the top of your bill so it makes no sense to not pay it if they’re real charges on my credit card to get points to get a discount and to get that tax free money from HSA so that’s how we do it. We have contemplate do a delta flight card but united is the only airline that we can fly from Cody wy the next closest cidy Billing MT a for you’ve dolors saving you have to drive a min of 4 your round trip. Pay for parking and laden time have to spend the night up there to make sure you are on time for a 7am flight. They’re in most occasion not worth the hassle.
V

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Thank you for all the responses here, I can’t respond individually but the thread has been very helpful.

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