Practical Ways to Use Points for Family Travel

Once you start travel hacking, you may wonder if there’s a way to practically use points for family travel. If you spend much time in the travel hacking community, you quickly discover that people who receive outsize value from their credit card points and miles are not traveling with a family. They are flying in first or business class seats booked at the last minute. That’s not how most families travel! Here are five suggestions to help you use your points for family travel and introduce your kids to the world!

Note: I may receive a referral bonus if you apply for a credit card on any of the links provided below.

Tip 1: Ignore Points Value

Tip #1 is the most important tip of all but perhaps the most difficult to swallow. To practically use points for family travel, you need to ignore what the “experts” say about the value of points. To get outsize value for your points, you need to redeem them for business class flights and five star hotels. But families of 4 or more would need a ridiculous number of points to travel this way.

Instead, focus on getting at least 1 cent of value of for every point. So 1,000 points = $10; 10,000 points = $100; 100,000 points = $1,000. If you are able to get at least this much value, it’s the same as using a cash back card. Just remember, maximize the number of points you get on each purchase so that you still win at the game! For example, you earn 2 points for every dollar spent on the Venture X card, so you are already doubling your points value without having to find multiple seats in business class and booking at the last minute. Not to mention spoiling your children for life!

Tip 2: Use Points to Supplement Vacation Budget

I read and listen to everything I can about travel hacking. One thing that is missing from most travel hacking content is there is no such thing as a free ride. It’s impossible to cover every single expense with your cache of points.

Instead, a practical way to approach using points for travel is thinking of them as a way to supplement your typical vacation budget. For example, my family budgets about $5,000 for a summer vacation. So I assume we will spend about $5,000 on our trip. Then I can use my stash of points and miles to pay for expenses above and beyond this. When my family went to Hawaii, we simply used points for flights. For our trip to London and Paris, we used points for flights and for some lodging. My goal is to keep every yearly vacation as close to $5,000 as possible. Using points allows us to go on more elaborate trips on the same budget as our typical domestic vacation.

Tip 3: Focus Primarily on Free Flights

Having a stash of points and miles makes it easy to fly free. In the US, Southwest usually has the lowest point options for flights. And with their Companion Pass program, two people can fly all over the US and to Hawaii, the Caribbean, and Latin America for the price of one. You can read more about this in my related post, How to Fly Yourself and Your +1 Free on Southwest.

For Europe and Asia, there are many low points options. If you have transferrable points currencies such as Chase Ultimate Rewards, Capitol One Miles, American Express Membership Rewards, or Citi Thank You points, you can transfer your points and miles to many different airlines for the best deals. See Tip #4 for my favorite transferrable points currency for family travel.

Tip 4: Enter the Chase Ecosystem

Chase cards are the best type of credit cards to acquire points for family travel. If you are just starting, you should get a Chase Freedom Flex  card and a Chase Sapphire Preferred card. These cards earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points, which are the best type of rewards for family travel. This is because Chase has so many useful transfer partners that are terrific for family travel.

One example is Southwest. You can transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Southwest for domestic and international flights. Southwest also has branded Chase cards that are terrific for amassing a pile of points and even earning a Companion Pass so that one member of your party always flies free!

Another Chase airline transfer partner is United. You can transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards points to United for saver economy seats. These flights can be as low as 60,000 miles round trip to Europe, which is a steal. Better yet, you can also get a Chase United credit card. This card gives you expanded access to saver economy seats as well as other perks when you fly United.

It’s difficult to get outsize value for hotel stays using points, unless you focus on Hyatt. You can transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt and get great points prices on hotels. For example, I stayed in a very nice Hyatt Regency in Amsterdam for 15,000 points a night. Hyatt hotels located near airports are often only 3,500 points per night. By comparison, staying in a IHG or Marriott hotel can cost upward of 40,000 points a night! If your family cares most about clean and comfortable lodging and less about prime location and hotel amenities, your points will stretch far with Hyatt!

Tip 5: Apply for Multiple Cards

I know this may be the most intimidating suggestion in this list, but hear me out. Families have a terrific opportunity to truly maximize the amount of points they have available for travel by applying for multiple credit cards. First, make sure you follow the rules in my Travel for Free in Six Easy Steps post. In particular, you need to be credit card debt free before you start. You also must commit to paying off your balance each month.

Double Your Points

Applying for multiple cards is lucrative for a family as you have two adults that can get the same card. For example, you can apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and receive the points bonus after you charge a certain amount. This is currently 60,000 points after spending $4,000 in three months. Then you can refer your spouse to the same card. You will receive a 15,000 referral points bonus while your spouse will receive another 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points.

Chase allows you to transfer points between cardholders in the same household with a simple phone call. So that will give you 135,000 points for family travel in bonus points alone, not including the points you earn from credit card spend! This alone will get two round trip flights to Europe on United! Do the same thing with hotel and airline credit cards and other transferrable points credit cards, and you will be rolling in points!

Help Teens Build Credit

Many of us don’t want to manage multiple cards. But if you have teenagers, think about applying for a credit card in your name and adding them as an authorized user. After you make the minimum spend and get the bonus points, you can dedicate that entire credit card account to your teen. They can be the only one who uses the card, and you can allow them to manage it (with your oversight). This will give them practice in what it feels like to use a credit card for daily expenses and then be confronted with the sometimes surprising bill. Better yet, being an authorized user on your credit card will help them build their own credit. Win/Win!

What are your suggestions for practical ways to use points for family travel?

Tell us below! And check out our other Travel Hacks posts to learn more about earning and using credit card points and miles.