Now I will admit, I am no expert in using credit card points for travel. All the “experts” I found when I first began using credit card points said the best bang for your buck is to transfer to partners. So that’s exactly what I did in 2022 for a trip from Los Angeles to Barcelona, Spain. I, specifically use the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. The best deal that I found was on Level (Iberia). Through the Chase travel portal, I had enough points that I would not have to pay anything out of pocket for the flights. However, as I said, I listened to all the experts and transferred my travel points out to Iberia. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the rates shown in points didn’t cover taxes and fees. So for the same amount of points I would have used through the Chase portal only covered basically half the cost (fare only). I then had to pay roughly $1600 out of pocket. I was incredibly disappointed in myself for not knowing this, and, as someone who loves a good deal and to make my money go as far as possible, I felt sick to my stomach. And you cannot transfer your points back to Chase after you transfer them out.
Fast forward nearly two years, and we are looking for flights to Cartagena, Columbia. We are planning on flying Copa Airlines out of Los Angeles. For our family of four, it would cost us 240,000 points (which we don’t have that many), plus $351.
Now, compare that to the Chase portal where we’d use all our available points and spend $809 out of pocket. There is a cheaper flight option available through Chase, but the downside is there’s no seat selection–which, when traveling with small children is not worth it.
I’m sure there are much better ways to book travel using points or travel hacking. I am just about making our money go as far as possible when booking travel for the four of us.
Other ways that I try to look for the best time to fly is through Google flights using flexible dates, checking neighboring airports, and being open about your travel destination. For example, when booking for Spain I used an open-ended search out of LAX looking at any destination and any time for up to fourteen days. Once we landed on that we started looking for deals using the specific airline and the Chase Portal.
In summary, researching all your options thoroughly through different websites using points or paying cash should help you find the best option for you and your family.
Explorer Squad 