Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Daisy Hernández has been a editor of credit cards in THE BOY OF THE POINTS Since 2023, but he has been glad Gamifying credit card rewards For much longer. Like many of her colleagues, she extends her expense in several cards to Maximize rewards As aerial miles, hotel points and cash return.
In January 2024, he opened a Chase Sapphire card reserve and soon obtained a 60,000 -point bonus for spending at least $ 4,000 in the first three months. While continuing to accumulate points, Hernández began to chat with his mother about recreating a previous journey as a mother and daughter to Iceland.
When his grandmother, then 79, entered the conversation, Hernández knew he wanted to put some points to use.
“I had stars in my eyes. It was like, ‘that’s incredible. It sounds incredible,” says Hernández. “I thought, ‘Let me see what I can do'”.
For May, he had accumulated more than 100,000 points, which he made for a trip for all three. According to the estimates of the type points, each Chase Ultimate reward point has a value of approximately 2.05 cents, which makes its valga a little more than $ 2,000.
In total, he was able to cover accommodations, a rental car and his own air rate. With those savings, you could afford to pay for your pocket for the other two flights.
“For my grandmother, it was a unique trip in life,” says Hernández.
This is how he did.
She chose a card strategically
Hernández wanted a premium travel card and reduced things to two main options. To choose between them, he looked at the rewards and transfer partners, among other factors.
The Chase card worked with its “favorite hotel chain,” turned out. Then he realized: “This is a kind of brain.” Especially because the first card courted consumers with advantages of the airport that would not be available to it at its local airport.
For card holders willing to pay an annual rate, several travel cards offer excellent advantages and generous introductory bond offers. When changing most of its expenditure on its new Chase card, Hernández was able to eclipse the spending threshold of three months of $ 4,000 to win the 60,000 points on the card.
She was wise with her rewards
Hernández’s card offers a baseline of one point for each dollar spent on the card and three points on trips and restaurants, in addition to higher values for purchases made through the Chase Travel portal. In the course of about five months, it could accumulate just over 100,000 points.
It is important to note that Hernández was responsible with his expense and aware of the risks of opening a new card. She and other experts would tell her not to open a card unless he can use it in a responsible manner and to avoid Borrow to pursue rewards.
Hernández used about 23,000 points, around $ 470 for TPG estimates, to rent a car for four days. She used around the same amount to reserve her flight, which came with a nominal value of approximately $ 450. The rest was charged on three nights for three guests distributed in two properties that she reserved through the Chase’s travel portal.
Its 100,000 points did not cover everything. He still paid approximately $ 900 on his mother’s flights and grandmother, in addition to what he has spent on dinner and activities once he was there.
“I still get a murderous value of a trip for three people,” says Hernández.
She did not let Perfect be the enemy of good
Obsessive credit card point that is, Hernández says he could have received even more for his money if he were more opportunistic with his points.
“If I had worked harder to maximize with transfer bonds, if there were any available, which were not at the time I reserved, I could probably have obtained more value of those points,” she says.
Credit card partner rewards programs offer periodically incentives to transfer their points. If Hernández had waited for a hotel chain to offer a 50%transfer bonus, for example, he could have converted, for example, 50,000 of its credit card points into 75,000 hotel points.
But obtaining the maximum value of its points requires effort and flexibility. Transfer bonds only appear from time to time. And even if you manage to find a lucrative one, it is not known if there will be good offers available when you want to travel.
“During the high season, it will be more expensive, whether effective or points. So you are at the mercy of when you decide to travel and where you are going,” says Hernández.
In addition, if they let their points feel while waiting to find the perfect treatment, they can lose part of their value. “Devaluations happen all the time. (A hotel chain) could say: ‘instead that our points are worth 0.8 cents per point, now they are 0.65′”, Hernández warns.
Which is all to say that Hernández does not regret using his points when he did.
“We are from Central America. My grandmother had never been close to a Nordic country. She said: ‘Never, in my wildest dreams I would have imagined that I would have seen a place like Iceland,” says Hernández. “That was the cherry on the top to be able to experience that with her and my mother.”
Do you want to earn some extra money? Take the new CNBC online course How to start a side chest Learn tips to begin with and strategies for the success of experts in the upper hustle and hustle and bustle. Register today and use the Earlybird coupon code for an introductory discount of 30% discount of $ 97 (+taxes and rates) until April 1, 2025.
Further, Register in CNBC Make It is Bulletin To obtain advice and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.
