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Introduction to Credit Card Travel Points

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Welcome to the world of traveling for almost free using credit card points and miles! Credit card travel points are a type of reward system offered by many credit card companies, designed to make your travel experiences more affordable and enjoyable. These points can be accumulated through everyday purchases and then redeemed for a variety of travel-related expenses, including flights, hotel stays, and car rentals. Understanding how to earn and use these points effectively can unlock a world of travel opportunities, allowing you to explore new destinations without breaking the bank.

Introduction to Credit Card Travel Points featured image

What are travel points cards?


Travel points cards, often referred to as travel rewards credit cards, are a type of financial tool designed for both frequent and occasional travelers. Here’s a breakdown of what they are and how they work:

  • Definition: Travel points cards are credit cards that earn you points or miles on your purchases, which can then be redeemed for travel-related expenses.
  • Earning Points:
    • You accumulate points based on your spending, with certain categories like travel, dining, and groceries often earning points at a higher rate.
    • Some cards offer sign-up bonuses, providing a large number of points after meeting an initial spending requirement. This is the key to earning points quicker and the strategy we use to travel frequently for almost free.
  • Redemption Options:
    • Points can be redeemed for flights, hotel stays, car rentals, and sometimes even experiences or merchandise.
    • Redemption rates and values can vary widely between cards and redemption options.
  • Additional Benefits:
    • Many travel points cards come with extra perks such as travel insurance, airport lounge access, and no foreign transaction fees.
    • Some cards offer status upgrades or special discounts with travel partners.

Understanding travel points cards can help you choose the right one for your lifestyle and maximize your rewards to fund your next adventure.

Four Main Keys to Quickly Accumulating Credit Card Points.

This is our strategy for quickly collecting credit card points and redeeming them for free trips. We love this strategy because we use our everyday spending, this is important, to meet credit card sign up bonuses and accumulate points quickly.

Our method broken down into three simple steps.

  1. Open credit cards that have a sign up bonus on them. A sign up bonus means you get a certain amount of bonus points after you spend a certain amount of money in a predefined time.
  2. Meet the minimum spend and earn the sign up bonus.
  3. Redeem your points and miles for travel.

Our #1 Rules for Using Travel Points

You might be wondering if this is a good fit for you. We have a few basic rules we like to always make clear. If you can not follow these rules this is NOT for you. These are VERY important, basic rules that if you don’t follow the trips are no longer free.

Rules #1 – Have a good credit score.

We recommend having a credit score of at least 750 points before you start applying to credit cards and using the sign up bonuses for free travel.

If your score is lower than that we recommend you focus on raising your score before you start applying for credit cards.

The main tip for raising your credit score is paying off your credit cards if you have a balance on them, which lowers your credit utilization rate. Another great one is looking over your credit report on Experian to make sure everything is reported correctly. You will also want to make sure you make on time payments each month.

Rule #2 – Pay your credit card balances on time and in full each month.

This is key to playing this. If you start charging more than you can pay to meet the sign up bonuses the credit cards will charge you very high interest rates and the travel you redeem is no longer free. Nearly all these credit cards have high interest rates of at least 18%. This is how they make their money!

If you carry a balance this credit card companies have essentially “won” and are making money off of you.

Remember this is not about spending more money it’s about leveraging your monthly spending to earn free travel.

Rules #3 – Stay organized

It’s is important to track the cards you are opening, the points you are earning and your progress towards the sign up bonuses on new cards.

We highly recommend using the app Travel Freely which will do all this for you, plus recommend which card to open next! This is how we keep track of everything.

Types of travel credit cards

There’s three main types of travel credit cards offered by banks that are the most helpful for earnings points and miles (points and miles are used interchangeable when referencing them).

  • Airline Cards
    • These will give you points to redeem on that specific airline.
  • Hotel Cards
    • These will give you points to redeem on for a specific hotel brand.
  • Flexible Cards
    • The best category in our opinion because these cards give you points to use many different ways. It’s the most complicated category, but also the most valuable. Some of these card will allow you to book airfare and hotels, transfer points to hotels or airlines, give you cash back etc.
    • This is where we recommend starting with our favorite card, Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.

Ready to get started?

We recommend doing a few things first, download the Travel Freely App and fill out your card information in the app, then opening our favorite card the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. If you already have that card make sure you check out the Best Current Offers to pick your next card or reference the card genie in the Travel Freely App.

Opinions  expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.

The comments section below is not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all questions are answered.

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