One of my goals for 2025 was to optimize points, perks & miles for travel & track our value over the year. I'm currently not tracking the value vs cost for our credit cards themselves, but maybe I should, as that appears to be a fine distinction & otherwise sort of mixes things. That will be a goal for next year, perhaps. :-)
Without further ado, here's how we did with this goal, including the approximate value of each:
- Used two free Hyatt night awards on a ski trip - $720
- Three free nights at the Corvallis Marriott (some with points, others with credit card points) - $760
- Three free nights at the Hyatt in Sedona on a girls hiking trip = $1144
- Two nights at the Hyatt in Boulder during orientation - $938
- One New Zealand business class flight using United miles - $9900
- Two nights in a very fancy Napa resort + a room upgrade - $2500
- Two economy plus flights to Greece using old British Airways points - $6000
- Two rooms for one night at Boulder during move in weekend - $600
- Four nights in a suite (we have three people, so it's either a suite or two separate rooms when we go many places) for the girls trip to Greece - $2572
Total value = $25,437. Wow! This is crazy & definitely not something we can replicate often. As you can see, we used basically 9 years of United miles (mostly accrued through work travel at my former job) to cash out for the New Zealand ticket, and similarly used old British Airways points accrued for years through M's old credit card for the two flights to Greece.
2026 is a big year, with an anniversary/birthday trip to NZ as well as the girls 50th trip to Greece. I'm very happy we were able to cash out years of accrued flight miles for these special occasions.
How do we earn points/miles/perks?
- Work travel. While inconsistent & not something to count on, I did make three international trips in 2025. Unfortunately, the hotels are typically ones without reward programs, and I had flights spread across all of the airlines. I'm still tracking the hotels, because business class international travel is pricey regardless.
- Personal travel. Way less accruals, but we always make sure to have everyone's frequent flier mile program attached to the reservation. This is now something Nick will get a bit of value out of, as he is traveling a lot more for college.
- Hyatt credit card* (this has a fee). We accrue additional points for every dollar we spend at Hyatt, as well as for other spend. I really like this card & the rewards, and have Globalist status, which helps when we travel. However, Hyatt has a more limited footprint outside of the US, so we are much more likely to use our rewards on domestic travel. An example of this is using a free night award in Boulder during move out & graduation weekend. The free night award is part of my credit card perks, but the room goes for $1k/night due to demand from graduation & move out. When planned well, these can save you a tremendous amount of money.
- Chase Sapphire Reserve* (has a fee). This is an all purpose travel card that you can redeem for flights or hotels. I cashed out most of my points for a few nights at the Marriott in Corvallis + some of the nights in Greece. I prefer to book flights directly, to minimize any problems if the flights are changed or cancelled. That said, I have a Southwest credit to use, so I will be trying that in 2026.
We put all of our spending on our credit cards, and I can also charge some of my work travel expenses (everything minus flights), which really adds up on the spending. We track the cost of each card against the rewards to make sure it pays for itself. I'll do a better job of capturing the full year's worth next year, so I can post about this.
*My standard credit card disclaimer. Any credit card should only be used if you can comfortably pay off the balance each month, and do not accrue interest and/or spend more because you are using a card. No benefits outweigh interest charges.
Happy to answer any questions and here about how you maximize rewards & points for travel!
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