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I have often heard of people using their credit card for all kinds of travel perks, including flights and accommodation. As an AAdvantage member, I’ve always accumulated air miles on American Airlines through booking flights with them as often as possible, so I get miles that I can redeem for flights. This is a slow process… the more flights you take, the more miles you accumulate… but sometimes there were quiet months with no flights and a risk of losing those miles if you don’t use them (or add to them) for a certain period.
It started with an American Airlines credit card
I stepped up the AA miles game by getting an American Airlines Citi credit card a few years ago – it came with a bunch of bonus miles (I think I got 40,000) because I made the required purchases, and that gave me enough miles to book a couple of US flights directly on the American Airlines website. Awesome.
The great thing about this card is that you get miles for every dollar you spend on it, so $5 on your credit card = 5 miles. Some purchases will give you more than 1 mile for $1, for example, gas stations and restaurants give you 2 miles for each $1 you spend. You also get one FREE checked luggage if you buy your AA flight using this card. By using this card regularly for all of my gas purchases, I keep my miles active and keep gathering more miles. I put one-off big purchases on this card too, just to get some extra miles. Why not?
As with every card – remember to pay it off every month! They’re not free perks if you are paying interest on a balance.
Perks of the Citi AA card:
- $1 spent = 1 mile
- $1 spent = 2 miles for gas stations, restaurants, and eligible American Airline purchases
- Redeem miles to book free flights on aa.com
- Check one luggage for free if you purchase your flight with this card
- No foreign transaction fees on purchases
- Keep your miles balance active by making regular purchases – large or small
Then I started using the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card – even better
So the American Airlines credit card was pretty good – as long as I kept booking flights with AA, I could accumulate more miles and redeem them on AA flights.
However, there is not much flexibility if you want to book with other airlines. I know there are some options with partner airlines but I didn’t really look into those. Your best usage will be by being loyal to AA.
More recently, I decided to get the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card. Yes, I was enticed by the bonus points – 60,000 bonus points to be exact! And I knew that they could be used more flexibly than the AA miles.
I applied online, and timed it knowing that I had a large expense coming up. Ordinarily, I would have paid for this expense directly on my debit card – but I decided to use it towards the $4,000 minimum spend within the first 3 months to get the bonus points.
Getting the points was pretty simple. I paid everything that I could on the Chase card to meet the minimum. The points were credited to my account a few days after I hit the $4,000 spend. I have the app on my phone so it was easy to keep track.
And voila! I got 60,000 bonus points to spend.
There are a number of options for redeeming these points including:
- Cash back
60,000 Chase points = $600 that can be redeemed as a statement credit or sent directly to your bank account - Travel
1 Chase point = 1.25 travel points through Ultimate Rewards, so $600 is equivalent to $750 of travel
There is also an option to transfer Chase points to other airlines.
The mission
I have a trip coming up in September with a couple of friends. They have booked their flights on South West Airlines via Dallas TX, which is where I will be getting my flight from.
- Step 1 – research flights
I had a look on South West and found the exact flights from Dallas for $228. Not bad. I did a little looking around to see if there was anything comparable at a lower price. American Airlines had some flights but they left/arrived at different times and cost a little bit more. There wasn’t much point in arriving at different times for no cost benefit, so I focused on the South West flights.
- Step 2 – research options for the South West flights
When I searched the same flights with the option selected to use South West points, the total came to 15,300 points. I only had 1,000 from who knows how long ago. I could purchase the remaining points I needed for $270 – that costs more than the $228 to buy the flights outright, so buying points was not an option.
Then I logged into my account at Chase Ultimate Rewards. I navigated to the travel section and searched for my flights. I was surprised that no South West results showed up, so I called Chase on 866-951-6592. They explained that some airlines don’t share all of their flights to be available for third parties, so I wouldn’t be able to use my points to buy the flight through Chase. Bummer.
However, I was able to transfer 15,000 of my Chase points directly to South West. I decided to do this online through my account instead of over the phone. Bear in mind that 15,000 Chase points = $150 as cash back, so this is still less than $228 to purchase the tickets outright. Also bear in mind that I got those Chase points for FREE as part of my bonus points! So ultimately, I got the flights for free and at great value!
Admittedly I did have to pay $12 to book the flights, but that’s nothing compared to $228.
So there you have it – I booked these flights (practically) for free, and still have plenty of bonus points left over. I knew what I was looking for so I had this all done and dusted within a couple of hours. And calling Chase was a breeze, I was speaking to a human being within minutes.
Other perks with Chase Sapphire
As well as the $1 spent = 1 point, this card offers 3x points on restaurants and 5x points on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards.
While browsing offers, I found that I can get 5x points when I pay for Lyft using my card, and I can also get free DoorDash deliveries. To activate both of these, I went to the appropriate app and added my Chase credit card as the primary payment method.
There are lots of other offers, including some discounts at Apple, but in this post I have focused on the ones that I have found of most interest.
You can see more of their offers by clicking here.
Important points on using credit cards for travel perks
- Pay off your monthly statement
Credit cards make money by charging you interest. Be savvy and always pay off your credit card every month. You do not want a balance to build up or to be charged interest. - Some cards have an annual fee
My AA card waived the $99 fee for the first year. After that, I called to ask if they could waive the fee again. They said no, but gave me an offer where they would refund me $99 if I spent a certain amount within the next however many months – basically refunding the annual fee. I took them up on the offer.
My Chase card does charge $95 annual fee, however, the benefits outweigh the fee in my situation so it is a worthwhile cost for me. - Start building a good credit score if you want to apply
Your credit score will be checked when you apply for a credit card. Being rejected for a credit card could have a negative impact on your score, so do yourself a favor and make sure you have a good score before you apply. I have banking apps on my phone that show me my score for free.
Having known about the concept of using credit cards to book travel for many years, I’m really excited to be actually using this to my benefit. There is a little groundwork that needs to be laid out first, but after that initial investment of applying for the card and getting the points, you’ll be pretty free to shop around and see how you can use your points in the best way.
Written by Shama
