A cross-country vacation cost my family less than $500 out of pocket thanks to 3 credit card sign-up bonuses
- My wife and I were able to take a week-long vacation halfway across the country for less than $500 out of pocket thanks to credit card rewards.
- In order to make that possible, we had to plan several months ahead. By using rewards from the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, the World of Hyatt Credit Card, and the Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Credit Card to cover our travel, lodging, and the majority of our food, we were able to spend our cash on fun things that were unique to the cities we visited.
- My wife and I love credit card rewards. It's like a game for us to see how little we can spend on travel by using cards that earn us bonus points.
Recently, my wife and I were able to use credit card rewards to take a week-long vacation to Texas and back (from Florida) for less than $500 out of pocket. We did this by planning ahead and opening three rewards credit cards. Here's how their sign-up bonuses enabled us to cover most of our expenses with points.
We flew for free using Southwest Rapid Rewards points
We began our credit cards rewards planning for our trip about nine months before we planned to travel. The first card that we signed up for was the Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Card.
At the time, we were able to land a 50,000-point sign-up bonus (the sign-up bonus has since decreased to 40,000 points after you spend $1,000 in the first three months). We booked two round-trip tickets from Orlando to Austin for 28,000 points. Thankfully, our son was still under two years of age at the time, so he was able to fly free.
We scored 7 free hotel nights using credit card sign-up bonuses
After earning the Southwest sign-up bonus, we moved on to signing up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card. Again, we were able to earn a 50,000-point sign up bonus on that card. Now, the card is offering a higher sign-up bonus of 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points after you spend $4,000 in the first three months, so you could earn 10,000 more points than we did.
Finally, we grabbed the World of Hyatt Credit card. At the time, it was offering 2 free nights at any category level as a sign-up bonus (the current sign-up bonus is 50,000 points after you spend $6,000 total in the first six months, which is still a great deal). We were able to use those two free nights at the Hyatt Regency in Austin, Texas.
But about what the other five nights? Well, that's where the Chase Sapphire Preferred comes into play. Hyatt happens to be a Chase Ultimate Rewards travel partner. And one of the amazing things about the Hyatt loyalty program is that they only charge 5,000 points for its lowest-level (Category 1) hotel redemptions. So for 25,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points we were able to score 5 free nights at the Hyatt Place San Antonio Airport/Quarry Market.
We booked our rental car using Southwest Rapid Rewards points
After booking our flights, we had about 22,000 points left over in our Southwest Rapid Rewards account and we didn't want to let those go to waste.
After doing a little research, we discovered that you can use Rapid Rewards points to book a rental car. Southwest almost seems to hide this feature on its website - if you click on the "Car" link at the top of the Southwest webpage, it will only allow you to book with dollars.
If you want to book a rental car with points, you'll need to navigate to the Rapid Rewards homepage, then click on "More Rewards" and then on the yellow "Explore Rewards" button. When you click on that link, you'll be transferred to a separate partner website where you can redeem your points toward travel, gift cards, or merchandise.
At the time, we were able to find a killer deal on an economy car for 18,000 points. But it really all depends on when you search. If Rapid Rewards is asking for way too many points to book a car, you may be better off using a different travel portal, like Chase Ultimate Rewards or Citi ThankYou Rewards.
We converted Chase Ultimate Rewards points into restaurant gift cards
After transferring 25,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt, we still had over 25,000 left over. We converted those points into gift cards to our favorite restaurants.
Chase Ultimate Rewards points can be redeemed toward third-party gift cards at a rate of 1 cent per point. So, for 25,000 points, we were able to get $250 worth of gift cards to restaurants like Olive Garden, Chili's, Outback, Carrabba's, Chipotle, and more. You can technically get more value for your Chase points (possibly more than 5 cents per point when you book a first-class award flight through a transfer partner), but this was another way for us to cut down on out-of-pocket expenses.
How we spent our "fun" money
By using credit card rewards, we were able to get all the basics (travel, lodging, food) covered for free. That allowed us to spend about $450 toward fun attractions and a few interesting, local restaurants.
We were able to eat at a cool, authentic Mexican restaurant right on the San Antonio Riverwalk as well as the Hard Rock Cafe. We took the Riverwalk boat tour too.
We love nature, so we enjoyed visiting the San Antonio Botanical Gardens and were blown away by the Japanese Tea Garden (which was free to visit).
We brought our son to the San Antonio Zoo, and, of course, we had to see the Alamo (which also was free).
All in all, it was an amazing trip ... and it felt even more amazing since we knew that it didn't break the bank.