So we did it! We took our first trip outside of the continent. For the kids, it was the first time they had left the country. As I expected, it was difficult at times, travelling is never easy and travelling to places where English isn’t the primary language is even more difficult. We turned out to be fairly well prepared, however, and were able to get around pretty easily. We had a great time in Europe and we were already talking about how we would return before we even pulled into our driveway. Luckily for us, we’ve figured out enough hacks to do it affordably.
Since both Jenn and I were signed up with the US Bank Business Leverage Card which both required a $7,500 spend in 4 months there haven’t been credit card signups ($15,000 is a lot of spending to meet for us). I did manage to hit my required spend on the Leverage Card and received my $750 cash back sign up bonus and I also had accumulated another $125 or so of cash back on the normal spending. So for what was probably close to $8,000 in spending on the card, getting around $875 in cash back is around an 11% cash back rate and I’m not mad about it. Jenn should hit her bonus in the next couple of months and that should be about the same. We immediately used the cash back from the Leverage Card along with the $425 left from my US Bank Altitude Card for spending money in Europe. That $1,275 did take a nice chunk out of our expenses while we were there and it was great to be able to use the cash back that way.
On to the Point Check!
I spent around $3,600 on my US Bank Leverage Card and earned $54 in cash back and also finished up the $750 sign up bonus. I spent around $200 on my United card and earned 300 United Miles. Jenn Spent $300 on her Chase Ink Unlimited and $600 on her Chase Ink Cash and earned a total of 3,300 Ultimate Reward points. Jenn also spent a little over $200 on her Wyndham Business Earner Card and earned almost 1,800 Wyndham points (I love that 8x on gas!). Jenn spent around $700 on her US Bank Leverage card and earned $11 in cash back. The only redemption was the $1,275 of cash back we used.
We finished the month with around 276,000 Chase Ultimate Reward Points, 83,000 Capital One Miles, 80,000 Delta Miles, 65,000 Marriott Bonvoy points, 26,000 Citi points, 24,000 United Miles, 5,000 American Airlines Miles and 2,000 Hyatt Points. We also were left with an underwhelming $66 in cash back. All of this left us with a total points value, according to The Points Guy of $10,100.
Newby to Expert Traveler 