May wasn’t terribly exciting, but Jenn did join me on a business trip to San Antonio. While I’m not a huge fan of being in Texas during the warmer months, I love the River Walk. What is unique about the River Walk is that San Antonio built a giant flood tunnel and a lock and dam system along the San Antonio River to ensure that the river stays at the same level, regardless of the amount of rain they receive. That allows for the walkway to be only a few inches above the water level, and all of the shops and restaurants can be extremely close to the river. It makes for a unique and beautiful experience, especially at night.
While much of my time was spent at a convention, the evenings allowed us to check out many of the breweries and restaurants in the area. While I love walking around the main commercial area on the River Walk, the restaurants and bars there are expensive and underwhelming. When you get off the main area of River Walk, the food and drink seems to improve dramatically. We had the opportunity to visit my favorite place in San Antonio, Dos Sirenos Brewing, a couple of times when we were there, which made me and my belly, very happy.
Some Hotel Redemptions
My son Alex and I are going to Berlin and Dresden for a week this July. We hope to do a little hiking at Saxon Switzerland National Park and explore both cities. I waited maybe a little too long to book our lodging, but I was able to find a cheap Airbnb along the main train line in Dresden that should mean quick transit to the national park as well as Downtown Dresden. We also used the last two of Jenn’s IHG free-night certificates to book a Holiday Inn in Downtown Berlin.
In addition, we used Jenn’s Marriott free-night certificate, which was about to expire, to book a hotel in Peoria for a quick weekend getaway with our friends Bill and Theresa. While I hate that we almost had a certificate expire, using it for a quick getaway with some good friends is never a bad use of a certificate.
Slow and Steady
I’ve been a pretty big fan of the Wyndham program for a while. One reason is that Jenn’s Wyndham Business Earner card earns 8 points per dollar spent at gas stations and 5 points per dollar on utilities. That means that we are typically earning a couple of thousand Wyndham points per month on those categories. In addition, it gives any cardholder a 10% discount when those points are used.
Also, when the $95 annual fee is paid each year, the cardholder receives a 15,000-point bonus. Since those points are valued at 1.1 cents per dollar, we receive $165 in Wyndham points, and if you figure in the 10% point redemption discount, it’s closer to $180. That’s a pretty good reason to hold the card by itself.
Over the last 21 months, our Wyndham points balance has gone up by 78,000 points by doing nothing but using it for utilities and gas, and earning the annual bonus. This demonstrates how slow and steady growth can lead to a meaningful number of points.
At 81,000 points, we will have enough points to book a 1-bedroom Vacasa vacation rental for 6 days that is priced up to $250 per night. Since we really love to use vacation rentals, the ability to book one with points is fantastic. Also, the ability to get a free vacation rental worth up to $1,500 for just 81,000 points is pretty nice. There just happen to be quite a few Vacasas in Tulum, Puerto Vallarta, and Cabo San Lucas that fit that category, so there is a good chance I’ll be booking a trip to Mexico at some point.
On To The Point Check!
Once again, our spending not committed to earning a signup bonus was spent strategically. We earned 6.9% on that spending, and I’m generally happy when we earn over 5%.
| Card Used | Spend | Points Earned | Point Value | Points Per $ | Return on Spend |
| Wyndham Business Earner | $918 | 4,879 | $53.67 | 5.3 | 5.9% |
| Ink Cash | $724 | 3.622 | $74.25 | 5.0 | 10.2% |
| Venture | $455 | 910 | $18.20 | 2.0 | 3.7% |
| Amex Gold | $421 | 1,684 | $33.68 | 4.0 | 8.0% |
| Sapphire Preferred | $157 | 247 | $5.06 | 1.6 | 3.2% |
| Total | $2,675 | 11,342 | $184.86 | 4.2 | 6.9% |
Besides the spending on the credit cards listed above, Jenn spent almost $1,600 on her IHG card, earning over 5,000 IHG points. I spent almost $1,500 on my Chase Sapphire Preferred card, earning me over 3,800 Chase Ultimate Reward points and getting me closer to my 100,000 point bonus. At the end of the month we were left with:
- 154,600 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points
- 124,500 Amex Membership Rewards Points
- 93,000 American Airlines Miles
- 79,100 Alaska Miles
- 78,800 Wyndham Points
- 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points
- 33,200 IHG points
- 32,100 Citi Thank You Points
- 16,700 United Miles
- 9,300 Hyatt Points
- 1,500 Delta Miles
- $132 in Cash Back
When you add up all of those points, according to the valuations published by the Points Guy, they are worth a grand total of $10,700. That is slightly higher than the previous month, but still well below our all-time high of $16,500. Given the fact that we have some signup bonuses that we are working on and the fact that I don’t have to much to redeem our points on soon, I think we might top that this year. We’ll have to wait and see how that plays out though. Either way, I have a trip to Germany to get ready for!
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