For the first time in about four years, we aren’t doing any traveling, and we’re not really planning any trips either. It’s a bit of a strange feeling. I’ve been at least partially focused on travel for a long time, but it’s just not important right now. Instead, we have been helping our daughter look for a house, and our son look for a college. In addition, I’ve been working on a house project that has been taking way more time than it should.
That being said, it’s not lost on us that once Alex leaves for college and Emma moves out of the house, Jenn and I will have more freedom to travel, because we won’t have to work around their schedules nearly as much. That means that right now, we should be accumulating and hoarding points while our lives are not focused on traveling.
Next summer, we will be taking Alex’s graduation trip. We did this for Emma when she graduated, and while she didn’t really plan the trip, we did allow her to guide where we went. Alex has suggested Iceland and Finland, and frankly, it’s likely to be Iceland OR Finland, with some time in Southern Europe, depending on what works with points. Finland and Iceland aren’t exactly cheap, so 10 or so days in hotels or Airbnbs in Northern Europe could get pretty expensive, not to mention the cost of food. Spending some time in Southern Europe could really cut down on the price of food and lodging.
Programs to Focus On
When thinking of traveling to Europe, I normally think of a few programs. In the few trips we’ve made to Europe, we’ve used Aer Lingus, Iberia, and British Airways with Avios, as well as KLM using Flying Blue miles. We’ve also used American Airlines AAdvantage, United Miles, and Delta Skymiles. In addition, we’ve flown on United using Singapore Airlines miles and SAS using Avianca Lifemiles. Basically, I’ll use anything if it makes sense.
The thing is, when I look at our points totals, I see a lot of programs without a ton of points in any specific program. Considering where we currently have the most points, it probably makes sense to beef up point totals where we already have a decent number of points to make sure that we have enough points to book everyone at the same time.
One choice is to book with Aer Lingus, Iberia, or British Airways with Avios. We only have a little over 80,000 points. That can be bumped up with our Amex Membership Rewards points, Chase Membership Rewards Points, Citi Thank You points, Bilt Points, or Capital One Venture Miles. We’ve had good luck with American Airlines, so earning American Airlines miles would be great, but we can only transfer from Citi Thank You points. United might also work, and we can transfer from Chase or Bilt to add to our United points total. Alaska Airlines Atmos miles has some inexpensive partner awards to Europe, but they only transfer from Bilt.
Because we would most likely be using Avios miles, Atmos miles, AAdvantage Miles, or United Miles, it makes sense to try our best to gain miles with signup bonuses that are either with one of those airlines or with Bilt, Chase, or Citi Thank You. Bilt doesn’t have many good opportunities to earn signup bonuses, so focusing on Chase or Citi makes sense.
In reality, my plan is to try to jump on any elevated signup bonuses that align with these programs. Unfortunately, right now, I’m not seeing anything that seems to be elevated, so I’m waiting for something to change. I can’t be patient forever, though. Right now, we aren’t working on a signup bonus on anything, and that does feel a little like we’re wasting time, so the longer we wait, the less patient I’ll probably be.
Schrodinger’s Wyndham Points
Jenn’s Wyndham Business Earner card has renewed again, which essentially means that we got 15,000 Wyndham points in exchange for paying the $95 annual fee. 15,000 Wyndham points are worth around $105, so that’s not terrible, but with Wyndham not partnering with Vacasa anymore, I’m not nearly as excited to use those points. It’s possible to book a Wyndham Vacation Club stay with points, but the availability is greatly limited, and the locations don’t thrill me.
Most likely, we will try to use Wyndham points on one of their all-inclusive properties, which look okay, but not spectacular. Typically, at all-inclusives, we just want to hang out at the beach and the pool and have a few drinks, so they’ll probably be fine for us. We’re going to have to book one and find out. Until we try out their all-inclusive resorts, I won’t have any idea whether we want Wyndham points going forward.
On to the Points Check
We earned a whopping 9.2% back on our spending not devoted to a signup bonus. Some of that was due to a 3,000 Membership Rewards Points bonus that was an Amex offer on my Amex Green card, which said that we would earn 1,000 points for a $40 order with Amazon. We needed to order something that was $150, and shockingly, they gave us 3,000 points. Apparently, I didn’t read the offer properly because they seemed to give me 1,000 points for each $40, and I’m not sure what the maximum was.
| Card Used | Spend | Points Earned | Point Value | Points Per $ | Return on Spend |
| Ink Cash | $744 | 3,724 | $76.34 | 5.0 | 10.3% |
| Bilt Palladium | $483 | 2,477 | $54.49 | 5.1 | 11.3% |
| Custom Cash | $481 | 2,338 | $44.42 | 4.9 | 9.2% |
| Wyndham Business Earner | $396 | 1,981 | $13.87 | 5.0 | 3.3% |
| Amex Gold | $311 | 475 | $9.50 | 1.5 | 3.1% |
| Blue Business Plus | $186 | 372 | $7.44 | 2.0 | 4.0% |
| Ink Unlimited | $183 | 275 | $5.50 | 1.5 | 3.0% |
| Amex Green | $150 | 3,150 | $63 | 21.0 | 42.0% |
| Chase Sapphire | $146 | 438 | $9.45 | 3.0 | 6.2% |
| Total | $3,080 | 15,230 | $283.54 | 4.9 | 9.2% |
Besides the money spent on the above cards, Jenn spent a little over $2,700 on her Atmos Ascent card and earned a little less than 2,800 Atmos points. She also completed the required spend to collect the 70,000 Atmos point bonus on that card. That leaves us with:
- 260,300 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points
- 230,400 IHG Points
- 156,600 Alaska/Hawaiian Airlines Atmos Miles
- 121,700 Wyndham Points
- 93,800 Amex Membership Rewards Points
- 92,600 American Airlines Miles
- 81,800 Avios
- 75,200 Bilt Points
- 24,700 Citi Thank You Points
- 19,300 United Miles
- 15,900 Marriott Bonvoy Points
- 1,500 Delta Miles
- 300 Hyatt Points
- $133 Cash Back
According to the valuations published by The Points Guy, these points are worth a total of just under $16,800. That is an all-time high for us. Without any plans coming up, I expect that we should be able to pad these numbers for a few months, until we need to start booking Alex’s graduation trip. Until then, I have a project to finish and a kid to get to some college visits.
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