The Busy Mom's Guide to Free Travel [Step by Step]
We've put together a step by step guide and timeline explaining which credit cards you should apply for to earn free travel with points in your first year
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Below is a guide of what we would consider the easiest, most strategic way to maximize your points earning in year one with minimal effort or cost. Keep in mind there is no one-size-fits all solution. Everyone's monthly spend tolerance, credit history, and eligibility may differ, allowing some people to move more quickly through the chart than others.
But follow this flow as closely as makes sense for your personal situation, and you will find yourself with plenty of points by the end of year one (or sooner)!
Note: Be sure to know your 5/24 and work to stay under it. Chase will not approve you for any card if you have opened 5 new cards from any bank in the past 24 months. One loophole is that most business cards do NOT count against your 5/24. Ex: you can open 3 personal cards and 5 business cards in 24 months, and you're safe at 3/24. But if you open 5 personal cards, you're now at 5/24, and will not get approved for any Chase personal or business card until your 24 months resets.
Step 1 - Choose 1
This applies to everyone - you'll want to start with one (or possibly two) of the following:
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (linked) (most common starting point) $95 annual fee
Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (linked) from Chase (the business version of the Sapphire Preferred, and an amazing option if you qualify for business cards - this is the card we use) $95 annual fee
Chase Sapphire Reserve® (linked) (the fancy version of the Preferred with more perks) $550 annual fee
No matter how many points you accrue through Chase, you NEED one of the above cards in order to redeem them with travel partners, or else your points are only worth the much less valuable cash back option.
You can only have one Sapphire product at a time (and can only apply for a Sapphire product once every 4 years) so you'll want to take a close look at the perks to decide which one works best for you. The Sapphire Preferred with the lower annual fee ($95 versus $550) usually makes sense for most. The higher annual fee for the Sapphire Reserved does come with its perks, but it also complicates the process as you'll need to keep track to make sure you're utilizing all of it's benefits. Both of these cards DO count against your 5/24, and you DO need to be under 5/24 to get them.
The Ink Business Preferred is a business card, but 99% of people are eligible for a business credit card and many don't even know it. Check out our quick post Am I Eligible For Business Credit Cards to see if you qualify. This card does NOT count against your 5/24, but you DO need to be under 5/24 to get it.
If your spouse joining the points game too, only one of you needs to have one of the cards above. The other person can then transfer their points to the person with that card. But, you will both likely want one (or two) of the cards above eventually because they generally have great Sign Up Bonuses and some nice perks!
Pause 60-90 Days
Generally speaking, you'll want to wait 60-90 days between applications with the same bank, so don't apply for two Chase cards too close together. The banks want to see that you are actually using the cards you are applying for, not just applying for one after another rapid fire.
Keep in mind there's nothing wrong with you applying, and then your spouse applying shortly after, so you can keep busy working on Sign Up Bonuses without one person applying too frequently. Most cards have anywhere from a $500-$6,000 minimum spend to meet in order to get the Sign Up Bonus, so you'll want to time out applications to make sure you can meet that spend in time too.
Step 2 - Choose 1 or 8 (hah!)
Here's where the points can really start to grow. If you're eligible for business cards (which almost everyone is - don't forget to check this post to make sure!) then you'll want to follow Step 2. If you decide that there is absolutely no way that you or your spouse are eligible for business cards, then you can move straight to Step 3.
Ink Business Cash® Credit Card (linked) from Chase - $0 annual fee
Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card (linked) from Chase - $0 annual fee
These cards are no brainers. $0 annual fee and historically generous Sign Up Bonuses.
Note: these cards are marketed as "cash back" cards, but remember the points earned can be used for travel if transferred to one of the cards listed in Step 1 (transferring is a very simple process).
Even better: there's two of them! Which means 4 of them total between you and your spouse. And to make things even crazier, if you do have a full fledged business with an EIN, you can apply for each card TWICE, once under your SSN and once under the EIN. That means between you and your spouse, you can get EIGHT total of these $0 annual fee cards over time!
They also have great multipliers ranging from 2-5X on things like phone, cable, internet, gas on the Ink Cash, and 1.5X on all purchases on the Ink Unlimited.
And don't sleep on the Ink Business Preferred from Step 1. Here's where you still may consider this card even if you selected to get started with a Chase Sapphire way back in Step 1.
Remember, you'll want to space out applications about 90 days from card to card.
These three cards do NOT count against your 5/24, but you DO need to be under 5/24 to get any of these cards.
Step 3
Let's stay on the Chase train just a little bit longer. Remember, we want to get as many Chase cards as possible before going over 5/24.
Chase Freedom Unlimited® (linked) $0 annual fee
This is a great everyday spender, earning 5X on travel, 3X on restaurants, and 1.5X on all other purchases.
This card DOES count against your 5/24, and you DO need to be under 5/24 to get this card.
Check-In
By this point you're probably somewhere around your 1 year anniversary of accruing travel reward points. By my calculations you should have anywhere between 300,000-1,000,000 points depending on your situation and typical monthly spend.
Just for perspective, we just booked 8 nights in the Bahamas at the luxury resort Baha Mar including roundtrip flights for our family of 5 for 320,000 total points - an almost $10,000 value which cost us only $33 in airline taxes and fees. So, chances are you're in GREAT SHAPE! It's definitely time to start spending those points if you haven't yet, and we'll have another post on that soon!
At this point you can get a little more creative with your card choices.
Step 4
Here are a couple of my other favorite cards that are worth adding to the mix once you have a strong base.
Travel Perks / Lounge Access
Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (linked) $395 annual fee
It took me about a year to finally accept an annual fee this high, but this has become one of my favorite cards. It comes with a yearly $300 travel credit which essentially brings the annual fee down to $95, plus an additional 10,000 anniversary bonus miles each year, bringing the value well over the annual fee.
You also get an unlimited Priority Pass membership for airport lounge access around the world for you and a guest, which is worth it's weight in gold if you fly even a couple of times a year (free food, open bar, some even have showers and kids play rooms and more). You can also add your spouse as an Authorized User on the card, giving you both Priority Pass access for you and 2 guests, so you can get lounge access for a family of 6 fo' FREE.
This card DOES count against your 5/24 (for both you an your spouse if you add them as an Authorized User), but you do NOT need to be under 5/24 to get this card.
Hotel Co-Branded Cards
Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card (linked) $95 fee
Chase World of Hyatt Business Credit Card (linked) $199 annual fee
Once you start redeeming points you'll quickly learn that you get some of the most value from Hyatt redemptions. Both of these cards offer excellent sign up bonuses, higher status with Hyatt, and an accelerated earning structure to help accrue more Hyatt points.
Note: although these cards are issued by Chase, they earn strictly Hyatt points, not Ultimate Rewards meaning they can only be redeemed with Hyatt and not transferred to Chase's entire list of travel partners.
The Personal card DOES count against your 5/24, and the Business card does NOT. You DO need to be under 5/24 to get either of these cards.
Cash Back
Wells Fargo 2% Active Cash (linked) $0 fee
Capital One Spark 1.5% Cash Select (for Businesses) (linked) $0 annual fee
Capital One Spark 2% Cash Plus (for Businesses) (linked) $150 annual fee
Okay I know we said cards with transferable currencies are much more valuable than cash back cards. And we stand by that! But if you want to travel truly for free, a good cash back card can be useful to cover the cost of things that you can't pay for with points. And with cash back Sigh Up Bonuses, and cards earning 1.5-2X on all purchases, it's an easy way to gain extra points on purchases that may only gain 1X on other cards.
Ex: We just took a trip to Legoland. We drove and rented and Airbnb rather than a hotel so there weren't a ton of ways to redeem points on our trip. We used our Cash Back card to pay ourselves back for our 2-day theme park pass for 6 of us, saving us $750 cash, and that felt pretty darn good!
The Personal card DOES count against your 5/24, and the Business cards do NOT. You DO need to be under 5/24 to get either of these cards.
Okay, that probably feels like a lot
But we promise, the hard part is done! There are hundreds of cards out there, but the 12 cards listed above are going to be the easiest, most efficient way to get you to your goal of free family travel.
Start by selecting a card from Step 1, and while you're working on meeting the minimum spend, come up with a general plan for the first 12 months. Maybe you'll make it through step 2 or 3, or maybe between you and your spouse you'll continue all the way down through step 4. Either way, you will be surprised how quickly the points add up!
Let's chat! Feel free to send me a message on Instagram at @ourwishfultravel
Or drop me an email at ourwishfultravel@gmail.com with any questions!
Ourwishfultrio has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Ourwishfultrio and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.
If you haven't yet, make sure to read our beginner post that goes over all of the basics you need to know about earning free travel with points.
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