✈️ How To Choose Your Next Card

Good morning ☀️ from Booked It On Points: A curated collection to keep you traveling for less money and more know how 👊🏽

Let’s dive in.

Here’s what’s on today—

✈︎ Flight Deal

Roundtrip to Europe less than $500

📉 Icelandic Air isn’t fancy, but flying to Norway for less than $500 is certainly something to write home about. This price includes a carry on and, there are over 20 different US airports you can search for departures, all for less than $500 roundtrip. While 27K in points isn’t bad, taxes/fees are $191 one way, I think I’d stick to cash.

✈︎ Points + Miles

3 Things You Must Know Before Getting A Travel Card

Travel reward credit cards come with a lot of more than just points + miles. It’s no secret that the key to taking multiple (nearly) free trips a year is opening up 1-3 cards/year. By accumulating 1-3 welcome offer bonus/year, you are easily accumulating 180k-250k in points + miles, not to mention the extra points for referrals and regular purchases 💳 That’s enough for round trip tickets and/or hotel accommodations (depending on how many are in your party) wherever you’re headed.

Here’s your 3-step research process

1) Understand “general” vs. “cobranded” cards→ I will almost always advocate for a general card. These are cards that come from Chase, Capital One, Bilt, Citi and Amex, rather than an airline or hotel branded brand. Points from general cards are super flexible and can be transferred out to hundreds of different airlines and hotels. Possible exception: this elevate offer is totally worth it if you’re a frequent Southwest flyer.

2) Jump on a great welcome offer→ The “experts” will tell you to maximize on elevated/high welcome offers. This strategy will get you the most bang for your buck, just remember, don’t overspend in order to get the points. It is NEVER the right decision to spend over budget just to get CC points.

3) Read about the perks and protections→ Lounge access and travel protection is where you find TONS of value in a travel card. For example, this card gets you into +1500 Priority Pass lounges all over the world which we use every time we travel.

Protections→ Most cards offer travel protection with purchase. This card and this card, for example, offer trip delay and cancellation coverage, while this card offers great coverage for rental cars.

As usual, because the boss in the room (the banks 😏) don’t allow us to use the name of the credit card, otherwise I would be able to write a little more clearly, I do apologize! 

Pro tip→ don’t waste time using a debit card on purchases, or even putting all your purchases on one, single card. Instead, open up a new travel credit card and take a trip on points while you’re at it!

✈︎ The Informed Traveler

Flying with kids: Steps we take to survive overnight flights

Spoiler alert: It involves screen time and candy 🍬

We recently flew an overnight transatlantic flight from DC → London. We flew Virgin Air with a redemption of 20k points one way/person. I found this flight on the AirFrance website. It was a great redemption offer so I booked it right away.

What we did to make it a smooth experience:

✅ Used a card that gives us free lounge access:

We hit of the lounge first 🙌🏼 Using this card, we have access to the Capital One Venture X Lounge. This lounge exceeds exceptions with food/drink options, comfort and a big perk → meals/treats on the go to tied everyone over throughout the travel day. It’s an exciting way to start the adventure!

✅ Pre-ordered a kids meal

Ordering a designated “kids meal” ahead of time from the airline website allows our kids to be served a tray a bit earlier than the rest of the cabin as well as with some more “kid friendly” offerings.

✅ Kept a nighttime routine

After dinner service, it’s time to pop a melatonin 💤, brush teeth and settle in for the night. And let’s be real, we’re lucky to get 3-4 hrs of sleep 😉 

Before we know it we’re touching down and our first leg of travel is done!

✈︎ Travel News

Southwest in financial distress: Are free bags and open seating a thing of the past?

They seem to be in all the travel headlines: Southwest is not thriving economically this year. In fact, almost every part of the brand is looking at an overhaul. From an increase in pricing for Early-bird check in, to their most current consideration of charging for bags and seat assignments/upgrades, our US (primarily) domestic airline has potentially a lot of changes in store. While SW has started to be less economical, the people are opting for other airlines, ones with comparable pricing but also include in flight amenities like entertainment and extra leg room.   

✈︎ Trivia

Thanks for being here and have a great Tuesday!

Allie