Want to learn to travel for (almost) free? We got $8,052 of free travel last month from traveling with points and miles! Learn how you can travel more for less!
January Monthly Update tl:dr
January kicked off another “Year of Travel” for us. We loved our 7 vacations in 2023 (worth about $40K!!!) on a shoestring budget of just $4,200!
In January 2024, we stayed busy with
- 1 Big trip to Cancun (saved $8,052)
- Booked 1st Class Roundtrip flights to Europe for only $250
- Booked 3 hotel stays with Hyatt points. Cost: $0
- Sandra got 1 new credit card
- Ross got closer to earning a Southwest Companion Pass
So far, we’ve only got the big Europe trip and 2 small domestic trips planned for 2024. With a large stash of points & miles, we’ll hope to take 5-10 vacations this year on a very small travel budget.
If you’re new here and want to jump right into How You Can Travel for (Almost) Free, download our free eBook “Luxury Travel for Free” and get a free one-on-one consultation!
Annual Travel Budget Update
After finishing last year with total out of pocket cost of only $4,220, we have big plans for 2024. We’ve already completed a 5 night trip to Mexico and our total out of pocket cost stands at $182. That includes First Class flights, hotels, taxi/rental cars, food and drinks for the 2 of us.
With a luxury trip to Europe already booked, we’ve set our 2024 travel budget at $5,000. Hopefully, that will cover about 30-40 nights of vacations though the year.
Want to take more vacations for less then you ever thought possible? If you’ve got decent credit, follow the steps in our Guide to Free Travel to start traveling like Zuzu & I do!.
Points Earned & Redeemed in January
To book new travel, Zuzu & I redeemed 200k Amex points and 65k Hyatt points in January. We got 155k Hyatt points from a friend’s Guest of Honor booking and we earned:
- Chase points: 30,780
- Southwest points: 98,814
- AA points: 8,604
- Amex points: 1,262
Hyatt Ziva Cancun Vacation
Sandra & I love All Inclusive resorts. In fact we’ve now visited 12 AI’s since 2021. The family friendly Hyatt Ziva Cancun is supposed to be one of the best Hyatt All Inclusive resorts so we were excited to try it out for free.
Back in March 2023, we booked this January 2024 trip of 5 nights at the Ziva Cancun for only 145k points. That was right before the hotel changed from a Category C (25k points/night) to a Category D (40 points/night). Cash price for our suite would have been $5,824.
That’s a great redemption value of 4 cents per Hyatt point, slightly above our historical 3.8 cents value of Hyatt points.
We had a wonderful 3.5 days and then we came down with food poisoning. It was horrible but it’s the 1st time we’ve gotten sick in 30+ trips so we hope it was an isolated incident. We’ll tell you more when we have a full blog post ready for the Hyatt Ziva Cancun and how Hyatt treated us afterwards.
We flew First Class on American. The cash price for our 2 round trip flights was $2,228 but we used 114k Amex points and our flights were completely free: $ZERO.
Click here to see how we track our Hyatt Points Value!
Zuzu & I love All Inclusive Resorts, partly because our food & drink budget is usually $0 at these resorts. Since our points from credit card spend covers the entire cost of room, food and drinks, this is a big part of how we’re able to take expensive vacations for almost no money.
Our only costs for this 5 night vacation were $100 for the airport shuttle and $82 for tips. We saved $8,052 by using points and miles off a trip that would have cost most people $8,234!
New Credit Card to Earn Free Flights
While we didn’t fly Southwest much in 2023, we expect that to change this year so our 2024 strategy involves getting lots of free flights on Southwest. We’ll earn a Southwest Companion Pass in February.
The Companion Pass allows Zuzu to fly for free anytime that I fly Southwest. She only pays the taxes and fees which are $5.60 one-way. For about $11, she can fly roundtrip with me anywhere in the USA.
Last time we had the Companion Pass, we got $4,363 of free flights from it.
Read our Comprehensive Guide to the Companion Pass here!
Our Southwest Companion Pass Strategy involves getting 2 credit cards. To reach the 135k points required, I got a SWA Business credit card in December. I made sure to reach the required spend in January so that it counts toward a 2024-2025 Companion Pass. With that bonus, I earned 94,814 SWA points in January. Southwest also gives 10k points toward Companion Pass to every credit card holder in January so I had 104,814 of the needed 135k points.
Next, Sandra got a personal SWA credit card in January through my referral link. In February, I’ll get 20k refer-a-friend points for that which will put me over the 135k and we’ll have Companion Pass from Feb 2024 through Dec 2025!
Sandra’s already hit the minimum spend on her new SWA card and will get 50k Southwest points in February! While some say Southwest points are worth as little as 1.15 cents each, we value them at 1.3 cents. Sandra’s welcome bonus is worth $650 in free flights to us.
Click here to see current offers on Southwest Credit Cards.
Future Travel Already Booked
Europe Trip
When we 1st started traveling on Points and Miles, our 1st goal was to MAYBE earn a free flight to Europe in a year or so. Never could we imagine that we’d have over $100,000 in free travel in just 3 short years! And finally, We Get To Travel to Europe!
First Class for $125 Per Person
This Spring, we’re flying 1st Class on Delta One for only 50k Amex points each way. Our total for 2 roundtrip, First Class ticket is 200k points and only $250 cash!
The cash price for these flights was $11,668 so our Amex points were worth a crazy 5.7 cents each (after deducting out $250 tax and fees)!
Free Luxury Hotels
We’re staying for free at luxury hotels in Munich Germany and in Zurich Switzerland.
By using Hyatt points for the Andaz Munich, we’ll save about $1000 cash that can go toward sightseeing and other fun on this trip.
In Zurich, we’ll stay at the ultra luxury Park Hyatt Zurich. Rooms there normally are about $2500 for our 3 night stay but it will be free for us!
For this trip to Europe, we’ve booked $15,362 of travel so far and only paid $250! Since we’ll get some free perks like free breakfast, free parking and (hopefully) free room upgrades as Hyatt Globalists benefits, we expect that savings may be much higher!
World Of Hyatt Status Update
We love the benefits of Hyatt Globalist status so we try to always stay at Hyatt properties when we travel. We’ve earned Globalist status through February 2025 but now we need to stay 60 nights in 2024 to keep our status through February 2026.
By holding the World of Hyatt Credit Card, we automatically get 5 free nights credit. Plus, we spent 5 nights at Ziva Cancun so we’re at 10 nights. Just 50 more nights to reach Globalist through Feb 2026!
In 2023, our biggest Globalist benefit was from 1 specific episode with my concierge. Click here to read how My Hyatt Concierge gave me a $7000 gift!
Points Balances
As of January 31, we had 1,295,269 points and miles in our accounts. That’s worth about $40,841 in free travel to us.
Our balance for future free travel increased by $6,404 In January compared to our December balance of $34,437.
- Chase Points: 606,935 (worth about 3.8 cents each)
- Amex Points: 382,849 (worth about 2.65 cents each)
- Hyatt Points: 138,071 (worth about 3.8 cents each)
- Southwest Points: 115,042 (worth about 1.3 cents each)
- AA Points: 52,372 (worth about 1.7 cents each)
How To Earn and Redeem Hyatt Points
Next Month
While we don’t have a big trip scheduled for February, the plan is to:
- Earn the Southwest Air Companion Pass
- Book more future travel
- Weekend in Washington DC
If you’d like free help to find the best credit card for you, we’re happy to help. It doesn’t cost you anything and we’ll earn between 15k and 40k points just for referring you!
How Can We Help You Travel?
Now’s a great time to start planning for free travel in 2024.
If you have good credit and have about $1500/month of expenses, you can probably earn enough points in 3-6 months to get a free vacation. If you have alot of expenses or if you have a small business, you can earn free travel much more quickly!
If you decide to apply for a card, I’d appreciate it if you use our referral links.
Just drop us a note on the Contact Us page and we’ll come up with a free custom plan for how You Get To Travel!
Or, you can download our free eBook: Ultimate Guide to Free Luxury Travel!
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