Summer travel is still expensive – here are 5 tips for saving with travel rewards – Egypt Independent

Summer holidays are here, and this year, instead of spending your hard-earned money on the inflated prices that come with summer travel, there are smart ways to use travel rewards so you pay less for your next trip.

According to Kayak – a popular online travel agency – the cost of summer travel is down this year, but their summer travel study also shows that the average US domestic airfare is still a whopping $455. While that’s 13% lower than last summer, that summer travel certainly isn’t cheap, so the way to offset costs is to redeem points and miles for air and hotel stays.

Here are some tips for earning and redeeming travel rewards points for summer vacations. You’ll learn the best earning travel credit cards, how to redeem your rewards efficiently and tips for finding award flights and hotel stays.

To use travel rewards for free travel, you must first earn them. If you need a boost to get your travel rewards account where you want it to be, consider adding a new credit card to your wallet.

Many of the best travel credit cards come with welcome bonuses that help you earn travel rewards quickly. Currently, there are a handful of credit cards that offer bonuses worth $1,000 or more in travel if you can meet the applicable minimum spending requirement.

For example, the popular Chase Sapphire Preferred® Cardis a good option to consider adding to your wallet. Right now, you can earn $300 in Chase Travel℠ Credit, plus 60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 in the first three months.

Frequent flyer website The Points Guy values ​​Chase Ultimate Rewards® points at 2.05 cents each, meaning those 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points are worth $1,200 or more when redeemed for maximum value by leveraging Chase’s various transfer partners .

Alternatively, if you’re looking for a card with great travel benefits, The Platinum Card® from American Express could be a good choice despite its $695 annual fee (see rates and fees). This card offers a welcome bonus of 80,000 American Express Membership Rewards® points after spending $8,000 within the first six months of account opening.

If you were to redeem those points for maximum value, you could get $1,600 or more in value toward your next vacation by transferring to the program’s hotel and airline partners. In addition, the card includes airport lounge access, monthly Uber Cash credits and more.

By quickly accumulating rewards through a welcome bonus, you can top up your accounts and use them towards free travel as you plan your well-earned summer vacation. Check out our article on the best credit card welcome bonuses for more inspiration.

However, it’s not just any travel rewards that you should try to earn. Specifically, it can help to focus on earning flexible rewards. After all, flexible rewards—like Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards and Capital One miles—are more versatile than earning rewards in just one airline or hotel loyalty program.

The advantage of flexible rewards is that they can be redeemed with any number of airline and hotel partners. Each of the flexible currencies has its own portfolio of airline and hotel transfer partners. These cards also allow members to redeem through their own travel portal at a fixed value.

For example, you can redeem Amex Membership Rewards points through the American Express Travel portal, but they can also be transferred to Amex airline and hotel partners. The credit card issuer has 20 airline and hotel transfer partners, including Delta SkyMiles, British Airways Executive Club, JetBlue TrueBlue, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors and others.

Transferring points to an airline or hotel transfer partner means you can take advantage of different “sweet spot” redemptions within each partner program. For example, you can transfer Amex, Bilt, Chase and Capital One points to British Airways Executive Club to book short-haul American and Alaska flights for under 10,000 points each way.

If you’re struggling to earn enough rewards for your next trip, you can get your spouse involved in earning toward that summer vacation.

You have two options for doing this. The first is to add your partner as an authorized user on your rewards credit card. This allows them to charge purchases to your credit card account, helping you earn rewards in the process.

Alternatively, your spouse can earn their own credit card welcome bonus. This could be a great opportunity for your family to quickly earn more points to redeem for that summer getaway. In addition, this allows both of you to double up on some of the best welcome offers as you can each open your own accounts and earn the bonus.

If you decide to open your own travel rewards credit cards, you may be able to combine points across your respective accounts. For example, with Citi ThankYou Rewards, you can share points with another Citi ThankYou card member for free. You can share up to 100,000 Citi ThankYou points with other members per year. Likewise, Chase allows you to transfer Ultimate Rewards points between accounts in the same family.

Check to see if your preferred program allows you to share points with another member, and pay particular attention to any applicable terms and conditions that may restrict the movement of your rewards.

If you want to maximize your travel rewards, flexibility in your travel dates, destination and even the type of tour you take is key.