Aw, Jamie! One of these years I will surprise the shit out of you by turning up in May Our July trip is just because Sean has a rare 1-week break between contracts, so we are grabbing the opportunity for a short trip. I'd definitely prefer to go to Cancun in May instead of July, but we don't always get everything we want in this life, do we? I'll settle for 95%
We have a Capitol 1 Venture card. 2 miles for every $1 spent. We use it for everything except house and car payments which isnt allowed in Texas. Our flight to TTR in 2 weeks is free thanks to redeeming miles. With our card you have to redeem through Cap 1.
You should get a Capital One card. You can use it for airfare and your room and it’s very simple and easy.
We booked through Travelup. Didn't use points for that. Not a member. Not a fan of "timeshares". Can beat a members price about every time.
I just got the Wells Fargo Argo card, and it gives me two points for every travel expense. That’s hotels, gas, campgrounds, even restaurants and bars. Each point is a penny, and I can redeem them for any travel expense. I also get 1 point for every non-travel dollar spent. This year won’t be free, but I’m hoping 2020’s trip will be.
For Canadians, Rogers Bank has introduced a new premium credit card that is no fee, cash back. The best part is that you get 4% cash back on all foreign purchases, so after the card dings you for the usual 2.5% foreign transaction fee that credit card companies charge, you still earn 1.5% cash back on foreign currency purchases, and the earn rate is 1.5% on all purchases in Canada. AND there is trip cancellation and interruption insurance of $1,000 per person. This is pretty amazing for a no-fee card. The income threshold to apply is quite high, but if you don't meet that, Rogers has a lower-tier card that will net you 0.5 % on foreign transactions and I think 1% back on purchases at home. 0.5% isn't much, but it is way better than the alternative when you use your other cards...getting dinged 2.5% on every foreign transaction that wipes out any points or cashback value the purchase earns you.
We've always used miles for travel. Capital One is the one we have always used. We simply book and pay and when you have miles to cover it redeem no brainer. This next trip we also used airline miles that I get from work flights. We booked each way for each of us and had to only purchase one ticket. It was the first time I've done that so kind of a learning experience with American Airlines. All in all we flew round trip for about 1/4 the Expedia price and are using a referral for the room. I know all mile/rewards are different. For us Capital One works best, every year we usually cover 1/2 our trip to TTR.