In the world of travel, there’s a big misunderstanding that it’s really hard for families to collect enough points and miles to cover the cost of multiple family members taking their dream family vacation.
Here’s the reality: Families have a big advantage in using credit cards for travel.
Sure, families need to earn more points and miles than the average solo traveler since they’re usually trying to get 3 or more tickets (rather than just one). But this isn’t as big of a challenge as many people think.
Here are 6 tips for family credit cards for travel success:
1. Families have many expenses. The more mouths you have to feed, the more money you spend on food, clothing for growing kids, extracurricular activities, and pretty much everything else. Earn miles quickly by using your points earning cards to pay for everything.
2. Families have built in authorized users. You can be added as an authorized user on your spouse’s account. Your spouse can be a user on your account. This makes meeting minimum spending requirements easy by both partners focusing all their spending to one account for a certain time period.
3. Get double bonuses for individual cards. In addition to being a user on a spouse’s account, you can also apply for the same card as the primary cardholder. If a card bonus is 2 free hotel nights, you can earn 2 and your spouse can earn 2.
4. Coordinate family spending. More spending and more users give families flexibility in choosing to focus where they earn points for a specific trip.
5. Many families have double incomes. If you’re fortunate to have more than one paycheck in the household, an increased income typically means increased access to credit.
6. More families have houses. Not all families own homes, but if you’re an owner rather than a renter, you’re bound to earn more miles from household expenses than singles (who are more likely to rent). You’ll earn fast from remodeling the bathroom, repairing the roof, and replacing the broken dishwasher.
See How It’s Done
Still skeptical? We asked Corinna, a Portland, Oregon mom, independent artist and travel coordinator for her family of four to tell us how she’s been successful with using credit card points to allow her family see the world.
Q: Tell us about your family and how you travel.
A: I travel with my family (myself, my husband, and our two boys, ages 3 and 8 on right above). We’ve averaged 4-5 free trips per year over the past five years, even swapping houses for a month once. Normally we do 33% beach/warm/swimming/fun (Disneyland, Hawaii, Santa Barbara, Great Wolf Lodge), 33% family (Mid-West), and 33% work (Vegas, New York, London).
Learning how to effectively use points and miles has allowed us to travel pretty much wherever we want. I’m a big believer in not letting a lack of money stop a dream. First, we come up with a place to go, then we figure out how to get there.
Q. What is a recent trip you took by using credit card points and miles for travel—and how much did it cost?
A. Portland public schools have a funny 3-day break at the end of October, and this year I wanted to take advantage of the time-off and head to somewhere warm with the boys without spending any money. On September 8th I applied for a received two Alaska Airlines Visa Signature Cards from Bank of America (one for my husband, one for me), each with a bonus of 25,000 miles after the first spend. Normally the Alaska cards come with a $75 annual fee, but there’s a targeted offer where you receive a $100 statement credit after spending $1000 in the first three months. If you go to the Alaska Airlines website and go through the steps of booking a flight, the $100 offer should pop up before you get to the payment page.
One of the great things about the Alaska cards is they deposit the miles fairly quickly into your account. Plus, you’re not penalized with “close-in booking fees” that other airlines tack on if you book less than 21 days out. I kept checking the miles account each day, and by September 13th was able to book three tickets for 15,000 miles and $11.20 in taxes each.
After the $100 credits and $75 annual fees, we came out about $15 ahead with three free roundtrip flights from Portland to Santa Barbara, where we stayed with family, visited my sister’s new baby, and swam at the beach every day. We even got a library card for the adorable Carpinteria public library for evening entertainment. All-in-all, a lovely extended-weekend trip.
Q: Which credit cards do you use, and what is your spending strategy?
A. We currently have 37 cards (between the two of us), all chosen based on bonus sign-ups.
Our spending strategy is pretty simple–Family expenses add up. We charge everything possible–tuition, household bills, etc.
Q: How do you plan your travel using points and miles?
First, I make a 1-year calendar for everywhere we want to go and when with lots of pretty colored pens. Then I look at how to get there (best airlines, where we could stay) and match them with good bonus sign-ups, keeping track of points/miles we already have.
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Read more about Corinna’s travel.
Learn about The Alaska Airlines Visa for the U.S. or the Alaska MasterCard for Canada.
Have a Cards for Travel success story of your own to share? Submit yours!
