Credit Card Points Hacking

[Andrew Steffens]

Hey all

One of my hobbies is definitely traveling, and I suspect many here share that.  Are there any other points enthusiasts here?  Undoubtedly all of us have business expenses that can rack up large credit card points balances and can be used for travel in ways better than just using the CC's travel portal.

I am leaving Thursday going in business class (full lie flat seats) from Tampa to Switzerland for 70,000 points + $56.  If I used cash it would have been $8,500 and if I used Amex travel portal or United portal it would have been hundreds of thousands of those hard earned points :)

Not a total expert but happy to give tips :)

[Andrew Steffens]

@Paul Cox @Sarah Kensinger There is a lot to it obviously but one newer trick I learned is a site called seats.aero where you can put in your origin, destination, and dates and it will return a lot of results across all rewards programs.

Using the above example I am actually flying on United but I booked through Aeroplan (Air Canada) which is a partner of United.  United was charging more and only accepts Chase points but Aeroplan accepts Chase, Amex, and Cap 1.  So I frequently use Air Canada for Star Alliance Travel.  

If you have a specific destination in mind I can share with you what transfer partners I would probably use!