How to Get Started as a Beginner Travel Hacker
In a recent post, Is Travel Hacking for You?, I talked about the three types of travel hackers - beginner, intermediate, and advanced. In this post, I’m talking to those of you who identified as beginner travel hackers. Here’s how to pick your strategy and get started today!
As a reminder, here’s who I think would best identify as a beginner - You want one or two rewarding cards to put your regular spending on. You do not like coupon clipping, and you don’t want to think too hard about redeeming your points. You would be best served by finding your go-to cards for your needs and sticking to them. Beginners are people who like simple and want to stick to simple for the long haul.
I recommend that beginners pick one of two strategies:
Optimize your spending - This involves designing a wallet of credit cards that will earn the most points possible on the things you typically spend on.
Focus on travel - This involves finding cards with points that are easy to redeem for the things you want to save money on when you travel.
Optimize Your Spending
Choose cards that earn a lot of points for the things you spend money on and make sure to use the correct card for each type of purchase. It is possible to have a different card to optimize every purchase, but the goal here is simple, so start by identifying how many cards you want to have in your wallet. Then, take a look at what you spend the most money on. Is it groceries, restaurants, travel, or something else? Once you’ve identified how many cards you’re looking for and which categories you want to focus on, check out the list below for a few suggestions.
Groceries
Amex Blue Cash Preferred - Earns 6% cash back at US Supermarkets, 6% cash back on select U.S. streaming subscriptions, 3% cash back on transit, and 3% cash back at US gas stations. Points are redeemed as cash back.
Amex Gold - Earns 4x points at US Supermarkets, 4x at restaurants, and 3x points for flights. Points can be redeemed by transferring to airlines or hotel programs like Delta or Marriott.
Citi Premier - Earns 3x points on groceries, dining, gas stations, flights, hotels, and travel agencies. Points can be redeemed to book travel through the Citi ThankYou Portal or transferred to airline and hotel partners like Jet Blue and Wyndham.
Restaurants
Amex Gold - Earns 4x points at US Supermarkets, 4x at restaurants, and 3x points for flights. Points can be redeemed by transferring to airlines or hotel programs like Delta or Marriott.
Chase Freedom Unlimited - Earns 3% on dining and drugstores and 1.5% cash back on everything else. When paired with another card, points can be redeemed by transferring to airlines and hotel programs like United or Hyatt. On its own, points can be redeemed for cash back at 1 cent per point.
Chase Freedom Flex - Earns 3% on dining and drugstores and 5% cash back on rotating categories. When paired with another card, points can be redeemed by transferring to airlines and hotel programs like United or Hyatt. On its own, points can be redeemed for cash back at 1 cent per point. This card requires paying attention to the rotating categories and activating them on your card once per quarter to take advantage of the benefits.
Travel
Citi Premier - Earns 3x points on groceries, dining, gas stations, flights, hotels, and travel agencies. Points can be redeemed to book travel through the Citi ThankYou Portal or transferred to a handful of airline and hotel partners like Jet Blue and Wyndham.
Chase Sapphire Reserve - Earns 3x points on travel and dining, 10x on hotels & car rentals booked through Chase, and 5x on flights booked through Chase. Points can be redeemed at 1.5 cents each through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal or transferred to airline and hotel partners like United and Hyatt. It also offers an annual travel credit, so this card is best for someone who spends at least $300 on travel each year.
Capital One Venture X - This card earns 2X points everywhere (including on travel) and 10X points on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel. Points can be redeemed for most types of travel purchases at a rate of 1 cent per point or transferred to airline and hotel partners like Air Canada and Wyndham. It also offers an annual travel credit, so this card is best for someone who spends at least $300 on flights, hotels, or car rentals each year. For a deeper dive into this card, check out my post here.
Everywhere Else
Capital One Venture X - This card earns 2X points everywhere. Points can be redeemed for most types of travel purchases at a rate of 1 cent per point. It also offers an annual travel credit, so this card is best for someone who spends at least $300 on flights, hotels, or car rentals each year. For a deeper dive into this card, check out my post here.
Chase Freedom Unlimited - Earns 1.5% cash back on everything and 3% on dining and drugstores. When paired with another card, points can be redeemed by transferring to airlines and hotel programs like United or Hyatt. On its own, points can be redeemed for cash back at 1 cent per point.
Citi Double Cash - Earns 2% cash back on every purchase. Points can be redeemed for cash back at a rate of 1 cent per point or transferred to travel partners when paired with another Citi card.
Focus on Travel
Another way to think about the cards you want is by choosing a card that will be easy for you to redeem the points and benefits for the type of travel that you want to do. It doesn’t make sense for you to sign up for a card that only earns Delta miles if you only fly Southwest. The list below has a few suggestions.
Airline or Hotel Specific Points
If you only fly a specific airline or stay in a specific hotel chain, make sure you are accumulating points that will help you stay in those particular places. Keep in mind that if you book a hotel through a travel portal, you will not be able to use your elite benefits with the hotel chain, so this is typically not the best option if you have a specific loyalty. This article would get too long if I listed out all of the potential airlines/hotels that you could be loyal to, but see a few options for cards below and let me know in the comments if you’d like me to do a deep dive into your specific travel program.
If you only fly United Airlines:
Consider a United co-branded card like the United Club, United Quest, United Explorer, or United Business cards. The benefits of each card will help you differentiate between them.
Consider a Chase Ultimate Rewards earning card that allows you to transfer to United like Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase Sapphire Preferred, or Chase Ink Business cards. The benefits of each card will help you differentiate between them.
If you only stay in Hilton hotels:
Consider a Hilton co-branded card like the Hilton Aspire, Hilton Surpass, Hilton Honors, or Hilton Business card.
Consider an American Express Membership Rewards earning card that allows you to transfer to Hilton like the Amex Platinum, Amex Gold, Amex Green, or Amex Business Platinum cards.
Earn Status
Many people enjoy the preferential treatment they get at their preferred airline or hotel due to elite status. While status doesn’t make sense for the occasional traveler, it can make the travel experience more enjoyable for frequent or business travelers. Credit cards either offer a way to spend towards earning higher status, or offer status just for having the card. Again, here’s just a couple examples, there are many cards not mentioned below that offer fast tracks to elite status.
Earning status on Delta: The Delta Platinum, Delta Platinum Business, and Delta Reserve cards offer Medallion Qualifying Miles to help you reach status sooner, as well as waive the Medallion Qualifying Dollar requirement when you spend a certain amount in a calendar year.
Earning Companion Pass with Southwest: While not exactly the same as elite status, Southwest’s Companion Pass offers BOGO flights for 1 - 2 years. Southwest credit cards like the Southwest Priority, Southwest Premier, and Southwest Performance Business can help you get to Companion Pass sooner because points you earn on the sign up bonus and through spending count towards this goal.
Earning status with Hyatt: Both the Hyatt Personal and Hyatt Business cards offer automatic Discoverist status with the card. While Discoverist won’t get you very far, both cards also offer options to turn spend on the card into elite qualifying nights (with the business card giving you more bang for your buck).
Book Flights through a Portal
If you are not loyal to a specific airline or hotel program (most infrequent travelers probably shouldn’t be!), you may be interested in using your points to book through a travel portal. Some cards offer outsized value when redeeming your points via a credit card travel portal. Typically prices are the same or similar to the prices you will find on the airline or hotel’s website directly, although you should always check.
Keep in mind a couple downsides of this approach - (1) If you need to change, cancel, or deal with any issues with the flight or hotel you will have to deal with the travel portal customer service instead of the service provider directly & (2) If you are booking a hotel via a travel portal, you will not be able to attach your hotel loyalty number to receive elite night credit or the benefits of status you have already earned.
Here are a few cards that offer access to travel portals at an outsized value:
The Chase Sapphire Reserve allows you to redeem your points through Chase Travel bookings at a rate of 1.5 cents per point and the Chase Sapphire Preferred allows you to redeem at 1.25 cents per point.
When redeeming Membership Rewards for business class flights, the Amex Business Platinum card will rebate 35% of your points back to you.
The Capital One Venture X earns 10x points when booking through the Capital One travel portal, along with an annual $300 credit on purchases made through the portal.
Purchase Eraser
Purchase eraser cards are cards that allow you to apply your points towards purchases you’ve made. There are a few travel-specific cards that allow you to apply your points directly to travel purchases. This type of card may be ideal for someone who values ease of use over maximizing value, or who wants to use points for purchases other than flights and hotels, like vacation rental purchases.
Capital One Venture X and Capital One Venture Rewards points can be redeemed for most types of travel purchases at a rate of 1 cent per point by applying points as a statement credit.
Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase Sapphire Preferred, and Chase Ink Business cards are eligible for the “Pay Yourself Back” feature, which allows you to use points to cover purchases in select categories at the same rate that you are eligible to redeem in the portal. Categories are rotating, and were temporarily introduced during the pandemic, but it looks like this redemption option will likely continue in some format for the long run.
Cash Back
Did you get through all of the above and realize that you don’t travel enough to get a travel card? Or maybe you realized that you just don’t have the energy or time to figure out how to redeem those travel rewards points? That’s okay. Although the best way to get value out of travel cards is by using those points towards travel, you can also get free money with cash back cards. Cash Freely is a great resource for those getting started with cash back.
Citi Double Cash - Earns 2x points on everything, and points can be redeemed for cash back at a rate of 1 cent per point.
Chase Freedom Unlimited - Earns 3% on dining and drugstores and 1.5% cash back on everything else. Points can be redeemed for cash back at 1 cent per point.
Chase Freedom Flex - Earns 3% on dining and drugstores and 5% cash back on rotating categories. Points can be redeemed for cash back at 1 cent per point. This card requires paying attention to the rotating categories and activating them on your card once per quarter to take advantage of the benefits
Next Steps
Now that you have decided whether you want to optimize your spending or choose a card based on your travel style and narrowed down your card options to a few top choices, let’s talk about what to do next:
If you aren’t very familiar with credit cards or are feeling nervous about the impact of a credit card on your credit, check out this article: Beginner’s Guide to Credit Cards and Credit Scores
If you don’t have a credit score or have a lower than “good” credit score, check out this article: How to Get Started with Little to No Credit
When you are ready to apply for a card, read through Step 5 of this beginner guide to learn more about the best order to apply for cards and some card issuer-specific rules.
If you are planning on applying for a few cards, now is the time to choose the order that you will apply for them in. After reading the rules above, take a look at the sign up bonuses on your contenders to see which is highest right now.
If you need support with applying for a card, check out this article: How to Apply for a Credit Card. When you use my referral links, you help to support the content on this site. Referral links are linked throughout this blog post, as well as on my cards page.
Let me know in the comments which card you chose and how it’s going!
