The TRUTH: Credit Card Points Expectations vs Reality скачать в хорошем качестве

The TRUTH: Credit Card Points Expectations vs Reality

Credit card points, miles, travel redemptions all look and sound great, but is it really that simple? Is it that easy to get these free hotel nights, business and first class flights? In this video I will give you my thoughts on my reality with credit card points and miles and how this all really goes down. 0:00 Intro 0:32 The Reality Of Booking Flights It seems like anyone can just book a $5,000 business class flight for 50,000 points, but after you actually do it...it's quite a lot of work. Especially if you don't have a location and airline pin pointed, theres so many different searches that it's pretty overwhelming. For me it helps to narrow down that search, but it also means that I check every day and I check at least a year in advance for flights. You also need to be relatively flexible with your travel timing, because availability isn't just given on all days. It is also much harder to book 2 people than one because of that as well. It also helps to search one way flights instead of round trip. And once you find that flight, have your points and everything ready to go. 3:14 Actual Award Availability Similar to what we talked about earlier, there's flights you can redeem for points, but the true value comes from the airline's award availability. You have to learn which airlines have the best award calendar searches to help minimize the amount of time you spend clicking through dates. These award dates can be maybe 1-2 days per month, so again, you need flexibility to get that value. And these 1-2 days are likely not in peak season (spring breaks, etc). 4:25 Amount of Effort As you can already probably tell, this isn't something that you can just do on a whim in 2 minutes. It takes some time and to me, you really need to catch a thrill from finding these deals to be successful at this. And its a higher level of effort for the amount of value you are trying to get. Some people may just be okay with cashing out their points for cash back. Nothing wrong with that. But its no where near the level of effort of trying to get a $5,000 flight for 50,000 points. 5:56 Is This Really Free? To me, if you are getting these perks for your every day spend, yes. However there are a bunch of opportunity costs that can't be ignored. For example: if you book a $5,000 flight for 50,000 points, technically, you lost out on the chance to cash out your 50,000 points for $500 to get that flight. I would say using the credit card "credits" would not qualify as "free" because you are paying for it with your annual fee. But in general, I would say that the benefits you get from the cards wouldn't be there if you were just using cash or a debit card. So as long as you are responsible, I would say so. 8:04 Free Hotel Nights These are great, as long as the certificates can be used. Again, you need to find those sweet spots which require some research, but it's just not as simple as just logging in and finding that free night. 9:42 Status and Upgrades For me this has worked out well, but I am willing to move hotels every night. You are much more likely to get an upgrade if you are only staying one night. So keep that in mind. 10:58 How Many Credit Cards Do You Use I do not use all of these cards every day, just a few to maximize my spend multipliers. The main thing is that you keep your credit utilization low because that positively impacts your credit score. 11:27 Please comment thoughts below! My Cards: Amex Platinum Amex Gold Amex Blue Business Plus Amex Hilton Aspire https://americanexpress.com/en-us/ref... Amex Bonvoy Business Amex Bonvoy Brilliant https://americanexpress.com/en-us/ref... Amex Business Platinum Chase Sapphire Preferred https://www.referyourchasecard.com/19... Chase Freedom Flex https://www.referyourchasecard.com/18... Chase Freedom Unlimited https://www.referyourchasecard.com/18... Chase World of Hyatt Chase Amazon Prime Visa Chase Ink Business Cash https://www.referyourchasecard.com/21... Chase Ink Business Unlimited https://www.referyourchasecard.com/21... Chase Ink Business Preferred https://www.referyourchasecard.com/21... Citi Double Cash Citi Custom Cash Citi Strata Premier Wyndham Business Earner Hawaiian Airlines World Elite Mastercard Shirt Worn In the Video (availability may vary): Use code KIENEN40 at checkout for 40% off! https://www.fivebirdies.com/ *Some of the links and other products that appear on this video are from companies which Kienen Koga will earn an affiliate commission or referral bonus. Kienen Koga is part of an affiliate network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites. The content in this video is accurate as of the posting date. Some of the offers mentioned may no longer be available.