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Success Story: How Corinne Saved Nearly 50% on a Trip to Florida

August 26, 2016 by Brad 2 Comments  Travel Miles 101 has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Travel Miles 101 and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. Disclosures.

In this Travel Miles 101 success story, Corinne describes how she saved nearly 50% of the cost of her trip from California to Florida just months after taking our Travel Miles 101 course!

This is the perfect example of how you can succeed with rewards points even if you’re just getting started.

Corinne’s Travel Miles 101 Success Story

Pensacola FL pictureI am writing a story of my recent travels as a thank you to Brad & Alexi for introducing me to the hobby of travel credit card travel rewards through their free internet course called Travel Miles 101. I came across travel rewards by accident; I was researching online because I knew my family had travel coming up and I hoped to make it less expensive and that’s when I found Brad & Alexi.

They explained things in bite-sized chunks that I could understand. I liked how they didn’t scoff at people who go for the low-hanging fruit. I emailed them with what I thought was a stupid question, and I was pleasantly surprised when a real person (Brad) answered with a real answer, and very quickly, too.

My husband and I knew we would be travelling to Florida soon to visit loved ones. Brad advised me to get the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card with what’s called the ‘purchase eraser.’ It was just right for our situation.

I opted for the Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card with the lower spending requirements.

I also opened a Citi Hilton HHonors credit card at that time since I know I could use the points at the Hampton Inn in Pensacola, FL.  This was a Category 4 hotel which costs 30,000 points per night and we received more than 60,000 points from the credit card signup bonus, so we had two free nights from those points.

I started the Travel Miles 101 course in January 2016, and we travelled in April 2016 so we were able to realize savings very quickly. I especially liked how the Travel Miles 101 course was free, and how the daily emails contained enough information to digest each day without it getting overwhelming.

As an aside, I appreciate Brad’s long-term plan for getting rich that he writes about on his personal finance site RichmondSavers.com. I’d describe it as hard work and spending less than you make. This and the fact that he’s a CPA and Alexi is a cardiologist helped me persuade my husband that I was using legitimate means to lower our travel costs.

My husband was leery of my new hobby, so he had various guidelines.

  1. I could not spend any money on my hobby. Translation: no applying for credit cards with an annual fee. This cut out many airline credit cards.
  2. I could not alter my spending habits, for instance, buy something just to get more points.
  3. We would not do anything out of the ordinary for the sake of saving money, for instance, fly out of an airport like LAX, when we prefer the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank.

So here is a breakdown of our trip to Pensacola, FL:

What we paid for ourselves:

  • $40.00  – Airport Parking for 4 days
  • $485.20 — 2 plane tickets Burbank to Atlanta
  • $242.60 – 1 return plane ticket Atlanta to Burbank (my husband came back after some business travel)
  • $25.00 – 1 checked bag
  • $792.80 total

Things paid for with Credit Card Rewards points

  • $139.22 Hertz car rental – Capital One Purchase Eraser
  • $93.48 La Quinta Inn in Union City, GA – Capital One Purchase Eraser
  • $50.00 checked baggage fee – Capital One Purchase Eraser
  • $320.00 — 2 nights at Hampton Inn Pensacola, FL Citi HHilton Honors
  • $602.70 total

As you can see, travel credit card rewards saved us almost half of what we were going to spend, anyway.

So, thank you, and here I go, spending wisely, and garnering more points for future use!

 

Travel Miles 101 has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Travel Miles 101 and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

Filed Under: Success Stories

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Comments

  1. Norma Stoeve says

    August 27, 2016 at 6:33 am

    Way to go, Corinne! Thank you so much for sharing. I posted a link in our FB group. I wasn’t sure if you were a member there or not. Here’s what I wrote in case you don’t see it.

    I really liked point #2. “I could not alter my spending habits, for instance, buy something just to get more points.”

    While this hobby has made it way less stressful for me when unexpected expenses come up, it’s important not to buy or spend money to get points. If you’re going to do that, you might as well just pay for the trip.

    Another part I like is that she saved nearly 50%. This isn’t an all or nothing game. Saving 50% on a trip is huge, allows future trips in the budget, and this was in the first few months!

    I just want to add another thought to the above. The annual fee is extremely difficult to swallow and it took me awhile to think outside the box and beyond the fee. My husband still won’t let me forget how I made him cancel a CC with an annual fee when we were first married. 🙂 Feel free to email me and I can send you a post that show the math and how you can come out ahead even with a fee.

    Reply
  2. Alison says

    August 27, 2016 at 6:56 pm

    Corinne, it’s so exciting to get started on this hobby, isn’t it? The Citi HH and Capital One Venture cards were two of my first cards last year also. I recently was able to get another Citi HH sign-up bonus by canceling the first card and immediately applying for another.

    Reply

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