If you’ve been a part of our amazing community for any length of time, you’ll know we’re all about leveraging the power of flexible points to transform our travel experiences into boat loads of bucket list destinations with our whole family!
We’re talking about using credit card points to create those once-in-a-lifetime, dreamy vacations that seem out of reach, but really aren’t. But let’s delve in a bit further and talk about a lesser known player – a hotel specific credit card.
When first starting out on your points journey, flexible points are KING. However, hotel specific cards can definitely have a (very valuable) place in your steeply discounted vacation strategy.
Understanding Flexible Points: The King (or Queen 😉) of Travel Rewards
Wondering what exactly ‘Flexible Points’ are? Simply put, these are points earned with a general credit card like American Express, Capital One, or our preferred travel rewards bank – Chase!
(If you are looking for the best overall travel rewards card to have in your wallet…this is HANDS DOWN the one you want in your wallet HERE! The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is without question the most valuable credit card if you do any traveling at all!)
The beauty of these flexible points is their versatility – they can be transferred to multiple hotel and airline partners, leaving you a ton of options for travel.
Having a top tier travel credit card in your wallet that earns you FLEXIBLE points, in essence makes it both a Southwest card, a United card, a Hyatt card, a Marriott card…the list goes on.
The Role of Fixed Points in Your Travel Strategy
In contrast, “fixed” points as I like to call them are earned with a co-branded card. A credit card that earns you a SPECIFIC type of points or miles for a SPECIFIC hotel or airline. For example, you have an American card that only earns you American flights. You have The World of Hyatt Credit Card, that only earns you Hyatt points.
While many are tempted to disregard hotel cards when planning for those dreamy family vacays, let me tell you, these can be incredibly valuable as part of your overall points strategy!
We can vouch for this firsthand – a strategic sign up for a Marriott card was how we landed five nights in Disneyland and the California coast – all for FREE!
Or when we signed up for elevated offers on the The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card and the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card that got us 3 nights at the uber luxe Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos with points leftover to spare!
Related Post: Don’t miss our side by side comparison of 3 DREAMY Cabo hotels all bookable on points!
When first starting in your points journey, starting with big juicy welcome bonuses of flexible points is the way to go. However, once you have a few cards and redemptions under your belt a hotel specific card can be an amazing part of your nearly free vacation strategy.
The Power of a Strategic Sign Up
Like I said, when you’re just embarking on your free travel journey, it’s best to sign up for cards that earn you flexible points with substantial offers going on at the moment. (Like the BEST overall travel rewards card HERE!)
However, when you are ready to add hotel specific cards into the mix, there are a few important things you will want to keep in mind. Don’t go into hotel specific card sign ups blindly!
Hotel Card Sign Ups: What to Keep in Mind
For hotel card sign-ups, there are 2 things super important to remember:
- Do your research and have a property in mind BEFORE signing up for the card.
- Save your hotel-specific sign-ups for when there’s an elevated offer.
Because hotel specific cards are not earning you flexible points that can be used for a huge variety of travel, you want to have a PLAN for them. The worst thing that can happen is you sign up for a new card, take up a 5/24 slot + pull on your credit, and then feel like you can’t even use those points in a way that gets you excited!
Before signing up for a hotel card, make certain to browse that hotel’s website. Do some searches for what properties you could actually USE those points on.
For example, for the elevated Marriott 5 free 50k nights offer, you would think 50k points/night would get you some realllyyyyy luxury stays. But unfortunately, with Marriott (unlike Hyatt!) that is not the case.
Sometimes it can be tricky to nail down a hotel you ACTUALLY would want to build an entire vacation around for 50,000 points/night with Marriott. So do your research and have a plan BEFORE signing up!
Leveraging Elevated Offers for Dreamy Getaways
Because the points you are earning with hotel specific cards are more limited, you’ll want to get the VERY most out of those signs ups as possible.
So, when possible always try to hold out snagging a hotel card until there is an elevated offer. For example, I would not recommend you opening for example an IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card unless it is offer at least a 165k sign up bonus.
I would recommend holding off on signing up for a Hilton card that isn’t including one of their IMMENSELY valuable, uncapped Free Night Certificates.
As well, try to hang around until the Marriott offer goes up to 5 free 50k night certificates instead of 3…you get the point!
Elevated offers are where it’s at when it comes to hotel cards!
A Steeply Discount Vacation to Los Cabos
Here’s a real-life example from our travel diary: We recently took a trip to Cabo for a five-star, kid-free getaway and could NOT have loved our trip more.
We stayed at The Cape, a place that’s been on our bucket list forever, followed by a three-night stay at the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos. Thanks to strategic taking advantage of some elevated offers on the both the Hilton Honors American Express Card and The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card, we get to experience a luxury stay that would otherwise neveerrrrrrr have been attainable.
(Because of a flight cancellation we actually had ended up intentionally, unintentionally staying at THREE properties bookable on points in Cabo that trip. Check out our side by side comparison HERE!)
I meannnnn can somebody pinch me??? There’s NO WAY we could afford that stay in cash!
Like I said, we earned this 3 night suuuuper luxe stay with my husband strategically opening the Hilton Honors American Express Card and The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card.
As mentioned above, you want to go for a Hilton card when it comes along with a Free Night Certificate (truly GOLD with Hilton) that can be used on a standard booking at any Hilton property (up to 150k points/night)
Yes. You heard me – ANY Hilton property!!
We had my husband sign up for one personal card and one business card during this elevated offer. With those two sign ups he earned 220k Hilton points and TWO free night certificates!
A standard night at the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos goes for 120k points/night. So we were able to book two nights with Free Night Certificates (you must call in to do this and cannot do it online!) and one night on points at 120k/night!
Incredibly luxe, TRUE 5 star resort for nearly FREE!
($150 to be exact! Which was the annual fee on the business card…if this card doesn’t provide substantial ongoing value, it will likely be cancelled after the one year mark as cancelling a business card has no impact on your personal credit score!)(Rates & Fees)
Had we paid cash for this stay it would have been $4,500 out of pocket at a MINIMUM… just for the hotel!
Definitely, keep in mind these Free Night Certificates do expire after one year from the time you meet the minimum spend and earn that reward. So in theory, if you had say 6 months to meet the minimum spend on a card, you could hold off on meeting the minimum spend until the end of those 6 months and have those Free Night Certificates be valid for 18months from the time of sign up!
This is the power of hotel specific card signs ups as a part of your points travel strategy!
A Steeply Discount Vacation to Disneyland!
Another time we used a hotel specific card sign up for a nearly free vacation was for our trip to Disneyland!
Now I am NOT a “Disney” mom…honestly I was dreading going. However, this was our kid’s Christmas gift and something they had been asking for forever. We do SO much travel that we, Mom and Dad, decide, so it was such a gift to be able to take a trip all about THEM.
(We are BIG fans of experience gifts for kids! See a huge round up of experienced based gifts for anyone on your list!)
For this trip, we signed up for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card when it was offering a limited time 5 free 50k night certificates.
We used 3 50k certificates the Westin Anaheim within walking distance of the park (highly recommend!) and the remaining 2 certificates for 2 nights on the California coast to relax after after the chaos of Disneyland.
(Spoiler alert…we actually had a blast at Disneyland, and although I am not a fully converted “Disney” mom now, we really did have SO much fun!)
Marriott does allow you to “top-off” these 50k Free Night Certificates with up to 15k Marriott points. So in theory, if you were sitting on some extra Marriott points, or say made some referrals, you could technically get 5 nights at 65k points each out of that sign up!
Again, make certain to do the front end work of researching properties on Marriott first before snagging an offer like this!
But taking our normal every spending and simply putting it on this NEW Marriott card, instead of the same credit card over and over…we were able to get 100% of our accommodations covered for a bucket list trip for our kids!
This points life never, ever ceases to AMAZE me!
Make sure to check out our Disneyland highlight on Instagram for an in depth look at that trip- alllll the ways we saved, our tips on making a Disney trip actually life-giving, and my thoughts as a first timer.
Important to Note on Hotel Card Sign Ups
Although, your strategy for specific hotel cards can yield some INCREDIBLY dreamy vacations…clearly! There are a few things you should know before diving in head first!
- Any personal (non-business) hotel card WILL take up a 5/24 slot so make certain to account for that in your long term points strategy!
- Any sort of Free Night Certificate earned with any hotel card will have an expiration date. The FNC must be used within 12 months of earning the certificate, not from card sign up.
- Hilton, Marriott, and IHG all offer some sort of 4th (IHG) or 5th (Marriott and Hilton) night free perk when booking hotel nights on points. This cannot be combined with FNC’s. The nights must be bookable solely on points alone to earn that 4th/5th night free.
- Many of these cards are worth keeping beyond the first year because they come with an annual Free Night Certificate. However, always continue to evaluate if the card is providing your family MORE ongoing value than the annual fee when determining whether to keep the card or downgrade to a no annual fee version.
If you are ready to dive into actually getting all these nearly free vacations BOOKED…and want to do so without all the overwhelm and confusion. My Points Guide HERE is going to be your right hand resource for making those trips happen effortlessly.
The world of nearly free travel is within your reach. All it takes is a smart approach, some strategic planning, and the power of flexible + fixed points to help you live your dream vacation life!
