Travel Party of 5 | Points & Miles for Family Travel

The Reality of Opening 8 Credit Cards in 6 Months

• Raya & Duane

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Contrary to popular belief, opening multiple credit cards doesn't automatically tank your credit score. I'm living proof – with eight new cards in just six months and an "excellent" credit score of 808 to show for it.

The credit card journey has been quite the ride. Growing up with warnings about the dangers of plastic and experiencing credit card debt twice in my younger years made me initially hesitant. Fast forward to today, and I've completely transformed my relationship with credit cards, using them strategically to fund incredible family adventures through points and miles.

My husband and I break down the eight cards I've opened since January – spanning Chase, American Express, and Citi – and reveal how diversifying across different banks has been crucial to approval success. We share the surprising factors affecting credit scores (like why my husband's 763 score gets fewer approvals than my 808) and how credit history length significantly outweighs the impact of new accounts.

The most pressing challenge we're facing? Meeting a massive $20,000 minimum spend requirement on the Amex Business Platinum. We discuss our strategy, including prepaying bills, planned expenses, and the somewhat controversial world of buying groups. And no, despite my husband's suggestions, we won't be purchasing jet skis to meet the requirement!

These strategic credit card moves have yielded nearly 700,000 points across various programs, funding upcoming adventures to Thailand, Japan, Yosemite, and European Christmas markets. We also tackle the counterintuitive decision to sometimes pay cash for flights rather than using points when the value proposition doesn't make sense.

Want to learn how to leverage points and miles for your own family travel? Join my waitlist for personalized one-on-one consulting sessions where I'll help you maximize your redemptions and plan your dream trips.


**Some of the links on this page are affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission—at no extra cost to you—if you use them. I only recommend products I truly use and love.**

Speaker 1:

Did you ever wonder how someone could open eight credit cards in just six months and not destroy their credit? In this episode, I'm breaking down the eight cards I've opened since January the wins, the risks and how we are going to be tackling a $20,000 minimum spend. Hi, I'm Raya. And I'm Dwayne. And we are your hosts of the Travel Party of Five podcast, where we share how we travel as a family of five around the world.

Speaker 2:

We will also share how we use points and miles to travel as affordably as possible and sometimes even completely free.

Speaker 1:

So if you're wanting to travel more with your family but you're not sure how, we'd love for you to listen in.

Speaker 2:

So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn a thing or two to get you closer to your next trip.

Speaker 3:

Welcome back. Thanks for tuning in.

Speaker 1:

Hello friends.

Speaker 3:

Hello.

Speaker 1:

Hello, welcome back to Travel Party of Five podcast. If you are new to joining us, my name is Raya. I am one of your hosts. This is my husband, dwayne. We are the parents of three children and we travel around as a family of five using primarily points and miles, and we just kind of share our experiences in this points and miles game, if you will. Dwayne is just staring out the window. Hello, hi, welcome, join us.

Speaker 3:

Hey, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So today, before we jump into our main topic, which is that, yes, I have opened now eight credit cards just in my name since January. We're going to talk about that because I briefly mentioned that on a previous episode and that's probably one of the things I get asked the most about on Instagram since then, so thought it was worthy of its own episode. But before we jump into that, I wanted to do a quick little update. Another thing that I get asked fairly frequently on Instagram is just around like best ways to use the points you've already accrued, and so I'm going to be opening up a few spots for one on one sessions where you can book time with me to get personalized help, whether that is like figuring out your best redemption options, fully planning a trip or just kind of making sure you're not leaving value on the table.

Speaker 1:

This is not for you if you love the thrill of the hunt and you like to dive deep in like Reddit threads and you already know your way around transfer partners and points, currencies and alliances and all that. But it is for you if you've kind of been earning the points and now you want to use them on a trip for your family and you feel overwhelmed about how to do that. So, more geared towards beginners and or people who just don't have like the time or desire to learn all of the nitty gritty things like that this is for you. So I'm gonna start by opening up a waitlist and then, if you're on the waitlist, you'll get early access and a discount when the sessions launch. So I will put the link to that in the show notes, but wanted to give a quick heads up that that is something that we're going to be offering going forward and we'll see how it goes. That's awesome.

Speaker 3:

You definitely know what you're talking about.

Speaker 1:

So it would be helpful. Yeah, yeah, I feel like. Yes, I think so. So, anyways, okay, let's jump into the main topic, because I think this is such a clear example of how utilizing credit cards can actually help excuse me, help your credit score versus hurt it. And if you're new here, or or even if you're not, I grew up hearing credit cards were bad. I actually don't know like. Did your parents use credit cards when you were growing up, or did they ever talk about it?

Speaker 3:

Yes, they used it and they never really talked to me about it. No, Okay.

Speaker 1:

So I mean I just grew up with my stepdad.

Speaker 3:

But yeah, I mean, our parents are totally different when it comes to spending and they're very different people.

Speaker 1:

Yes, um, very much on opposite ends of the spectrum, I would say, yes, opposite Um, but yeah. So I grew up with my stepdad, basically you know, preaching how terrible credit cards are and blah, blah, blah. And so when I got to college I did open up actually quite a few credit cards, because that was the time where you know they would just be like the credit card companies would be like here's a free t-shirt if you sign up for this credit card, and they would just be like waiting outside the student union for you, like lurking and and, um, like very predatory. When I look back on it, Cause little 18 year old me was like sure, I need a free t-shirt and a pen, like yes, let's do it.

Speaker 1:

And I opened up a bunch of credit cards and then I got myself into credit card debt and I actually had two cycles of that in my life and finally, like around I don't know, and finally, like around I don't know, mid to young 30s, got out of credit card debt completely and for good and then really never opened up a credit card again until I wanted to go to for the flight and I booked it in the chase portal I didn't know any better and used up all my points for an economy flight to and from Bali, which I mean. Now I know I could have for sure probably gotten business class, at least one of those ways, but I didn't know anything at the time other than I didn't want to pay for this flight. So that's kind of my credit card journey. You kind of have a similar one.

Speaker 3:

I mean, yes, I wasn't coerced by a free t-shirt. They would just send me applications in the mail oh really yeah, and I would just fill them out and get a credit card and go to town.

Speaker 1:

You had a bunch of credit cards that were like written off right, yeah, yeah. So when we went to buy our first house, this was like in 2016,. I think you can imagine our surprise when Dwayne's credit score was higher than mine, despite having defaulted on some credit cards way back in the day, and it's because after seven years it falls off your credit report. So I mean, mean, no one was more shocked than you, right?

Speaker 1:

no, I mean yes, you're right, I was shocked like duane, had the better credit between the two of us, and so our first um mortgage was in his name alone, actually.

Speaker 3:

So which is crazy to think about, because it is crazy yeah, when I was young and dumb, there were, I don't know, probably six or seven credit cards.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so, and meanwhile I didn't default on credit cards. I paid them all off and I also had a hefty amount of student loans which are also now paid off. I promise there's a reason to us sharing like our credit background is because, if you're new, I want you to understand that. I completely get it when people think this is going to ruin their credit and they think there's no way that I could open this many credit cards and, like, still have a good credit score. I fully understand that line of thinking we both do. But I'm here to tell you that you're wrong, wrong, and I'm going to show you why and how I think. First I'm going to give you both of our credit scores that I checked minutes before starting to record this podcast, and then I'll jump into the eight cards that I have opened and kind of thought process processes behind that. So your credit score as of 20 minutes ago was 763. Nice.

Speaker 1:

That is, I would say, like it's considered very good. And to use uh, to check the scores, I'm using Experian. That's the one I like the most. It is free. Do not let them coerce you into buying their membership. You do not need to. It will ask you every time you log in and you just say like, no. But I like it because it breaks down kind of what factors are helping your score, what factors are hurting your score? You can see your whole credit report if you want. So yours is 763, which they consider very good. Okay, you have not had a new credit card since the end of last year, so it's been a while. My credit score as of 20 minutes ago was 808, which, according to Experian, is considered excellent. Okay, I have opened, since January, eight credit cards. It is May 25th when we are recording this. This will air tomorrow, may 26th, memorial Day. Happy Memorial Day.

Speaker 1:

Thank you to all that have served yes, thank you that's kind of crazy, right like your score is lower than mine and I'm over here saying I've opened eight credit cards in the last six months and if you want to go back even further, I also opened up a card in october, november and december of 2024. So that's really that's 11 credit cards in less than a year nine months, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So I was trying to kind of figure out from Experian like what, what, what is causing the big difference in my score versus Dwayne's? And I think the the biggest factor honestly seems to be age of credit. So your age of credit is listed as around nine years, almost 10. Mine is 24 years, almost 25. Basically dating back to when I was like 18. And I don't know if that's because I opened cards when I was 18. I don't think so, because those are closed. But I also had student loans that were opened at that time that have been paid off only within the last like five to seven years, and so those are for sure still showing up on my credit because it hasn't been more than seven years. So that seemed to be the biggest factor. Um, we like so. So the age of my credit is offsetting the um one thing that's hurting my credit, and putting that in air quotes, which is amount of new credit, like that's the one thing that's like fair right as opposed to exceptional.

Speaker 3:

That's great. So because you've had, you've opened up credit cards since you were 18, your credit score is that high.

Speaker 1:

I'm a little unsure because you also opened up credit cards when you were 18, but yours are not showing.

Speaker 3:

I didn't have any student loans or anything.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think that the student loans are what's giving me that long of a credit history, because, again, I think in seven years they will fall off my credit, but it hasn't been seven years since they've been fully paid off, if that makes sense.

Speaker 3:

So why haven't I opened up any credit cards this year?

Speaker 1:

I've tried several times and you got declined. So we just tried for a Chase Inc. Duane was declined. We were going to call the reconsideration line, except now I have opened up a credit card with a very hefty minimum spend that, quite frankly, I didn't think I was going to be approved for, but I was, and so now we're in a position where we have to meet that minimum spend, and so we can't do both like that will just be too much and we'll we'll talk more about how I think we will meet the minimum spend at the end, but that's why. So it's not that I haven't tried, but you haven't been getting approved.

Speaker 3:

So, with my credit score being very good, why is it that I'm getting declined?

Speaker 1:

I genuinely do not know, and that's what I was trying to understand looking through each of our credit reports, Because when I apply for like business cards well, I mean really for any card I'm using the same information Like I'm using the same business, like income excuse me, I'm also using the same total household income for both of us, and so it's weird, basically.

Speaker 3:

It is weird.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think I have been more heavily reliant on my credit since we started this, just because in the beginning it was like we're gonna risk, like let's only risk one of our credit scores to see how this plays out. You know what I mean. And so I opened the first few cards and then I was like, okay, like this is not hurting my credit. So then it's like okay, now we can also use your credit. I think the other piece that is going into your credit score is I. I now hold our mortgage in my name alone, and you had one car loan in your name, but that has since been paid off, so you don't have a lot of other types of debt. That's one thing that the credit score looks at is like what's the word? Like? I can't think of the word but different types of debt. So secured versus unsecured right, a mortgage is a secured form of debt, student loans like that sort of thing. We don't have any of those anymore and the car is now fully paid off. So the only type of like debt you have is credit cards, and it's really not even it's not really debt, because we pay them off every month. So, yeah, it's very interesting to me and I just think that the age of the credit is the biggest thing. Yeah, I don't. And like, if I had a card that was that old, I could add you as an authorized user and it would give you the same length of credit. But I don't, I don't have a credit card that's that old, so I don't know. The whole thing is very strange to me, but okay. So let me tell you the eight cards that I have opened have I have I don't know where that came from. Okay, january I opened up a Chase Inc Business Unlimited.

Speaker 1:

Also January, a City Advantage Business World Elite MasterCard. February I opened up a Chase Inc Business Preferred and I also opened a Chase United Business. There was an elevated offer on the United Business, so that's why I got that one. And then, also in February, an American Express Blue Business Plus. American Express was targeting me for the Blue Business Plus. It was not a great offer, but I knew that we could meet the minimum spend in one swipe because of our shower remodel, so I did that. It was only 25,000 membership rewards points plus. You know the amount for the spend, so we got around 30 MR points for that.

Speaker 1:

In April I then opened up a second City Advantage Business World Elite Mastercard. This was because I was attempting to do what's called the AA double dip. I don't think it's going to work. I got the points for the first card. I just met the minimum spend on the second one and the statement is actually going to close tomorrow, but I do not think the points are going to post, based on what I've been seeing from other people. So potentially that was a wasted $5,000 in spend, which is a bummer, but it's a business card, so at least it doesn't count towards 524. So, and then also in April, end of April, I was able to get approved for the Amex Hilton Aspire card. I was trying to get this card for months and like at least six months, and I kept getting the pop-up. I really wanted it. Um, because there was an elevated offer.

Speaker 1:

I have this card right yes, you have this card too, and it it has a hefty annual fee, but you get a Hilton free night certificate which can be used at any Hilton like worldwide, and so I really wanted it too, because then we'll have two and I wasn't able to get it for the longest time. And then, finally, amex let me out of pop-up jail and I was able to get approved, so we are about to meet the minimum spend on that card. I think we have less than a thousand dollars to go um, so that that is seven, I think. Right, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Yep, that's the seventh, and then the eighth one is the Amex business platinum, which I already have one of, and I continually get targeted offers in the mail for this card.

Speaker 1:

I know people talk about being on like the Amex gravy train where they continually send you offers, and I just kind of assumed that was never going to happen for us because we don't put a ton of spend on our Amex cards. However, maybe a month ago I got an offer for 175,000 points for 20k in spend. I tried to apply for that one and basically got like a offer, not valid, kind of thing. So I thought, okay, like this is just the marketing department sending these mailers, not realizing that I already have the card.

Speaker 3:

So you have two of the exact same card? Yes, correct. I don't even know how that's possible.

Speaker 1:

Well, I mean it is possible. There are some people that have like seven of this particular card um so strange to me.

Speaker 1:

I would think american express would have like a red flag pop up somewhere well, they have what's called no lifetime language offers, because the traditional offer says like you cannot earn a welcome offer on this if you've had it in the last. It says in your lifetime, but I think seven years is roughly the actual time they consider to be a lifetime, but there are no lifetime language offers. That float around sometimes and then you can get the card again, as long as it doesn't have that specific line in the offer. Does that make sense? Yeah, so I got a second mailer for 150,000 points for 20K minimum spend. This isn't the best offer. Like there's a 250K offer out there for 20K in spend.

Speaker 3:

That's much better how do we get that?

Speaker 1:

well, again, this is amx kind of deciding like what you're worth to them. And I applied for this, thinking I probably wasn't going to get approved. But I did get approved and like, only kind of after, the fact was like, well, like now we have to meet this 20k minimum spend and I don't quite know how we're going to do that. It also didn't like normally, when you apply for an Amex card, it'll give you like the like. It'll say like yeah, you're approved, like do you want to accept this card? It didn't do that, it just was like congratulations, like your card is on the way, and I was kind of like, oh, okay, like all right, we're doing it now. So I do have a plan for how we're going to meet the minimum spend, but first maybe you should tell everyone how you wanted to meet it.

Speaker 3:

It's simple. I was just going to go to the Bass Pro Shop and buy two jet skis and call it a day, something my parents would have done. Yeah, we're not Side note. Growing up, I remember whenever I saw an American Express car I'm pretty sure back then it was only the gold one. I mean, maybe I don't know that, but every time someone pulled that out I thought, damn, they got money and now we have 10. And it's like, oh, oh, that's funny.

Speaker 3:

But yeah, two jet skis. We live by some lakes, different lakes to choose from as well. Yeah so reach out to us and you know. If it's a good idea to buy two jet skis, let us know. And you know the consensus is we should get two jet skis and you know, maybe we'll get two jet skis.

Speaker 1:

Oh my God, we're not buying any jet skis, okay, maybe just one Blessed be, no jeskies.

Speaker 1:

okay, let's maybe just one let no blessed be no, um, no. So here's my plan to meet this minimum spend. We have three months and I I'm gonna do some buying groups. We don't talk about buying groups very much because they're definitely not a beginner friendly thing and there is some risk involved. But I will kind of go into more detail, I guess, because that's the only way we're going to meet this minimum spend. We do have some child care we have to pay for for our youngest that we haven't paid for yet, some childcare we have to pay for for our youngest that we haven't paid for yet. So that'll, I don't know, be a couple thousand dollars probably. I'm going to prepay our HOA for the next year and a half-ish.

Speaker 1:

We need a new gate. I'm going to. We have to, um, have our pool drained and like cleaned and a light repaired, so, uh, that's going to cost another roughly thousand dollars. Um and like, obviously we'll do. We, you know, we have a vacation coming up in a few weeks. We'll use the card wherever we can for that, like gas and stuff like that, cause it's a road trip and we actually have two vacations in the timeframe that we have to meet the minimum spend, so we'll definitely use some money for that.

Speaker 1:

And then, beyond that, the rest of the spend is going to be buying groups. And so, if you're not familiar with buying groups, essentially buying groups leverage, like the, the power of the people. That sounds, that sounds ridiculous. Okay, so a buying group is like you go on a website and this buying group can be like okay, we want this very specific iPad with this item number and we will pay you $100 for it. And then it'll say, like, you can buy this iPad from, let's say, amazon for $100. So basically, you buy the iPad, you ship it directly to them.

Speaker 1:

Most buying groups are located in states where there's no sales tax, and so you basically have to add the address for the buying group into, like your Amazon account, and you ship it directly to them. So you never see the product and then you just kind of log okay, this is my order number, this is my tracking number, and then when it gets delivered, they pay you for it. Sometimes there is a delay in them paying you, and so you have to make sure that you can afford to pay the credit card bill even if they haven't paid you yet, and every buying group is a little bit different.

Speaker 3:

It seems sketchy to me.

Speaker 1:

I know, and that's why it's not talked about super often this is called manufactured spend, basically like making up spend that you wouldn't normally do, and if you have like credit card affiliate links, which we do not have, you're not really supposed to like talk about stuff like that. It's technically against terms and conditions, I believe. So we don't have credit card affiliate links at this point. I am not opposed to them down the road. I would actually love to have those, but we're just not there yet, and so we but the bright side is, we can talk about stuff like this. But yes, it does seem sketchy and there's a lot of different buying groups out there. Frequent Miler has a very good in depth article about it. If you just Google it, you'll. I'm sure you'll find it. The one that I like the best is buy. For me, retail. I find it the easiest to use and I pretty much can only send offers through Amazon and occasionally Costco.

Speaker 3:

I love Costco.

Speaker 1:

Okay, you just have to be super careful because you don't want to do too much or your accounts can get shut down. We order a ton of stuff off Amazon regularly so I you know, knock on wood haven't had any issues doing a good amount through Amazon. The thing you have to be careful of is especially with buy for me retail. A lot of them have below retail deals. So that would be like okay, we're going to pay you $100 for this exact blue iPad, but Amazon is selling it for 105. Right, so they want you to buy it for 105. And they'll give you $100 for it. So that's not the best deal.

Speaker 1:

Right Like you don't really want to come out of pocket Sometimes. If there is a deal where it's like oh, maybe you're going to make $1 per item, right Like you make a profit If I can do five of those plus the iPad and come out even. That's kind of how I think about it. You know what I mean. So I'm not losing money by any means, but I'm not profiting. I don't need to profit because my profit is the credit card points.

Speaker 3:

With those buying groups. Can you buy multiple iPads or is it just one?

Speaker 1:

So you can buy, like usually two or three max. And it's because amazon sets selling limits on sale items and that's why the buying groups have to kind of go about it this way is because they can't just go to amazon themselves and be like we want to buy 5 000 of these ipads at this price, because amazon is like no, you can buy two like where are these iPads going To?

Speaker 3:

some like family that lives in wherever and they sell it for double the amount.

Speaker 1:

I have no idea how or where they sell it, but you ship it directly to their warehouse and it gets like received by someone and they kind of mark down the tracking number Again buy. For me, retail is the one I've had the most success with and the least amount of issues. There was a different buying group that I tried. I want to say it was max out deals and it was like a limited release kind of. I forget some kind of VR thing from Apple and like I had ordered it and then, while it was being shipped, they lowered the price that they were going to pay on it and I thought that was really really shady. So I've never done another deal with them Because I was like this is ridiculous.

Speaker 1:

It's like I had already. Like you go into the website and you say like I'm reserving two of these, right, so like I'm going to send you two or whatever, and like it shows you the price and whatever, and then you also add in your, your order number, your tracking number, so they they know, like when it's coming. And I had already done all of that and then they were like, oh, just kidding, for any orders that arrive after this date this is the price. But it had already been shipped and so it was like okay, well, fortunately that was one where they were offering a profit and the price that they changed took away the profit, but it didn't like we weren't out any money, so that was the only saving grace there. But I thought like, what if it? What if it hadn't been that way? You know, it just all seems a little.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, so again, proceed at your own risk. Everyone is going to have a different risk tolerance that they're comfortable with, and only you can figure out what that is for you. But I just wanted to be super transparent that the only way we're going to meet this minimum spend is by doing this, and so yes, or again vote.

Speaker 3:

Or buy jet skis Jet skis, would love to hear from you.

Speaker 1:

Oh goodness, Should I put up a poll?

Speaker 3:

on Instagram. Tomorrow you should put up a poll.

Speaker 1:

I'll put up a poll and we'll see. Okay, so let's see. So I've walked through the different cards. I think one of the key things to note is there are three different banks that I have gotten these cards through. So there's a few from Chase, there is a couple from Citi and then a few from Amex. So I think that's one of the reasons why I was able to get approved for all eight. Right, like, obviously, chase is not going to approve me for eight cards in a row Same with Amex, same with any bank, really and the card I opened in December was Barclays, so that would add a fourth if we're looking at like a six to seven month window. So I do think that matters. Someone asked me on Instagram the other day, like I was just denied for a chase card, how soon can I apply to get a card from a different bank? And the answer is immediately. You don't need to wait if you didn't get the first card and it's a different bank or issuer.

Speaker 3:

How long would you have to wait for Chase to apply again?

Speaker 1:

At least 30 days is how long it'll take for your application to expire. Depending on the reasons for denial, you may want to wait longer than that, but minimum of 30 days. So the other thing I briefly wanted to touch on regarding meeting the minimum spend for the American Express card that we just got is, in addition to the 150,000 American Express points that we'll get when we meet the minimum spend, there is also a $500 statement credit when you book at least $2,500 in airfare, either in the Amex portal or direct with an airline. So we are in the midst of trying to book flights back from Thailand and, thanks to an Instagram follower, cathay Pacific was going to be how I booked them 38,000 points per person, one way in economy, from Bangkok to LAX or SFO. They had a lot of availability for either flying through Hong Kong, and that was my plan.

Speaker 1:

The problem is those flights are going to cost $1,000 in taxes and fees for the five of us and again that's in economy. So 38,000 points a person, and again that's in economy. So 38,000 points a person plus $1,000 in fees total and when I look up cash prices for the flights, like for the five of us, it's roughly $2,500 total, without using any points. Total without using any points. So we were talking about this last night Cause I'm like it might make more sense to just pay cash again, utilize that $500 statement credit and save the points.

Speaker 3:

So it would be $2,000 or 2,500 is with the.

Speaker 1:

It depends on the flights that we book. The range is roughly from $2,000 to $3,000. And the $2,000 is the absolute basic economy ticket that if you cancel you don't get any money back, kind of a thing. So I probably wouldn't book that. I would spend a little more money to at least earn some miles and be able to cancel or change if necessary. There's still a fee to cancel or change, but I'd rather that than just be out that money completely. You know what I mean.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so use 200, almost 200,000 points and still pay a thousand dollars.

Speaker 1:

So it's like, okay, would I rather just spend $1,500 more, right, and save all those points, because at that point the cost per point is like one cent. That is not a good redemption. It's pretty crappy actually, and especially for American Express points where I would really like to get two cents per point at a minimum. But I mean even just regards to money out of pocket, it's not that much more, in my opinion, if we're already going to spend $1,000 in taxes. Like just spend a little bit more and save the points at this rate. So that's what I'm thinking.

Speaker 1:

And like if you had told me at the beginning of this year that we would be paying cash for our flights to Thailand both ways, I would have said you're insane. But I mean I think we're going to spend roughly a little more than $4,000. And like to be fully transparent, that was the cost of our lodging in Belize, like just the lodging. I mean I guess I had already planned to spend the money. I wasn't thrilled about it, but it's the same amount roughly, I think it's worth it.

Speaker 1:

And then we I mean I'm just way more excited about Thailand than Belize, and again, it's nothing against Belize, I. Just Thailand has been like since since you and I met and I came back from Europe I was like I want to go to Southeast Asia, like that was where I wanted to go next, but then instead we had a kid so got postponed a bit. But Thailand has been super high on my list for more than a decade, so it's worth it to me. And then we would again position back from, uh, likely San Francisco. So we, we would have to stay overnight, one night on our way back in San Francisco and then fly home the following day. That's just the way the flight times line up, but that was that's for any flight I can find. So again, I feel fine about that, you know.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I'm all for it.

Speaker 1:

So that's likely what we will do and again, it will help us to meet the minimum spend, obviously by putting that on the card, but, more importantly, it just doesn't seem to be a good value for our points. We will use points for the positioning flights, however, to and from San Francisco so, and points for all the hotels when we're there. So, anyways, once that's officially booked, we'll do a whole episode on booking Thailand, because I've learned a ton.

Speaker 3:

So, from all the cards that we've recently acquired, how many points have we gained from that?

Speaker 1:

So, oh yeah, that's okay, that's fun, okay. So for, okay, two chase cards. So I'm just going to do like the sign up bonus, I'm not going to do like referral points or like additional points. You earn from the minimum spend. So chase points 165,000 total ultimate rewards. That's from two cards, the chase Inc unlimited and the chase Inc business preferred. The United card was an elevated offer and that one was for 100,000 United miles, so 165 Chase, 100,000 United. 25,000 American Express points from the Blue Business, plus the Aspire card, which we are very close to hitting the minimum spend, will give us 175,000 Hilton points plus a free night certificate. And then the city a card was elevated, so 75,000 a miles. On the rare chance that I earned the second bonus for the second city that would be another 75,000. But again all data points seem to say like that's not going to happen, so a little disappointing. And then the American Express Platinum that we just opened. Once we meet that minimum spend, it'll be 150,000 Amex points. So a good diversification there of a lot of different points. Currencies right, we've got some united miles, of which you also have some, so I'm planning to combine those for, hopefully, a national park yellowstone trip. Maybe, I don't know when, um, and then a good amount of chase and amex points which are flexible and plus a a mile super valuable, and we're stacking up the hilton points. We're going to have close to 600 000 hilton points plus two free night certificates when all is said and done. So, feeling good about that, we're going to use that in Scotland next year, some of those Hilton points. So more on that to come the way.

Speaker 1:

Someone is going to ask so the way that I keep track of all of our cards and whether or not we've hit the minimum spend is the Travel Freely app. If you do not use this app, it is incredibly helpful. It's the first thing that I do every single time I open a new card is I log it in this app. First and foremost, it tells me when my annual fees are coming due. It tells me my 524 status, which, if you're curious, I am 424 and Dwayne is 324. And we will plan to stay likely both of us under 524 if possible. Dwayne actually cannot open any personal cards. Well, actually, I'm sorry you could open one personal card, but that's it until July of 2026. Because that's when your next personal card falls off. So you're you're a little bit limited. My next one falls off in October, so not as bad.

Speaker 1:

Anyways, the travel freely app if you do not use it, I will put a link to to it in the show notes because it is the hands down, the easiest way to keep track of all your cards and when their annual fees are due, and then, like, at that point you can decide should I keep it, should I downgrade it, whatever? And it also keeps a fun tally this is my favorite part of like how many points you've earned for the year and so I like to look at that because I think that is super fun and motivating. So, again, put a link to that in the show notes. Would highly recommend utilizing that if you are not.

Speaker 1:

And the best part is it's completely free and it doesn't take any of your like login information, so you don't need to say, like you know, this is my Chase bank information or this is my Barclays account. Like you don't need to do any of that. You simply put in the card you opened whatever the bonus points are for the minimum spend and ta-da voila. So really, really like the app. I check it all the time and I use it. Like at least once a week. I'm opening it, so would highly recommend. Um, last thing, I think we just wanted to give you a quick kind of heads up of what's coming next as far as trips and stuff on the horizon for us. So we have a Yosemite National Park trip coming up here in a few weeks.

Speaker 3:

Slash Lake.

Speaker 1:

Tahoe? Yes, and we're also going to be going to Lake Tahoe for a few days and we are driving, so that will be our longest road trip we've ever done with the kids. Um, after that we have another week ish in Palm Springs and Oceanside, california, and then after that is our big Japan trip, which is super exciting. That's in the fall, and then we have a Christmas market trip around Thanksgiving. Well, we also might go to Cabo. Oh, yes, duane and I are supposed to have a couple's trip to Cabo here coming up in a couple months. We've already moved it once because we lost our childcare and it's still a little bit up in the air, so hopefully we don't have to cancel, but we may have to either cancel or reschedule for a third time. So TBD on that.

Speaker 1:

And then we have some staycations coming up too. So we're still doing our summer series. We've got a few more hotels booked over the summer that we will be reporting back to you about. Our next one is the Arizona Grand, which is actually not a points property but can be booked through some portals, and so we'll talk about that. But it has like a full water park and so super excited and that's like our kids kind of end of school year little bash treat. Yeah that we're. We're treating them to that. So lots of fun stuff coming up.

Speaker 1:

Um, again one more reminder that if you are potentially interested in some one-on-one like consulting sessions to help you figure out the best use of your points and how to book your points vacation, I am opening up sessions in the next few weeks and again I will put a link to the waitlist in the show notes. If you want to hop on there, you'll get first access and a discounted price that won't be available anywhere else. So again, link to that is in the show notes. If you have any questions, please come find us on Instagram. Come vote on my jet ski poll that I will put up.

Speaker 3:

Please vote.

Speaker 1:

We're not getting jet skis, but you can vote. You can vote and let's see. We'll see. Okay, hope you have a great week.

Speaker 3:

Yes, happy Memorial Day. Thanks for all those that served or are serving.

Speaker 1:

Yes, we appreciate you very much and we will catch you on the next episode.

Speaker 3:

Yes, thanks for tuning in. Bye, have a good one.