How To Redeem Credit Card Points Like A Pro (Ep. 1)

[@shannoncampbell2017]

I am new to the booking on points world. I wasted too many years and too many points on doing the payment eraser with capital one. I thought I was doing ok, until I learned about the travel partners. Owning a small business and spending lots of money on that business gives me a big advantage. I can't believe how stupid I was! My hubby and I are going on our first vacation in January that is 100% on points. The first of many, fingers crossed. So excited!

[@_iErik]

Just keep in mind that the points earned on small business spend are considered a rebate on that business spend, so you do need to subtract their value from your business expense deductions on your taxes.

[@colinyuhl9339]

Careful when calculating cpp based on quoted one way fares. One way fares are often priced way higher than the round trip or multi-city fare. If you are planning on returning to the same city you left from, be sure to check roundtrip/multi-city prices and divide that by 2 for your more accurate cpp baseline.

[@Daniel_Braun]

It depends - one way fares can be the same or more depending on the route. But one way also offers much more flexibility - especially with booking on points. Many people traveling to Europe will leave from different cities than they arrived from, so booking one way makes more sense. Also award availability on points may only be available one way but not the other. Better to fly to business class to Europe to get the sleep, but then economy back during the daytime - if needed! But yeah you can definitely factor some of that into the travel plans as well and compare roundtrip vs one way 👍

[@Syre_Sam]

Love the new series, especially because I’m gonna book a flight to Italy next year

[@Daniel_Braun]

Love that! I’m looking to book a flight to Italy at some point too next year

[@zaalb131]

We did hotel indigo in Florence for 4 days. Good way to use IHG points and 4th night free. And 4 nights felt good there cause you can do a Tuscany wine tour, day trip to Pisa, etc.

[@Syre_Sam]

@@zaalb131 Thanks for the great advice. I will definitely check out Hotel Indigo

[@nitinj.sanket2236]

This is some amazing content. Please keep this work up.

[@Daniel_Braun]

Thanks Nitin, so glad to hear that you like the content! I've got lots of good stuff planned, so stay tuned 👍

[@andrewbement1388]

Please do more of these. These types of videos are great. You should do one for each major credit card points (one Amex video, one chase video, etc.)

[@x1928]

Damn bro some KZbinrs would charge for this insider info 🔥

[@CitizenZero1]

Good stuff! I did the emirates Milan flight last summer. It was 88,000 each for business class. We’re going back to Paris next summer and I was able to get upper class on the way back for 44,000. And 18,000 on the way there for premium! ( on Virgin Atlantic).

[@zaalb131]

Were both ways virgin? We have Paris and London on the docket. I’ve never been. Are you using any points for hotels?

[@YourMoneyAmigo]

Thanks for this video, Daniel. It was awesome to learn the most effective way to get to Italy using points. But learning how to get to the second destination was also really cool. Definitely going to want to visit these spots next year.

[@Daniel_Braun]

Thank you! Yeah always good to have a way to travel in business class but also economy using points 👍

[@fernandosilva]

Loved this!

[@ahmed-g4x2r]

Please help! I have Amex points as well as chase points. I found great flights on American airways for 40k miles from Doha to Japan (different airports) in July. I tried booking through British and Qatar and they want significantly more points for the same flights. How do I get around that. Also we need 6 seats

[@khoabui4489]

Another banger vid Daniel! So glad I stumbled across your channel! I just got the Capital One Venture as my first travel credit card and I can't wait to use my miles to book a trip! Keep up the good work sir!

[@christopherpinder6379]

It’s true that Hawaii and Alaska transfer 1:1, but don’t forget the cost of transferring points from Amex to Hawaiian is .0006 cents per mile up to a maximum of $99 in fees. Great video! Love your content! I just subscribed 🎉

[@djbalzac]

Great video Daniel, very relevant for my current situation and well presented.

[@avilla1028]

Could you please do another episode like this, but for Japan (HND) as the destination? 🙏🏻

[@Daniel_Braun]

Yeah definitely! We actually just did an example for that in the newsletter last week. Going to cover that in a new video like this soon as well 👍

[@mprubio84]

Beast mode!

[@Daniel_Braun]

Yessir!

[@coreyw5981]

Doesn't Marriot one free night award oer year cap at 35,000 points? I was noticing that even economy brands were coming up to almost that many points per night. Its making me really not want to consider this card

[@Daniel_Braun]

Correct, but you can also top off those 35K point free night awards with points transferred from Bilt, Chase, and Amex. You can combine each 35K award night with up to 15K points to redeem on nights that cost up to 50K points. Not ideal and like I said Marriott points are not nearly as valuable as Hyatt - but still something to consider if that makes sense

[@soapa4279]

Hyatt is basically easy mode. And I love it!

[@Bangpaulxu]

Under five minute gang! Thank you always for these informative videos Daniel! Been a sub since day one and learned so much! Much love from China!

[@Daniel_Braun]

You're the best! Any comment in the first hour is amazing - but especially good for the first 5 minutes haha. Thanks for sticking around and watching the channel for so long!

[@spbennett88]

I think utilizing credit card rewards for travel is one of those things that you don't fully grasp/know how to execute effectively until you do it yourself. I could watch this video all day and still be missing something (or at least assume I am missing something). Airlines and others in the travel industry make it intentionally complicated so that people simply don't know how to find the best deals without doing a lot of leg work.

[@kyletavarez]

Great video!

[@ohsofilthy6877]

great vid

[@Daniel_Braun]

Thanks for watching!

[@_iErik]

This is a fine hypothetical video, but the real value in this kind of content is seeing you actually book a real trip that you’re going to take.

[@julioc4978]

One thing some people miss the best redemption is a business flight if it nets you 2+ cents per point. However, Economy is not a bad idea if you already have some miles with that FF account, you want to use the points before they devalue or increase the point requirements. I've usually found myself hoarding on points...

[@Antares_451]

It's a later night and i have to be up early for trading. Definitely coming back to this series as i have hundreds of thousands of points to redeem..

[@ooglop]

You should do a video covering what is going on with BILT right now. Points for buying a house, mortgage payment points coming in 2025, etc.

[@stevencats7137]

I think everyone looks at these points wrong. Do you really want to go through all this credit card stuff, get all your points, transfer them an all that, to blow them all on one 8 hour business class trip. Why??? I don’t understand anyone who would rather have 1 free extra trip vs like 3 free normal seats

[@_iErik]

Finally some sense in these comments! There are 2 types of influences in this space: 1) those disingenuously talking up the “outsized value” of transfer partners in order to drive referral revenue and 2) those that have unwittingly drank the kool aid and believe the hype. It’s important to remember: the airlines and credit card companies *really* want you to think that miles are worth a ton, because it costs them almost nothing and drives a ton of revenue.

[@coreyw5981]

Might be a stupid question here but when i gotta transfer my points from my chase or citi to an airline and then to another airline, does that mean I'll need to have accounts set up at every one of these airline websites? Even the middle man?

[@JamesTJones-w8x]

Transfer points, I have 20,000 amex points. Marriott Bonvoy has an offer of every 1000 points you'll 350 points which is 35% before Dec 31,2024. I want to know is this a good deal? Thank you, love the videos.

[@SOXGATORS]

👍🏻

[@Daniel_Braun]

Just barely got second comment on this one! haha - thanks as always for watching and hope you're having a great holiday season 🥈

[@Garciax00]

First

[@Daniel_Braun]

You got it! First comment - thanks for watching 🥇

[@LIKEaMRCEO8282]

I love these types of videos! They inspired me to get into the credit card game, but being in the STL region, finding how to min/max value of my points is a bit harder. Sadly, STL isn't a major international airport with the nearest one being Chicago. I'd love to see an example of something like that because lots of your viewers might not be in the same boat and live near a ton of major international airports. From my understanding, the way to min/max that value in my case is to book a one-way flight to the international airport you discovered the deal with, then go through TSA again (if you have more than a personal + carry on). Then finally take the flight that you initially booked to get to said destination.

[@_iErik]

You can book the points flight from say ORD-destination and separately book a ticket from STL-ORD (called a positioning flight) and you shouldn’t have to go back through security on the way to the destination. Arriving back in the US, you’ll have to go through passport control and security, but that would be true of any regular layover in the US anyway, so no real difference.