One of the most common questions I get when people are interested in travelling for almost free on points and miles is “won’t this ruin my credit score?” While it IS true that you should have decent credit and your finances generally in order to get started, this hobby does NOT have to hurt your credit score! In fact, I have seen my credit score actually improve since I have started this 2 years ago. My credit score was good, but now its over 800! How is this possible? Let’s dive into how your credit score is calculated.

• Payment history – 35% of your score. This means that you want to pay on time and in full each month
• Credit Utilization – 30% of your score. How much of your available credit are you using? It is better to have a lot of available credit and not use very much of it vs. having a small amount of credit and using most of it. Adding more cards helps SIGNIFICANTLY improve this by adding to your available credit.
• Credit age or history – 15% of your score. Keep your oldest accounts open
• Account mix – 10%of your score. How diversified is your credit? Home loans, credit cards, etc.
• Account inquiries – 10% of your score. This is the one part of your score that is negatively impacted by applying for new cards. Your credit score will often dip a few points after an application, but it quickly rebounds and typically higher than before because your credit utilization is going to improve with increasing the total amount of credit you are extended.

How to use this knowledge

• Keep your oldest lines of credit open
• Pace your openings- 30 days min, I recommend 90 days
• Pay off full balance every month

My credit score has only improved since I got into this hobby. I was brought up with the notion that credit cards are bad and using credit cards should be avoided. In reality, as long as you are smart about credit card use and pay off your full balances every month, you will likely boost your credit score rather than hurt it!

One of the biggest hangups when booking award flights or hotel stays is knowing whether or not you are getting a good deal by spending your points, or if booking with cash makes more sense. I don’t book ALL of my travel on points- I save my points bookings for when I am going to get the greatest VALUE for my points. This means that I am able to stretch my points further by choosing to book some things with cash. Let’s dive in to how to take the guesswork out of this. In this episode, I'll demystify figuring this out, so that you can book with confidence!

Award redemption value (Cents per point/ccp)

• Calculating the value of an award redemption requires a simple formula: Redemption value = (cash price – taxes and fees) ÷ points or miles used × 10
  • This gives you the value of each point or mile in cents (Cents per Point or ccp)

Example1: 3 night stay in Hyatt Place in Kansas City- ($585-0)/15,000 points = 3.8 ccp

Example 2: Flight to Portugal($1018-372)/24,000 points= 2.7 ccp KLM flight booked on Virgin Atlantic (Points transferred from Amex)

How to decide if it’s a good deal

• Compare portal booking cost in points
• Think about reasonable redemption value (RRV)- RRVs are intended to be mid-point values that are reasonably easy to achieve for that specific points type.
  • RRV 1.5 ccp for Chase and Amex
• Is the value there for you and your situation personally?
• How many points do you have and how many are you willing to part with? Other upcoming trips?
• You may decide that getting a rental car and “purchase erasing” with Capital One miles makes sense if you want to bring your purchase cost to zero
• Think about a lowest acceptable ccp – for me it’s usually 1.5 ccp for my transferrable points

Example: Flights to Charlotte

• American Airlines- I had miles in that program. American AAdvantage RRV = 1.4 ccp
• 124,000 points or $1674 - ($1674-22)/124,000 points= 1.3 ccp
• 1.3 ccp is less than reasonable redemption value, but I’m ok with that! We booked Air BNB on cash, and I wanted to limit my out of pocket cost. Not an amazing deal, but I got my family there for almost free!

Keep in mind hotel points for many chains are often lower- Hilton 0.4 ccp, IHG 0.6 ccp, Marriot 0.6 ccp, that’s why you don’t want to transfer Chase points to Marriot in general- not going to be a good deal

Calculating ccp is a simple way to assess whether a book is a good deal. Avoid analysis paralysis! If it is below the RRV for the type of transferrable points, think about it. It might be a better points earning opportunity- in that case look into how to earn the most points for that booking. If it’s “good enough” and it gets you a free trip, go for it!

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Chase points are some of the most valuable points, but you have to know some tricks to get the most value for them. By learning how to transfer your Chase points to partner programs like Hyatt, Southwest, Virgin Atlantic, and Flying Blue, you can get 2-5x the value (or even more!) from each point you redeem.

Knowing how to effectively redeem your points is the difference between taking one trip a year and taking several trips a year!

There are 2 main ways to redeem Chase points- portal bookings, and transferring points out to partners. In general, you are going to get the most value from your points if you transfer your points to partners rather than booking in the portal.

Portal Bookings

• Pros of portal bookings
  • Simplicity
  • You can book things you couldn’t by transferring points out – rental cars, cruises, certain hotels. I prefer to do these bookings on cash and use as a points-earing opportunity
  • Fixed value (sort of)- 1 cent per point (ccp), unless “points boost” which is 1.5-1.75 with Chase Sapphire Preferred or 1.75-2 ccp for Chase Sapphire Reserve
  • Cons of portal bookings
• Cons of portal bookings
  • Hotel stays don’t always count towards status
  • Glitches related to using a 3rd party booking service – harder when things go wrong
  • Typically not the way to get the best value for your points. But remember, there is truly no “wrong” way to use your points!
• I like to use the portal to EARN points with cash bookings – 8x points on my Chase Sapphire Reserve, and $500 annually ($250 every 6 mo) for The Edit Hotel bookings

Chase Transfer Partners

• Hotels
  • Hyatt – This is my favorite hotel chain and favorite way to use Chase points! Most of my points go here, because it is incredibly easy to get outsized value from my points when booking with Hyatt.
  • IHG – This includes luxury brands like Kimpton and InterContinental, and more budget brands like Holiday Inn and Staybridge Suites. I typically would NOT recommend transferring Chase points here- the transfers are 1:1 and a Chase point can be worth a LOT more than an IHG point.
  • Marriot –I typically would NOT recommend transferring Chase points here- the transfers are 1:1 and a Chase point can be worth a LOT more than a Marriot point. Marriot is great, but transferring points from Chase is not the best way to book with them.
• Airlines (Not all listed)
  • United
  • Southwest
    • If you’re loyal to Southwest, a cobranded card is likely worth making a part of your strategy. If you travel a lot domestically with a partner or a family, you should consider trying to earn a companion pass. I will do a deep dive on this later
  • Jet Blue
  • British Airways
  • Virgin Atlantic
    • You can book Delta and Air France/KLM through them- often for fewer points
  • Air Canada
  • Flying Blue – Air France/KLM
    • 25% off kids' flights
    • Monthly deals

How to transfer points out

• Create a loyalty account for the program you want to transfer into
• Bottom R of app “more”—down to Rewards and Benefits à redeem points on R and select your Chase Sapphire Reserve or Chase Sapphire Referred to click on transfer points

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