Start Planning Now for That Free Family Vacation Next Year
Family Travel Can Be Expensive
2018 was a huge year for family travel. According to AAA Travel research, 88 million Americans planned to take family vacations during the year.
As anyone knows, family travel can be expensive. Even local road trips can run hundreds of dollars. International trips can cost thousands. The average international trip for American travelers in 2018 cost $6,080 (source: Squaremouth.com). That can put quite a dent in the family budget.
But what if you could cover a large portion or even most of the expense using points and miles? Well this is very possible. However, if you want to use points and miles to pay for your family vacation next year, you need to start planning now.
Planning as soon as possible is important for two main reasons. First, you need enough time to accumulate the necessary number of points required. Secondly, you’ll want to book your travel as early as possible to have the best selection and lowest redemption rates on flights and hotel rooms.
Allow Time to Accumulate Points and Miles
If you hope to accumulate enough points from credit card Welcome Bonuses to pay for your trip, you need to first be clear on your trip details. Knowing where you want to go, how many people are traveling, the level of accommodation you want, and what cabin or class of airline service you want to fly in will determine how many points you need to accumulate.
Once you have a general idea of how many points you’ll need you can determine which credit card Welcome Bonuses will award you the points you need to get closer to your goal.
You need to allow enough time for the application approval (often immediate), card arrival, fulfillment of minimum spend requirement, payment of minimum spend, points being awarded, and points being credited to your account.
All of these steps can take over three months if you’re utilizing the full 90 days to meet the minimum spend requirement, or a few weeks if you can meet the minimum spend quickly.
If you need points from multiple cards, you must factor this into your planning. For example, if you need Welcome Bonuses from two different cards, and you need the full 90 days to meet the minimum spend requirement for each. This whole process could take over half a year just to accumulate the points you need. So, plan carefully and allow yourself enough time.
Allow Time for Advanced Planning and Booking
The sooner in advance you can book your award travel, the better, usually. Peak season in popular travel destinations could require booking months and months in advance. Many airlines will post award availability up to 12 months in advance.
For example, if you’re planning to take a trip to a popular destination during the summer break, you can’t book soon enough. There are always exceptions where tickets pop up close to your travel date, but you don’t want to risk last-minute booking unless you fit into that category of travelers who are flexible on dates and destinations.
Award availability also depends on class of service and number of people you’re traveling with. Are you a solo traveler looking for a coach ticket? You’ll have the easiest time finding a seat. Family of four flying coach? You should also be OK as long as you plan ahead. Couple looking to fly international business class? You will want to plan months in advance and be diligent, often having to check reservation systems multiple times for availability to pop up. Four people looking to fly international business class together? Book as soon as the airlines’ booking systems will allow.
Selecting a Destination
The first step to planning a vacation or trip of any kind is usually determining the destination. This is necessary to determine the points and miles required for your trip. You may already have a destination in mind, but just in case you don’t, AAA Travel has compiled a list of their top ten domestic and international travel destinations in 2018.
The following top ten domestic and international destination are based on AAA Travel bookings for trips June 1 through August 15, 2018. As a reference, I’ve also included the number of American Airlines AAdvantage miles required for one round trip ticket from the lower 48 states.
- Orlando, Florida (1) – 25,000 miles
- Honolulu, Hawaii (4) – 45,000 miles
- Anchorage, Alaska (2) – 30,000 miles
- Seattle, Washington (3) – 25,000 miles
- Los Angeles/Anaheim, California (5) – 25,000 miles
- Maui, Hawaii (7) – 45,000 miles
- Fairbanks, Alaska (6) – 30,000 miles
- Las Vegas, Nevada (8) – 25,000 miles
- Boston, Massachusetts (13) – 25,000 miles
- Salt Lake City, Utah (14) – 25,000 miles
*Numbers in parenthesis indicate summer 2017 rankings
**If you live less than 500 miles from any of the destinations in the lower 48 states, American only charges 15,000 miles for around trip.
More than a third of families planning a trip in 2018 were planning to visit an international destination. Below are the top international destinations. As I did above, I’ve also included the number of American Airlines AAdvantage miles required for one round trip ticket from the lower 48 states.
- Rome, Italy (3) – 60,000
- Vancouver, British Columbia (1) – 30,000
- Dublin, Ireland (4) – 60,000
- London, England (2) – 60,000
- Paris, France (7) – 60,000
- Montego Bay, Jamaica (8) – 30,000
- Punta Cana, Dominican Republic (5) – 30,000
- Calgary, Alberta (10) – 30,000
- Cancun, Mexico (6) – 30,000
- Amsterdam, Netherlands (9) – 60,000
*Numbers in parenthesis indicate summer 2017 rankings
How to Accumulate Points Fast: Airlines
There are many ways to accumulate points and miles. For anybody wanting to accumulate miles quickly, one of my top current recommendations is to pursue the one-two punch of the American Airlines AAdvantage Aviator Red World Elite Mastercard and the Citibank AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite Mastercard.
These cards both offer miles in the American Airlines AAdvantage program. But more importantly, since only one of these cards requires a minimum spend before granting the welcome bonus, you can earn enough miles for a family of three to fly across the country in the shortest amount of time possible.
AAdvantage Aviator Red Mastercard welcome bonus of 50,000 miles after paying the $95 annual fee and making one purchase.
Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select card welcome bonus of 40,000 miles after $2,000 spent on card within first 3 months of account opening. $99 annual fee is waived for the first year.
That means for just one $95 annual fee and shifting $2,000 of your spending to the Citi AAdvantage card for three months or less, you will end up with enough AAdvantage miles for three round trip flights anywhere in the continental united states or two round trip flights to Hawaii.
Both spouses can apply for both cards. This would mean you’ll have 180,000 miles from welcome bonuses. That’s enough miles to fly the family domestically and pay for several nights in a hotel. Or you could fly the whole family to a more exotic destination like Hawaii, Mexico, and the Caribbean. This is also enough miles for three round trip flights to Europe. That’s right, these combined welcome bonuses would allow three of you to fly to Europe on awards tickets.
For some, meeting the minimum spend of $2,000 each on two Citi AAdvantage cards is too much to spend and pay off completely in one three-month period. In this case you should stagger the applications, applying for the second card after the minimum spend for the first card has been satisfied.
How to Accumulate Points Fast: Hotels
For fans of Marriott properties, there is the Marriott Rewards Premier Plus credit card. With the Marriott rewards program Marriott will give you the fifth night free if you book four nights with loyalty points. If you qualify for one welcome bonus of 75,000 points you will have enough points for four free nights in a category 1-3 hotel, then you’d get the fifth night free.
When two adults in the family each apply for their own card and combine the points, you would have 150,000 points. This would allow you to book four nights in a higher tier hotel (up to category 5) for four nights and get the fifth night free or book more nights in a lower tier hotel. You could even book four nights + 5th free night in one destination and then do the same in another destination for a total of 10 nights paid by awards points.
Can You Actually Book Free Hotel Rooms in Top Destinations?
Admittedly, the top travel destinations are very popular and the likelihood of finding many category 3 or lower properties in London, Paris or Hawaii is pretty low. But all is not lost. I searched for category three and lower hotels in some of the top travel destinations and had some luck. Below are the top destinations where I was able to locate category three properties, meaning that you could book four nights plus one bonus night with the welcome bonus from one card.
- Orlando, Florida – YES
- Honolulu, Hawaii – NO
- Anchorage, Alaska – NO
- Seattle, Washington – YES
- Los Angeles/Anaheim, California – YES
- Maui, Hawaii – NO
- Fairbanks, Alaska – NO
- Las Vegas, Nevada – YES
- Boston, Massachusetts – YES
- Salt Lake City, Utah – YES
Out of the top ten domestic travel destinations, only those in Hawaii or Alaska did not offer any category three or lower properties. But I found many in the other six destinations.
These Have Just Been a Few Examples
As I mentioned before, there are countless ways to earn enough points and miles for free travel just as there are countless credit cards, hotels and airlines offering these award travel opportunities. The scenarios listed above are just examples of what is possible. Hopefully they have sparked your imagination and convinced you that you can book your next family vacation using loyalty points and miles.
***All of the above offers were accurate at time of writing this article but are subject to frequent change. Banks are always altering their offers so please take some time to get familiar with what are the best offers for your own needs.