Our Points Process - How I Began

Abadia Retuerta Hotel, Spa, & Winery in Valladolid, Spain

When I first got engaged and was reading and listening to everything wedding related, I heard whisperings of the points and miles world and how much value you can get out of the extra spend you have to put out while planning a wedding. Without knowing much, I opened a card that had a high minimum spend requirement because I at least knew we would be spending a lot of money and would be able to get some points for it. With the help of podcasts and blog posts, I then realized just how valuable those points would be.

Planning a wedding is one of the best times to get into travel hacking because there is so much spend that takes place while planning a wedding. If you maximize your points earning just by simply using some of these recommended cards to pay your vendors, you can absolutely earn enough points to book yourself an incredible honeymoon. 

My husband and I were lucky enough to be able to spend two weeks traveling through Spain and France on points and miles for our honeymoon. There are so many different options and levels to choose from when booking a trip with points and miles, but we were really looking for a luxury experience that allowed us to visit some bucket list hotels and restaurants – see the details here.

I started with the Capital One Venture card. This card earned us a 100,000 point sign-up bonus plus 2x points on every dollar spent, which made it great for paying vendors. Over the next 18 months of our planning process, I dove into the travel hacking world and leared as much as I could so that we could turn our wedding spend into a trip of a lifetime. My husband and I then opened up the Chase Sapphire Prefered card, which was instrumental in booking flights like our Business class return flight and hotels like the Park Hyatt Paris Vendome. Over the 18 months we also opened up a couple AMEX and Citi cards. Check out my favorite cards here. Here’s how the points we earend from these cards become so valuable: 

How these cards earned us points:

• Big Sign Up Bonuses 

• Each of these cards had a 100,00 point signup bonus or higher when we applied for them. Signup bonuses do fluctuate, so keep an eye out for the big ones. 

• Points on All Spend

  • Using these cards to pay bills, buy groceries, and pay vendors earned us thousands of points.

My husband also owns a small business, so he was able to open up a couple of Marriott Bonvoy business credit cards along the way. Over these past two years we’ve utilized credit cards to earn points and book some incredible trips. Check out my blogs on each of our trips to see where we stayed, how we got there, and how we booked it with points and miles. 

Crystal Palace of Retiro Park, Madrid