I took one of the happiest vacations of my life for almost free, and I finally understand why everyone is so into travel rewards cards

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• In 2024, I took a two-week vacation to Albuquerque, and I used my credit card points to pay almost nothing.
• My credit card offered an intro bonus with lots of points that I earned with very little effort.
• I also used points to save on a hotel room for several nights.

During the summer of 2024, I took a two-week vacation to Albuquerque, New Mexico. This trip was one of the happiest vacations of my life. I got to spend time with wonderful friends. I ate lots of green chile burgers, blue corn stacked enchiladas, and other delicious New Mexican cuisine. And I got to see gorgeous scenes like the Santa Fe Opera and otherworldly sights like White Sands National Park and Carlsbad Caverns.

And maybe the happiest part of all was that I didn't pay for the trip with money.

That's right: I paid for (almost) 100% of the cost of my New Mexico travel adventure not with cash, but with rewards credit card points. I finally understood why people get so excited about travel rewards credit cards. The lifestyle of earning points from everyday spending became real to me in a whole new way.

Here are the travel tricks I used to book an amazing vacation with (mostly) credit card points.

I racked up points with a welcome offer

There are a lot of great credit cards that let you earn reward points from everyday purchases. But if you want to use your points specifically for travel, one of the best credit cards I've found is the Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card.

My credit card had a generous welcome offer that gave me bonus points based on my spending in the first three months after opening my account. I found that it was easy to reach the required amount just by using my card to pay monthly bills like car insurance and utilities, and for everyday spending like groceries.

After I earned the bonus point welcome offer, I kept using my card in a strategic, targeted way by making purchases from "bonus categories" that earn extra points. Over time, the extra points really add up! After a few months, I had earned enough points to cover the cost of my vacation.

I transferred points for a cheaper flight ticket

The Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card is not just a great card for earning points; it gives me flexible ways to redeem points. One good option is to use Chase Sapphire points to book travel directly through the Chase Travel portal — and my points are worth an extra 25% when redeemed this way.

But I found an even better choice to redeem my Chase credit card points for cheap travel. Chase Sapphire cards allow customers to transfer their points on a 1:1 basis to certain airline frequent flyer programs. Southwest Rapid Rewards is one of these Chase transfer partners.

I ended up getting a cheaper flight to New Mexico by converting my Chase credit card points into Southwest points than I could've gotten by paying cash. At the time, the best Southwest Airlines ticket prices were about $500 in cash, or 30,000 Rapid Rewards points. This was a perfect way to redeem my credit card points for maximum travel value, as I basically got $500 worth of airfare for $300 worth of points.

I got several nights of stay at a hotel with points

Chase Sapphire cards also have the same type of 1:1 rewards transfer partnership with World of Hyatt, the Hyatt hotel loyalty program. So for my Albuquerque lodging, I stayed at a Hyatt Place hotel and got several hotel nights with World of Hyatt loyalty points transferred over from my Chase credit card.

Sometimes you can find cheaper hotels on World of Hyatt when you pay with points instead of cash, even compared to discount hotel websites. I paid for about half of my hotel expenses in points, instead of cash.