A Real-Life Look at Award Travel for a Family of Five Using Points and Miles: Every Point Earned, Redeemed, and Trip Taken.

2025 was a great travel year for our family, and nearly every trip was made possible with points and miles. In this year-in-review, I’m sharing a full breakdown of how we made it happen: the points we redeemed, the points we earned, every credit card we opened (and closed), where we stayed, our travel awards for the year, airline and hotel status earned, the countries and destinations we visited, and my goals for 2026! I aim to be as transparent as possible, and I earn points the same way I teach my audience to earn them.

This is my personal points and miles strategy, and I wouldn’t recommend copying it exactly—especially if you’re new. The cards I opened in 2025 were based on elevated welcome offers, timing, and my 5/24 status. At this point, I’ve already opened most of the major cards available, with only a few left on my list.

This recap is meant to show that you can continue earning points and traveling year after year, even when you’ve been doing this for a long time.

And if you’re just getting started, remember this: the easiest way to earn a large number of points is through credit card welcome bonuses. If you need help figuring out which cards make sense for you, please reach out through Instagram DM, or check out my current best offers linked in the header.

Credit Cards We Opened in 2025

How We Tracked Everything:

Tip: We keep track of all cards, approvals, and bonuses using the FREE Travel Freely app. It makes managing multiple cards (especially with two players) incredibly easy.

Melissa — 10 Cards

• Citi Strata Elite — 100,000
• Amex Delta Gold Business — 90,000
• Chase Ink Business Unlimited — 90,000
• Barclays JetBlue Business — 80,000
• Bank of America Atmos Rewards Summit Visa Infinite — 100,000
• Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless — 5 Free Night Certificates (50k each)
• Chase Aer Lingus Visa — 100,000
• Bank of America Atmos Rewards Visa Business — 60,000
• Amex Business Gold — 120,000
• Chase Ink Business Cash — 90,000

David — 8 Cards

• Citi Strata Elite — 100,000
• Amex Delta Business Gold — 90,000
• Bank of America Atmos Rewards Summit Visa Infinite — 100,000
• Chase Ink Business Unlimited — 90,000
• Barclays JetBlue Business — 80,000
• Chase Sapphire Reserve — 100,000
• Bank of America Atmos Rewards Visa Business — 60,000
• Amex Blue Business — 15,000
  (Got this for a 25,000 referral bonus since I referred him)

We opened many late in the year:
We didn’t plan to open this many cards toward the end of 2025, but several elevated offers were too good to pass up:

• The Citi Strata Elite came down to the wire for me because of the triple dip (David got it in October)
• I picked up another Ink Unlimited at 6/24 after hearing approvals were strong, and it worked
• JetBlue Business has a two-tier bonus spread over time, so there was no rush
• Delta Business Gold had a rare No Lifetime Language offer with a 6-month spend window

Credit Cards Closed in 2025

Melissa — 4 Cards

• Bank of America Atmos Rewards Visa Business (opened in 2024; separate from above)
• Barclays Hawaiian Personal
• American Express Business Gold (opened in 2024; separate from above)
• American Express Hilton Honors Business

David — 10 Cards

• American Express Delta Business (opened in 2024; separate from above)
• American Express Business Platinum
• Bank of America Atmos Rewards Visa Business (opened in 2024; separate from above)
• Barclays Hawaiian Personal
• Barclays Hawaiian Business
• American Express Business Platinum (yes, another one)
• Citi AAdvantage Platinum Elite Business
• American Express Gold
• Chase Ink Unlimited (opened in 2024; separate from above)
• Chase Ink Preferred

Always keep your credit cards for at least one year before downgrading or closing.

Downgraded Cards

• Chase Sapphire Preferred → downgraded so David could apply for the Sapphire Reserve
• Capital One Venture Rewards

Denials (Yes, They Happen)

Tip: We were denied for a lot of cards this year—especially in February and March. Instead of taking a long break, I shifted banks and tried different issuers. Eventually, one will say yes. That said, taking a short pause can also help.

Some cards we were denied for:

• Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® (Personal)
• American Express Delta Platinum
• At least one Chase Ink (I lost track 😅)

Year-End Summary

• 18 credit cards opened
• 14 credit cards closed
• 2 cards downgraded

This is a great example of how strategy, timing, and flexibility matter—and why no two point journeys look exactly the same.

Final note: This is proof that you can open a lot of credit cards and still maintain excellent credit. Yes, your credit score may take small, temporary dips along the way, but when you pay your cards on time, in full, and open cards responsibly, your score will almost always rebound. Ours consistently stays over 800, even with this level of activity. We also took out a car loan this year and qualified for the lowest APR offered, which further shows that strong credit and points strategies can absolutely coexist.

Points Earned

In 2025, we earned 1,415,000 points from credit card welcome bonuses alone. This total includes cards that were opened in 2024 but had bonuses posted in 2025. It does not include the last few cards we opened toward the end of the year, since we haven’t completed the minimum spend on those yet.

We also earned referral points, though not as heavily as in past years. This includes roughly 200,000 Southwest referral points and about 400,000 Marriott referral points. We also referred each other and friends to several American Express cards when referral offers were elevated at 25,000 points (Amex changes referral amounts often—sometimes 15k, sometimes 25k). I don’t have an exact total for those Amex referral points.

Other Ways We Earn Points (Beyond Welcome Bonuses & Referrals)

• Minimum spend + category multipliers
  Every welcome bonus also includes the points earned from required spend and any bonus categories along the way.
• Rakuten → American Express Membership Rewards
  We earn points through Rakuten on online shopping and transfer those earnings directly to American Express Membership Rewards.
• Capital One Travel Portal
  We earned nearly 100,000 Capital One Miles through the Capital One shopping portal just over Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Don’t sleep on that shopping portal! It’s amazing!
• Amex Platinum – 5x on flights
  We use the Amex Platinum to earn 5x points on flights, typically for international or domestic flights we plan to pay cash for rather than book with points.
• Capital One Venture X – 10x on rental cars
  We book rental cars through Capital One Travel using the Venture X to earn 10x points.
• Occasional bank or checking account bonuses
  In some years, we’ve earned extra points or miles from checking account bonuses when available, though this wasn’t a major factor in 2025.
• Hyatt Bonus Promotions
  We’ve earned some additional Hyatt points just by registering for a Hyatt promotion and earning points from our stay.

All of that said, I’m not digging through every single credit card statement to calculate an exact total as I did in 2023 😅. Please forgive me. If I had to estimate, I’d say we earned around 2.5 million points in 2025, give or take. To be honest, it’s usually more than you think!

Points Redeemed

In 2025, we redeemed a total of 2,872,000 points.

Points Redemption Breakdown

• Flights: 1,900,000 points
• Hotels: 972,000 points

Hotel & Lodging Redemptions

• We used 15 free night certificates total, including 3 Marriott free night certificates.
• Because we hold several hotel cards, free night awards are a big part of our overall strategy, and we plan them into our travel so we can get great value from them.

Fine Hotels + Resorts (FHR)

• We used the Fine Hotels + Resorts program (through Amex Platinum) 5 times, maximizing the $300 annual credit on each stay.
• FHR stays included:
  • Park Hyatt Auckland (2 rooms)
  • Park Hyatt Aviara
  • Park Hyatt Melbourne (2 rooms)
• Between our Platinum cards (each with a $300 credit twice per year) and with Amex adding the additional $300 to the Business Platinum in the second half of the year, we were able to use these credits effectively.

Total Hotel Nights

• We stayed in 51 rooms using points, free night certificates, or FHR.
  (Not necessarily 51 separate nights—sometimes we needed two rooms for our family.)
• We rarely pay cash for a hotel unless we are using the $50 hotel credit from the Sapphire Preferred or another card credit, like the Citi Elite $300 credit.
• We stayed in 6 different airbnbs and we always pay cash for those and use it as a points-earning strategy instead of a points redemption.

Total Nights Away From Home

• 71 nights away total
  • 6 nights staying with family
  • 6 nights spent on planes
  • 45 nights in hotels
  • 14 nights in Airbnbs

Flights Booked With Points

• We took 46 flights in 2025.
• Most flights were booked with points.
• We typically only pay cash for in-country flights when points don’t make sense; for example:
  • Norway: 5 domestic flights (pricey but necessary)
  • Australia: 2 domestic flights
  • New Zealand: 2 domestic flights
• One rare cheap cash booking we did make (and it is a great option when short on points):
  • One-way flight from Australia for $315 per person

Business Class Flights (One-Way)

• Me: 5
• David: 4
• Kids: 2

Destinations Visited

Countries Visited — 13 Total (8 New)

• New Zealand
• Fiji
• Portugal (including Madeira & Azores)
• France (twice)
• Norway
• Austria
• Finland
• Germany
• England
• Greece
• Qatar (airport stop—yes, it counts… and I paid for a visa 😅)
• Australia

U.S. States Visited — 9 (No New Ones)

• Washington
• Florida (2x)
• California (3x)
• Alaska
• Hawaii
• South Carolina (husband and son)
• Colorado
• Georgia
• New Mexico

Trips Taken in 2025

• January: Disney World with points-and-miles friends
• February: Grand Hyatt Scottsdale
• March: New Zealand & Fiji
• April: Carlsbad — Park Hyatt Aviara
• May: Paris, Lisbon, Madeira & the Azores (girls’ trip)
• June: Paris, Strasbourg, Norway & Austria
• July: Carmel, California
• July: Alaska
• August: No travel
• September: Colorado road trip (girls’ trip)
• September / October: England & Crete (couples’ trip)
• October: Hawaii
• November: South Carolina (boys’ trip)
• November: Australia
• December: San Diego

Status Earned (and Maintained)

Hyatt

We’re planning to earn Hyatt Globalist status, but we won’t hit the required 60 nights until the end of December. We use a mix of:

• Points stays
• Spend on the Hyatt credit card
• Occasional low-cost mattress runs

Globalist perks include:

• Free parking on award stays
• Room or suite upgrades (when available)
• Free breakfast for 2 adults + 2 children
• Club lounge access at properties like Hyatt Regency and Grand Hyatt

Marriott

We’ll be maintaining Marriott Platinum status, which comes from the credit card we each hold. Even with the higher annual fee, we keep this status because:

• It includes free breakfast internationally
• We hold a lot of Marriott free night certificates
• We frequently book Marriott stays using points

IHG

We’ll continue to hold IHG Platinum Elite status, which also comes from our credit cards and pairs well with points bookings.

Hilton

We’ll maintain Hilton Gold status, which provides free breakfast at international properties for 2 people.

Airlines

We did not hold elite status with any airlines in 2025.

Best Hotels & Notable Flights of 2025

(Highlighting our favorite stays and premium flight experiences.)

You can find detailed hotel reviews in the Reviews section of my blog. My goal is to share full, honest reviews of the most popular properties you can book with points.

Standout Hotels We Stayed At:

• Park Hyatt Aviara–great stay!
• Park Hyatt Paris
• Hyatt Regency Paris Étoile
• Grand Hyatt Scottsdale– great stay!
• Hilton Queenstown Resort–great stay!
• Park Hyatt Auckland
• Fiji Marriott Resort Momi Bay
• Hilton SLH Lisbon
• Dreams Madeira–great stay!
• The Comodo (Marriott)–great stay!
• Park Hyatt Vienna
• Hyatt Carmel Highlands–great stay!
• JW Marriott Crete–best stay of the year 🏆
• Hyatt Regency Maui–great stay!
• Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort–great stay!
• Hyatt Regency Sydney
• Grand Hyatt Melbourne
• Park Hyatt Melbourne–great stay!
• Hyatt Regency Mission Bay (San Diego)
• Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego
• Hyatt Residence Club Sedona–great stay!

Business Class Flights Worth Highlighting

• Air France A350 — absolutely loved this experience
• Virgin Atlantic A330-900neo — solid and comfortable premium product
• Qatar Airways Qsuite — best flight of the year 🏆
• Finnair A350 — sleek, efficient, and very comfortable
• Lufthansa A350 (Allegris) — incredible experience flying the new business class suite seats that they upgraded us to for free (from the standard business class seat).

How Many Points Do I Have Right Now?

I’m very much an earn-and-burn traveler. When you’re planning 10+ trips a year for a family of five, sitting on a massive points balance for long periods just isn’t realistic. That said, I intentionally went hard on card openings toward the end of the year to replenish our points stash, and I’m currently holding more points (and pending points) than I usually do, which is exciting.

At any given time, I may or may not have a large balance of flexible points. There were plenty of moments this year where my flexible balances were very low, simply because we were actively booking trips. That’s normal for us.

Here’s where things stand right now:

Current Points & Miles Balances

• Hyatt: 30,000 points
• Marriott: 300,000 points
• Chase Ultimate Rewards® (combined): 95,021 points
  • Additional 90,000 points in progress
• Citi ThankYou® Points: 111,000 points
  • Additional 100,000 points in progress
• Capital One Miles: 80,000 points
  • Plus 50,000 points pending
• American Express Membership Rewards®: 23,000 points
• Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan: 120,000 miles
  • Additional 100,000 miles pending
• JetBlue TrueBlue: 120,000 points
  • Will earn an additional 40,000 points once spend is met next year
• Delta SkyMiles: 0 miles
  • Currently working on two 90,000-point welcome bonuses
• Rakuten: 45,000 points
  • Will be transferred to Bilt

Where Are We Going in 2026?

A combination of booked trips, works-in-progress, and a few ‘still up in the air’ plans 😅

Booked

• Fairbanks, Alaska — girls’ trip
• Hong Kong, Thailand & Singapore
  • Includes a business class flight on Singapore Airlines booked for the trip home 🙌

Mostly or Partially Booked

• Ireland, Montenegro, Croatia & Chamonix — mostly booked, flying economy
• Lake Tahoe — partially booked (very much subject to change 😂)
• Taiwan & Japan (possibly South Korea) — partially booked

Planned (Not Booked Yet)

• Napa Valley
• Bora Bora– trying to figure out how to squeeze in a trip to the Westin Bora Bora this year
• Iceland — girls’ trip
• Christmas Markets during Thanksgiving break
  • Planned… but still awaiting approval from my husband, he’s a no on this one 😆

Tentative / May Change

• Grand Hyatt Cayman Resort & Spa —booked but still up in the air

What Are Our Goals for 2026?

My biggest travel goal for 2026 is… to travel less. Will that actually happen? I’m not totally sure 😅 I do, after all, have a very real travel addiction, and when the points are there, it’s hard not to go. That said, over the past four years, we’ve checked off so many bucket-list destinations that it finally feels possible to slow things down a bit.

Looking ahead, especially after 2026, I’d love for our trips to be more intentional and slower-paced, staying in one place longer instead of bouncing from hotel to hotel and country to country. Even when you’re using points, constant movement adds up quickly, and slowing down can save a surprising amount of money.

Another major goal is to focus more energy on growing this business. I’ve already traveled to many of the places my audience wants to go, and I can personally show you how to get there using points and miles. I still plan to try new hotels, especially family-friendly properties, and continue sharing honest reviews, because families are looking for honest, firsthand details you can only learn by being there.

Ultimately, my goal is to step back from the nonstop travel and use what I’ve learned through personal experience to help more families travel for less. Let’s be honest, if you haven’t actually done it yourself, it’s hard to teach others how to do it well.

Thank you so much for being here and supporting my small business. I hope what I share helps you get real value from points and miles and build a more fulfilling life traveling the world with your family.

Related: How I earned 2.9 million points in 2023

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