Each month, I’m recapping exactly how many points and miles we earned—and where they all came from. I’ll break down the points we earned through welcome bonuses, promotions and everyday spending so you can see the real strategy behind growing our balances.

Some months will be much bigger than others, but that’s the reality of earning points. My goal is to give you a transparent look at how we continue building our points balances throughout the year and how we plan to earn over a million points each year. And how you can do this too!

Rules

One important note: For consistency, I’m counting rewards in the month they posted, not necessarily the month the spending occurred. Venture miles post as the purchases are made, while most of our other points and miles are counted when the statement closes.

July 2026

Welcome Bonuses Earned:

Capital One Venture Business Card: We earned 75,000 points after spending $7,500 in 3 months. There is a second tier bonus but I’m not sure we want to spend that much. Annual fee is $95.

Atmos™ Rewards Visa Signature® Business Card: We earned 80,000 points after spending $5,000 in 3 months. Annual fee is $95.

Hyatt Promotions:

I’m chasing Globalist status again this year, so I completed at least 12 local nights in Phoenix while room rates were cheap. I was essentially buying status, but at a much lower cost than I would have paid during peak season.

If you try this strategy, look for inexpensive rates that can be stacked with promotions. During my July stays, I earned 2,000 bonus points for every two-night stay, plus another 3,000 bonus points for every three qualifying nights. Those promotions earned me around 20,000 points.

I earned the remaining 9,522 points from my paid Hyatt Place stays and the money we spent on dining at the Park Hyatt St. Kitts.

Total Hyatt points earned: 29,522

Monthly Spend:

We had more expenses than usual in July because we traveled quite a bit. Our spending included food, gas, activities and other travel-related purchases.

We earned approximately 13,000 Venture miles from working toward the minimum spending requirement on the Venture Business card. Since the card earns 2 miles per dollar, those miles were earned in addition to the welcome bonus. Keep in mind that Venture miles post immediately even though the bill will not be due until the following month.

We also earned 3,768 Chase points from a StubHub purchase made through Paze, which was offering 10X points. I also went through Rakuten for additional rewards, and I’ll receive a $150 statement credit on each of my Chase Sapphire Reserve® Cards.

Another 5,700 Atmos Rewards points posted in July from spending toward that card’s minimum spending requirement. However, that spending technically happened during the previous month.

The remaining 5,673 points came from our other monthly purchases and category multipliers which included 4x on travel. We paid for some flights taxes on our Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card.

Total points earned from spending: 28,141

Referral Points

I had zero referral points in July.

Rakuten

I earned very little Rakuten points and none posted in July.

Total for July: 212,663

Continue following along or bookmark this page as I’ll be updating it monthly.

Keep reading…

How We Traveled the World in 2025 Using Points and Miles (Full Year in Review)