2024: Year In Travel

Our 2024 year in travel was epic, all thanks to points and miles! Let’s go over the cards we opened and the trips we took.

Cards we opened in 2024

In total, Ryan and I opened 12 cards in 2024. I opened seven, and he opened five. We like to focus on flexible points, especially thanks to the Chase Ink Business cards. We opened four of those cards between the two of us – two cards each. Besides that, we opened a good amount of co-branded hotel and airline cards, plus some Amex cards (a first for us!) to diversify our options and earn other types of flexible points.

MY CARDS

In order, here are the cards I opened in 2024:

• The World of Hyatt Credit Card
• American Express® Business Gold Card
• IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card
• Ink Business Cash® Credit Card
• Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card
• Barclays AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard®
• Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card

RYAN’S CARDS

Here are Ryan’s cards for the year:

• American Express® Business Gold Card
• Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card
• Ink Business Cash® Credit Card
• Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
• American Express® Green Card

Trips we took in 2024

The points we earned from all of those cards helped us book some of our trips for 2024, but many of them were to earn points for a two-week Asia trip we’re taking in the fall of 2025. We typically book trips around a year in advance, which means that we have to earn the points before that. So, the points for our 2024 trips were mostly earned in 2023, with a few exceptions.

Here are the trips we took this year and the points we used for them.

Disneyland

Our kid’s main Christmas present in 2023 was a Disneyland trip in January 2024. We used points to cover the cost of hotels and park tickets. We live close enough to drive, so we didn’t need flights.

HOTEL

We stayed at the Hotel Indigo Anaheim (an IHG property). We earned the points for this stay by opening an IHG One Rewards Premier Business Credit Card. I love this card because it doesn’t count against Chase’s 5/24 rule, and it has a solid welcome offer. Plus, cardholders get the fourth night free, so we only had to use our points for three nights! There is also a personal version of the card.

We paid 99,000 IHG points for our four-night stay.

PARK TICKETS

We used Capital One Miles to cover the cost of three-day park tickets for four of us. We purchased the tickets through Undercover Tourist so that they coded as a travel purchase on our card statement, which makes them eligible to cover with miles. Tickets purchased directly from Disney code as entertainment, which means that miles can’t be used to cover the cost.

We both opened a Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card to earn the miles, plus we referred some friends and family to the card, which gave us some extra miles.

We redeemed 180,000 Capital One Miles to cover the cost of four tickets. We used cash earned from signing up for bank checking bonuses to cover the cost of the other two tickets.

Check out my free Disney on Points guide here.

Hawaii (Honolulu)

In the fall of 2023, Southwest ran a huge sale on flights to Hawaii. I jumped on it and booked us a semi-last-minute trip in January 2024.

FLIGHTS

We flew Southwest for only 3,500 points per person per way. Crazy!! We earned the points by opening multiple Chase Ink Business cards throughout 2023 and transferring the points to Southwest.

HOTEL

Normally, a Hawaii trip would mean my favorite Southwest + Hyatt combo. However, since we had points left from our IHG business cards, we used them for two rooms at the Holiday Inn Express Waikiki. It was not fancy by any means, but it was FREE! Once again, we stayed for four nights so that we got the fourth night free. The hotel also included free breakfast, which is a huge money saver for my big family in Hawaii. We paid 101,000 points per room per night.

Los Cabos

Every March, Hyatt changes its award categories and moves properties up or down. In 2023, when they announced the big category changes coming to Hyatt all-inclusives, I knew I needed to book a trip before the prices went up, so I booked four nights at the Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos.

FLIGHTS

We flew roundtrip from LAX to SJD for only 17,000 points plus $131 per person. I booked the flights through Virgin Atlantic but we flew on Delta. There weren’t tickets for our exact dates; the only option was dates one week apart. So what’s a girl to do? Add on extra vacation days, of course!

HOTEL

I added three extra nights to the beginning of our trip, and we stayed at the Hyatt Place Los Cabos for 19,500 points. This hotel is just down the street from the Hyatt Ziva, so we just walked between the two.

I booked two rooms for four nights at the Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos for 92,000 points each. Room occupancy is for two people, so at check-in we added one additional child per room, which cost $98 per kid per night.

We used our favorite Chase points for the whole trip.

Disneyland

Every year, we do a kid-free trip to the Food and Wine Festival at Disneyland. For this trip, we stayed at the Hyatt House Anaheim, which is my favorite hotel option near Disneyland. It’s big, clean, walking distance, and has free breakfast. We used 45,000 Chase points to book three nights. We paid cash for our park tickets.

San Francisco

One of the other Christmas 2023 presents for our kids was an AJR concert in San Francisco. We live close enough to drive, so we only needed a hotel. We used 40,000 points transferred from Chase to book two nights at the Hyatt Place San Francisco Downtown.

San Diego

For my birthday, we went to one of my favorite cities – San Diego. Once again, we drove, so we only needed points to book a hotel. We took advantage of IHG’s fourth night free (again!) and stayed four nights at the Holiday Inn Express San Diego Downtown. I did a full trip recap in this post.

New York

I have family in New Jersey, just outside of NYC, so we try to visit them once a year. NYC isn’t Ryan’s favorite, so this year, I just took three of the kiddos by myself. Our other kiddo wanted to stay home with Dad. We were able to stay with my cousin, so I only needed to book flights.

FLIGHTS

I booked roundtrip flights from LAX to EWR for 25,000 points plus $40 per person. I booked the flights through Air Canada, but we flew on United. At the time of booking, there was a 20% Chase transfer bonus to Air Canada, so we only had to transfer 81,000 points.

Ireland/N. Ireland

In October, we took a kid-free trip to Ireland with our best friends. We flew roundtrip on American Airlines for 60,000 points per person. Taxes were just $5.60, but we paid to upgrade to Main Cabin Extra seats for $328 per person. We stayed in multiple Hyatt and IHG properties. I recapped the whole trip, including the cards we opened, in this post.

Dallas

In November, I went to Dallas to be a speaker at the TravelMore Conference. My hotel room was included in my speaker package, so I only needed to book flights. I flew roundtrip on Southwest from FAT to DAL for 23,000 points transferred from Chase.

Palm Springs

Our final trip of the year and our kids’ Christmas present was a three-night stay at the Grand Hyatt Indian Wells Resort and Spa in Palm Springs. I booked our stay for 69,000 Hyatt points, which I earned from opening the World of Hyatt card and putting spending on it.

Wrapping Up

2024 was an incredible year for us. It was our biggest year in travel yet, with the most trips we’ve ever taken in one year!

We earned 1.3 million points from opening new cards (check out my Steal My Strategy freebie to learn how to do the same), redeemed a total of 1.3 million points (so it was basically a wash with points earned and points redeemed. Ha!), and saved over $35,000.

I will never get over the opportunities that points and miles have created for our family!