Zaur Travel Tips

If you've been following along as I share how our family travels using points and miles, and you've been thinking, "Maybe it's finally time for me to jump in," this is your sign. ✈️

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is the card I recommend most often for beginners because it offers incredible value, flexible rewards, and makes it easy to start turning everyday spending into travel.

Right now, Chase is offering an elevated 100,000-point welcome bonus—an offer that's only been available three times. And with the promotion ending July 30, there's never been a better time to apply if you've been considering it.

Scroll through my post about why it's earned a permanent spot in my wallet and why I think it's one of the best travel rewards cards for beginners. ❤️ if you're ready, send me a message and I'll send you a referral link.

🏨 Let's talk hotels!

When people think about points and miles, they usually think about flights. But lodging can be just as expensive—sometimes even more.

For our recent trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands, Toronto, Niagara Falls, and Buffalo, we found a mix of creative ways to keep our lodging costs low.

🌴 The Ritz-Carlton Club, St. Thomas

A two-bedroom, three-bath beachfront condo for 7 nights would have cost around $10,000 if we had booked directly through the Ritz-Carlton.

Instead, we:
✔️ Booked through RedWeek, a timeshare resale marketplace, bringing the cost down to $4,300.
✔️ Used $1,800 in bank bonuses we had earned from opening checking and savings accounts.
✔️ Cashed out 100,000 points for $1,000. While cashing out points isn't usually the highest-value redemption, it was the right choice for this trip.

Our final out-of-pocket cost?

✨ $1,500 total—or just $187 per night for a spacious condo right on the beach with a full kitchen, washer and dryer, and an amazing pool.

🍁 Toronto, Niagara Falls & Buffalo

For the rest of the trip, we switched to Hyatt hotels and booked entirely with points:

🏨 Niagara Falls – 46,000 Hyatt points (about a $700 value)

🏨 Hyatt Place Toronto – 36,000 Hyatt points for two rooms for two nights (about a $1,000 value)

🏨 Hyatt Place Buffalo – 18,000 Hyatt points for two rooms for one night (about a $400 value)

Every Hyatt stay was booked by transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards® points from my favorite travel card—the Chase Sapphire Preferred®.

✨ One welcome bonus on that card is currently enough to cover all of these Hyatt stays.

The big picture?

For 6 people over 11 nights, we spent just $1,500 out of pocket on lodging.

Was everything free? Nope.

But by combining points, bank bonuses, transfer partners, and a little planning, we saved thousands of dollars and stayed in places that would have otherwise been out of our budget.

That's one of my favorite things about learning points and miles—it isn't about luxury for luxury's sake. It's about making experiences possible that might not otherwise fit your budget.

✈️ How we flew our family for about $100 instead of $3,000!

A few weeks ago we returned from an amazing trip to the U.S. Virgin Islands, Toronto, and Niagara Falls. If we had paid cash for our flights, they would have cost around $3,000. Instead, we used points and miles we had earned through credit card welcome bonuses and everyday spending, and paid only about $100 in taxes and fees.

One thing that's made the biggest difference for us is being intentional. We strategically open cards with valuable welcome bonuses and are almost always working toward our next one (while paying our balances in full). That way, when we decide to travel, the points are already there waiting.

The key is simply getting started. You don't need hundreds of thousands of points overnight—just a plan and consistency.

✨ Tomorrow I'll share how we used points and free night certificates to significantly reduce our hotel costs on this same trip!

Swipe through to see how we used miles for each flight!

Have you ever booked a trip with points and miles? I'd love to hear where you went!