Traveling and How We Cut Costs to Enjoy More

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One thing on my bucket list is to travel the country.  Why wait until I am retired to explore this vast country of ours?  I want it now! (My impersonation of Veruca Salt).  How do we get to travel and reduce our costs of staying in hotels and flying?  Travel Rewards programs are the answer.   It doesn’t come easy and you have to do some travel to collect points to redeem for a free night’s stay or a free flight.

Two of the Hotel Rewards programs that I belong to are Hilton Honors and Wyndham Rewards.  I’ve been a member of Hilton Honors for over 17 years and there are many hotels with different point amounts to get a free night stay.  Wyndham is different, it is 15,000 points for a free night at any of their hotels.  So why not stay at a 5 star hotel instead of a lower grade brand.

It seem hard to get accumulate points to get a free room, but if you travel a lot, you can collect points.  And both have branded credit cards that also help in collecting points.  We only have the Hilton Honors credit card.  My wife works for Wyndham, so she can also collect extra points for going above and beyond.  Hence, the reason she likes to always stay in a Wyndham branded hotel.  We’ve gotten about five free night’s stays so far this year.

As for airlines, the same thing.  You can receive miles for traveling and if you use their branded credit cards, it all adds up.  My wife has the United Airlines credit card so that is the airline we take when we travel by air.  Other than, when she has to travel for work (and the company pays), we haven’t paid for a flight in a few years.  But then again, I love to travel by car.  And no, I am not a member of any Rental Car rewards program or have their branded credit card.

I also collect miles with JetBlue and have been a rewards member for a long time, but lost my accumulated points for not flying with them in years.  But I am still hopeful, I will get enough points to fly free with JetBlue.  But how do I collect miles with JetBlue if I don’t fly?  They have a survey site where you can collect miles.  It is called JetOpinions.  I should also mention that United has a survey site and I acquire miles there too.  It is called Opinion Miles Club.  The difference between the two is that Jet Opinions will still award you 2 or 3 miles if you are not a match for survey.  Opinion Miles only awards miles if you are a match and complete a survey.

And if you like to travel by train, Amtrak has a Guest Rewards program also.  You can acquire points by travel or use their branded credit card.  I haven’t traveled by train since leaving NYC, so I cash cashed out my points for gift cards.

Other ways to save on hotel rooms, rental cars and other travel is to join AAA or AARP.  We are members of both and I used to enjoy getting a free donut at Dunkin’ Donuts with my AARP card but they discontinued that in February 2018.