OK - it’s summer time and I guess vacation season will preoccupy our minds. Mrs Credit Card and myself will be taking a short three day vacation by ourselves without the kids (location will not be disclosed!). But travelling during peak season is always more costly. But this is where using travel rewards credit cards. This is how we will be using our reward points.

Airline tickets - For this, I am going to use my American Express Companion Ticket scheme. What happens with this is that I buy a ticket and I will get one for free. The ticket has to be at least $299. If not, then I’ll still have to pay $299. We have to pay taxes for both tickets and a ticketing fee for the companion ticket as well. But hey, buy one get one free is great. Plus, we can also get air miles even for the companion ticket.

Hotels - Well, both Mrs Credit Card and myself are marriott rewards members. We figure we will use some points and also exchange 10,000 points from our Chase Flexible Rewards Card for a $100 Marriott Rewards check. In fact, we can use 20,000 points and exchange it for a $200 marriott check.

Car Rental - We’ll be using our membership rewards points for I believe the Avis car rental. Plain and simple.

I think by the time we use our points for our airline ticket and hotel rooms, we would have no more points for auto rentals. So for this short getaway, we would save on one airline ticket, a couple of days on the hotel bill. That is probably worth about $500.

We’ll probably end up spending a few more hundred bucks on food and other stuff. I have been using reward points for my annual vacations every year and I think it is such a great money saver. Regular readers of this blog will know that I use both cash back credit cards and reward credit cards. Though I like getting cash back from using my credit card, not having to pay for an airline ticket or hotel room feels very good psychologically. Don’t forget to use your reward points and save money on your summer vacation.