Would you guys help me with a little strategy?
DH and I both got CSR cards when they were offering the 100k bonus. I currently have 114k points on my card, DH just met his $4k spend so he'll have 100k at the end of the billing cycle. He has another 25k on another Chase card that he is hoping to transfer to his CSR. We spend a reasonable amount on both of these cards on work-related travel expenses (DH travels about 25% of the time), so I'm expecting that we will have ~250k points total by June or so.
So here's the strategy help request - I would like to take my family of 5 from Virginia to Hawaii for two weeks in August, using these points as judiciously as possible while having a nice vacation. I have already purchased tickets from Seattle to Honolulu, because I got them for an awesome price ($310 each). We will be there for 14 days. I understand I'm going to have to pay for some of this trip & my points won't cover it all, but I want to get the most bang for my buck. So I'm wondering if anyone can offer some strategic advise on these questions:
- I need to get us to Seattle - is the best way to do that to go through the CSR portal, or transfer the points to another airline to do that?
- Would you prioritize using points to book flights first or book lodging? I know I will run out of points eventually - just not sure what gives me the best bang for my buck.
- I know I can use the points for other things, but it seems like paying for the actual travel/lodging (rather than using them for gift cards for food, etc) is the best use. That's correct, yes?
Thanks in advance for your help - I am definitely not a travel guru, and this process is confusing!
April