How This Single Mom is Traveling the World in Luxury
So there's this question that I get asked ALL the time from midlife women who are single or divorced...
The short answer: YES! You absolutely can. In ways you may not have thought about before.
The key to building points with a single income household is to have a thoughtful credit card strategy, look for ways to boost extra points building (through credit card referrals), and making sure to redeem points for maximum value.
But how does this work in real life?
Meet Rebecca. She's is a Points Maven client who is a single mom with a big goal of taking her son to southeast Asia to celebrate his graduation. And she wants to get there in grand style - lie flat seats, pampering, and luxury hotels to celebrate this big milestone.
First, I paired Rebecca with another client who's also a single household points earner...this way, they could refer each other to cards and boost their points with a "Player 2." (This is also something we do within Kelly's program, Travel Freedom Academy).
Then, we created a "points portfolio" strategy with American Express, Capital One, and Chase for Rebecca to responsibly open a few new cards to build the points she needed for her flights and hotels. We chose cards that had reasonable annual fees, perks that were valuable to Rebecca, and card minimum spends that were easy to meet with her existing household expenses.
Within 6 months, Rebecca earned over 500,000 points and her credit score was going up! So, she was ready to book her flights.
She's flying one of the best business class in the world, Qatar Airways to Doha, the airline's super-cool airport hub. There, Rebecca and her son will get to hang out at one of the finest airport lounges ever - the Al Safwa First Class Lounge. (You can eat fresh sushi, take a nap in a private room with your own bathroom, and even book a jacuzzi session!)
Then, they'll fly first class from Doha to Bangkok on the double-decker A380 in first class, complete with wide, lie-flat seat, caviar, multi-course gourmet meals, and personalized service.
To book this flight, she used 190,000 points, combined from Chase and from Capital One, and transferred those points to the airline to book the ticket. And, she paid about $400 total in award fees. Cash value of the flights there? $14,300+!
On the way home, they'll sample Singapore Airlines, another top business class experience. The Singapore airport is a destination unto itself, and they will again have luxury lounge access before flying from Singapore back to JFK.
This flight is worth almost $10,000 cash and $150 in award fees. Rebecca booked this ticket by transferring points from Chase and American Express to Singapore Airlines, using our strategies.
So, think about your points being like an investment portfolio with different types of points, each valuable in their own way, with the ability to combine them for some epic redemptions.
By now, you're probably wondering how you can get results like Rebecca, to finally say YES to that bucket list trip.
First, you need to think differently about maximizing the return on what already spend each month. This involves shifting paying for expenses through responsibly opening a few strategic credit cards for racking up welcome bonus offers worth thousands in travel.
- Without carrying any interest
- Without risky strategies that jeopardize your credit
- Without spending more than you already do
