In 2023, our family earned 1 million points from credit card sign ups and family related referrals.
This was my 12th year as a family travel points nerd but only my first full year as a full-time entrepreneur teaching other people how to do the same.
Here’s the full breakdown of how we earned 1 million points in 2023, with a card by card breakdown.
For the people who like all the details — note that I really don’t track my points earning very methodically. I do use the Travel Freely website to track my credit card sign ups. I actually earned more points than what I’m reporting here because I’m not including other points we earned on spending.
I’m also including my husband and my cards altogether here and not necessarily delineating who earned which bonus.
If you’re just starting out, check out my First Five Cards post, which will provide a more well-rounded card path for beginners.
Chase Ink Cards – 370,000 points
These points came from signing up for three different Chase Ink cards as well as referring each other back and forth. If you were to focus on one set of cards, focus on these.
Micah opened a Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card in late 2022 with a 100,000 point bonus and I also earned a 20,000 point referral bonus because I referred him to this card. Referrals have since gone up to 40,000 points! We also earned 15,000 points while completing the spending on this card.
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- Earn 3 points per $1 on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases on travel, shipping purchases, Internet, cable, social media and search engine advertising, and phone services
- Travel Benefits: Get 25% more when you redeem your points through Chase TravelSM, No Foreign Transaction Fees and Trip Cancellation/Trip Interruption Insurance.
- No foreign transaction fees
Learn more about this card here. Learn more about qualifying for business cards here (even without an LLC business)
Chase Ink cards are our favorite option when we have larger expenses coming that help us to meet the higher minimum spend. This card will allow you to transfer its points to all of Chase’s travel partners like Hyatt, United, Southwest, and more.
I also love the 3x earning on travel expenses and no foreign transaction fees — along with a good suite of benefits.
This card used to offer 100k points but required a $15,000 spend. An offer for 120,000 points after spending $8000 in three months ran from July to early September 2024.
In early 2023, we opened a Chase Ink Business Cash® Credit Card which had a 90,000 point welcome bonus. We earned another 20,000 point referral bonus for this card. Then we opened a Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card just two months later while it still offered the 90,000 point welcome bonus. During the spending for these cards, we earned another 15,000 points.
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- If you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, you can transfer the Ink points to the Sapphire card to get all the airline and hotel transfer benefits!
This offer is a lot easier to earn than other cards in the Ink family due to the longer time you have to do the full amount of spending.
The bonus for this card is listed as cash back. But if you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, you can actually combine the “cash back” points with your Sapphire card. (If you have a Chase Ink Business Premier® Credit Card you cannot combine the points.)
You can get a Chase Ink Business Cash® Credit Card and Chase Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card . You can also get multiple if you have multiple businesses. Don’t forget to refer your spouse to this one! Full guide here
For many years, the bonus on this card offered $500 after you spent $3000 in 3 months. The offer changed to $750 after spending $7500 in 3 months during the pandemic. In fall 2022, the offer went to $900 after spending $6,000 in 3 months. In fall 2023, we saw the $900 offer return from September to mid-January 2024.
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- If you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, you can transfer the Ink points to the Sapphire card to get all the airline and hotel transfer benefits!
- Earn unlimited 1.5% Cash Back rewards on every purchase
Chase Ink cards are our favorite option when we have larger expenses coming that help us to meet the higher minimum spend. The bonus for this card is listed as cash back.But if you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, you can actually combine the “cash back” points with your Sapphire card. (If you have a Chase Ink Business Premier® Credit Card you cannot combine the points.)
You can get a Chase Ink Business Cash® Credit Card and Chase Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card . You can also get multiple if you have multiple businesses. Don’t forget to refer your spouse to this one!
For many years, the bonus on this card offered $500 after you spent $3000 in 3 months. The offer changed to $750 after spending $7500 in 3 months during the pandemic. In fall 2022, the offer went to $900 after spending $6,000 in 3 months. In fall 2023, we saw the $900 offer return from September to mid-January 2024.
Chase Ink cards are some of my very favorite cards to earn points with! That’s because each person can earn bonuses on all of them. Even people with a small side hustle can qualify. And the points – Ultimate Rewards – are my favorite points because they transfer to Hyatt and lots of other partners.
Hilton Cards – 320,000 points
Hilton points are not nearly as valuable as Chase Ultimate Rewards® but these were easy to earn. Micah and I earn opened Hilton Honors American Express Business Cards. We chose to open these primarily because we had some bills due and wanted to earn something from our spending! American Express cards often give an instant card number which meant we could use them right away. Since American Express generally doesn’t pull your credit report if you are an existing customer, and because these also don’t report to our credit reports because they are business cards, these don’t affect our credit score or 5/24 score at all!
We earned bonuses of 135,000 points, 165,000 points, and a 20,000 point referral bonus.
Earn 130,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points after you spend $8,000 on eligible purchases with your Card in the first 6 months of Card Membership
(Reader Referral) All information about The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card has been collected independently by Katie’s Travel Tricks. This card is no longer available through Katie’s Travel Tricks.
Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com
- Earn 12X Hilton Honors Bonus Points on eligible Hilton purchases.
- Enjoy complimentary Hilton Honors™ Gold Status with your Hilton Honors Business Card.
- You may receive an upgrade to Hilton Honors Diamond status if the total eligible purchases on your Card Account during a calendar year reach $40,000 or more.
- As a Hilton Honors American Express Business Card Member, you can enroll to receive complimentary National Car Rental® Emerald Club Executive® status through the link on your American Express online account. After you’re enrolled, you can reserve a rental car by calling National Car Rental directly, using your travel service, or by booking online or through the National Car Rental mobile app. Terms apply
- Earn 5X Hilton Honors Bonus Points on other purchases made using the Hilton Honors Business Card on the first $100,000 in purchases each calendar year, 3X points thereafter.
- Get up to $60 in statement credits each quarter for purchases made directly with a property in the Hilton portfolio on your Hilton Honors American Express Business Card.
Enrollment is required for select benefits
This is a great way to earn a Hilton points and not affect your 5/24 score! Hilton points are especially valuable when you can stay 5 nights — the 5th night will be free. You can also use them to stay at a lot of Small Luxury Hotels, independent hotels around the world.
Ended 6/5: 175K welcome offer. Another recent good welcome offer was 150k welcome offer + a free night award.
American Express Membership Rewards® – 221,000 points
These points came from three sources: new card sign ups, retention offers, and opening an American Express Business checking account. I opened a business checking account which earned me 30,000 bonus points. Micah opted to keep The Platinum Card® from American Express one more year when he was offered a 40,000 point retention offer. I opened The Business Platinum Card® from American Express which earned me 151,000 points from the welcome bonus and spending throughout the year.
Earn 150,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $20,000 in eligible purchases on the Card within the first 3 months of Card Membership.
Note: Sometimes these links will show some people higher offers. You can also test them in other browsers or incognito.
(Reader Referral) All information about The Business Platinum Card® has been collected independently by Katie’s Travel Tricks. The Business Platinum Card® is no longer available through Katie’s Travel Tricks.
Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com
- The American Express Global Lounge Collection(R) can provide an escape at the airport. With complimentary access to more than 1,400 airport lounges across 140 countries and counting, you have more airport lounge options than any other credit card issuer on the market as of 10/2024. Access is limited to eligible Card Members.
- Unlock over $1,000 in statement credits on select purchases, including tech, recruiting and wireless in the first year of membership with the Business Platinum Card(R). Enrollment required. See how you can unlock over $1,000 annually in credits on select purchases with the Business Platinum Card(R).
- Fly like a pro with a $200 Airline Fee Credit. Select one qualifying airline to receive up to $200 back per year on baggage fees and other incidentals.
- NEW! Make the Business Platinum Card(R) work even harder for you. Hilton For Business members get up to $200 back per calendar year when you make an eligible purchase at Hilton properties across the globe. Benefit enrollment required.
- $199 CLEAR(R) Plus Credit: Use your card and get up to $199 in statement credits per calendar year on your CLEAR(R) Plus Membership (subject to auto-renewal) when you use the Business Platinum Card(R).
This has a very high spend as well as high annual fee. BUT may be worth it for some people, especially if you can leverage the statement credits. The airline incidental statement credit is per calendar year. That means most people can actually get the airline credit twice in the first year of holding the card, up to $200 each time.
The offers on this card fluctuate greatly. It has been as low as 80,000 points.
175,000 Membership Rewards® Points
Earn 175,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $8,000 on purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership.†
Resy Link for 100k + 10x on Restaurants
All information about The Platinum Card® from American Express®has been collected independently by Katie’s Travel Tricks. The Platinum Card® from American Express® is no longer available through Katie’s Travel Tricks.
Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com
- Up to $200 annual airline incidental statement credit, enrollment required
- $240 Digital Entertainment Credit: Get up to $20 back in statement credits each month on eligible purchases made with your Platinum Card® on one or more of the following: Disney+, a Disney Bundle, ESPN+, Hulu, The New York Times, Peacock, and The Wall Street Journal. Enrollment required.
- $199 CLEAR® Plus Credit: CLEAR® Plus helps to get you to your gate faster at 50+ airports nationwide and get up to $199 back per calendar year on your Membership (subject to auto-renewal) when you use your Card. CLEARLanes are available at 100+ airports, stadiums, and entertainment venues.
- Lounge access to Centurion Lounges and Priority Pass lounges and more, enrollment required
- Hilton Honors gold status, enrollment required
- Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite Status, enrollment required
- Enjoy Uber VIP status and up to $200 in Uber savings on rides or eats orders in the US annually. Uber Cash and Uber VIP status is available to Basic Card Member only. Benefit renews annually. Enrollment required. Terms Apply. You must have downloaded the latest version of the Uber App and your eligible Platinum Card from American Express must be a method of payment in your Uber account. The Amex benefit may only be used in United States.
This has a high annual fee. BUT may be worth it for some people, especially if you can leverage the airline, digital entertainment, and Uber credits. The airline incidental statement credit is per calendar year. That means most people can actually get the $200 airline credit twice in the first year of holding the card.
Just note that if you get this offer, you’ll become ineligible to earn a welcome offer on the Gold or Green cards. To maximize your points earned, start with the Green card, then get the Gold, then this one.
The offers on this card fluctuate greatly. It has been as low as 80,000 points. Typically personal referral links show higher offers than affiliate links and I always try to keep my pages updates with these.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card – 99,000 points
Since 48 months had passed since Micah had last earned a welcome bonus on a Chase Sapphire card, he was able to apply for a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card when it had a limited time bonus of 80,000 points. He also earned 4,000 points from spending and I earned 15,000 points because I referred him to the card.
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- No foreign transaction fees
- Enjoy benefits such as 5x on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, 3x on dining, select streaming services and online groceries, 2x on all other travel purchases, 1x on all other purchases, and $50 annual Hotel Credit, plus more.
- Great transfer options to Hyatt, United, Southwest, and more
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027. Plus $10/month for non-restaurant orders. More here.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is THE top beginner card I recommend for miles & points. The travel protections it provides is top tier, too. Get this card early in your travel points journey, it’s a keeper. It’s the first card in my Three Year Plan.
The points you’ll earn are easy to redeem and it’s also easy to keep earning them. Our favorite use is to transfer them to Hyatt for hotel stays but you can use them for cash back, for any travel expense, or for airlines.
It has a fun extra benefit through December 31, 2027: $10 a month for non-restaurant purchases at DoorDash. Read here how to use this benefit.
If you want to learn more about it, check out Season 1 of my podcast — I dive into the benefits and how to use the points.
The standard bonus is 60,000 points. An offer for 60,000 points + $300 credit towards Chase Travel in the first year ran from September – early November 2024.
An offer for 75,000 points ran from early May – mid June 2024.
A publicly available online offer for 80,000 points ran from March 2023-May 2023.
An 80,000 point bonus ended in Fall 2022.
An offer for 100,000 points ended in Fall 2021.
World of Hyatt Business Credit Card – 90,000 points
In the fall, the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card had a limited time offer when you could earn up to 75,000 points. After spending, we had earned 90,000 points total. This card also helped us re-earn our Hyatt Globalist status.
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- Up to 9 points total per $1 spent at Hyatt – 4 Bonus Points per $1 on qualified purchases at Hyatt hotels & up to 5 Base Points per $1 from Hyatt as a World of Hyatt member
- 2 Bonus Points per $1 spent in your top three spend categories each quarter.
- 2 Bonus Points per $1 spent on fitness club and gym memberships
- 1 Bonus Point per $1 spent on all other purchases.
- Up to $100 in Hyatt statement credits — spend $50 or more at any Hyatt property and earn $50 statement credits up to two times each anniversary year.
- 5 Tier-Qualifying night credits toward status and Milestone rewards for every $10,000 you spend in a calendar year.
- World of Hyatt Discoverist status for as long as your account is open. Plus, Discoverist status to up to five employees
- Member FDIC
I don’t like that it has a higher annual fee than the personal version and doesn’t come with an annual free night. However, this card is a great option for high spenders on a business card who want to become Globalists. Since you’ll earn 5 elite night credits for every $10,000 you spend, it helps get those 60 elite night credits you need for Globalist faster. The two $50 credits per year are a decent benefit — if you spend money on food at Hyatt properties they are easy to redeem.
When this card was released, it had an offer for 75k points that required $10,000 spend. In fall 2021 and 2022, it also offered double elite night credits. The standard offer is 60,000 points after spending $5,000. In fall 2023, there was an offer that added another 15k points for spending $12,000 total. The same offer returned in fall 2024.
How we completed spending requirements
A few years ago, we would not have been able to meet all the spending requirements to earn the bonuses on these cards. This year we had a lot of expenses. A lot of these have increased with being self-employed. This was my first full year of being full-time self-employed with this business. My husband is also self-employed this year as a contract nurse.
An example of some expenses we put on our credit cards:
- Monthly Expenses (gas, shopping, groceries)
- Kids Activities (Tae Kwon Do lessons, Swim Team, etc)
- Property Taxes ($10,000 for us between our home and rental property)
- Rental Property Expenses (Including a $4,000 special assessment for a new roof)
- Charitable Donations (we give 10% of our income to non-profits)
- Health Insurance ($1500 a month for our policy we buy on the exchange)
- Quarterly Estimated Tax Payments (I pay a fee to pay these with a credit card)
- Lots of expenses for setting up our new Airbnb
Previously, one of my favorite ways to “spend” money was to open a new bank account that allowed you to fund it with a credit card. You can find a full list here of options but be sure to read data points carefully to check what’s currently working.
What I’m opening in 2024
In 2024, we are already working on three credit card bonuses from cards we opened in late 2023. I did open another Ink card (this time with a 40,000 point referral!) for a different business and also opened an Aeroplan® Credit Card which I plan to use for travel expenses. Micah also opened a CitiBusiness® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®.
If you’re trying to calculate our 5/24 scores, you’ll noticed that in 2023, we each only opened one personal credit card and all the others were business credit cards. That means we just added one card to our 5/24 count.
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- -No foreign transaction fees
- -500 bonus points for every $2,000 you spend in a calendar month – up to 1,500 points per month
- -Earn 3x on for each dollar spent at grocery stores, on dining at restaurants, and Air Canada directly.
- -Redeem points for a statement credit to cover travel purchases made with your Card, such as hotels, car rentals, ride-share, flights and more. There is no limit to the amount of points cardmembers can redeem through December 31, 2025. Each point is worth 1.25 cents which means you can get $1,250 in statement credits for every 100,000 points redeemed.
- -Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® or NEXUS Fee Credit (up to $120 credit every 4 years)
With the Pay Yourself Back option for travel, a 60k bonus on this card can give you $750+ towards any travel expense! This makes it a great option for cruises, Airbnbs, or other travel expenses. You can also use the Aeroplan miles to get some great deals on flights, including on Star Alliance partners. But note that the Pay Yourself Back option has been extended through December 31, 2025 for a max of 200,000 points redeemed.
Previous offers on this card included 60,000 points, 70,000 points — or a pair of flight certificates worth up to 50k each.
Ended 1/17/24: Earn 75,000 points after you spend $4,000 (and option to earn another 25k by spending $20k total)
Ended 5/23/24: Earn 60,000 points after spending $3,000.
Ended 7/17/24: Earn 70K bonus points after you spend $3K in the first 3 months. Apply for your 1st Aeroplan card from 7/8-7/17, and earn 40% bonus points on purchases for 40 days on up to $40K spent.
Earn 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 5 months from account opening.
- First checked bag free on domestic American Airlines itineraries for you and up to 4 travel companions on the same reservation
- Preferred boarding
Even at the standard 65,000 offer,I leave it on this page because it is a good one to get to stock up on AA miles.
It’s not a card I keep long term (though you might want to if you find the free bags helpful). I usually get it every 48 months as the terms allow. I generally wait for an offer of 65,000 miles or higher.
65,000 miles is the standard offer on this card. The highest we have seen is 75,000 after spending $6,000 in 6 months. A 75,000 mile offer ended in June 2024. A 75,000 mile offer ended in January 2025.
Katie, your content is invaluable! The breakdown of how you assess card sign up bonuses as well as bonus history is the best I’ve seen. THANK YOU! I will continue to use your referral links because w you’re the best in the business!
Thank you!!
Katie, I appreciate your break down on how you reached 1,000,000 points. I’ve been working on my points for a year seeing how I can manage travel hacking myself. It’s very interesting to me and look forward to my journey in learning more. Thank you for your sharing.
Thanks Lisa!
Hi Katie, i see that you’ve not listed additional fee while paying property tax, can you share how you do it, because I always end up paying 1.5% fee to pay via Cc
If you go through Paypal Bill Pay there is no fee (if your county accepts it), https://katiestraveltricks.com/paypal-bill-pay/
How long do you typically wait between opening business cards?
If it is the same bank, I generally space out at least 3 months. But I open different banks closer together sometimes even the same day to see if the inquires will combine.