One Card, Five Flights, and a Whole New Way to Travel

In this episode, Genni is joined by Kelsey Graves, a travel-loving mom, podcast host, and content creator who’s made unforgettable family trips possible, starting with just one travel rewards credit card.

Kelsey shares how opening the Chase Sapphire Preferred card turned into five free flights to NYC for her family, a luxe couples escape to Cabo, and a summer road trip to the Grand Canyon and Page, Arizona—all booked with points. She’s learned to earn smarter, redeem better, and enjoy bougie travel without the bougie budget.

This episode is for you if:

• You’re brand new to points and miles
• You’ve been sitting on one card and wondering what’s next
• You want to travel more without going into debt
• You’re craving real-life, beginner-friendly examples of how travel rewards actually work

✨ What You’ll Learn:

• How Kelsey used one card to unlock multiple redemptions
• Her first big redemption using Chase points through the portal (and whether she’d do it again)
• How she flew a family of 5 to NYC using points + the Southwest Companion Pass
• What cards she’s using now and how she organizes her strategy
• Tips for emailing hotels to request upgrades (and how it worked!)

Timestamps: 

• 00:00 Introduction to Lazy Budget Travel Tips
• 00:23 Meet Kelsey Graves: Travel Expert and Content Creator 
• 02:16 Kelsey's Journey into Points and Miles 
• 08:00 First Redemption Experience: Chase Sapphire Preferred 
• 15:59 Southwest Points and Companion Pass Success 
• 21:03 Strategizing Points for Future Travels 
• 23:58 Family Travel Plans and RV Adventures 
• 24:36 Maximizing Points for Summer Trips 
• 25:41 Exploring the Grand Canyon with Points 
• 27:25 Hyatt Place Page Lake Powell Stay 
• 28:29 Emailing for Upgrades and Benefits 
• 31:28 Final Redemption: Grand Hyatt Scottsdale 
• 33:57 Couple's Trip to Cabo: The Cape Thompson Hotel 
• 38:29 Tips for Newbies in Points and Miles 
• 41:46 Rapid Fire Questions and Dream Redemptions 
• 47:42 Final Thoughts and Where to Follow 

Follow Kelsey:
Instagram: @kelsey_graves
Podcast: Trip Tales – real people sharing real trip stories

Resources Mentioned:

• Lazy Budget Travel Tips Facebook Group
• Applying for Business Credit Cards (even if you don't think you have a business) Blog Post

Transcript

 Kelsey - One Card, Five Flights, and a Whole New Way to Travel

Kelsey - One Card, Five Flights, and a Whole New Way to Travel

[00:00:00]

 welcome back to the Lazy Budget Travel Tips podcast. I'm your host Genni Franklin, and today's episode is proof that You Don't Need a Dozen Credit Cards Elite Status or years of experience. To start saving big on Travel, joined by

Kelsey Graves

A travel loving mom and content creator who knows how to make family adventures unforgettable and affordable. She writes about the best resorts, restaurants, and destinations for families. And yes, she's all about carving out time for couples trips too, as she would say. let's be honest, we all need a break from our kids sometimes. We first connected online when

connected online when

podcast Trip Tales,

Trip,

shared the details of an amazing trip I took to Spain. Business class flights [00:01:00] included, booked entirely on points of miles. And during that

and during that interview

own Points of Miles journey, and I knew her story would be relatable and

she.

for my show. today

So today she,

single credit card turned into five free flights and opened up a whole new world of travel possibilities for her family. So if you're brand

if you're brand New

just

Miles are just looking,

win to get excited about,

get excited about

is

episode is definitely

you. So let's

so let's get into it.

for being on the show.

Thank you so much for having me on your podcast. This is fun to be on the other side.

I know,

I know, I know. And you're definitely every

in me

part in me, even

podcast. So huge thanks to you for getting on the phone with me for like 30.

I'm proud of you. It's a journey to get a podcast [00:02:00] out into the world where people can actually listen to it on their phone. So congratulations. Thank you

much. You were a really

so much.

So, um, but anyways, so let's get

So

what got you interested in

you?

of Miles and how you got to where we are now.

Yeah. Well, I feel like I'm gonna have to reveal some embarrassing choices I made in the past as I was learning, which we'll get to. But I would say, you know, I. For the last 12 years, I've been a content creator and it's kind of gone around in different areas, but over the last few years I've really niched down to travel, family travel, like you said, couples travel.

I love to travel. I always have for far too long. I paid cash for everything, and I kind of just thought that's how it was. I would work hard. My husband and I would work hard and pay for a trip. And we had credit cards, kind of just like you do as you build credit, but my husband was really big on wanting cash back.

He wa he's a finance [00:03:00] guy and he was like, that's the smartest way to do it. Like you want cash back in your pocket so you can choose what to do with the cash. And I. Was like, fine, whatever. So we were always getting cash back for years and years and years. Then I got into this travel world, decided I wanted to start a podcast, and so started the Trip Tales podcast about a year ago, which is not a Points and Miles podcast.

It's just a destination podcast. So each week a real person comes on to share their real trip story, just like you sharing about your mother-daughter trip to Spain and all the details, how they got there. Where they stayed, what they did, what they ate, what they loved, and more importantly, what they didn't love and what they would do differently next time.

And in the course of this podcast over the last year, I've had a lot of points and miles girlies like you come on, that we've connected through Instagram or we've connected through the podcast world. And I just slowly started kind of hearing things here and there. So then I started listening to other points in Miles podcast and kind of digging in a little [00:04:00] deeper now for like all your listeners, I will say I'm still learning as we all are.

It's such a kind of a black hole of a world where you can just. Deep dive into so many different directions, but I feel like I've started to get my footing and I've started to make better decisions than I did in the past. Although, as everybody says, there's no bad redemption because at least you got a free trip, right?

no such thing as a bad redemption. Amen.

Yeah. So I would say that's kind of my journey. I've learned over the last year in my own travel content creation world, and now I'm starting to reap the benefits and be smarter with my cards and my decisions. And I'm honestly getting organized right now because I wasn't very organized before.

Yeah, and I think it's

Yeah.

And I think it's hard to get

too, because you don't even know what you're doing, you

no.

to organize.

No. Now I finally have a spreadsheet, but it's probably pretty basic compared to a lot of points in Miles people. But still, I've got the cards I've opened, I've got the cards. My husband's opened forever. [00:05:00] We just shared cards. We didn't do player one, player two. I didn't even know those terms until like a year ago.

So now I'm like, okay, we gotta get organized. I'm gonna have one. Spreadsheet, you're gonna have a different spreadsheet. We're gonna refer each other to stuff, and it's working and it's fun. Once it starts working, it's like, oh, this is exciting because we can still pay for some travel, but look like half the trip is free, or the flights for the family of five are free.

So it's really changing things for us and giving us money back in our pocket, you know, to do other things in our regular life or to save or to put towards the trip in a different way that we wouldn't have been able to otherwise. Yeah.

And the

Yeah. And

that a lot of people

the thing

the way that you think as far as like getting started,

getting started, like

right way, or like, you know, comparing yourself to other points and miles people and stuff like that. And I

all stuff like that. And I think that

people back when they want to get into points of miles. Especially, I

especially.

does this [00:06:00] a lot where people are watching others maybe doing things that they either don't want to do, but think that they need to do, or they are doing things where they wish they could do that. Like let's say I am watching someone on Instagram they're flying first class. To the Maldives or something. It's like, well, I would love to do that. I just really don't think there's any way that I could do that for myself. And I just want everyone to know that you have to

That you have to

with whatever works for you. And I say this

stand.

it's just like making pancakes. You can't get to the good pancakes until you start off with a really crappy looking pancake.

That's so true. I've never heard that before. And I love it.

Like

Yes. Like

all my

I, I mean,

but

and even if it's crappy looking, it still tastes good. So even if you have a crappy redemption, it still was a fun trip.

you so much for taking that analogy [00:07:00] even deeper than I do. So like, you know, I'm always making crappy pancakes. But the thing is, is that, like you said, they all taste great anyways. It doesn't matter. But you know, it's the same with travel. Like there's no right or wrong way. Just the best way that works for you. So the only way you're gonna figure that out is if you just get started. So I just want to say kudos to you for getting started, even though you know you didn't know what you were doing and now that you've started and you've done things that you may regret now, but which, which I would say please don't like, no regrets, right.

Yeah, I

Yeah.

I don't,

You know, things that you might be saying, well, you know, I could have done it this way, I could have done it that way. But if you hadn't even gone through that experience, then you wouldn't be where you are now to know that you could do it a different way.

Correct.

I just, you know, congratulations and, um,

you.

know, I'm excited to hear more about your redemptions.

So let's get [00:08:00] into that. Like, what was your first redemption? How did it feel? What did you learn?

Okay, so the first redemption I still really do love, but when I was taking notes today, I was like, ouch. I wish, I kind of wish I had those points back, but I'll tell the story. So I had heard the Chase Sapphire Preferred was the best card to get started in travel. Previous to that, we had Southwest and I can get into Southwest separately.

 and we had earned companion passes, but we didn't even know how we were doing it. You know, it wasn't like we had a plan, it was just like, oh. Cool. But, so anyways, after my Southwest cards, I got a chase. Sapphire preferred, loved the card, used it all the time, earned my introductory bonus. I don't remember what it was at the time, but it was probably something pretty standard.

And so I started accumulating points in my Chase travel portal and or my ultimate rewards. And so then I was like, Ooh, I, I want to use these for, my husband was turning 40. He didn't wanna go super far. we, he was in between [00:09:00] jobs, so it wasn't like we were gonna. Fly somewhere crazy. Like he wanted to be kind of smart with money and not spend too much, which is why I was like, oh, we've got these points sitting in my Chase account.

I, I might have had a hundred thousand points. I'm not sure what I had in my account at the time, but so. I just went straight to the Chase travel portal. 'cause that's all I knew that you could do. I didn't even know I could, I knew you could send him to Southwest 'cause we'd done that for flights.

But I didn't really know about Hyatt Redemptions or anything like that. So I get started playing in the portal and he really likes the outdoors and to hike in the mountains. We live in Nashville, Tennessee. He wanted it to be drivable again. We were trying to make this affordable and so I'd always heard about the.

Omni Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina. It's a historic, gorgeous hotel. Um, kind of feels like a special occasion place. They've got an amazing spa. And so I was like, oh, this would be perfect. And so through the Chase portal, I booked us two [00:10:00] nights. We stayed another night at a different property.

Because the Omni Grove is so expensive, but two nights for almost 92,000 points, in a mountain view room. Now the Mountain View King rooms do run about 450 to $500 a night. So no matter what it was gonna be like in a. Thousand dollars a night just for two nights trip. It was gonna be a special trip.

So we did get to go without paying that, and we loved the hotel. It's super cool. It's up on like a mountainside. It has insane views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Really cool lobby with like super high. Stone fireplaces and rocking chairs and like jazz music playing, and a cool bar. It's a really cool hotel.

The rooms are a little outdated, but I feel like you get that sometimes with those historic hotels. Um, but the spa, we treated ourselves to spa treatments and that it's like, it's. Its own place. The spa is like [00:11:00] cavernous and it has all these little pools and waterfalls. So it was a super awesome trip.

Also, our favorite part was in the basement of this historic hotel. There's like an old piano bar that feels like you're like in the 1920s. It is low ceilings and two dueling pianos and a server comes around and we were drinking espresso martinis. We went to the piano bar both nights 'cause it was so fun.

But we spent 92,000 points on that, just those two nights in the hotel. Um, but I don't think there's another easy way to redeem Omni other than maybe doing like a Capital One, like a racer thing, which I don't even know how to do that yet. But I feel cool that I just said it. Um,

proud of you.

thank you. I know that I need a Venture X card, I think 'cause that's what everybody's talking about, 

So that was my first redemption. And when I look back I'm like, Ooh, I wish I had a hundred thousand Chase ultimate rewards points. 'cause now when I talk about my other redemptions, I'm like, oh, I spent 9,000 here and 15,000 here. But it was a super memorable [00:12:00] trip. It was super fun for my husband's 40th birthday.

We went hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We felt like spoiled. And I had to like take the first step to even learn how to build Chase points and how that portal works and sometimes. You do use the portal every once in a while. There's no other way to get that and free travel's, free travel, and so that was my first redemption.

think that that's amazing. that was way better than my first redemption. My first redemption was in the Chase travel portal too, and it was just three nights at a Marriott in London. barely spent time in

Well, hey.

 But yeah, we thought that that

Yeah.

was pretty cool as well. Three free nights in London, I mean, sold.

Yeah.

 but you're right. there's really no other options for your chase point.if you're gonna use your chase points for that hotel, it's not like you could have transferred your points,

Right.

it just depends on how you approach your redemptions. So that's why I say there's

That's why I.

as a bad redemption, because yeah, you spent 92,000 for two nights, [00:13:00] so a little over 50.

If I could have done it again, I probably would've been more creative in choosing the hotel because I would've known, oh, well let's start with Hyatts in cool locations in the mountains. And I might have, but that's where I am now. And also like I want to stay at cool historical hotels. I don't wanna be like handcuffed to Hyatt for the rest of my life.

So I am thankful we stayed there and I would love to go back to that hotel. So I still think it was like a fun first redemption, even though it was a little. It was a lot of points

free is free and honestly, I mean. If you think of

if you think

or Marriott, I know that Hilton just went through a recent evaluation. So did Marriott. I mean, for the same caliber property, you probably would've been spending more for two nights if you had transferred your points. Let's be honest, for the same

Right,

So the

right.

you, and that's one of the reasons why I like the portal for some instances, because you're getting a set [00:14:00] redemption rate. You know, you don't have like,

Don't have like, yeah, it's not,

but sometimes that's not even possible with what you wanna do anyways. And with all these devaluations happening, which they're gonna

happening, which

fine. That's why you wanna be

that's why you wanna be strict.

of points you earn. That gives you options. So with these devaluations

with these evaluations happening.

especially for somebody like us. You know, we're real people. We're trying to take a lazy approach to this. It's very comforting to know I'm gonna redeem this in the portal and it's gonna be a set redemption rate. But you know, you do wanna look

Know you do

much is it direct versus in the portal? And then, you know, how many points does it cost and stuff.

But honestly,

want the

the easiest way to look at

T way to

is worth it 

thinking

okay, so this is gonna cost me a thousand dollars if I paid in cash.

Whether that's direct or

If I use my points, then it's zero. To me, that [00:15:00] is 1000% a win no matter how you look at it. I want everyone who's listening to this podcast to remember that just think the whole point is to save money on travel. You know, the you do that how you can do that. We are not gonna judge, we just wanna give you the info. 

We listen and we don't judge.

no

Yes.

here at all. So, and we wanna know too, how are you redeeming your points and stuff.

 we definitely wanna learn from other people, even if you don't think that it's a big deal. Kelsey is like, I don't think that this is a big deal. I would love to hear about that property. That sounds really cool. And, you know, if it wasn't for

You know, wasn't for

have been able to stay there.

right.

So let's talk about. What are your wins so far with redemptions? I know that you had said that you were able to get free flights to New York for five people, which I think is awesome. So tell us a little bit about that.

[00:16:00] Yes, so I've gotten a little bit savvier and we've gotten better at our Southwest. That is where we need to get organized because for the longest time we were just authorized users on one card, and currently, literally right now, I'm like in the process of we've had 'em forever. They were like our first credit cards.

I'm in the process of. Downgrading or closing certain ones so that like I can hold one and then I can refer to my husband to one. And where we really lucked out this last year was the Southwest Rapids Rewards performance business card. This business card is fabulous. They were running. I believe it was 120 k points bonus when I got it.

And then I referred my husband to it as well. And we do both run businesses and stuff, so it's really easy for us to get a business card. Now, the spend levels are higher, but my husband likes to pay our taxes. Since both of us like kind of run our own companies, we have to pay our own taxes quarterly and so he will [00:17:00] pay our taxes on credit cards.

There's an incremental fee, but it. Outweighs it for us to get all the like. Bonus offer points.

it can make a lot of

Yes. So we both had that card, so we had a boatload of Southwest points and that gets you closer to companion. So we've had two companion passes in the past. Currently we carry one companion pass, but that's always tricky to like keep those going and stuff.

So. The other reason I like the performance business card is it gets you four times points on Southwest flights and we buy a lot of Southwest flights 'cause we're in Nashville. This is a big hub for us, so love having the companion, but we need to fly five people somewhere. So if we're gonna buy a Southwest flight, I'm like, use the performance business card because that one really gets a lot of bang for your buck if you're paying for Southwest and it gets you one free global entry or TSA pre-check, which I just used.

I just had my interview. I just got approved. I'm so excited.

is awesome and you get to say pre included with global entry.

Right. [00:18:00] So,we're going to Cabo later this summer, and I can't wait to use that global entry when I come back into the United States. Yeah, but so with all the Southwest points that we accumulated and our companion pass, my daughter was turning 13 and I was trying to think of a fun place to go for spring break.

'cause her birthday's in March that would kind of couple with her 13th birthday and we decided on New York City. My kids had never really been to experience New York City. You know, they. Been there for a minute here and there, but we hadn't taken a family trip there. So with all our Southwest points, I was able to buy four round trip tickets from BNA to LGA for 21 K round trip.

 and then the fifth one was a companion pass, so that felt super awesome. I still just love getting those emails where you're only paying like the 11 bucks per person, so I guess it was $44. For us all five to fly round trip from Nashville to New York City and back for my daughter's 13th birthday.

We told her on Christmas with like, we [00:19:00] printed out boarding passes that said like, it looked like an old school plane ticket and had a Statue of Liberty and like the BNA to LGA and we were like, you're going to New York City. And it was an envelope to my daughter, but there were three tickets in there for her siblings and they were freaking out.

They were so excited. It was. Such a special trip. You know, some trips on my podcast Trip Tails. We also have trip fails when like a trip just doesn't go as planned, but some trips go exactly as planned and are so sweet. And this one, it's almost like in the moment there I was like too scared to be like, this is awesome, because I didn't wanna jinx it.

But it was like fairy to the Statue of Liberty. Ice skating, Rockefeller Center shopping with her in Soho. we went to see the Broadway show, six. With the whole crew went out to eat before like all fancy on Broadway, got all dressed up, went to FAO Schwartz, like we did it all. We stayed in Times Square.

We didn't use a redemption for the hotel, but I got a [00:20:00] really good deal on the hotel and it just felt like such a win to be like, I just flew my whole family to New York City. For basically free $44. And a few years ago, I would've just bought those tickets, you know, and then we would've been out that amount of money.

So that was a super fun redemption.

Yeah, and the fact that you earned that on expenses you were gonna make anyways.

When I tell people about points of miles and stuff and opening credit cards or whatever, they're

whatever.

like, you must be in credit card debt, or, that kind of sounds like a scam. And the thing is, is that it does sound like a scam, but it's not.

And that's what's so crazy about it. And that's why there's so many people out there obsessed with points of miles.

I can see how it's obsessive and addictive and now I always joke that I kind of am trying to like get the whole trip for free and I'm like, wait, just a few years ago you were paying cash for these trips. You can spend money on, you know, part of the trip. [00:21:00] You don't have to get the whole thing for free.

I'm like, Kelsey, calm down.

Yeah, and I like how you mentioned the Southwest Business credit card too, because it really, when people ask me like what credit cards they could get, like the Chase app, I preferred everyone. I feel like everyone should have that at some point. I've had it twice, you know, I've gotten the bonus twice on it. And it's a great credit card. It's flexible points, but then you also have to think about it. Just like for me, I focus on flexible points when I don't really know where I wanna go. I just wanna make sure I'm always earning and earning flexible points. I know I'm always gonna be able to use. But when you have like a specific thing where you're either always flying an airline and you know that it makes the most sense for you, or if it's just something that makes sense in your head, you're like, I'm not really sure about flexible points, do something.

So doing a co-branded credit card like that I think is totally fine. And then, you

And then

[00:22:00] where you wanna go. does it make sense to earn those types of points? we wanna go to Japan next year. And I have a ton of chase points, but I was doing some

but I was,

I thought, well, I think it makes sense for us to also earn American Airlines because

because

really no

there's really no.

to American Airlines. You can really only earn them by flying American Airlines using the shopping portal or through their credit cards. So we've kind of shifted

So we've kind of shift our focus

you know, you'll

and

a lot where people are like, you always wanna earn

always wanna earn.

what.

And I'm like, no. I think it just, it just depends,

It just depends.

like how you had such a great win with a co-branded credit card that really works for you guys.

And I think it depends on like seasons of life too and knowing where you wanna go. 'cause like I'm a big dreamer. I could go anywhere tomorrow. I could be like Japan, Maldives, whatever, but that's like not my reality right now. I have three younger kids stuck to a school schedule, stuck to [00:23:00] sports schedules.

So for me, it actually is really smart for me to focus on Southwest and say, okay, this is a really reliable airline in my hometown. Where can we fly direct so that we don't mess up our trip by having a cancellation? And it's kind of fun, like now we have Iceland Direct from BNA. I think we have, we might have Ireland, we might have London, and then we have Cancun Cabo.

There are places that are cool that we can get direct with a companion pass, sometimes two companion passes. And that makes. A big difference to us right now. Now in six years, when my kids are kind of moving on and outta the house, I might switch and be like, okay, let's go to the Maldives, you know, and then I won't care as much about Southwest Points at that point, but being like realistic about where you wanna go and what makes sense for like this season of life, I think is really important.

absolutely. You're right

absolutely. You're right.

sure. Like right now it's just me and my husband or like I'll travel just me and my mom, but you never know. Like

You never know.

have [00:24:00] kids or have pets, you know, like we just bought a camper because, you know, my husband's obsessed with RVs, you know,

That's exciting.

so we're like

Yeah. So we're like doing,

also,

and

doing some other types of trips. So it just depends on, like you said, what you're going through in life and this different seasons. So what trips do you

so what trips do you.

up with Point that you booked with points, or like what cards are you like focusing on right now for future redemptions?

So this summer is like my point, it's like the summer of points. And I'm so excited because it's the first time I really feel like I've kind of conquered this a little and not conquered at all. I mean, there's so much more I could do. I'm not someone who's gonna hold,

you could do.

yeah, I'm not gonna hold 15 cards. I just can't yet.

Right now I can have a handful that work well for me and for my spending style, and that makes [00:25:00] sense. And then, you know, maybe someday, but right now it's like. My husband and I can hold about five. That's all we can really handle, but. We both, again, business cards, love a business card. So I really like the Chase Inc.

Business card. Again, I got in. I kind of just, I guess since I'm not obsessed with having so many cards, I can wait until everybody starts posting about, you can't miss this one. Like I just referred my husband to the Chase Sapphire Preferred. He'd never had it. A hundred K points for that, you know, round.

great

Um, and oh, it was amazing. I'm like, yes, now I'm getting those points back in our account. So we had a lot of chase flexible points to work with for this summer, which was amazing.

so speaking about realistic trips that you wanna take, I wanted to take my kids somewhere really beautiful and cool. in a national park and we have not started doing the national parks yet with them. My youngest is seven, so we were waiting for her to be able to kind of keep up on the hikes and be safe.

So I was like, let's just start with the obvious, the Grand Canyon. [00:26:00] My kids think it's cool they've learned about it in school. I have a fourth grader, so they get the fourth grade, national Parks Pass, which gets them into Indy National Park for free. And it's not like it's that expensive to get into national parks, but he thinks it's cool.

He gets to like bring it and put it on our dashboard and like we don't have to. Pay the entry fee. And so we used our chase points out at the Grand Canyon. It's kind of hard to find places to stay. There's not a lot of nice places and there's not a lot of great choices. But there is a Holiday Inn Express right outside the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

It's an IHG. And at the time, kind of like, it was like the Points Gods were like here, Kelsey, they were running a transfer and I can't remember what it was, but it was like. 20 or 25 transfer bonus if you've transferred Chase to IHG. And so I transferred points and we're staying there just for one night, for 29 K points, one room.

We're squishing into one room. and we're gonna visit the Grand Canyon. We're gonna [00:27:00] go star gazing. We're probably gonna hike down a little bit and just kind of like have a. Full day at the Grand Canyon. We're renting a car out there through Turo to be able to just like get all the places. Then next we're going out to Page Arizona, which is where horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon are really cool, like Instagramable gorgeous spots that my kids will have fun exploring as well.

We're staying at the Hyatt Place page Lake Powell. Um, this is a newer Hyatt place. One of those ones where the rooms look so new and modern. It's almost like sweet. This isn't, doesn't even feel like a,

A

a budget friendly hotel. Yeah, it looks cool. It actually comfortably sleeps five in one room. Those standard room is two queens in a sofa bed.

They have a lovely free breakfast at this one that people rave about. a restaurant called The Prickly Pear that has live music on Friday nights. Like it feels like the people who take care of this hotel just like. Really take care of it well, all the [00:28:00] reviews are like five stars at this Hyatt place.

We booked the standard room for two nights, 15 K points a night, 30 K total. and this part's fun. So I told you I just booked the standard room at this hotel. It's kind of like a long. Hotel and one side faces a grungy parking lot and the other side faces the desert and the mountains and the gorgeous like orange view.

And I did not, there was more points to book the view rooms. So I just emailed a couple days ago and just said, hi, I am Kelsey. I'll be out there. I do have this podcast and you know, I, I'll definitely be sharing about our trip if there's any chance that there's a, a. Upgrade available to the view rooms.

We'd be happy to take that and to be share all about your hotel. And within like a few hours, they emailed me back and said We'd be happy to take care of that upgrade. So now we have a mountain view room. It, this place has a pool, like almost like a rooftop pool or a like. [00:29:00] Partial, like a deck pool that views over all these mountains and we are just so excited.

It's like kind of in the middle of the desert, but there's cool things to do during the day and it was 30 K points for our family to have a mountain view room with a pool. It's gonna be so fun

That's awesome. And going back to sending an email to the hotel, you didn't even need a podcast to be able to do that. I mean, the fact that

do that.

probably helps, but I mean, other people

I mean, other people there who don't have that.

It never hurts to ask, especially if you have status, but even if you don't have status, just be like, listen, gonna be staying

I'm gonna.

excited. If you have an occasion, like a special occasion birthday, anniversary, whatever, let them know. Just make sure that they know that you're really excited to stay there, and if there's anything they can do as far as an upgrade, tell them what you would like. I wouldn't just kind of put it out there like, oh, just let me know if you can do anything for our stay.

Like they're gonna be like. No, but if you say, oh,

But [00:30:00] if you say, oh, I like,

she was specific. She was like, I would love one of those mountain view rooms. And if they can

and if they can do,

then they'll more likely be able to say, well,

be able to say, well, we can't do that but we

Free snacks in your room or free beverages, or we'll

beverages, or we'll give

guest of the day

the

you

the day and give

eat

credit.

So it never hurts

So it never hurts to ask,

of the shots you don't take. So just, you

so just, you know, ask the question, say no,

what?

but guess what? You're in the

And

thought you were before.

It would definitely be a no.

Definitely.

So.

And I heard a really good tip on, and I do this now each time is looking up what rooms are even available right now.

Like don't ask for the two bedroom suite if you go online to book it while you're there and it's literally not even available. but if you do see that some rooms that might be beneficial to you are available, you can ask specifically for that room. That just almost even [00:31:00] makes their job easier. 'cause they're like, is this room available?

Oh it is. Okay, fine. Let's just like move her to that one. So.

You wanna make it so that they don't have to do any thinking.

Yeah, but then there's still like the hero at the end of the day and they're like pleasing their guests and they want you to have a great experience. And of course, you know, it doesn't always work out, but like you said, sometimes it does and then it makes it, it's gonna, now we don't have to look at a parking lot, so that's gonna be fun.

you didn't have to pay the extra points

The extra point. Right, right. And then our final redemption for that trip is after kind of our outdoorsy hiking portion of the trip, we're driving back down to Scottsdale to stay at the Grand Hyatt Scottsdale for two nights to kind of just chill. I always save like the best for last. Put our feet up order poolside lunches, and drinks for 21 KA night.

So 40 2K total. We're staying two nights at the Grand Hyatt Scottsdale. In a standard room. I haven't emailed them yet. That's coming today. That's on my to-do list. So hopefully there'll be some sort of [00:32:00] opportunity there. Um, but they've got pools and water slides and cool restaurants and it just feels like amazing that I can take my family of five to this bougie hotel.

For free. And like this is one of those hotels that would have a resort fee for sure. And on Hyatt, if you book on points, the resort fee is covered, which is insane. And so that one felt like a really special win for this summer.

Yeah, that's

Yeah, that's awesome.

You know the amount of points that you say it costs, and those are with Hyatts, right?

The first one was IHD, which is a little bit more, but the second two. So the second two 30 K plus 40. Yeah. Like we're staying four nights at different hotels, um, different Hyatt hotels on this trip, and we don't even come close to what I spent in the Chase portal, which is kind of funny, you know, it's like, oh wow, look at that transfer.

I was gonna say is that you [00:33:00] were getting, like, you've got like the Chase Sapphire Preferred, which just recently had a hundred K bonus, and you know the

And

also a really great way to rack up points.

 I'll drop a blog post in the show notes for you to read, but with one credit card bonus, you. Could get multiple stays and for multiple trips because like you said, those stays didn't even

Those days didn't even

that you spent on two nights of the Omni. The one credit card

have one credit card,

So you don't even have to

so you don't even have

earning to earn

earn it.

So if you already

So if.

expense coming up, you know you've got business expenses, but you also have personal expenses as well. If you can hit a minimum spend, then one bonus can get you multiple trips on spend that you were gonna do anyways. Like it's insane. I love it. I still can't, I just still don't believe it's real.

Well, this is where I really don't believe it's real [00:34:00] is I have been watching, so our, that's our family trip for the summer, and then I always like to take a couple's trip over the summer. My husband and I used to try to get together or get. Away multiple times a year. But as our kids have gotten older, it's really hard during the school year 'cause they're involved in so many different things and it's really hard to like put that on somebody else.

It's like, here's the 10 things and places they need to be today. So we try to get away over the summer where schedules are more chill and lax. And I've been watching this hotel on Instagram ever since. Like the Points guy who I loved to follow even before I got into points in Miles, just 'cause he went cool places, posted about it years and years and years ago.

But it's. The Cape a Thompson Hotel in Cabo, which is a Hyatt, and it's just like this. Bougie boutique. It's not adults only, but it feels adults only hotel, like kind of out on this like Jutted Rock Peninsula and Cabo. And like the waves are crashing up on the rocks. There's an infinity pool that overlooks the ocean, a rooftop bar, um, [00:35:00] really nice restaurants and just like the, the rooms look so like.

Modern and cool. And I've just thought that hotel looked so cool for the longest time before I knew about transferring points to Chase and that, or transferring Chase points to Hyatt and that it even was a Hyatt. So then when it came to booking our summer trip, we still had points left over and I was like, we're gonna go to that hotel.

And so as easy as can be, I like look up the room rates. It's 30 K points a night on a, weeknight and 30 5K on a weekend for when we wanted to go in July. Three nights, a hundred K points and our flight, we're gonna change. My daughter's my companion right now in Southwest 'cause I fly a lot with her for her dance competitions.

But I like have it on my calendar after Grand Canyon to change my companion to my husband. We got a tip. We actually booked him a flight on points 'cause we had points so that if worst [00:36:00] case scenario. We would still have his flight, but also to hold his seat. And then when we transfer him to my companion, those points will go back into our Southwest.

Oh, very

I feel real savvy right now, just have to say. And so we are going to Cabo paying for one Southwest flight to get there and I can't remember if that one is on points or if we paid for it, but we Southwest Flight to Cabo, he's my companion and three nights at the Cape a Thompson Hotel. For free. And so we're booking fun dinner reservations and it almost feels like we haven't even spent money on this trip yet, so it feels like, oh, let's go to like the fancy dinner spot that overlooks where the sun sets.

And we booked a snorkel excursion, um, to stop at two different places and have like lunch on a boat. And I'm, I hope that trip turns into one of those dream trips that's just like, pinch me. I can't believe I'm here.

gosh. I'm sure it will. And that's what's great about points, miles. I love to use it to supplement and then [00:37:00] also just think, because you know. The fact that you're using points on stuff like hotels and flights and you're saving money there, that gives you the opportunity to then spend money on those really cool experiences, like going to a really fun dinner or going on like really cool excursions.

Because think about it, what, like a year or so ago, you would've been paying like full press for the hotel and the flight and then thinking, oh man, like. Can we go to a really nice dinner now? You don't have to think about

Well, and I feel like what we did before was we would still do it all because we're just kind of like those types of travelers we're like, not budget travelers. We did, and then we'd almost have this regret when we got home because it'd be like, we wouldn't wanna look at the hotel portfolios. We wouldn't.

And then you get home and you're like, oh my gosh, that was a $5,000 trip. Our family trips were like $10,000 trips and now it feels like this summer we're gonna get home. And it's like, no regrets. The trip [00:38:00] didn't. You know, blow up our bank account. We had an amazing time and we spent a reasonable amount of money, but it's still the same type of trip.

We're still kind of like bougie traveling just on points.

Yeah. I love

Yeah, I love it.

it because travel shouldn't be that thing where you get home and instantly regret your choices. It should

No,

something where you get home and you're like, oh

and.

I wanna go back. it was amazing. Or I can't wait for the next trip. So,

how long has it been that you've been learning about Points of Miles? Like a year, two years? What would you

Year. I would say like a year actually learning. Before that, I think I thought I was learning, but I wasn't actually learning. So I would say a year where I'm actually learning real tactical strategies. Yeah.

about it for like a year. So what

Mm-hmm.

say for a newbie, what has been confusing or intimidating, and how did you get over that?[00:39:00]

I think opening cards was intimidating to me. I thought that was bad and maybe bad for my credit score, and I just had this relationship with credit cards that felt like maybe that. Wasn't smart. And so I think getting over that initial fear and knowing that if you use your credit card correctly and you pay it off and you just do your normal spend, you're not using this to go to the mall to go shopping.

You're using this for groceries, you're using this for all your regular spend. That opening a card shouldn't be scary. It's actually kind of exciting now to see if you're gonna get approved, but I would say just getting over that hurdle of Stop overthinking it. Stop thinking. Should I? Should I? No, you absolutely should.

Especially if you haven't opened a ton of cards in the past. Open up one of those ones, like the Chase Sapphire prefer that everybody's recommending because it's the only way to get started. And once you get over that hurdle and kind of get into your portal and start seeing your points accumulating, that's like the first step.

And then you can kind of. Take the next step, which would be transferring those to Hyatt.[00:40:00]

Yes, if you have

Yeah.

transferring to Hyatt is definitely a huge win, if that's something that you wanna do. And then also feel like, if I could add, I would also say, don't feel like you are alone in this either. Like, you know, I have a Facebook group community called Lazy Budget Travel Tips. So if you wanna go in there and just say, look, I don't know.

How to get started and you know,

And

and people can chime in. I can chime in and you know, give you some advice. Just know that you're not

just know that

like for me, when I first started I was,

guarded I would,

Points guy, I was getting into the Facebook groups, but it seemed like

but it be

And the lazy budget travel

the lazy, but

is a really like. Down to earth

it's down to earth.

group. And like you said earlier, we do not judge there, so just know that.

highly recommend your group. I highly recommend Jenny's Facebook group because I'm in there and some of the other ones where you'll learn a lot, but [00:41:00] people are real judgey. Like if you ask a stupid question, people are like, they like do the HAHA face and they're like. They just kinda make fun of people who don't know what they're doing or they're like, have you taken this course yet?

You have to take this course before you're allowed to ask a question. And so I recommend your Facebook group. And I also think in terms of the intimidating thing, remembering that this can be simple travel that you're gonna do anyways. Like I wanna take my kids to the Grand Canyon. The other thing that's intimidating about the world and some of these other Instagram pages or Facebook groups is that you feel like you have to fly.

First class to the Maldives or you're not doing it right and that's not reality for most people. So just baby steps, doing a fun trip that you would do anyways is a great place to like get over that intimidation factor.

Okay, let's do rapid fire. Are you ready?

I'm ready. I'm excited.

So points or

points, obviously points because my husband and I were in the cashback world and it wasn't really doing much [00:42:00] for us.

Cashback has a, you know, there's a time and place for cashback, but most of the time we're earning points too. What would be your dream redemption.

This one is so hard for me because I could literally go anywhere. But aside from the obvious, like overwater bungalow situation where you have a water slide into the ocean and like the Maldives are Bali, like that's on my list at some point. But, uh, that's not happening for a while. Right now my dream redemption that I'm dreaming about and trying to figure out how to do is for next summer flying my husband and I, I could even do economy if I wanna save some points.

I'm not lying somewhere in Italy, maybe like to Milan and get doing like Tuscany or Lake Como and like taking high speed trains between the two and just doing like. A lovely trip to Italy where we like eat and drink wine and relax, buy some beautiful water. That's kind of my dream redemption right now, and I feel like I can do it.

I just haven't done it [00:43:00] yet.

I love

Oh my God, I love that. Yeah. That's my dream right now.

Okay, next

Okay.

wanna

Next card you want. I feel like it has to be a Capital One card, and I'm not sure if it's the Venture X or the other one that everyone talks about, but so far I have my, like faves are the Chase Sapphire Preferred, my Southwest bundle of cards, and then my Amex Gold because I spend so much money on groceries and dining for a family of five.

But in every podcast I listen to everyone's dropping their Capital One verbiage and the erasing stuff, and they're racing the rental cars, and I'm like. That somewhere in there is my next card.

Okay. I, my comment on that would be yes, the capital Venture X has been hot for a while, and the Capital One Venture, they've both been pretty hot. Um, and the reimbursing yourself or the purchase eraser is a really great perk, but if you

I don't care about lounges because I don't have any in Nashville that are cool. [00:44:00] There's only one Delta lounge, I think, and I don't even care. Like I would someday love to, but I'm not like, oh my gosh, I have to get into a lounge. And I feel like a lot of people love them for the lounges.

Yeah, uh, that's what I was

Yeah, that's

is that if you're not really

if you're not really

lounge access and you don't,

don't, and you.

a Hyatt person, then I would focus on earning chase points. 'cause then you're gonna get a better value transferring your points from Chase into Hyatt because with the Capital One.

Capital One if you're,

it's only 1

I think it's only,

value, which is fine

it's fine

If I would only use it if I couldn't like use points to erase that purchase any other way. Like if I couldn't

if I

if I wasn't interested in

wasn't.

and I was going to Disney for instance, and I really wanted to be able to use points to erase, uh, food purchases or souvenirs. Then I would get the Capital One venture, or the Capital One Venture X, so I could [00:45:00] then erase those or if I wanted to use it for tickets. But if I'm someone like you

I'm someone.

about lounge access, And if you are really into Hyatt, then I would kind of put the Capital One venture on the back burner and continue with earning those Chase ultimate rewards with the inks.

I feel like one way I could use it is, 'cause I heard someone say this on my podcast since we are a big family, is erasing Airbnbs. So sometimes we can't fit into one room and so we could go somewhere and do an Airbnb and then erase that $300 a night. 'cause I feel like it works with Capital One, but I still haven't made my mind up, so I'll be thinking about it.

as it's codes as travel, then you can use, the purchase eraser with Capital One and you just have to do it within 90 days of

Okay.

So that's definitely something to keep in mind when you're considering. But that's the other, that's the thing though about it, right? Like you listen to podcasts or you talk to people [00:46:00] and there are some really hot,

 I like to call them like shiny object syndrome. You know, like, oh my gosh, that's a shiny object. Like everyone's talking about it. But you gotta ask yourself some questions first, I think before. So I'm really glad that you brought that up. Uh, okay. So last question.

So last question.

the most annoying thing about learning points? Miles.

The most annoying thing for me as a dreamer is that it opens the world up and then I can't make a decision. 'cause I'm like, I wanna go everywhere. I like literally every day I am like, oh my gosh, California Milan. And my husband's like, oh my gosh. So I feel like it's a good thing, but it's hard for me to like figure out.

It used to be obvious where we could go and what we could afford, and now it feels like.

A world your oyster.

Sometimes have, yeah, decision analysis paralysis, like, I'm like, I'm overthinking this. Other than that, it's just that it's so detailed and like I just figured out the Amex Gold resi thing and I was like, this is awesome.

I get 50 off my lunch, but, or my [00:47:00] dinner. But, just, it's like every day I am learning something new, which is fun and exciting, but also you're like, oh, I missed out on that last time. So

no

just so much to learn, but baby steps.

no FOMO allowed, allowed here. Uh,

Okay.

in the Facebook group the other day, they were asking me a question about like, oh, I had a choice of earning points through a portal or a dining program or using my card. And I was like, oh, stack it all baby. And they're like, oh no, I missed out on stacking.

And I'm like, that's okay. Now, you know,

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

you're doing way more than most people, so you should still pat yourself on the back. So,

I will.

yes, let's do a little, let's take a moment.

Pat, pat. Pat. Pat.

yeah.

Yeah.

I love this conversation because it shows how real people, busy, parents, beginners, and everyone in between can start using points of miles without making it their full time job. So Kelsey, why don't you let us know where we can follow you [00:48:00] on all of your upcoming adventures?

So I'm on Instagram, it's just my name, Kelsey_Graves, and I post all about our family travels and adventures there. And then I also have my podcast, which is called Trip Tales, and you can search that wherever you're listening to this podcast and find out all of these other fun trip destinations that real people are going on and sharing about.

So if you

So if you want

you feel like, okay, maybe I can do this too, then share it with a friend and be

friends and

follow, subscribe,

subscribe

Travel Tips Facebook group. and as always,

as always.

it fun, and keep exploring. We will see you next time. Thanks, guys.