The Smart Way to Buy Points and Score Luxury Stays on a Budget

In this episode of the Lazy Budget Travel Tips podcast, host Genni Franklin sits down with Ionna from @travelpointsandviews to talk about one of the most underrated (and misunderstood) strategies in the points and miles world: 

Buying Points.

That’s right—paying money for points can actually make sense in the right situation.

From scoring a $3,100 luxury hotel stay in NYC for just $1,600 to planning a $10K Miraval trip using a clever buy-and-transfer combo, Ionna breaks down when and why buying points is a power move, not a rookie mistake.

You’ll learn:

• When buying points is a smart travel hack (and when it’s not)
• How Ionna turned Hyatt sales into serious savings
• The fine print you must read before buying
• Why it might be better to buy points instead of burning your flexible stash
• How to use tools like MaxMyPoint to track award availability
• The #1 mistake travelers make when buying points
• What to know about bonus point sales and annual limits
• Why buying points is perfect for lazy (yet savvy) travelers

If you’ve ever scrolled past a “buy points now!” email and thought “yeah, hard pass”—this episode might change your mind.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 – Why buying points might be your new secret weapon
• 02:00 – Meet Ionna: Lazy travel hacker, South Floridian, and points pro
• 04:30 – What buying points really means (and why it's not a scam)
• 07:00 – A $600+ DC hotel stay… for $412? Here’s how
• 10:30 – The $3K NYC trip hack: Hyatt + sale = luxury stay for less
• 14:00 – How to use MaxMyPoint to snag award availability
• 18:00 – When not to buy points
• 22:30 – Read the fine print: Buying points through points.com
• 25:00 – How Ionna stacked calendar years to double her point purchase limit
• 29:30 – Turning a $10K Miraval stay into a $2.6K redemption win
• 31:30 – Why buying points might help you stretch your travel budget further
• 35:00 – Hyatt vs. Marriott: What’s worth it and when
• 37:30 – Final tips: Buy with intention and do the math
• 40:00 – Rapid fire round: favorite redemptions, best travel hacks, and more!

Links + Mentions:

• @travelpointsandviews on Instagram
• Max My Point tool
• The Points Guy’s Points vs. Cash Calculator

Transcript

 Ionna - buying points

Ionna - buying points

[00:00:00]

Hey friends, and welcome back to the Lazy Budget Travel Tips podcast. I'm your host Genni Franklin, and today we're diving into something that doesn't get talked about nearly enough in the Points of Miles World, which is buying points on purpose. Yep, that's right. Not earning them. Not transferring them, but buying them.

And if you've ever kind of side eyed the idea thinking, why would anyone spend money on points? The whole point is to spend money to earn points. Then this episode is definitely for you. We're talking about how a 20% off Hyatt Point Sale turned into a luxury Christmas trip to New York City and unlocked a travel sweet spot that most people completely overlook.

Whether you are short just a few thousand points or trying to make a dream stay happen during peak season, this [00:01:00] strategy might be your new favorite tool. Joining me today is Ionna from Travel Points and Views. She's a fellow South Floridian and one of my favorite people to follow for down to earth travel tips and real life points and Miles wins.

I've been a fan of her content for a while, and when I launched this podcast, I knew I had to have her on as a guest. Her approach is smart, it's relatable and super practical, and I think you're just gonna really love hearing how she used the strategy to book some incredible stays without blowing her budget.

So let's get into it. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. Thank you, Genni. Thank you for inviting me. As soon as I saw that you had a podcast, I was like, oh, we need to connect. Like, I also love your, lazy travel hacking, mentality. That's definitely where I'm at in my journey as well.

And so I knew I had to [00:02:00] join you on your podcast, so thanks for having me. Thank you so much for being on. It's so refreshing to see more people with this type of content on the internet because there's definitely a lot of people who, you know, I don't really wanna say anything bad because everyone's content has a place, but I just think that there's a lot of content out there where people kinda makes them feel like points of miles aren't really accessible to them.

And that's like my mission in life. And I know for you, it's really important to make sure that travel is financially accessible for everyone. And we both think that Points of Miles can be used by anybody. Exactly. Yeah. And it's very, even for myself, like a few years down the road into this journey, I am terrible at math.

So still sometimes it can be overwhelming for me. everybody likes to,talk aboutoh, I got this many cents per points for this,that can be really intimidating to people. And I think the important thing is, like you said, [00:03:00] just having travel that's accessible without breaking your budget.

and I see points in miles and travel hacking as an extension of personal finance. And it's just that it's personal, right? So it's gonna be a little bit different for everybody. Absolutely. So let's talk about the strategy of buying points. First of all, tell people what, why they would buy points or how, what that even is.

Some people are like, wait, I didn't even know that you could do that. And then your aha moment with this strategy. Sure. I actually had the same thought process buying points and also why on earth would I do that? And this was especially, during my earlier days of travel hacking.

when you're like mid shiny card syndrome, the thought of buying points is like. Of course, we're all trying to, meet those high signup bonuses and get, as many points as we can get. it's like, why buy points if I can get it this way? But there's a lot of different reasons people may want to buy [00:04:00] points.

For example, if, you can't sign up for a card yet, maybe someone's in the very beginning of their travel hacking journey and they're in the process of building up their credit and maybe getting their first card. Maybe they can't get a new card yet, or they can't open a card right now.

but they have upcoming travel. So if you wanna top off, points for something that you're just, you are so close, but you're missing some, you may want to buy points.

However, the thing about buying points is that it may not always make sense. Usually, if you're talking about, what a point is worth, it may not actually make sense dollars wise. Like you might be paying more cash for those points than what they're worth. So really where the sweet spot for this is buying points when there's a bonus, or a sale.

and that's kind of what I wanna talk about today because there are some great opportunities to be had when there are bonuses for [00:05:00] buying points. And I like to think of it as, 'cause I just recently bought points for the first time ever. It actually made sense because it doesn't always make sense, like you were saying.

And it was with Hyatt. My mom and I were going to Washington, DC and my mom was paying for it. She was like, I have points, but I don't really wanna use them for this, so I wanna pay cash. So I said, okay. So I reserved the room and then I saw that there was a, I think it was 20 or 25% for Hyatt, to buy points.

And I thought, oh, I wonder if it would be cheaper to just buy the points then to actually pay the normal cash rate. And it was like, we saved like $150 in doing that. And. I was like,thank God that I actually looked at this. I never, ever would've looked at doing that.So tell us a little bit about your particular experience with [00:06:00] buying points and the math that you do.

what do people need to think of when they're considering buying points or would it make sense? It's actually hilarious that you mentioned the DC trip, because I think the very first time that I ever bought points just to test it out, was for a hotel in DC over a holiday weekend, and I think it's the same hotel you were staying at the Hyatt, place near the White House.

Yes. I think we talked about this. Exactly. Yes, we did. We did. Yeah. Yeah. So I had the same thing. I'm like, I had stayed there before and I just wasn't willing to pay the cash price for what it is. it was like I. Over $600 for, you know, a two night stay, when I knew that that's not normally what it costs.

So I remember hearing from, I think it's finding Fiona and then also Max Miles points, you know, just casually mentioning in their stories or in reel that they bought points. And I remember thinking then like, why on earth would they do that? But then finding Fiona, she [00:07:00] did a very simple, you know, her account isn't normally, it's not a points account.

She's got a travel account. So her, I. Explanation of it was just very simple, just, Hey, how much does the hotel cost? Like in this case, it was over $600 for a two nights day. And then, go check out, what it costs to buy the points. So I did that and I go and there's, I think at the time there was a 20% sale, or bonus, for points.

And it came out to $412 to buy the points where it was over $600 to pay the cash price. So at that point, it's a no-brainer. I don't care if, I'm paying more for the points than what they're worth, I'm still saving money. So I ended up saving just over $200. And that was just like a test.

So that was a simple, transaction there, but where this gets really juicy and the reason, we're talking about this today. Is when you no other option because it's peak season, [00:08:00] or you have a dream vacation that you wanna take, and it's an astronomical price to pay for the property you wanna stay at, or the destination you wanna stay at.

This is such a good hack. and you don't have to complicate it by saying like, oh, well, you know, I'm only getting X amount of cents per point. It's like, no, are you saving dollars? If yes, then do this. so where we took real advantage of this, was last year. 

Every year since the pandemic, when, we were able to travel and things like that again, we decided to have a Christmas or holiday tradition. and we go to a concert in New York every year for the holidays. And this concert is at the Beacon Theater, which is on the upper west side of New York, of Manhattan.

And there aren't a ton of chain hotels there. Everything's either a boutique hotel, and just very few of them. So it's kind of hard to hack. normally we're prepared [00:09:00] to pay cash for a boutique hotel near the venue. One year we used a free night certificate and some Marriott points to stay out of Fairfield Inn.

Fairly close to the Upper West Side. this past year we unfortunately had a delay in planning this trip because the concert was only announced at a certain date. And then we had some conflicting work travel and we had to figure out what was going on before we could book it. Unfortunately, because we took so long to book this trip or to look into it, the boutique hotel we normally stay at was completely sold out.

The Fairfield Inn wasn't available on points, and it was ridiculously priced. I would never pay whatever it was that they were asking for to stay at this hotel. so then we're kind of left in a situation where we're considering canceling this trip because everything else is either sold out or, you know, 700, 800, 900 over a thousand dollars per night for a [00:10:00] normal hotel.

We're not talking about any luxury, hotel here. So that's when I was like, what other options do we have? Okay. Like, what is available? We found a couple of Hyatt properties that were a little further away in Midtown, but we found some, and I was like, okay, maybe we can do this. I definitely do not have enough Hyatt points, so let's figure out if maybe there's a sale on points.

And sure enough, I checked and actually looking back, it wasn't a 20%, bonus sale, it was 25%. the way that we planned that out was that we looked at the cash price, which was astronomical. the first property we looked at, it was over two grand. I think it was like $2,300, for a three nights stay.

That's not something we would normally pay out pocket. Yeah. It's way outside our budget. we were planning to at least spend, like, you know, for the boutique hotel, we normally stay at maybe $1,400. You know, we're, we're splurging. but now we're in this situation, [00:11:00] so we're like, there's no way we're paying $2,600 or whatever it was, for the Grayson in New York City.

But lemme check. I just stayed at the Grayson on points. It's so cute. I just stayed there two weeks ago. I paid cash 'cause it wasn't worth it to pay points. so I finally did stay there, but I didn't stay there over the holidays because Gotcha. So we, we ended up buying the points. There's a 25% sale.

the math was very, very easy. We ended up paying $1,600. It would've been $2,600. We actually wanted to stay at the Thompson Central Park, but it wasn't available on point. So I'm like, you know what? Let's just keep the tradition going.

We're just gonna splurge and we still saved money. it's a little bit more than what we would've liked to have paid, but we're still in the same ballpark figure. I kept checking Max my points, to see what was available points wise. And I just kept checking In the days leading up to the trip, and by some miracle, the [00:12:00] Thompson Central Park opened up and I immediately canceled my Grayson reservation and got, thankfully, got the points back right away.

And booked the Thompson Central Park, which was actually going for, over $3,100 for the same Holy crap. I would never pay that cash, like ever. I mean, and this is like a really nice hotel. It's just for us, it was more about proximity. Oh yeah, it to the upper West side. and so, I have never moved so quickly in my life and I'm like, yes, we're booking this.

So in the end, a $3,100 stay we got for $1,600 essentially. Wewe bought, we bought 70,000 points, but with the 25% bonus, it ended up coming out to 87,500 Hyatt points. so we booked that hotel and that saved our trip. Like we were able to do our dream trip, stayed at a way nicer hotel than we've ever stayed at.

But,yeah, this is when buying [00:13:00] points makes sense. Yeah, absolutely. So I mean, it made sense in the first phase, and then it really made sense when you were able to switch hotels because when you canceled that hotel, it's not like you got $1,600 back for your points.

You just got the points back and then you were able to go ahead and just use those points to book. So you still paid $1,600 for those points. Exactly. But you didn't spend the 3,300 or whatever. You were able to just use the same points. That's awesome.I don't think I would've thought to do that.

So tell us a little bit, because you mentioned Max, my point, can you just for the listeners tell them what Max My point is, Sure. So Max, my points is a website that actually has, the calendar for each hotel.

I don't know that they have all of the hotels across all brands, but they basically have the calendars and the availability of points [00:14:00] bookings for each. And they have 'em listed under regular rooms, suites and premium suites. And essentially what it does is it tells you if there's points bookings available for the dates that you're looking at, how many rooms are available, and how many points per booking.

So for Hyatt, you have the peak and low season points prices. for example, that Hyatt Hotel in Washington DC we were talking about, I think in the low season it's 12,000 points, but in high season it's 15,000 points. it kind of varies that way. So it's a great tool for you to check.

To see before you buy points, before you plan your trip. If the hotel that you want to stay at has availability to book on points, I believe that you get, five free searches per day or something like that. there's a limited number of searches per day if you don't, pay the subscription.

that has been enough to work for me. Okay. But I do think it's a great tool. it takes the [00:15:00] guesswork out of, knowing if the hotel you want is available on points for when you need to travel. So, I highly recommend using that as a tool next time, especially if you're looking for something during peak season where it's hard to find, points availability.

And I think I've heard this, you may know, but I think I heard if you do upgrade and pay for the subscription, that you can set alerts. I feel like that's worked really well for people. Yes. Am I making that up? Okay. No, there is definitely alerts. I didn't try it, so I don't know if it was only for the paid version or the free version, but yes, there's definitely a button for alerts.

yeah, it's a great tool. I think if I was gonna use it, I would really wanna use the alerts because I'm just like that person. Sometimes I remember to check, but sometimes I just don't think about it. if it was possible for me to set an alert for a specific hotel, that would be like, oh.

Awesome, lazy strategy, you know? So I'm gonna check guys just to make sure that we're [00:16:00] not Yeah,

 oh, here we go. So any day alerts you have to upgrade to gold. To gold it looks like.

I can get email alerts on the free, the total number of alerts it looks like I can get on free is only one. I can use that for hot hotel alerts. Andthat's it. No. Any day alerts. Daily change alerts. Holiday alerts. That's all either gold or platinum. the alert frequency every three hours, hotel view limit is 10 per day.

Yeah. I know there's a limit that I did not know existed. Yeah. the li the limit does exist.

 so I did the research for you and try Max my point. It is free and you can do one alert. So if you want to check that out, Thank [00:17:00] you. now that I know, I will definitely give it a shot.

it's awesome. And that's the, like the real, bonafide, lazy, lazy girl travel is set that alert. But if you're, if you're like me, who's apparently not as lazy as she thought she was, you also manually do it or just, you know, if you're bored. Can't sleep. You're just like, Hey, I wonder if that hotel's available.

Sometimes if I'm not doing anything, which is rare, I will just like look at flights or I'll clean up my Google flight alerts. I think I found out I that the, the Thompson Central Park was available, like we were in the middle of watching TV and I just was hitting refresh and then all of a sudden I was like, oh my God, pause,

You'll thank me later. So funny.okay, so let's talk a little bit about when points does not make sense, what would you tell people? definitely don't buy points just to buy points. [00:18:00] when you buy points, most of the times you're buying them for more than what they're actually worth.

Another of my, lazy hacks because I'm bad at math and all these other things, I like to use, other people's existing points versus cash calculators. One that I like to use a lot because they also, value the points for you is the points guys cash versus points calculators.

I use that one all the time too. I eventually wanna create my own, but it's just really low on the list and theirs is right there. why reinvent the wheel? It's there. And they evaluate all the points already. for example, according to them, a Hyatt point is worth 1.70 cents.

so I don't have to do that, I already know. But if you do the math, you'll see that usually if you buy points while there's not a bonus sale, you're paying more for the points than they're actually worth. So that is already right there. I also wouldn't buy points. [00:19:00] Speculatively,points, programs change all the time.

you could just be buying points because you think maybe someday, you're gonna use these for whatever. And then it turns out that they completely, changed the program and now these points are not worth what you thought they were or they're not gonna get you as far, 

Points per night you wanna use, or the property that you wanna stay at. and then also I, I wouldn't do that because some points expire. 

it's just not worth it if you're doing it without having a plan. Yeah, that can be said for a lot of things, not even just this, but definitely try to have a plan before you're, transferring your points. I would say before you apply for a credit card, have a planto meet the minimum spend so that you, this has never happened to me, thank God.

but like, you know, getting your credit card and then not being able to meet the minimum spend because I'm not trying to spend money just to spend money, you know? Exactly. That would be, that would be super sad. We don't want [00:20:00] that for you. Yeah, that would be sad. Yeah, I know. I'm like, uh, thanks. Same here.

Knock on wood, that's never happened. But I'm such a rule follower that I don't think I would ever even try to do something that I'm like, I don't spend that much. I am, or, you know, I have no plan to get to that spend. I just couldn't put myself in that situation. It happens though, sometimes you can have the best intentions and have planned and then people's situations change and things like that.

So I understand, stuff happens, but thankfully I have not been in that situation. And if you happen in that situation, we're not trying to make you feel bad, but it's just something that you gotta learn from and just keep on keeping on.

I had a podcast guest and I was asking them about mistakes. but I thought the way that they were talking about like their beginner mistake, you would've thought that they missed a minimum spend. And I was like, on pins and needles expecting them to say that.

But then it was something really, really small that I was like, whoa, [00:21:00] okay. I didn't, I didn't get, however many cents per points. Like that's not a mistake. You used your points. Oh, I remember what it was. Now she was saying something, which, you guys, I don't even know when that episode's gonna come out,they were doing a program, it was like a status match program, and I guess they missed when they could stay the nights, like they had to stay at certain amount of nights by a date, a certain date, and they missed it by a day.

Like they thought they had to be checked out on the 20th, but it turned out to be, they had to be checked out on the 19th sort of thing. Yeah. I mean, which is like, again, it's like, it's sad, but, you know.

Yeah. it's not that soon. Stuff happens, right? And she was like, no, but you know, I called them and yada yada. And I'm like, girl, no, you're doing just fine. Yeah, you're doing fine. It's okay. Like you guys, mistakes happen, Mo, I mean, pretty much anything with points of Miles, people are afraid that to make mistakes.

It's like, without those mistakes you wouldn't learn. But anyway, yeah, it's [00:22:00] true. speaking of that, there's certain things that people need to know, before they buy points so that we don't make any mistakes or, you don't end up getting the points. 

one thing we really need to talk about, it's so important not just with buying points, but also when you're signing up for a new credit card and you're, awaiting your signup bonus. Always read the fine print. There are some rules to, buying points.

there are limits and there are certain things that you need to know. so first and foremost, the program you buy your points through, even though you're going through Hyatt or Hilton or an airline, you're actually buying them from a third party. So the website is called, I believe it's points.com, and they are a third party, but all of the major hotel chains and airlines go through them for the points purchasing [00:23:00] system.

One thing that this means is if you are trying to get a multiplier when you're buying this with your credit card, so if you think this is gonna code as travel, it does not. make sure you're using a card that's gonna get you, two points per dollar spent or whatever signup bonus card you're working on a signup bonus for, because it's not gonna code as travel, so you're not gonna get a multiplier for that.

So that's one good thing to know Oh my God, that's such a good point too, because people would think that that's gonna code as travel. Oh yeah, I totally did that. First time I tried it out, I used my Chase Sapphire Reserve thinking I was gonna get three times the points because it was a Hyatt purchase, right?

And that was not the case. I learned that one the hard way. I did not read the fine print and we do these things, so you don't have to, exactly. so that's one thing to know. 

So if you're buying Hyatt points, you do have to have your, world of Hyatt member account for at [00:24:00] least 60 days before you can buy points that is in the fine print. There's also a cap of how many points you can buy per calendar year, and it is capped off at 55,000 points per calendar year. 

And then normally the points are capped off at 55,000 points per year, for purchase.

However, when there is a bonus sale, those terms can change. And so this is something that I learned and this is part of, my adventure with buying Hyatt points that I learned over the holidays. when you're buying during a bonus period, that cap in this case for me, did change.

It tells you it is capped at 55,000 points per calendar year. And then immediately after that sentence, it says, except for during the bonus period in which, you can buy up to 110,000 points per calendar year, the bonus points that [00:25:00] you're earning for that 20 or 25%, do not count towards that 110.

So it's the 110 plus the 20% or the 25%. So you can get a lot of points. What happened to me during the period in which I decided to buy points is that in reading the fine print, I realized that this bonus sale was happening over two calendar years. It started in November of 2024, and it ended January 4th, 2025.

Oh. So if you read the terms and conditions, that means technically you're capped off at 220,000 points for this particular bonus sale period. which is exactly what we did. Wow. Because not only did we have that holiday trip planned, so we, maybe I didn't cap it off the first year I [00:26:00] purchased87,000 points for that New York trip.

And then I came to that realization. I wanted to do an aspirational stay this year because I'm having a milestone birthday this year, so I'm turning 40 this year. Oh, yeah.So I knew that I wanted to stay at Miraval and I thought, well, why use my perfectly good chase points that I would love to keep flexible if I can just buy these points instead and then supplement whatever, I don't have in the end with whatever's left in my Hyatt account and whatever's in my chase and still keep my chase points for other things like Air Canada or United or something else that may pop up.

Mm-hmm. So that's what we did. I am such a rule follower. I was so scared to buy. We waited till January 2nd or something like that so that the calendar year would reset. So when the calendar year clock reset, I purchased.

[00:27:00] 137,500 points, which cost $2,640, which is a lot of money. I'm not saying it's not, you know, we like to do things on a budget. But we're talking about an aspirational stay at Miraval, which is an all inclusive wellness resort. that for two people over the dates that we ended up booking it for would cost $9,960.

What? Yes. So, yeah. that's what I paid for out of pocket was the 2,640. That got me to 137,500 points. I needed 187,000. So I transferred. 32,000 from my Chase account into my Hyatt account, and I had 18,000 points just sitting in my Hyatt account. And that made up the difference. Wow, that's so smart.

Yeah. So there are some really, good [00:28:00] savings to be had. If this was something that you were planning to do, I would never pay $9,000. I always knew I wanted to hack that. I was scraping away my chase points and I'm like, I'll have it in time for when I wanna do this trip. I was pretty close, but like, why use them when I can just use this and I'm only paying a fraction of the price.

I mean, we're always talking about using points to supplement your travel costs. You're building a discount in by just using points. But I never really thought about it this way. hey, so let's say I have, let's say I'm someone, like you were saying earlier, who loves points, but I can't meet minimum spends all the time, or I don't want to.

I'm not always applying for credit cards and I have like a good stash of points, but I can look to see, okay, well I have a $10,000 [00:29:00] travel budget, right? So let's say it's my last trip of the year and I really only have like. $2,000 left in the budget. And then my points,basically what you did was like, look, I'm gonna use the rest of my travel budget to just buy the points and then, you know, I can use some of the other points I have.

Instead of eliminating that and trying to use all of the points you have, which then you'd have to figure out a way to earn those points again, like it's just, I don't know if that's making sense the way of us saying it, but like you want your points to stretch as far as possible. And if you can't get the points earning it the traditional way that we talk about this could definitely be an amazing option.

Oh, for sure. And you just hit the nail on the head. I am in a part of my travel hacking journey right now where I don't really want to open new cards. I opened up a Capital One Venture X last year. [00:30:00] we usually, our intervals are every six, January and July, because that's when we pay for our car insurance.

So that's a big spend for us. Mm-hmm. So that's usually when we do that. So I opened a card last July and I just, I have enough points to pay for the things that I want. We don't do like, or we haven't had the opportunity to, I'm sure I would love to, and we just haven't done that. But we usually do economy, you know, domestic flights or some, you know, or other international flights, and we're totally fine with that.

We want our points to go further, as you said. Mm-hmm. So that's exactly where I'm at, where I'm not really like inclined and motivated to, you know, deal with, oh, I have two open cards here and doing all these things. I'm in my lazy girl, phase of travel hacking. And this for me was just a no brainer.

Now I still have my chase points and if other things pop up later on and for example, I did have something else pop up that, I was able to use my points for, which was, unfortunately my [00:31:00] grandmother passed away in March and we last minute had to book flights to Panama and the flights on Copa last minute were like $1,800 per person for economy.

instead I transferred my points to Air Canada. Air Canada is part of the same alliance as Copa. And so I was able to book flights, on Copa for my mom and myself. And we both had our first business class experience because there were only business class seats available on the way back. and it was worth every point I used if I would've.

Spend all those points, to book Mival earlier in the year, I wouldn't have had those available to me to use. So, I always like to leave a little, just again, comparing it to it being like personal finance, like having my little emergency fund of points. Here and there. Oh my God. I love using Yes.

An emergency fund of points. Yes. That's so, yeah, that's good. I mean, and we talk [00:32:00] about don't hoard your points, but you know, depending on your situation, you may need to have like a little nest egg or your emergency fund of points. We never want to get to zero, you know, and then like have to work our way up, you know, that then we're taking time that we could be traveling, you know, by trying to earn those points back.

So that's such a great way to look at it. For sure. So I'm gonna be call, I'm gonna be referring to it as emergency fund now. Thank you. yeah, so I think, I think, yeah, the, just going back to, I.

The mirror of all thing. I think this is one of the magical things about points and miles, whether you're buying them or you're earning them, like I would've never thought that that opportunity would be available to me. And, you know, all it takes is listening to podcasts, checking out friends', Instagram accounts, paying attention [00:33:00] and, being able to make these opportunities available, not just only for ourselves, but for our families.

And it's great. I love it. There's so many, so many experiences that we never would've been able to afford if it weren't for points. And I'm so grateful to you for opening our eyes to another layer of buying points because now we can make our points stretch even further because we're fortunate that we do have a set travel budget and then we use points to supplement.

And now I can make that, you know, I can make my emergency fund, worth more for longer. Yeah. So tell us a little bit about like, we talked about Hyatt, like that's your go-to example. Everyone loves Hyatt. Oh, wait, before we get into that, I do wanna go back to what you were saying about how you wanna make sure that you have your Hyatt, your world of Hyatt account, 60 days.

Because they won't let you buy the points. And that's really the same for all of [00:34:00] the programs. They wanna prevent fraud. They don't want people just opening up accounts fraudulently, they're using someone else's information, so they wanna make sure that you've had your account for a while and sometimes it's 90 days.

And that goes for like transferring points too, guys. So if you have a Chase card, for example, this goes for any cards that have transferring points. But if you have Chase card, I like to tell people, go through the travel transfer partner list. I don't care if you don't think you're ever gonna fly that airline, 

You should go and create an account for every single one of those partners because when you are ready to transfer your points and you thought, oh, I would never fly Copa. You probably thought, I will never fly Copa. Like why do I have to worry about getting Air Canada or something, you know?

Exactly. Then it comes up and they're, and they say to you, oh, well you didn't have, you didn't create an account 90 days ago, so you're gonna have to wait in order to transfer your points. You're, you know, [00:35:00] SOL So if you create those accounts right away, then when you're ready then bam, you are ready to go.

Exactly. So anyways, back to my original question, which was Hyatt, your go-to example. Are there other ones that you, the other chains that you use to buy points? Or have you just done Hyatt for now? For right now, I've only done Hyatt. Okay. I think for me, it's just so easy. Like I'm, I think most people might be surprised to find this out, but I am mostly a Marriott Bonvoy girl.

Nothing wrong with that, that has been slowly transitioning to Hyatt because it's just so EI mean, come on. It's so easy. And your points just go so much further. I do a little bit of travel for work and the places I travel to Marriott has a bigger footprint,that's why my allegiance to Marriott is just easier for me.

it just works out for me that [00:36:00] way. But for my personal travel and stuff like that, I mean, just high. It just makes sense. That's the only one that I've really focused on. everything else, I don't really stay at Hilton's. I do here and there. So, yeah, Hyatt has been my go-to.

I haven't had to buy any points for airlines or anything like that, but same concept. they also sell points. 

You can also check on whatever hotel chain, website or airline, their website. They usually will announce that they're having those sales. So just keep an eye out for that.

And then that's the prime time to jump in on purchasing points. Yeah, for sure. I get those emails now too, now that I bought the points from Hyatt and I do think that it can make sense for other chains. I just think it depends on if they have a bonus. normally without the bonus it probably wouldn't ever make sense, but because of the bonus it does.

 yeah. Also, some of the other, chains actually have bigger sales, bonuses. Some of them do a hundred percent bonuses. So [00:37:00] I mean, again, do the math. If you have something planned. see what makes sense. Don't just speculatively buy points. But also don't be fooled. They might say that they have a bonus and you think, oh, well there's a bonus. It must make sense for me to buy my points. Not necessarily you gotta do, you still gotta do the math. Just don't be tricked by their sales tactics. 

Just run the numbers real quick. and you'll know pretty quickly whether or not that bonus is actually gonna make sense for you or not.

Yeah, for sure.

 what would you tell someone who's never considered buying points before? 

 just take the tips that we talked about today, read the fine print, take the steps to do it, do the math, and then just go for it. it really is a great tool to, to, reach your goals. Yeah, for sure. I completely agree.

And that's coming from someone who, you know, went from I wouldn't, why would you ever buy points? That's [00:38:00] stupid to, okay, I'll buy a little bit of points and then now I'm like all, like all in, you know, you guys start somewhere, right? Just go for it. Mm-hmm. Alright, so are you ready for some rapid fire? Sure, let's do it.

 Okay. Best hotel you've stayed at using points. Kaas Lodge in Canada. So outside of Banff. And this was before I was officially travel hacking.

I just had racked up enough points through hotel stays, and oh my gosh, absolutely beautiful property. Do it guys, just trust me on this one. What type of points did you use? Marriott. Okay. If you could use points anywhere tomorrow, where would you go? Ooh. Probably either back to South Africa. I absolutely love South Africa.

or maybe somewhere else in Africa, like Kenya [00:39:00] or Tanzania. I would love to go to South Africa. definitely on the list for sure. 

Okay. Anyway. So big splurge or budget stretch, what is more satisfying to you? Oh, I think it depends on the situation. It really does. For a longer trip, obviously budget, but I feel like, for example, the New York trip, we definitely splurge and it was so worth it.

Even, I mean, even with saving the amount of money that we did, we got to splurge on other things, so. Mm-hmm. That was really satisfying. Yeah. I don't know if I could pick either, to be honest. Yeah. I feel like it's situational. Yes. Agreed. Agreed. 

So what has been your most wait that actually worked travel hack that you've used, like one that you couldn't believe actually worked? 

 Honestly, every travel hack I've done, [00:40:00] I'm like, someone's gonna come tell me that. That we're in the wrong room. And just kidding. You can't see. Yeah. The Travel Hacker Police people always think that there's like the Travel Hacker police that's gonna come and like arrest you for trying out something that's not illegal.

we're thinking a little more outside the box. Yeah. I think everything I do, I always feel like, oh my God, I can't believe I did that. Mm-hmm. I got away with that. Yeah. It's like when Brandon and I, my husband and I for our anniversary, stayed at Rawah Ranch when Hyatt and Small Luxury Hotels had their partnership and it was originally 1800 bucks a night.

but we paid $0 because we used the Hyatt points That's awesome. I remember being there and just being like, wow. Like someone's gonna come out of the shadows and be like, you didn't pay money for this. You're not supposed to be here. Because the other people that were with us, they didn't use points.

that's how it's gonna be at Miraval. Mm-hmm. You know, I'm gonna be like, total imposter syndrome, hanging out at the White Lotus,someone's [00:41:00] gonna know that I snuck in here, they're gonna kick me 

compared it to too by the way, when we told him like, oh, you know, for my 40th we're going to this place, and we start explaining to him what the place is like. He's like, so the white lotus, and now I can't unsee it. No, like I'm going to the white Lotus for my 40th.

That's great. That's hilarious. I love it. Hopefully no one dies. Yeah. Hopefully. No murders, no drama. Yeah, no murders.Oh, and I was gonna say when we were like, everything we're talking about is. Legal. There are definitely other podcasts other sites and like Reddit threads where there are definitely things they're talking about things you should not be doing.

Well. When I say legal, I mean against terms and conditions, not like criminally, you know? But I do have to say disclosure that I'm not a lawyer. So if you're not sure if what we're talking about is legal, you should consult an attorney or read, you know, and read the terms and conditions and stuff. So not a lawyer, but I'm also [00:42:00] not an attorney.

And I also suggest speaking to one if you're not sure. Yes, exactly. And not so much on the legal side, but if you are doing that, something that is against the terms and conditions, it's not so much that you might like go to jail, but they might claw back your points, they might shut down your account.

So really think about it, that's worth it or not. Yeah, absolutely. All right. Last question. Carry on. Only or checked bag carry on only. Same. Yeah. I got lazy a couple times recently. there's a lot of stuff that goes into, if, if you're listening to the podcast, I have very curly wild hair.

There's a lot that goes in here and sometimes putting that, you know, replenishing the travel, you know? Mm-hmm. Size stuff is a big pain. so I have gotten lazy a couple times recently and since I have all the credit cards and I get all the free bags, I'm like, nah, it's fine. But no, normally [00:43:00] very much carry on.

I like to just walk off the plane and be ready to go wherever we want. Same, if it's like a shorter trip and there's a direct flight, I usually don't worry about it as much, but I still will bring a carry on. Only size though. Yeah, same though. I do the same. I have a carry-on. I have the bigger carry-on from away, and then I also have an away, 25 liter travel backpack.

It opens up like a suitcase. Oh. and it has all the little pockets for your iPad and your laptop. And so I bring that as my personal item. And between those two things, I normally don't need to bring anything else. Even if I'm checking the bag, I have just the carryon, not the bigger carryon.

I just have the carryon away and then I do have a bigger monos. Mm-hmm. I actually like the away more than the monos. I don't know if anyone out there is like team monos, but, I like the aways better. If I'm gonna be honest. My mom has a bigger [00:44:00] carry-on. and I would choose her bigger, carry-on over my monos, sorry, not sorry.

Yeah. Well, that's good intel, 'cause I've only had, we're, we're an away family here, myself and my fiance. I mean, I think he's got more away stuff than I do, at this point. But we're both big fans of away, and I have wondered, I'm like, oh, you know, I am gonna, at some point, I think I need a medium bag for some of my work travel that I do.

and I have travel, I have thought about the monos, but I'll just stick to away. I mean, it's not bad or anything, it's just if I was gonna compare, I would rather take my mom's bigger carry-on than my monos, which is the same, is about the same size. Yeah. So, I don't know, uh, to each their own.

Yeah. All right. So closing takeaways. Buying points is a legit strategy. If you do it with a plan. And remember, if you don't wanna have 20 credit cards, that's totally [00:45:00] fine. You could use the strategy to help supplement, and then add Max my point, to your strategy when you're looking at hotels and trying to find hotels on points.

 Why don't you tell them where they can find you on social media, so they can, get more tips from you and more travel inspo. Sure you can find me on Instagram.

My handle is, @travelpointsandviews. I haven't been posting a lot, but I hope to do a lot more this year. So just keep an eye out. Oh yeah. I mean, I think everyone knows social media can be a lot, especially if you're working full time. But the point is that when you do post it's.

Really great information. So definitely a good follow Well, thank you. I appreciate that. same goes to you. And I'm so happy that we were finally able to connect. especially since we're so close to each other. We'll have to [00:46:00] meet in person very soon. 

Now that we've met face to face online, we definitely have to make it happen in person. And it's so funny too, when I do meet people, in person from like meeting them on Instagram or on a Zoom call I feel like I already know them and I forget that. I'm like, oh my God, I've never met you.

actually in person. It's so crazy. It's funny. That's happened to me with Nicole Haynes from Nicole's Travel Tips. we've talked to each other forever And then we finally met up for lunch You know, like, oh, How's James?

How's, you know your daughter? Like, know your whole life story And, yeah. It's, it's really, it's pretty funny. But this is actually one of the things that I love and I do miss, you know, now that I haven't been really posting as much, is that I do miss the, the community aspect of, being online.

There's a lot that comes with being online. not all of it great, but I think that this is one of the things that is great and that I do miss, and I wish that I, that's why I'm like, you know, I should really get back into it because I do miss. Talking to people and [00:47:00] like learning things or teaching things or just watching people's trips and getting inspired so I can add 10 billion more things to my list of places I want to go.

Yeah, exactly. I know it is a really cool community to be a part of and you know, with any community there's gonna be some that you relate to more than others. And I know both of our goals is to be super relatable. So Definitely follow Ionna. 

well, Ionna, thank you so much for being on the podcast. and if you. Have ever scrolled past a buy points email and thought hard pass. Maybe today's episode gave you a reason to reconsider.

Because, you know, buying points in every situation may not make sense, but it might if the math checks out. so it could definitely be something that will turn a trip that was a maybe someday into something that you can book today. If this [00:48:00] episode gave you a new way to think about your points and miles strategy, share it with a friend or join us in the Lazy Budget, travel Tips Facebook group.

And don't forget to follow or subscribe, so you never miss an episode. And please leave me a rating and review. I always love to hear from you guys on what you are learning from the podcast. until next time, keep it simple. Keep it fun, and keep exploring. Thanks guys. Bye.