From Zero to $30,000 in Savings: Iran's Journey with Travel Points and Miles

In this episode of the Lazy Budget Travel Tips podcast, I’m joined by Iran—someone who proves you don’t need to do everything perfectly to travel big with points and miles. 

Iran started just like many of us: no clue about travel rewards, just a tempting Delta offer in her inbox. 

Fast forward a year, and she’s booked a $7,400+ trip to Kauai for her family—flights, Hyatt stay, lounge access, and upgrades included—for under $50. 

And now? She’s planning a $30,000 Europe adventure using points. 

Iran shares:

• How she got started with zero knowledge and one Delta card
• Her strategy for booking Hyatt stays and Virgin Atlantic flights
• Mistakes she made (including a Hyatt status mishap)
• Why flexible points came later—and how that actually helped
• Practical tips for beginners, including travel budgeting and credit card strategy

Iran’s story is down-to-earth and encouraging, especially if you’re just starting out or still figuring it all out.

Timestamps:

• 00:00 Introduction to Lazy Budget Travel Tips
• 01:14 Iran's Journey into Travel Rewards
• 02:13 First Steps with Travel Credit Cards
• 05:15 Diving Deeper into Points and Miles
• 06:39 First Redemption and Kauai Trip
• 08:52 Booking Strategies and Tips
• 16:31 Upcoming Europe Trip Plans
• 24:33 The Value of Small Redemptions
• 25:16 Starting with Co-Branded Credit Cards
• 25:58 Flexible Points and Credit Card Strategies
• 29:26 Debunking Credit Card Myths
• 33:15 Rapid Fire Questions
• 43:39 Dream Destinations and Final Thoughts

Links + Mentions:

• Follow Iran’s travel adventures on Instagram: @myvacationstation
• Join the Lazy Budget Travel Tips Facebook Group to share your wins, ask questions, and suggest future episode topics

Transcript

Welcome back to the Lazy Budget Travel Tips podcast. I'm your host, Genni Franklin, and today's guest is someone who proves that you do not need to know everything about Points of Miles to take an incredible trip.

Her name is Iran and her journey started with a 90,000 point offer from Delta,At the time, she didn't know the difference between flexible points and co-branded cards, but fast forward one year. And she's booked a $7,400 family vacation to Kauai.

Using points. We're talking flights for four, five nights at the Grand Hyatt, a free room upgrade, lounge access, the whole thing. In this episode, Iran shares what she learned from the first Delta card, Her exact strategy for booking Kauai on points and what she tell anyone who's still confused or [00:01:00] overwhelmed by all of this, whether you're just starting out or need a reminder that you don't have to do it perfectly to make it work, this one's going to encourage you to just start.

So let's get into it. Hey, Iran, thank you so much for joining us. Why don't you tell us a little bit about how you got into travel rewards and points and miles. Yeah. So first of all, thank you for, having me and yeah, so I was talking to some friends it was on my mind to do a European vacation with my family.

I was saving up for it. I didn't have any timeline or concrete plans, but I was just saving up for it. And I was talking to some friends about gosh, how expensive travel is. And one friend casually mentioned oh, you should sign up for this card. You'll earn 60 or maybe 70,000 miles and help maybe offset some flights or something.

Didn't gimme a referral link. Didn't try and sell me just really [00:02:00] casual, Hey, I know about this kind of a thing. at that point I hadn't applied for credit in quite some time and you know, it's embedded in our minds not to have too much credit, not to have too many inquiries. 

I don't need another credit card, but I don't know, it sparked my interest. So that was the plan to go ahead and, apply for that card. But then I received a targeted offer from, American Express. It was the Delta Sky Miles gold, I think it's called. Where I would earn 90,000 miles. and the minimum spend at that time and the annual fee was pretty much equivalent to the card that the friend had told me about.

So I was completely ignorant to points of miles. I just knew, 90,000 is more than 60 or 70,000, I'm gonna apply for this card. So I went ahead and, applied for it, got approved, made my husband an authorized user. We quickly hit the spend thanks to, holiday shopping. That was November of 2022. So yeah, that was my first travel card.

[00:03:00] Nice. You sound like literally every single normal person I speak to about how they got into points of miles. Yes. I'm very much your every day whatever kind of person. Yeah, absolutely. that's exactly what happened with us too. I mean, my first real travel rewards credit card was the Chase Sapphire Preferred.

But if I'm being honest now that I think about it, and I looked back at my credit history, my first real travel rewards credit card was a Hilton American Express, and it was like for the same exact reason you were saying, you kind of think, oh well.

I like to stay at Hilton's. I've worked for Hilton before, back when I was working in hotels, and I saw that it was offering 80,000 points. That's more than 60,000, which is what the Chase Sapphire preferred usually is offering. So you just think simple math, right? [00:04:00] 80 is bigger than 60, so I must be doing this.

Right?and it's because no one really tells you that points of miles are just, they're another form of currency. And if you think of it that way, like the US dollar $80 in US dollars isn't the same as $80 in Canadian dollars. So like, why would it be the same credit card wise? But nobody thinks of it that way, 

That's exactly, I, like I said, I was ignorant. I didn't know about flexible points versus co-branded car. Like I knew nothing. as a matter of fact, I don't even think I knew that you can earn points a miles by having certain credit cards. I think I just always thought of this was for frequent flyers, and I was not a frequent flyer loyal to any particular brand, so I never had looked into it.

So yeah, I didn't know. But I love that because spoiler alert guys, it doesn't matter if you start the way that you and I started, you can still be successful. So tell us a little bit about what happened after you got that credit card. Yeah, very shortly after [00:05:00] I, hit the minimum spend and earn all those points, life was lifeing and, 

Things that had happened just totally shifted my focus where travel, the car, the points, all of it was just the furthest thing. It became the furthest thing from my mind. fast forward to over a year later now, it was January of 2024, life was starting to get back to normal and I had came across a reel and it was going over all this cryptic jargon of like P two and blue Bank, and quotes and all this weird stuff that I was like, what are they talking about?

But something intrigued me enough to. Dig a little deeper. And yeah, I, when I say dig deeper, I went down a rabbit hole. I started listening to podcasts. I started watching YouTube videos, joined Facebook groups. I found free courses and I took them, I went as far as creating a whole new Instagram account.

Just to [00:06:00] follow people in this space like you. So yeah, I went deep down into that rabbit hole and that's when I discovered, all the different strategies and I learned about how to maximize earnings and all of that. I wanna say within 10 days of watching that I applied for the Chase sapphire preferred, and I was like, okay, I got a game plan.

Referred my husband and, shortly after that, and I've been hooked ever since. Yeah, same. I got hooked though after my first redemption. So tell us a little bit about what your first redemption was, and then I really wanna get into your trip to Hawaii. Okay.

SoFirst Redemption was booking a Hyatt, I think it was the Hyatt Regency in Huntington Beach. and that was pretty like, wow. We booked two rooms. one was a suite and then one was just, a standard room. We were upgraded on that standard room. I don't really know why.

and that's the best way. [00:07:00] Yeah. that was for my daughter's birthday. So that was the first redemption and we're like, wow, I don't think we would ever stay here and pay this price if it weren't for that, and then the first like real redemption was Kauai.

So now we were in like the spring of 2024 and I was just eager to use my points and miles and really wanted to take a vacation with my family before I send my kids off to college. it was, it'd be my daughter's final year and my son's first year. Europe was not in the books though because not only did I not have enough points, it was just not enough timeframe.

'cause I wanted to take the trip that summer and we were in spring. Yeah. So I was restricted to Delta and then I knew that I wanted to use Hyatt because of the value there with Chase Ultimate rewards. So at this point I had my over 90,000 miles, delta sky miles, and then I had. Over a hundred thousand Chase ultimate rewards to use.

So [00:08:00] that was the plan. and so because I was restricted, I was only looking at Delta site and I was only looking at Hyatts and I wanted something tropical. So we were looking at like Costa Rica, the different islands in Hawaii, Mexico, things like that. And Kauai made the most sense. So I booked four round trip tickets to Kauai from LAX to, I think it's called La Hui is the name of the little town.

It's LIH is the airport code. it was 22,500 miles round trip per person. So it was 90,000 miles for the flights. And then Wow, you really maximized that, didn't you? Yeah. And then the The hotel, we did five nights, six days, and that ended up costing 150,000. chase Ultimate rewards that I transferred to Hyatt.

So we had booked that. And then one cool thing is that many people starting out, especially if you're not digging deep like I did, I had found out [00:09:00] from other people in this space, from the podcast or YouTube or whatever, that you don't need to just, if you need to stay between the first and the fifth, don't just look at the first through the fifth, because it may not be available one of those days, right?

But you could do shorten your search and then just book what you can. And so that happened for me, like I didn't have. At first, I didn't have enough points or something. I don't really remember. But I did book two rooms and I think there was like a gap because there was an availability right in the middle.

I had booked two rooms because I wanted our oldest, my stepson and his fiance to join us. they couldn't end up coming after all, so I did end up canceling, but that was just like a really cool little tip that I had, learned about. So we did that. I got, during that time, I had earned explorer status.

I didn't earn it. I had it because I was part of the, Hyatt corporate Challenge. And so I had explorer status. And [00:10:00] then in one of the Facebook groups, a member gifted me, club lounge access. So I was nice. I was like, this is insane. Like I'm getting this stay for free, these flights. All I paid was the taxes on them.

Like between the four of us, it was like not even $50 total and I'm paying $0 for the hotel stay, and I'm gonna get free food. this is insane. So yeah, the whole trip, if I would've paid cash for the exact same thing, it would've been well over $7,400, $8,400 I think. especially if you count the check bags, because of having that card, I didn't have to pay for my luggage.

We're not carrying on people yet. Trying to be, but we're not. It's okay. We forgive you. 

So I also got, a room upgrade either because of the explorer status or because I emailed them, I don't know, maybe combination of the two. But we had booked just a standard room and we got upgraded to a deluxe ocean view. So [00:11:00] that room itself would've been like, yeah, over $7,400, I wanna say, just for the room during our stay.

So it was $7,400 just for the room and not even the flights. Like how much would the flights have costing cash? Right. The flights were around $300 per person. Wow. And then the rounds were 7,400. And then not to mention all the savings, like on food. yeah, we're probably looking at least $9,000 between everything, and I only paid less than 50 for all of that.

So it great because then we had all this other money that we could just freely spend on whatever else. We weren't, so constrained. So it was awesome. We had a budget and on our last day we were way under our budget, so we went a little crazy, like, okay, let's just get whatever we want.

I love it. If had I paid cash for the flights and rooms, that would not have been the case. So that was like, really when I was like, wow, this is [00:12:00] great. I'm never gonna stop this. Why does not everybody do this? How am I just learning about this now? Like, all that kind of stuff came to mind.

So this trip to Kauai sounds amazing. You guys saved a ton of money, but let us know, like what were your favorite parts of the trip? I'm usually like a jam packer itinerary type of person, but my family really want to just chill. So I only booked two excursions. We did a lot of lounging by the pools and the lagoon there on the property, which is really beautiful.

and then the two excursions I booked was, one was the Nepali coast snorkel tour, where we got to go see the Nepali coast, which is absolutely gorgeous. The coastline is so beautiful. And then tour people put on that song that. Over The Rainbow by Israel.

Oh, whatever his name is. That song is just like such a beautiful song with the ukulele. And then you're seeing this [00:13:00] natural beauty, I wanted to cry. It was just beautiful. I highly recommend that, whether by boat or helicopter. And then the other excursion was, the Wa Lua River, I think it's called.

We did kayaking down the Wa Lua River. And then it was, a guided hiking tour to Secret Falls. That also is just absolutely beautiful. How many days were you guys there? Just six That's a good trip.

It's a good amount. The one thing that I wish, why I wish we stayed one more day was because we also did the, drive to, Waimea Canyon, which is known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. It's. Beautiful in pictures. I wouldn't know. 'cause we drove all the way out there and we knew that we wouldn't be able to see it because of the fog.

but the drive is still so worth it. No regrets about taking the drive anyway. And that was our last day there, so we couldn't try and go back another day. So those were the top things we did. We did explore pretty much the whole island.

Even though the island is really big, you can only circle [00:14:00] around the island, like what's accessible by car. So if you start from one point to the other and no stops, I think it's three hours. So obviously we make stops, so it'd be longer. But just to give you perspective. so we, yeah, that's really good.

Yeah, so we really definitely hit up all the, the hot spots or whatever you wanna call it. So we, it was a good trip. So how did you book your excursions and stuff? Are you one of those book through via tour, get your Rakuten Cash back? Are you one of those? during that time, I don't remember if I had known that much about Rakuten or even thought to look there for that.

'cause I think I would use Rakuten for if I needed to buy a pair of shoes or something like that. But I don't think I thought about it for trips. I just Google search and I will buy it wherever I find the cheapest. And I can't remember for, I think both of them were cheaper directly with the companies because they had, one of them had a discount code if you book in advance or something like [00:15:00] that, 

I have used things like that in the past.

I used to use Groupon all the time. I think I've used Via Tar at least once, so I have used those. But for these two particular excursions, they were cheaper booking direct with, the companies. 'cause at one of 'em there was like a deal online. And then the other one, yeah, if you book in advance directly, you'll get like 20% off or something like that.

Yeah, I think that's a really good point because I love getting my cash back or if you have American Express getting those membership rewards with Rakuten. But it is a good idea to not stay in group think and just Have tunnel vision on those because you really, if you have the time, you really should compare because sometimes the percentage cash back that you're getting with if you book through via or with TripAdvisor is still.

Gonna be more expensive than if you book direct. And I like to book direct whenever I can. If I'm not gonna be saving that much money by booking through [00:16:00] via tour, even with the cash back, then I will book direct a hundred percent of the time because I wanna support those, local companies, sometimes they're not local, whatever.

I still wanna support them and stuff. Yeah. So definitely something to look at because some people think, oh my gosh, this says it's 50% off, and they're thinking, oh, I'm saving 50%. And it's like, no, Not necessarily.

But, so let's move on and get into this amazing Europe trip that you have planned. 

 Yeah, so I am, we're flying out of LAX to. London, Heathrow. And then from there we will be going to France and Belgium and the Netherlands. And then coming back home from there, I was looking at the math, not really calculating number by number and digit by digit, but just scanning it all.

Everything I have booked, if I were to pay cash for those [00:17:00] exact flights and for those exact hotel rooms, it would be well over $30,000. Yes, because I have to book two rooms for each. Oh yes. Because there's four of us. And Europe has Their occupancy restrictions.

So yeah, there's no way. And here I was prior to all of this, like I was saving for Europe and now I don't have to use all that money for Europe because I used points. And this is awesome because it's my first, premium cabin. I really would've loved to do business class, but I didn't have enough points.

So, I booked the flights with Virgin Atlantic. I paid 23,000 points to fly there in premium economy per person. And then for the flights back, I paid 13,000 points per person. And that's just economy. I would love to upgrade if I could, but Are you kidding me?

13,000 points to fly from Amsterdam to LAX direct, [00:18:00] you know, direct flights, which I'm dreading. That's gonna be a long flight. 

So between the two flights, the flying to London and then flying home from Amsterdam. It's pretty much the same. What Kauai would've been, it was like $300. It was like a hundred dollars, $103 one way, and then 200 the other way back home. So between the two, it's about $300 per person.

So that I did have to pay cash. but yeah, like I said, between the flights and the hotel stays over $30,000 in value and I paid, what is that? Like $1,200? Yeah, no, that's incredible.people think about the taxes and fees 

and be like, I can't, I don't wanna pay $300 per person and use points. But if you look at the bigger picture, you're still saving a ton of money by using the points and not paying the cash. And that's just something that you gotta think about.

And what, [00:19:00] like what matters to you. Exactly. So it's okay, yes, I'm paying $300, so it's not $0 for this flight, but am I still saving money? Is it still worth it to me? And if it's not worth it to some people and they don't wanna do that, they wanna figure out a different way, that's totally fine. But if it works for you, then it works for you because we did that for, my husband and I are going to the UK in October and we're also flying Virgin Atlantic, but we're flying an upper class baby.

Lucky, I'm jealous. 

So we're paying like $1,700 in taxes because we had to switch our flights up. So we did have to pay a fee to change the flights which is a thing. and we're saving almost $8,000.

That is so, so worth it. And going back to Virgin Atlantic Premium Economy, you [00:20:00] guys are gonna love it. My mom and I flew that from London to New York because we're on the East coast. we flew it from London to New York premium economy.

And I looked at the economy like I looked back and I was like, Ooh, those seats are small. we were pretty comfortable and that was a day flight, so we didn't have to sleep or anything. But even if I was gonna sleep, I would much rather sleep in the premium economy because at least for the 900 Neo that was the aircraft we were on

were like those big, like first class domestic seats. So they're pretty comfortable. so if that's what you guys have, even if it isn't, I'm sure you guys are gonna be much more comfortable than if you were in economy because I flew economy overnight, back in December for the Christmas markets and that was a nightmare.

Yeah, I'm definitely not looking forward to the flights home 'cause those are economy. maybe I'll be able to upgrade by then, but, and that's what I have to remind myself. 'cause sometimes I'm like, oh, I paid $300 [00:21:00] where people can probably find round trip tickets for like $400 and I use my 300 plus points.

But I remind myself like, no, this is premium economy at least one way. And those tickets cost a heck of a lot more. And I'm not flexible on the time, because I have to work around my kids' school schedules. So again, I have to just, you do you and I'll do and don't judge me. Heck yeah. And at the end of the day, I am getting a $30,000 trip for $1,200.

Yeah. That's a win to me. Yeah, totally. That is such a win. I'm so excited for you guys. tell us where you're staying. Okay, so in London it's the Great Scotland Yard. Very nice. Yes. And it's a Hyatt, right? It's a Hyatt, yes. These are all Hyatts in. Okay. Paris. We are staying at, forgive me for the pronunciation.

I think it's Hotel du [00:22:00] Louvre. And then, uh, we're going to Belgium. 

so we're staying a really swanky looking hotel. I think it's called 1894, the Post or something like that.

Ooh, that sounds swanky. Yeah, it's really cool looking. That one is also a Hyatt. I think it's one of those like Mr. And Mrs. Smith type or something.

and in Amsterdam we're staying at the Andaz Amsterdam pre precinct or something like that. I don't know. Look it up. It's also a Hyatt.

So one night I did book cash, which is the final night in Amsterdam because I wanted to be right by the airport. 'cause we have an early morning departure and I did use my Chase $50 statement credit, so I booked two rooms there as well. It's like all the hotels, two rooms.

And then that final night I booked one room in my name with my card so I can get the statement credit and then the other room with my daughter's card so she can get the statement credit. So I'm super excited about that. [00:23:00] That's awesome. When we go to the UK in October, all the hotels are on points and I did some chase, portal bookings, and then we're also staying at, I think two, Mr.

And Mrs. Smith. Which a lot of people complain about 'cause, Mr. And Mrs. Smith is through Hyatt, but the redemption, like their award chart isn't the same. So you pay a little bit more points, but it's still lower than if I would've done like a Marriott or a Hilton. So I'm like, okay, who cares? 

Some of the places don't have those major chains and we like to stay in like good locations. So if there isn't a major chain in the location we wanna stay at. I just book in the portal and we found some really cool looking properties that way. I love to discover different properties. I love being loyal to chains and stuff.

I used to work for those big chains, but you do what you gotta do, man. And we're not paying any cash for hotels. Sometimes I'll do some hotels with cash, but for this trip. [00:24:00] I was like, you know what, we have the points and I don't really wanna pay cash for anything. For I say anything. I mean for hotels and for the flights.

Yeah, I did pay some cash for the flights, but still, 

I do wanna say that 1898, the post in Belgium is a Mr. And Mrs. Smith. and I remember I was very surprised at the cost becauseit was pretty reasonable, like 25,000 maybe. 

I'm seeing a pattern with a lot of people that I talk to that get into this, that are like us, that are like, normal people, like everyday people. for us it's this little redemption no, actually,I take that back.

There's no such thing as a little redemption. to other people, it may seem like a little redemption, which is like a few nights free somewhere and you're like, oh, this isn't business class, or this isn't flying first class or going to the Maldives. But you know what, heck yeah, it's great.

it's a total win for me. And then that's what hooks youAnd if you didn't go through that, then [00:25:00] you never would've been able to get to the big trip. Which is your trip to Kauai.And a lot of people are afraid to take that first step even.

Yeah. And I just feel, and then they just miss out. even though I do wish I would've started with flexible points, I kind of really like that. I didn't, because it made it easier for me because I was restricted to DeltaI didn't have to look anywhere else.

Because from that moment on looking into flights elsewhere, with my flexible points, it was a little bit more intimidating because I'm searching all these different sites and am I gonna get the best deal? And in this case, I just, this is what I had. Either I pay with my Delta sky miles, or I pay cash, and Delta Sky Miles seemed better to me.

And the cents per point wasn't really all that great. But like you said, it's still a win. Who cares? I didn't pay for it. I don't care if I had more, unlimited funds, then maybe I would be pickier, but. That's not me. That's just not the reality that we live in. I love that you said that about [00:26:00] how you wish you would've done flexible points, but then you're like, but not really because it was a little bit too intimidating for you.

And I probably forget that a lot of times for people is that because I'm the same way, oh, I gotta tell people they need to get flexible points because if I could go back, I would do that. But thinking back to how I was back then, everything was so new to me. Starting with a co-branded credit card and knowing I go to this one website and I look and see if I can find a redemption is a lot less intimidating than having.

So many options. Sometimes too many options is not as great of a thing. Yeah. Because then you're just overwhelmed with all the options. just like if you go to a restaurant, if there's 50 things on the menu, you're like, ah, what am I gonna get? Cheesecake Factory exactly. That's exactly what came to mind.

And then you just end up getting the same thing over and over again because you're like, I don't wanna risk getting something else that I may not like. [00:27:00] So you get the same thing, even though there's a thousand items on the menu. but yeah, that just goes to show guys that it really doesn't matter how you start, it just matters that you do.

if somebody is just getting started, like you were thinking back to that, like what advice would you give them?

I tell them not to get overwhelmed. I would tell 'em to sign up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred. that is what I do now. Like with friends and family, I tell them, get this and here's why. And I try and just help them out as much as I can. And they for sure do get overwhelmed. but I just refer them to people like you, go watch her stuff.

Go watch this YouTube video. take this free course. I don't regret, you can't really regret, right? I can't regret that I did the Delta card because I didn't know, like, how do you regret something when you, I think regret would be if you have. Two paths and then you choose one over the other.

I really didn't know what the heck I was doing. so yeah, it [00:28:00] worked for me. It actually made things easier. So I'm fine with it. Life goes on and I, thankfully I did end up learning this other strategy, so what's your current strategy now? what credit cards do you have? What credit cards are you going for?

my strategy now is definitely trying to do more flexible points and, maximizing, earning up bonuses. And thankfully my kids are both adults, they're college age, so I'm getting them involved. So between. My husband and I think we have 10 cards. My kids, we have five between the two of them.

So we have 15 total between the four of us, which is insane to think about. 'cause like I said earlier, what's been embedded in our minds, not to get too much credit because you think, or at least I think credit equals debt.

And I'm not getting into debt. I'm paying it off every single month. So it's just wild that we're applying for all these cards and not in debt and our scores are going up. It's [00:29:00] just been crazy. So definitely that's like the main strategy. At first I was really focusing on everything I could, like going all in, maximizing, using, different shopping portals to get more points.

And this card you earn five x on this. And I just, that was too much for me. I might change up, different seasons in my life. But right now my main strategy is just to, earn signup bonuses repeatedly. 

So you said something that I do hear a lot from people, which is credit cards equal debt. That's something that you had thought and it's, you're right. It's something that most of us have that ingrained in our heads growing up is you'd never want to get credit cards. You always want to use your debit card because if you have a credit card, you know that's not your money.

So you're spending someone else's money and then if you don't pay it off, then you are going to go into debt. Credit cards are evil. even [00:30:00] just inquiries are bad. I was in the mortgage industry for a number of years and we were even trained that, and I'm looking at credit reports all day long.

But I was a little skeptical. And so I did, track my score and that was the first thing my husband said too. When I first told him about it, his first question was like, isn't that gonna ruin our credit? And I was like, no, they're saying that it's not. So let's try, and I'll keep track of our scores to make sure, and sure enough, it's only gone up.

There's always that little dip after each inquiry, but it's going right back up. And my kids' credit is skyrocketing because I think mine is moving at a slower pace. Maybe because I've had like issues in the past with credit, I don't know. But. Because my kids were authorized users from, the past.

So they inherited that good credit. And then plus now getting them these cards, their scores are climbing really quick. I think my [00:31:00] daughter's score may be higher than mine now. It's just crazy. But yeah, that's what got me over that, being afraid of that is just listening to all of, people like you and just thinking like, okay, they can't all be lying.

You're right though. It's like some, if you hear it enough times, you gotta be like, all right, let's look into this. And I know for me, because yeah, my credit score now is way better than my parents. like my credit score at 18 was better than my dad.

 that's another thing too there's like absolutes out there that you hear from influencers and stuff. there are certain things you shouldn't do, like adding authorized users and stuff like that. But I do think that there is a time and place for it, and it does help.

So like my dad had added me as an authorized user to his credit cards. I actually ended up. Getting myself removed from them when I started getting my own [00:32:00] credit cards, and that did affect my credit because of my credit history and stuff. but once you have accurate information, then you can make your own decision on whether or not it's gonna work for you.

Because that was huge for me is that I did all the research and once I figured out, oh, like this is how your credit score actually works, then I was a lot more comfortable with getting credit cards and realizing, oh, if I pay my statement off in full and on time, I'm never gonna pay interest. So people who think, if you ask anybody who says, oh, credit card equals debt, if you ask them, how does that work?

They can't even tell you. Because they don't know, they don't have the information, and that's why they still believe that myth. Like they, they're just kinda like, well, what do you mean it's not your money? And it's like, yeah, but I know it's not my money, but if I pay off the credit card, then I don't have debt.

And they're like, what? 

But it's [00:33:00] because we've been trained to believe. Like why are you gonna apply for credit? If you have the money, just pay for it. Cash don't apply for credit. Why do you need that? yeah, it makes sense why people think that.

I thought it for years. so it's just, it's been wild to learn this new method. 

All right, Iran, let's do some rapid fire questions. Are you ready? Ready. All right. Favorite redemption so far? Okay. Well, obviously the savings wise for Europe, I obviously, I haven't done it yet, but the redemption, just amazing. That's my biggest win.

I was for sure intimidated compared to the first, flights booking that I did.

This one was a lot more intimidating, checking all the different airlines and comparing like this one cost less in points, but more in miles or this one cost less in miles, but way more in taxes. it was just a lot more intense. blood, sweat and tears went into that one.

A lot of [00:34:00] tears. but that's definitely my big win that I'm most proud of. That's awesome. how did you find those redemptions? How did you learn how to do that and what advice would you give people who are, getting ready to make their first big redemption?

Like that one? Okay. Yes. well I had reached out to someone and I was gonna try and go for the whole Southwest companion deal. And it didn't quite work out for me.

And so I was like, what do I do now if, if I can't get that, can I get any chase card? I was freaking out. And so I reached out to her and she was like,what are you trying to do? And that's when I started talking about Europe again. So,Silly me. She's like, well, you don't really need Southwest for that anyway, then, so Long story short, she guided me like, check out the, there's, I think there was like the transfer bonuses with Air France or something, and then she's like, and Virgin Atlantic has been having good deals. she just gave me the push to look into these different, airlines.

'cause I had already been [00:35:00] looking and just getting overwhelmed. And I gotta take a step back from this.So shout out to Jamie. I think it's jamie.travel.tips. Oh, is it? Yeah. Oh, okay. That's awesome. I follow her too. that's one thing that I, tell anyone who starts to get into this is reach out to these people.

The community is so awesome. They always answer. They're happy to give any free information. Of course if they're doing a business they're gonna charge for certain things, but they're always so happy to help, she gave me the push that I needed. I ended up doing it and then I reached back.

And she's like, awesome. 'cause a lot of my friends, they don't get it, it's just nice talking to someone else who does get it. Oh, I know. It is so nice, isn't it?

That's how I like discovered Points of Miles meetups and like conferences and stuff. 'cause it is so nice to just talk to fellow points of Miles nerds. And I will plug, but I'm speaking at the Travel Mor Con in October, so come see me. Yeah. And where's that gonna be? [00:36:00] That's gonna be in New Orleans. Oh, how fun.

And then you really brought up a good point about the Southwests companion pass, because I could put that in the category of like shiny object.

everybody's talking about it, saying you gotta do it, it's so great. But you gotta take a step back and be like, yeah, but what am I trying to do here? And like you've said, you were like, you told her you wanted to go to Europe. And Jamie's like, well, why do you want the Southwest companion pass?

I don't fly there. So I want it all, okay. I want it all. I want domestic travel and I want international travel and I have no chill and I just want it all. And I wanna go to all the places I aspire to be a world traveler. And we love that for sure. But you can only do so many things, right?

So it's really important to pick and choose based on what your capacity is. So yeah, I love that story. And that was only the first question. And we've already ruined rapid fire. Sorry guys. okay, next question. Airline or hotel [00:37:00] points, which are you loving more? hotel.

Yeah, hotels for sure because like I said earlier, even though I'm not in that season right now where I'm like, oh, I'll just pay cash for this flight 'cause it's so cheap. there are deals out there, there are plenty of flight deals, especially if you're flexible with time or can be spontaneous.

Sometimes there's those deals like next week you can fly to Spain for super cheap or something, but I'm not able to do that right now. If you wanna stay in a luxury hotel, you're gonna pay luxury prices. Unless it's off season, then maybe there'll be a little less.

But it's not gonna be that dirt cheap. You're right. It's not. Yeah. You're never gonna find it super cheap. You maybe get like some kind of cool deal where it'd be like 10, 20% off, but, so when I compare the two for sure, the hotel redemptions have been. Really great, especially because of the value with Hyatt.

And I hope that, chase and Hyatt don't ever end their partnership and they don't do any crazy [00:38:00] changes. No. That would be a sad day for all of us, I think. Yeah. But that's the hotel points. I think if I could choose, I would also choose the hotel points because especially if you're looking at, let's say for instance, Europe and you usually people are doing those trips like one to two weeks depending on what their situation is.

So a flight to Europe, an economy is gonna run you like a round trip flight. Like 700 bucks, For the hotels, the types of hotels we're using points for, you're gonna be spending like 2 50, 300 bucks a night for that.

Now if I'm a family of five, like it's gonna cost more but then you also gotta get the two rooms, so you just gotta do the math where are you gonna save the most money? I remember when I went to Spain with my mom, we only used points for business class flights because it was gonna cost me like eight or $9,000.

for the both of us to fly [00:39:00] business class, round trip. And it's costing me 1200 for the hotels. 'cause it was just me and my mom. So I'm using points for the flights. You know, I'm paying cash for the hotels, but it just depends, that's not always gonna be the case. So I think nine times outta 10, you're probably gonna save more money using points for hotels than flights.

But that also depends on how you wanna fly, so. Exactly. Yeah. Next question, one mistake you made early on

One mistake I made early on, first of all, I wanna thank you and all of you out there in this world that gives so much information that has really helped prevent me from making a lot of mistakes that a lot of you have made. Thank you for all the lessons.

So I haven't made those mistakes of like not hitting my minimum spend or, you know, all the typical type of answers that you might get out there. The mistake I made was with the Hyatt Corporate Challenge, and for those that may not be familiar, that's, a [00:40:00] partnership that Hyatt has with certain corporations.

It's this exclusive offer where if you register with your valid corporate email address, you'll be granted like a 90 day trial period where you'll have explorer status. And in that timeframe, you can fast track to globalist status if you stay 20 nights during that 90 day period. Or you can maintain the explorer status if you.

Stay 10 nights. The 20 was not, it was out of reach for me. I knew I couldn't make that happen, but the 10 nights was manageable. So I, 'cause I already had eight nights booked already or planned. So I was like, I'll try and do that. Cool. I'll keep explorer status. And so I needed just one night and my husband and I were gonna go to Disneyland like a little date and So I'm like, well, let's stay the night. So we stayed at the Hyatt House Anaheim, and I'm like, okay, cool. let me call Hyatt, make sure we're all good. And [00:41:00] so I called Hyatt, we good, right? And the rep was like, no, you actually need one more night because one of the nights you stayed there or you booked it before you signed up for this challenge.

And I was like, oh shoot.And I'm like, I'm only one night away. So I convinced my husband again now to do some other little date night. We went to a comedy show, stayed the night down there, not too far from home. It was like a category two, so really low on points and oh, and when I talked to the rep, I confirmed okay, this is when my trial ends and my window was closing.

I only had that day to be this stay. It was like, let's say it was the 10th, it was the Saturday, the 10th of whatever month, and that was the only day that my husband and I can go and do this overnight trip. And that was the same date that the trial period ended. And the guy told me, yeah, you're fine.

 as long as you're staying on that last day. Well, so I booked it. Checked in on the 10th, [00:42:00] checked on the 11th trial period ended, and then I saw that I was dropped to discover a status and I was like, what the heck? So I called Hyatt and then that rep was like, no girlfriend, you needed to have checked out by your trial end date.

So I had to have checked out by the 10th. Yeah, when I was checking in on the 10th, I got really upset. I was like, I spoke to someone and he told me this. And long story short, it worked out fine because she did reimburse me the points and she did give me some extra to make up for it. So it was fine. I mean, at the end of the day.

Really discover is and explores ain't all that great, like global globalist is where it's at. So I'm fine, I'm finally over it. But yeah, that was a mistake and I was so upset in the beginning. So read your terms and conditions people. Yeah, and I gotta say, if that's your big mistake, you're not doing half bad man.

Yeah. That's your biggest mistake. I'm really trying to keep track. I've got my spreadsheet and I've got the free apps and so I'm [00:43:00] definitely trying to stay organized and it is for sure overwhelming. but yeah, I definitely haven't made any other crazy mistakes. I thought you were gonna say that you didn't hit your minimum spend or something I would've been super upset about that for years, for sure.

Yeah. I don't think I could ever get over that. I have no problem meeting minimum spend. I've never been so happy to spend money on bills. Like I love paying my bills now. Yes. That's awesome. To get something so valuable for money you were gonna be spending, it just feels so great, right?

Yeah. Yeah. I love paying my taxes now. Yeah. It's awesome. what's the dream destination that's still on your list.

I have a lot of dream destinations. I wanna go to Singapore and Greece and Switzerland, but something that's been on my mind for a long time is Italy. So I think after this Europe trip I have booked, I have enough points for another Hawaii, we're gonna [00:44:00] do another island. And then I think the very next trip after that, I'm gonna try and make it be Italy.

Oh, I love Italy. I wanna make it back. 'cause my husband's never been. I went on a family trip, which was fun. I was in college. It was great. but I think it would be nice to have a little romantic trip to Italy. I say little, but it would be a big trip.

well, Iran, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. Where can people find you and follow along on all your adventures, especially this Europe one? Because I will definitely be following for that. Well, thank you for inviting me. And yeah, so I had created a whole new account just to follow people like you in this space.

So that handle is @myvacationstation full disclosure though, I'm not an expert. I'm not an influencer, a blogger or v blogger, nothing like that. I just wanna set the expectations. the plan is to kind of slowly upload, like [00:45:00] trips from the past.

And I think I'll put kind of a little bit more about like how much I paid either cash or, or points. I'll have all the different travel on there. But yeah, that's @myvacationstation. So that's it for today's episode, and I hope that Iran's story reminded you that you don't have to do this whole thing perfectly to make it work. She didn't start with a huge, complicated strategy, but she still took her family to Kauai on points and is now planning a full trip to Europe, saving $30,000.

That is a win if there absolutely ever was one. So if you're just starting out, I'd love to hear from you. Come share your questions, your first win or even what's confusing you come join us in the Lazy Budget, travel Tips Facebook group. You are so welcome. And if this episode inspired you, share it with a friend [00:46:00] who's curious about points and miles and be sure to follow the show.

And please leave us a review wherever you listen so that others can find the podcast too. And as always, keep it simple, keep it fun, and keep exploring. See you guys next time.