Offering analysis and information about how to maximize the earning and optimize the spending of credit cards points has become quite an internet industry. The big names are Nerdwallet and Thepointsguy, but a simple search returns a solid twenty more websites with opinions.
I am not an expert and I do not want to put the time in to become one. I wanted to find a relatively simple way to generate lots of valuable points, and have a couple of easy ways to spend them wisely.
As discussed on this page, the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card is really the obvious choice for full time travelers. Every day I earn 3 points on every dollar spent on hotels, meals, drinks, tours, flights. Which is the vast majority of my annual spending. All my other charges go on my Chase United Club card.
How to spend all these points? The simplest way is to apply them to existing credit card charges that are travel related as statement credit. When redeemed this way Chase adds a (now reduced) vig, so the actual return is 3.75% on nearly every dollar spent. That is a pretty great return for essentially zero effort.
Redeeming points for flights and hotel stays requires some education and effort. A couple of hours of research found that some airline ‘deals of the week’ can return higher rewards. For example, United (instant points transfer from Chase) can yield up to 10%. And occasionally, when staying in one place for a few nights, I will do some research. I have found a few really good hotel deals payable in points.
There are plenty of experts out there who show amazing returns on points. Many of the strategies involve subscribing to alert emails, checking routes daily, flying at sub optimal times, and/or staying in resorty places. This page is so short because I do not want to invest this kind of effort, nor stay in the most often shown destinations.
But, in summary. With really little effort my credit cards have, net of fees, given me $16,000 of flights and hotels in the last three years. I average around a 7% payback and I am very content with that.