Ski trip travel hacking

[Bonnie2617]

Anyone have any good travel hacking ski itineraries or stories? Or tips?

For those not familiar with travel hacking, it’s strategically using credit card points and rewards to travel for cheap or free.

And you don’t have to be a big spender or travel a lot to be able to benefit from these rewards. Just be organized and responsible with your finances; only sign up and spend what you actually can and cancel credit cards that have yearly fees if no longer using their benefits.

 

[Bonnie2617]

The main way I take advantage of the perks is through credit card sign up bonuses. The sign up bonuses can change, so I track this and sometimes wait until the bonus increases. For any card you can google what has been the best award to gauge this. After you sign up for the card it takes time to get the points to accumulate, so all this planning is started a year or two ahead. But that’s normal for us ski trippers, so hopefully most of you won’t think this is too nuts.

My most recent trip will be to Winter Park from east coast. All flights and hotels are covered through credit card rewards for a 7-night trip.

Flights: Southwest credit card sign up bonus. Once the points are used up, I will cancel the card as I don’t fly enough to earn enough points to cover the yearly fee.

Hotels: Holiday Inn in Fraser through IHG credit card sign up bonus points and yearly reward night ; staying in Denver one night and that’s covered through Mariott Bonvoy credit card yearly reward night stay. Will probably also cancel this card after this trip as have stopped using it. The fee is $95 per year and you do get one free night stay per year so somewhat worth it since a Marriott stay will cost more than that but I need to make space for new credit cards and can’t coordinate too many at one time.

Also used the Marriott Bonvoy credit card points to stay in Steamboat last year at the on-mountain Sheraton. Did have to spend one night at the Residence inn (also with Marriott points) in town as the Sheraton had very limited availability for reward nights.

 

[tothetrail]

My favorite way to accumulate points is with the Chase Ink business card. Not sure if they still offer the same one, but this one earns 5x Chase Ultimate Rewards points at Office Supply stores, among other things, cell phone, internet, Netflix, cable, satellite, etc.. So Staples and Office Depot have all kinds of gift cards, some of which you can even purchase online and receive it digitally. I mainly purchase Amazon gift cards there, as well as restaurants, Lowe's, Home Depot, and eBay. If you have a DIY project, you can get tons of points just by purchasing Home Improvement gift cards. And then if you shop for the items online, using a shopping portal, you can even double-dip.

Chase points are transferrable to many airlines and hotels. Hyatt hotels are the best transfer partner as those stays require the smallest number of points for a night. For example, there are several Hyatts in Colorado. In Beaver Creek, those nights can be $400 per night, or 29,000 points.

Whereas IHG (Holiday Inn hotel) in say Steamboat is $400 per night or 67,500 points.

So I would never transfer points to IHG because it takes way more points just for one night, and Marriott is even worse.

Chase also transfers to United, so many of my flights are booked on United points.

Transfers are virtually instant, so once you see the availability, you transfer, and then refresh your Hyatt or United account, and the points are there and ready to book.

Here you can see the value of transferring Hyatt points. Not sure why Southwest isn't listed, but they are also a pretty good value at around 1.5 cents per point. Many of these transfer partners have some nice sweet spots, so if you play around with it you can get some great value.

Here's an overview of Chase's current partners and their transfer ratios:

Transfer partner	Estimated value	Transfer ratio
Air Canada Aeroplan Miles	1.4 cents.	1:1.
British Airways Avios	1 cent.	1:1.
Emirates Skywards Miles	0.6 cent.	1:1.
KLM and Air France Flying Blue Miles	1.2 cents.	1:1.
World of Hyatt points	2.3 cents.	1:1.
IHG Rewards points	1.2 cents.	1:1.
JetBlue TrueBlue points	1.2 cents.	1:1.
Marriott Bonvoy points	0.8 cent.	1:1.
United Airlines MileagePlus miles	1.2 cents.	1:1.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points	1.8 cents.	1:1.

 

[Bonnie2617]

Those are great tips! Will definitely look into Hyatts. Like you called out, many hotels, especially those near popular destinations like ski resorts, require a ton of points so it's hard to find ones where it makes sense to use points.

The tip on buying gift cards is great. Many cards also give bonus points at supermarkets, so that’s another good option where to buy them.

 

[tothetrail]

Those are great tips! Will definitely look into Hyatts. Like you called out, many hotels, especially those near popular destinations like ski resorts, require a ton of points so it's hard to find ones where it makes sense to use points.

The tip on buying gift cards is great. Many cards also give bonus points at supermarkets, so that’s another good option where to buy them.

Yes, a card like the Chase Freedom has no annual fee, and has rotating quarterly bonus categories. At least one quarter per year is grocery stores. So you would get 5 points per dollar (up to $1500 spend) on any gift cards they have also. Once I figure out how much I'll be spending on groceries in the month, I spend the remaining amount on gift cards that Staples or Office Depot doesn't carry. And it works the same when gas stations have the bonus as they often have gift cards also. But for those, I would test it with a small gift card purchase to be sure it will be coded as a gas station purchase. Once you verify that you got the 5x bonus, purchase the rest of your $1500 limit on gift cards.

It is a little painful to be spending time purchasing gift cards, and making sure you keep track of them and use them judiciously, but when you have to spend the money anyway, it is more painful to me to waste to potential points. Amazon is probably the easiest because you can just add them to your account with your phone right when you get them, takes about thirty seconds.

Several years ago, Nordstrom was 30 miles per dollar on the British Airways shopping portal. I purchased Nordstrom gift cards at Staples and then purchased cosmetics and a bunch of clothes I needed that were all on sale. It was probably about $1000 in spend that I got 35,000 points for. British Airways has a nice sweet spot, where if you fly a short distance, 1,151 miles it only costs 9,000 miles each way. So say from LAX to Denver or Vancouver is 9,000 British Airways miles, instead of at least 12,000 American miles. And, unrelated to skiing, but LAX to Hawaii is only 13,000 BA miles vs probably 17,000 AA miles.

Here is the chart, it is purely distance based. This is also good for international travel, so expensive routes like NYC to Toronto or Montreal is also a really good deal with BA miles.

Anyway, if anyone needs help with any of this, reach out, I love this stuff. Either I'll be able to help you or can steer you to a good blog post that can really explain these things in detail.

British Airways Avios Partner Award Chart

Zone (Distance)	Economy	Premium Economy	Business	First
Zone 1 (1 to 650 miles) (not available in North America)	6,000	9,000	12,500	24,000
Zone 2 (651 to 1,151 miles)	9,000	12,500	16,500	33,000
Zone 3 (1,152 to 2,000 miles)	11,000	16,500	22,000	44,000
Zone 4 (2,001 to 3,000 miles)	13,000	25,750	38,750	51,500
Zone 5 (3,001 to 4,000 miles)	20,750	41,250	62,000	82,500
Zone 6 (4,001 to 5,500 miles)	25,750	51,500	77,250	103,000
Zone 7 (5,501 to 6,500 miles)	31,000	62,000	92,750	123,750
Zone 8 (6,501 to 7,000 miles)	36,250	72,250	108,250	144,250
Zone 9 (7,001 to 100,000 miles)	51,500	103,000	154,500	206,000

 

[alpinegal]

This doesn't help for skiing (and I don't think they fly this route anymore), but the best points redemption I've ever had was several years ago, Chase was doing a sign up bonus for their Chase Freedom Unlimited card that gave 5x points on anything for an entire year. I was going to grad school at the time and my school allowed courses to be paid with a credit card, so I put it all on that and got major points. We then transferred the Chase points to Singapore Air to fly Hong Kong to Singapore in their first class suites on my birthday. Nothing tops drinking top shelf champagne and eating lobster while having only paid like $50 in booking fees.

It's getting harder and harder to make the points and miles worth it with award chart devaluations, but we've still gotten some good deals either through transferring Chase points to partner airlines or even directly through their travel booking site.

 

[Amie H]

I just returned from my annual Beaver Creek trip. Flew direct Chicago to Vail with Aadvantage miles. The best part, though, is that because I'm Aadvantage Platinum, I get TWO free checked bags w priority tagging, get to use priority check in line at O'Hare, and get free upgrade to Main Extra at booking. ( I like I like to call Main Extra "first class light." Group 3 boarding, 1st & 2nd rows behind 1st class, and free alcoholic beverages if desired. Plus 2 free checked bags.)

I first reached Platinum status through a "status match merry go round" : my casino status matched by another casino group who at the time then matched w Hyatt and AA matched to Hyatt. (No longer possible bc of a change in some of the casino matching.)

I was able to maintain the status bc of an Aadvantage credit card that we put much of all household purchases on. Because I was already AT status , I was able to gain more loyalty points on certain spend categories. Also have a United credit card. Those are the only 2 cards we use regularly and of course pay off monthly. (The others are store specific and we only opened when, for example, doing a remodeling project in order to get 0% financing)

On United I'm Premier Silver, but that may drop off soon, though I was close to making it again. Fewer benefits than AA at that level but using g the premier check in at O'Hare is helpful.

Disclaimer: I don't recommend anyone start gambling for points! But if you already do...use your player's card every time!

 

[MI-skier]

Not an expert yet but I LOVE travel hacking and have been doing it for for a while. I have my own practice so I'm able to maximize points accrual via sign up bonuses pretty easily. Once of us always flies free on Southwest (which I tend to prefer for ski travel with the generous 2 cked bags) and then value Hyatt for hotels. Have a Hawaiian family trip that would be 16K just for the hotels alone for 2 weeks that are all being paid by points instead. Even went to my first travel hacking conference last year. It's a fun way to get more for what you're already going to spend.

 

[Amie H]

In 2023 I made United MileagePlus Premier Silver. Today I discovered by clicking around on the MileagePlus website that they do "trial" (120 day) status matches to other airlines. I filled out a short form and sent a screenshot of my most recent AADVANTAGE online statement (I'm AA Platinum through 3/25.) They immediately approved me for Premier Gold, main benefits to me: 2 free bags, free upgrade to Economy Plus at booking, accrue miles faster. I'm flying to Duluth, MN next weekend to ski, so those 2 free checked bags will be used!

 

[Amie H]

If no one has mentioned yet, if you like travel hacking, or just working discount deals in general, and are 50 or older, AARP membership is a great way to spend $12/year! I know everyone jokes about it, but I love it.
Rental car, hotel, and chain restaurant deals.