Nice video Spencer. I’m with you as well I use CSR as my general travel card with my family. If I travel alone I use my Ritz card which gives me access to both Sapphire lounge and PP lounge.
Thank you so much brother! The CSR will likely be a staple in my wallet for quite some time. It’s provided me so much value already this year. We’ll see how it works in combo with the Ritz card for me, but I definitely see myself downgrading the Ritz again before I downgrade the CSR.
Great video and breakdown... Everytime I think our travel habits are too different to learn things, I realize I can still learn different things and great little tips. SN: Heyyyyyyyyyyyy Odin!
As always, it's great to see different goals and use cases for points that are very different than mine! Also traveling in a sprinter van like that is definitely something I wanna try in the future! Congrats on the 20k and keep on killing it Spencer! 🎉
I’m glad you enjoyed it brotha! I could definitely do better by utilizing airline alliances (like using your favorite aircanada to book united flights) but sometimes the simplicity of the portal is too good to pass up on. Thanks for the congrats as well brotha!!
That's quite a bit of traveling! It's fun to see these trips compared to me who basically never travels in the US. I can definitely see why you have the Sapphire Reserve for 1.5 CPP in the portal
Yessir, I’m blessed to be able to do it for sure! The CSR has been a massive help in that regard, so I don’t plan on cancelling it anytime soon. Thanks for watching as always my man!
Hey man, thanks so much for checking in! Luckily we’ve been safe here in Austin, but I know it’s been rough for folks out closer to the coast. Hope you’re doing well too!
Great video. I am glad that this focused on some domestic travel as most of what I see is international flight redemptions with crazy cpp that I'll most likely never see. I'm new to this and haven't figured out how to book domestic on international transfer partners yet.
I’m really glad you resonated with this one! That’s exactly why I made it. While the international trips are great, I prefer to use my points domestically the majority of the time and I’m gonna continue sharing how I make those trips happen with points and miles!
It's funny you mentioned a Croatia redemption. I just made one myself, from Toronto, Canada, for me and my wife next February. We used Flying Blue miles with KLM. Taxes and fees were there, but still a great redemption!
That’s so cool, I love it! It sounds like we made a very similar redemption. Also, I paid a good amount in taxes and fees too and I’ll be sharing more about that in the dedicated redemption video for that trip, so stay tuned for that. I hope you enjoy that trip though!
this is a great video that explains a lot of things I haven't been able to find from other RUclipsrs until I found out for myself. Question - do you have a video on how you rinse and repeat the chase ink / all chase welcome offers?
I’m really glad it was helpful! As LK described, there’s really no limitation on the Ink cards. I plan to get all 3 of them under each of my businesses before rinse and repeating, but you don’t have to do that.
I’m also a Southwest flyer. Would you do a video addressing booking through the Chase portal and dealing with cancellations? I’m a little reluctant to book through the portal because of this reason. Thanks!
I think that with the new camper van, it's definitely hard to get as many hotel stays in. Hyatt is definitely the brand that you seem to gravitate towards so if you're getting a great redemptions, then no point in changing! Having a Marriott card will be helpful in those rare situations where there's no (convenient) Hyatt where you're traveling to so it's definitely worth keeping open, especially if it becomes an RC card. Gotta figure out what to do with those 5-night FNCs! May have to staycation or something like that.
You’re 100% right! For the local trips, hotels are a thing of the past for me with the camper van. But you’re right about the Ritz card (or the boundless) still being really valuable and I’m excited to put those FNCs to use. My gf and I have been talking about doing a staycation, so that may be what I end up doing! We’ll see! Thanks for the thoughtful comment as always my man.
People always hating on delta redemptions but I find better redemptions for them than a lot of others. I’m next to a hub so that helps. If I had the delta gold it would be even better
Question: Do I have to be an eligible member to transfer points directly to SouthWest, American Airlines, Delta, etc or can I continue as a quest to still redeem a higher valid for my points when transferring?
This is my biggest regrets playing this points and miles game by not capitalizing on applying for Chase cards first before other cards… I’ll be under 5/24 as of July 2025 and being that my home airport, BWI a Southwest base…
Would it make sense for you to get the WOH card sense you seem to stay at Hyatt a lot so save in chase points and get a free night every year I do get the welcome offer isn’t that good but wouldn’t it save you tones of points
One day I definitely plan on adding it, but in reality, that free night only saves me 18k points a year since that’s the high end of a category 4 night with Hyatt, so I’m not too stressed about adding the card yet. Especially since I’m adding so many Ink cards with high welcome offers. Like I said though, it’s not a bad idea for me to get that card one day!
I may have to! A lot of times I try to put my phone and cameras away to live in the moment as much as I can, but I also would love to have the vids to look back on so I go back and forth 😆
That intro is 100% correct. The people who "look down" on other strategies need to realize what's best for them, isn't for everyone. The entire game is flexible and varies upon each person. The one thing we can all agree on, is 1. Never carry a balance 2. Any Credit Card is better than Debit 3. Use rewards to improve the quality of your life, not diminish it!
I completely agree with you here! There’s no one correct way to play the credit card game. It all comes down to personal preference at the end of the day. Thanks for the comment here!!
Delta is a great one to utilize airline alliances with to lock in higher cpp rates, but for low cost trips (like the one I described here) I’ll transfer to them here and there. It depends on how many points I have to utilize.
What an incredible slate of travel plans, makes a lot of sense why the CSR's 1.5x works well for you. I got great value from my Bonvoy 5 FNs in Hawaii but that's probably not somewhere most of us can just decide to go to spontaneously haha. Great stuff as always Spencer!
Thanks so much Monty! I could definitely look to do a bit better than the portal here and there, but with how simple it is to use, I sometimes prefer it over the slight cpp boost.
You can start by getting the welcome offer on each of their individual cards, but you can also reapply for the same cards if you follow their welcome offer eligibility rules. I’ll talk more about that in our next upload actually!
Changing your travel plans to fit your credit card setup is odd, and makes claims of getting “value” from redemptions even more dubious. Build the setup that best matches the way you travel.
I definitely need to put them to more use. I’m sitting at just over 300k with me being fortunate enough to max my referrals the last couple of years. More vids on that to come when I do use em though!
Spencer can you do a video on avio's and how they work. i',m looking to book American airlines to Ireland but i have Amex + Capital one w/o transferring yet how do i view how many miles it cost
I’ve actually made that video already! It’s titled something like “How to book American Airlines flights with Avios”. Hopefully that points you in the right direction!
That’s pretty insane. I saw the title of the vid you made but if it’s a mistake they made giving you that valuable of a redemption, I wouldn’t correct em! 😂
@SpencerJohnsonOfficial it wasn't their mistake. Mistake was mine for not calling virgin to hold the air france reward seat before transferring my C1 miles over
If you're flying out of JFK on Air France, boy do I have a travel hack for you. There is a PP lounge land side in T1 called VIP One and they put you at the front of the TSA Pre line upon leaving. I read about it on One Mile at a Time and used it when I went to Brussels last month. You'll feel like a rock star
Oh dang that's pretty sick haha. I'll have to check it out one day! I'm only flying into JFK on the way back so I won't have that luxury since my flight from JFK to AUS is with Delta.
I hate to be this guy, but if you are not on the luxury travel side you are not using your points right. Most people can afford almost all economy domestic flights, with the exception of Hawaii. However almost no people can afford any premium cabin international flights, especially first class. Same with hotels. We are currently in an insane opportunity time period, and some day these redemptions will not be possible anymore. Therefore, it is quite literally now or never, are you okay with never having these spectacular experiences knowing you could have? Me personally I'm not okay with that at all.
I’ve never seen any of your videos before and you almost certainly already know this strat, but if you use Southwest a bunch you can finesse the personal and business card bonuses to get yourself 140k ish points (depends on current offers) and a free companion pass for as long as 23 months if you time it right. I got around 145k points at the start of this year and my fiance and I have flown to Dallas, Puerto Rico and will be going to San Antonio for Thanksgiving this year all round trip for free off points. We’ll still have about 55k to spare going into next year and plan to do random weekend trips depending on what promo flights Southwest has going on so we can milk them as much as possible haha
Appreciate the transparency but this is really leaving a lot of money on the table. Folks who get award travel internationally can get more than 3-4x CPP. Sure any redemption strategy can work for someone, but you cannot be a “credit card RUclipsr” and use a highly specific case to justify this strategy when this would never work for a lot of people.
💲 Download MaxRewards: maxrewards.app.link/spencer (Code: SPENCER)
A friend of mine works in construction in Dallas and mentioned that Chase is opening a sapphire lounge at DFW. I’m super excited about it
Love seeing you pursue your passion!
That means a lot Bob! Thanks so much!
Thanks for the info + video!
Great breakdown throughout the video!
Thank you so much Ron! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Great video Spencer, I got a few trips coming up and will try these out
I appreciate you brother! I’m glad you enjoyed! 🥉
Thanks, love these strategy videos!
Thanks so much for watching! And for being here early! 👑
Appreciate the transparency in your vids
I'm really glad you resonate with that!
Thanks for sharing these strategy vids. They are so informative!
Of course! I’m glad you enjoy them!
Possibly your best video. Outstanding value from your experience and reflection.
That means a ton Dave! Thanks so much!
Nice video Spencer. I’m with you as well I use CSR as my general travel card with my family. If I travel alone I use my Ritz card which gives me access to both Sapphire lounge and PP lounge.
Thank you so much brother! The CSR will likely be a staple in my wallet for quite some time. It’s provided me so much value already this year. We’ll see how it works in combo with the Ritz card for me, but I definitely see myself downgrading the Ritz again before I downgrade the CSR.
Great video and breakdown... Everytime I think our travel habits are too different to learn things, I realize I can still learn different things and great little tips. SN: Heyyyyyyyyyyyy Odin!
Thank you so much! There’s so much to learn about this game we love. Odin says hi back!
As always, it's great to see different goals and use cases for points that are very different than mine! Also traveling in a sprinter van like that is definitely something I wanna try in the future! Congrats on the 20k and keep on killing it Spencer! 🎉
I’m glad you enjoyed it brotha! I could definitely do better by utilizing airline alliances (like using your favorite aircanada to book united flights) but sometimes the simplicity of the portal is too good to pass up on. Thanks for the congrats as well brotha!!
The mountains here in Colorado are a bit hot but great in the summer if you need a spot to travel. 6 nights might be a lot though
Very true!! Thanks for the idea brotha!
That's quite a bit of traveling! It's fun to see these trips compared to me who basically never travels in the US. I can definitely see why you have the Sapphire Reserve for 1.5 CPP in the portal
Yessir, I’m blessed to be able to do it for sure! The CSR has been a massive help in that regard, so I don’t plan on cancelling it anytime soon. Thanks for watching as always my man!
I love these videos and everyone has there own cards and setup they use.
That’s great to hear man! Thanks for watching!!
Hey Spencer, just checking up on you and hope you're doing ok after the Hurricane Beryl. Have a safe and blessed week and thanks for replies! 👍
Hey man, thanks so much for checking in! Luckily we’ve been safe here in Austin, but I know it’s been rough for folks out closer to the coast. Hope you’re doing well too!
Great video. I am glad that this focused on some domestic travel as most of what I see is international flight redemptions with crazy cpp that I'll most likely never see. I'm new to this and haven't figured out how to book domestic on international transfer partners yet.
I’m really glad you resonated with this one! That’s exactly why I made it. While the international trips are great, I prefer to use my points domestically the majority of the time and I’m gonna continue sharing how I make those trips happen with points and miles!
It's funny you mentioned a Croatia redemption. I just made one myself, from Toronto, Canada, for me and my wife next February.
We used Flying Blue miles with KLM. Taxes and fees were there, but still a great redemption!
That’s so cool, I love it! It sounds like we made a very similar redemption. Also, I paid a good amount in taxes and fees too and I’ll be sharing more about that in the dedicated redemption video for that trip, so stay tuned for that. I hope you enjoy that trip though!
Flying your girl out to the Bahamas like it ain't no thang 😎✈️ Keep Killing it 🙌🏾
Haha you know it man! Thanks so much JP!!
this is a great video that explains a lot of things I haven't been able to find from other RUclipsrs until I found out for myself. Question - do you have a video on how you rinse and repeat the chase ink / all chase welcome offers?
You can keep applying for Chase Ink cards. For personal cards, just follow their terms (24/48 month rules)
I’m really glad it was helpful! As LK described, there’s really no limitation on the Ink cards. I plan to get all 3 of them under each of my businesses before rinse and repeating, but you don’t have to do that.
I’m also a Southwest flyer. Would you do a video addressing booking through the Chase portal and dealing with cancellations? I’m a little reluctant to book through the portal because of this reason. Thanks!
I can definitely talk more about that in a video soon! Stay tuned!
I think that with the new camper van, it's definitely hard to get as many hotel stays in. Hyatt is definitely the brand that you seem to gravitate towards so if you're getting a great redemptions, then no point in changing! Having a Marriott card will be helpful in those rare situations where there's no (convenient) Hyatt where you're traveling to so it's definitely worth keeping open, especially if it becomes an RC card. Gotta figure out what to do with those 5-night FNCs! May have to staycation or something like that.
You’re 100% right! For the local trips, hotels are a thing of the past for me with the camper van. But you’re right about the Ritz card (or the boundless) still being really valuable and I’m excited to put those FNCs to use. My gf and I have been talking about doing a staycation, so that may be what I end up doing! We’ll see! Thanks for the thoughtful comment as always my man.
That really is something. Heck of a job Sir.
Thank you so much dude!
Just used some Marriott free nights at the JW Hill Country in San Antonio. This is a nice spot if you’re looking for somewhere close to home.
Me and my gf were talking about doing a staycation so that’s a great idea!
People always hating on delta redemptions but I find better redemptions for them than a lot of others. I’m next to a hub so that helps. If I had the delta gold it would be even better
You really need to use those free nights! You have me stressed. 😅😂😂😂
Dude, tell me about it. I don’t think I’ll use them till late August or September so I’ll be right up against the wire. I’m excited to use em though!
Just more connect with this videos. I love chase since i travel domestically primarily.
I’m glad this one resonated with you as a domestic traveler yourself! Thanks for watching!
Question: Do I have to be an eligible member to transfer points directly to SouthWest, American Airlines, Delta, etc or can I continue as a quest to still redeem a higher valid for my points when transferring?
This is my biggest regrets playing this points and miles game by not capitalizing on applying for Chase cards first before other cards… I’ll be under 5/24 as of July 2025 and being that my home airport, BWI a Southwest base…
Would it make sense for you to get the WOH card sense you seem to stay at Hyatt a lot so save in chase points and get a free night every year
I do get the welcome offer isn’t that good but wouldn’t it save you tones of points
One day I definitely plan on adding it, but in reality, that free night only saves me 18k points a year since that’s the high end of a category 4 night with Hyatt, so I’m not too stressed about adding the card yet. Especially since I’m adding so many Ink cards with high welcome offers. Like I said though, it’s not a bad idea for me to get that card one day!
You should start vlogging your travels
I may have to! A lot of times I try to put my phone and cameras away to live in the moment as much as I can, but I also would love to have the vids to look back on so I go back and forth 😆
Shout out from Savannah. Hope you loved it Spencer. Love your channel learned a lot.
Savannah is awesome man. I love that place. Your support means a ton btw! I appreciate you 👊🏼
That intro is 100% correct.
The people who "look down" on other strategies need to realize what's best for them, isn't for everyone. The entire game is flexible and varies upon each person.
The one thing we can all agree on, is
1. Never carry a balance
2. Any Credit Card is better than Debit
3. Use rewards to improve the quality of your life, not diminish it!
I completely agree with you here! There’s no one correct way to play the credit card game. It all comes down to personal preference at the end of the day. Thanks for the comment here!!
I use points on Delta, each flight domestic, just $5.60 each flight taxes and fees. Southwest the same thing.
Delta is a great one to utilize airline alliances with to lock in higher cpp rates, but for low cost trips (like the one I described here) I’ll transfer to them here and there. It depends on how many points I have to utilize.
Woohoo! Go Cal Poly! 🐴
Yessir!
Any plans on getting the platty?
Definitely one day. I really just want the CS Plat, but I’ll get the vanilla first for the SUB.
What an incredible slate of travel plans, makes a lot of sense why the CSR's 1.5x works well for you. I got great value from my Bonvoy 5 FNs in Hawaii but that's probably not somewhere most of us can just decide to go to spontaneously haha. Great stuff as always Spencer!
Thanks so much Monty! I could definitely look to do a bit better than the portal here and there, but with how simple it is to use, I sometimes prefer it over the slight cpp boost.
This is going to be a dumb question but, how do you get new welcome offers for Chase cards? Do you just reapply for the same card?
Just keep reapplying!
You can start by getting the welcome offer on each of their individual cards, but you can also reapply for the same cards if you follow their welcome offer eligibility rules. I’ll talk more about that in our next upload actually!
@@LK_EBM So you would have multiple of the same card?
@@gottabe884 That's right. You can have multiple of the same cards
Top 2% of the Spartan Race?? Absolute BEAST
Hahah thank you brother!
Changing your travel plans to fit your credit card setup is odd, and makes claims of getting “value” from redemptions even more dubious.
Build the setup that best matches the way you travel.
Im suprised youre yet to use your C1 miles. Ho2 many points have you accumulated so far?
Specifically in C1....
I definitely need to put them to more use. I’m sitting at just over 300k with me being fortunate enough to max my referrals the last couple of years. More vids on that to come when I do use em though!
What's the name of the travel wallet?
My normal wallet is an Ekster wallet, but my travel wallet is a Spigen passport wallet.
👍🏻
Killing it as always 🥈
Spencer can you do a video on avio's and how they work. i',m looking to book American airlines to Ireland but i have Amex + Capital one w/o transferring yet how do i view how many miles it cost
I’ve actually made that video already! It’s titled something like “How to book American Airlines flights with Avios”. Hopefully that points you in the right direction!
I just saved $40000 and got a 42 CPP Redemption flying Virgin
Need receipts for this one.
@druiz012 I posted video today with screenshot at the end
That’s pretty insane. I saw the title of the vid you made but if it’s a mistake they made giving you that valuable of a redemption, I wouldn’t correct em! 😂
@SpencerJohnsonOfficial it wasn't their mistake. Mistake was mine for not calling virgin to hold the air france reward seat before transferring my C1 miles over
@@travel.life.dreams ah I gotcha. Sounds like I need to check out that vid!
If you're flying out of JFK on Air France, boy do I have a travel hack for you. There is a PP lounge land side in T1 called VIP One and they put you at the front of the TSA Pre line upon leaving. I read about it on One Mile at a Time and used it when I went to Brussels last month. You'll feel like a rock star
Oh dang that's pretty sick haha. I'll have to check it out one day! I'm only flying into JFK on the way back so I won't have that luxury since my flight from JFK to AUS is with Delta.
I hate to be this guy, but if you are not on the luxury travel side you are not using your points right. Most people can afford almost all economy domestic flights, with the exception of Hawaii. However almost no people can afford any premium cabin international flights, especially first class. Same with hotels. We are currently in an insane opportunity time period, and some day these redemptions will not be possible anymore. Therefore, it is quite literally now or never, are you okay with never having these spectacular experiences knowing you could have? Me personally I'm not okay with that at all.
I’ve never seen any of your videos before and you almost certainly already know this strat, but if you use Southwest a bunch you can finesse the personal and business card bonuses to get yourself 140k ish points (depends on current offers) and a free companion pass for as long as 23 months if you time it right. I got around 145k points at the start of this year and my fiance and I have flown to Dallas, Puerto Rico and will be going to San Antonio for Thanksgiving this year all round trip for free off points. We’ll still have about 55k to spare going into next year and plan to do random weekend trips depending on what promo flights Southwest has going on so we can milk them as much as possible haha
You look like have a tan! Vacation?
Yessir! I’ve been fortunate to have been on a bunch of awesome vacations so far this year. I appreciate you noticing!
@@SpencerJohnsonOfficialYes, I noticed an unusual pigmentation color nice tan dude!! Well deserved!!
lol 😂 dudes acting like redemption strategy hate is a real concern that needs to be addressed.
You’re right, this Spencer guy sucks!
191k through a travel portal I cried a lil bit
Appreciate the transparency but this is really leaving a lot of money on the table. Folks who get award travel internationally can get more than 3-4x CPP. Sure any redemption strategy can work for someone, but you cannot be a “credit card RUclipsr” and use a highly specific case to justify this strategy when this would never work for a lot of people.