It’s been another year of experiences together I neverrrr thought would be possible

…allll thanks to learning how to be a bit more strategic with our everyday spending and credit card points.

SO many core memories made, paid for with POINTS – instead of our hard earned cash.

Grateful, grateful, grateful….here’s everywhere we traveled in 2025 and exactly how we booked!

January

➡️ Disney World with some Internet friends turned IRL friends!

My kids definitely gave me a hard time about this one “Mommm, you’re going to Disney World without US???”

• Booked my flight with Southwest Points for 24,000 points and $11.20 RT

We split our Disney stay and both ended up being fantastic options I’d highly recommend!

• 1 night at the Marriott Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin (the only on-property resorts directly bookable with points)
  • Highly recommend using the 50k Free Night Certificates from the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card when it is elevated for these properties!
• 3 nights at the on-property Grand Floridian via renting DVC points: Cash rate for was $2,638 when booking directly with Disney. Instead, we booked through the Pixie Points Gals to “rent” DVC points and paid $1,282 instead!! Insane!!

Admittedly, I am NOT a Disney person, so I neverrr would have shelled out a few thousand to hang out at Disney World with internet friends – points makes ANYTHING possible…and I’m so dang grateful 🙂

✈️ See more on this trip HERE!

February

➡️ Long Weekend at Waldorf Astoria Monarch Beach, California

For this one we had a Hilton Free Night Certificate expiring and wanted an easy, non-stop flight, long weekend away! We earned the FNC and points for this stay via the:

• Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card
• The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card
• We honed in on standard 95,000 point nights at the WA Monarch Beach to make this mini-trip possible!

For our flights, we flew American Airlines but BOOKED via an American Airlines partner using transferrable points!

• AA flights booked via Alaska Airlines (during the merger/American Express loop hole!)
• 7,500 points one way per person

💳 The American Express® Gold Card is my #1 recommendation if you are ready to dip your toe into AMEX!

✈️ See the in depth play-by-play on this trip HERE!

March

➡️ (US State!) To be at the birth of our Jeremiah and meet his amazing birth mom

Sometimes I am even MORE grateful for points when it’s for the less shiny redemptions…but the ones that mean the most.

• We used points from a past Citi^® / AAdvantage^® Platinum Select^® World Elite Mastercard welcome bonus to book AA flights booked direct with AA
• 7.5k points one way per person (2 days in advance nonetheless!– when you get the call you have to GO)

While we waited out ICPC to clear, we stayed in the downtown area of the city at a charming little historic Airbnb. Thanks to our huge built of stash of Capital One miles, we were able to “reimburse” ourselves for that large expense.

SUCH a blessing to have this piece of the very large adoption cost, not at all a financial burden.

May

➡️ Hyatt Ziva All Inclusive Cancun with just the girls!

After a slowww spring with a newborn and having to cancel our previously planned Spring Break trip to Costa Rica, I wanted to take the girls for a quick getaway after school got out! This one was SO fun!

• Hyatt Ziva All Inclusive booked for 50,000 points/night
• We transferred our favorite Chase points to Hyatt to book direct with instead of paying $860+ in cash or 86,000 points in the credit card portal!
• All bookings allow for 2 people, so we added my second daughter on in cash at $149/night

This trip was only booked a month out, so flights were a bit of an untraditional points redemption based on the best non-stop availability and rates!

• Used our Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card to book flights to Mexico in the portal for 31,000 points RT per person (perk! A true $0 in taxes!)

✈️ See the in depth play-by-play on this trip HERE!

June

➡️ Maui! Our first trip as a family of 6

Bucket, bucket list trip (not sure how we hadn’t made happen yet?!) that I am 100% confident was onlyyyy possible thanks to points + miles!

Because of the unexpected timing of our adoption and having to make some last minute travel shifts, this was another one we booked more last minute than we normally would (but worked out *chef’s kiss* perfectly!)

• Flights to Hawaii: We used Southwest points. With our Companion Pass it came out to ~17,000 points and $5.60 one way per person
• Flights back to the States: We booked an American Airlines flight via Finnair! We transferred our American Express Membership Rewards points directly to Finnair to book for 15,000 points and $5.60 one way per person (really doesn’t get lower to Hawaii than that!!)

If you want to make a Hawaii family vacation possible for (SO) much less, Chase points are for sure the ones you want to start stockpiling.

• 4 nights at Hana Maui Resort booked by transferring our Chase points to Hyatt — 35,000 points instead of $600+/night
• 5 nights at the Hyatt Vacation Club at Ka’anapali Beach (a fantastic option if you have a larger family!) — Again transferred those Chase points to Hyatt to book for 35,000 points instead of $700+/night in cash!
• If you need less room, you can book the Hyatt Regency Maui for only 21-29,000 points/night right next door (essentially a shared property!)

💳 If you somehow don’t have the #1 travel rewards card yet, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the BEST first step towards more vacations…without paying more

✈️ See the in depth play-by-play on this trip HERE!

September

➡️ Paris! Partnership with Thrifty Traveler

Partnering with Thrifty Traveler to fly business class for a whirlwind 3 days in Paris was a literal DREAM. Trips like this are totally pinch me moments where I cannot believeee the experiences points makes possible.

• Flexible points were transferred to Flying Blue to book Air France’s new biz class suites for 60,000 points and $243 one way per person (instead of paying $8,700 in cash – INSANE)
• For our flight home, flexible points were transferred to British Airways to book Iberia business class flights for 50,500 points and $209 (instead of paying $3,068+ in cash)
• Both of these WILD deals were Thrifty Traveler cheap flight alerts!

All 4 major banks transfer to both Flying Blue (AirFrance/KLM) and British Airways! Make sure to check out my “forever-keeper will ALWAYS have in my wallet, flexible point cards” HERE!

In the heart of Paris at a 5 star luxe hotel that we paid for in points instead of our hard earned dollars???? YES PLEASE

• We transferred our Chase points (earned from THESE must-have offers!) to Hyatt to book the Hotel du Louvre for 35,000 points instead of $950+/night

Srsly this was probably the most special trip of the year for SO many reasons, PINCH ME

✈️ See the in depth play-by-play on this trip HERE!

October

➡️ Vermont + New Hampshire for bucket list leaf peeping!

Another complete bucket lister that has been a MUST-DO for a decade+! So thankful to finally finally get to see that New England magic in person!

• Flights to Boston: We shockingly booked a Delta flight via Delta (just happened to be the best deal for a non-stop!) – Transferred points from our American Express® Gold Card for 10.5k points and $5.60 one way per person!
• Flights home from Boston: We used Southwest Points! With tracking/repricing our flight + our Companion Pass we only paid 7.5k and $5.60 one way person (SUCH a win!)

We did part of this trip with my family (we try to do one getaway with each side of the family each year!), so we split our stay to see as much of the Fall goodness as we could!

• 3 nights at Spruce Peak Lodge in Stowe, VT: Transferred Chase points to Hyatt, naturally 🙂 (just finished the minimum spend on this MASSIVE bonus!!)
  • Booked a 2-Bed Suite split with my mom for 40,000 points each (instead of ~$1,400 in cash/night!)
• 4 nights in the White Mountains of New Hampshire: A total splurge Airbnb stay that we split 3 ways (unfortunately, due to some issues we had with the host post check-out, I don’t feel like I can wholeheartedly link and recommend this specific property! HATE that)

If we wanted to, we could have reimbursed ourselves for that vacation rental with our Capital One miles (one of the best “easy” buttons for families!). Make sure you have one of THESE cards in your wallet long-term to have this strategy at the ready when needed!

✈️ See the in depth play-by-play on this trip HERE!

December

➡️ COMINGGGG SOON- Hermitage Bay All Inclusive in Antigua

To say I am excited about this stay….OMG understatement of the century. This is a true 5 star luxury property (that just got TWO Michelin Keys andddd is going for a chill $3,500/night during our stay)

Now if you saw the saga on Instagram Stories, you know I made some biggggg mistakes with this one, but ALAS we are overall still getting an insane value nonetheless.

• Flights to Antigua: American Airlines flight booked direct with AA for 12.5k miles one way per person
• Flights home from Antigua: It’s a longggg story, but word of advice – just NEVER lock yourself in to a specific date in the most expensive time to fly home of any week of the year. I ended booking our one way flights back home for ~$1,000 per person via the Chase Travel Portal (the 8x multiple on THIS CARD made me feel a little better about my $2k mistake)

**Insert dreamy pictures of our future Caribbean stay HERE (images via HermitageBay.com)

• This 5 star All Inclusive was booked with Hilton Points. We booked at 130,000 points (but now this property’s standard night’s are at 230,000 points…uh I know SO painful)
• We earned these points through the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card and The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card, referrals, and a transfer from AMEX at 1:2 during a transfer bonus!)
• Using Free Night Certificates here (as they are essentially uncapped for standard nights) would be literally the most epic value of all time

So overall, is it wayyyy more than I wanted to spend on flights? YES, so much yes. Will be still be paying around $2k for an all-in $17,000+ trip – ALSO YES.

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Putting it all together in a year-end review really does make you go WOW.

The things and places and time together we’ve been able to experience all across this beautiful world, just BLOWS MY MIND. Grateful doesn’t even cover it.

If you’re ready to stop paying for vacations with your hard earned dollars, and START paying for more family vacations in points >>> make sure you download my free guide HERE!