(8/6/2017 – reposting this as the CBS Sunday Morning clip was re-run this morning)

Welcome to new readers of Points With a Crew that may have seen my appearance on the recent CBS Sunday Morning show.  Here at Points With a Crew, my goal is to help families (especially larger families) to travel for free / cheap.  In fact, my family of 8 just got back from a week in California where miles and points saved us over $5000, meaning our entire week long vacation only cost us about $600

The basics of using miles and points to travel

If you’re wondering how all this works, you’ll first want to check out the Beginner’s Guide.  Before you start, you’ll want to make sure that you are financially disciplined and pay off your credit card and other bills each month.  It’s hard / impossible to make any money with rewards if you’re paying interest on late charges.  This isn’t some sort of get rich quick scheme that can overcome poor financial habits / discipline.

While you can certainly go as crazy as I personally do, I recommend first figuring out where you want to go and only THEN signing up for a card that can help you get there.  I believe that for most families, signing up for 1-2 new credit cards and putting the money you’re ALREADY spending on your existing cards on these new cards to get the signup bonuses would be enough for your family to go on one trip with airfare and hotels covered.  (And it won’t hurt your credit score)

And above all, while I’m happy to help, you should NEVER SIGN UP FOR A CREDIT CARD JUST BECAUSE SOME GUY ON THE INTERNET SAYS YOU SHOULD!

How to follow along

If you’re interested in learning more about how you and your family can use miles and points to travel for free / cheap, here are a few resources you might want to check out to learn more over the course of the next few days / weeks / months.

• Follow Points With a Crew on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest
• Sign up for our our once-daily email
• Join the free Points With a Crew miles and points Facebook Group and connect with thousands of other like-minded folks trying to travel for free / cheap

Some posts you might be interested in

Here are some of the posts that were mentioned in the piece, in case you are looking for more information

• My credit card binder was a Christmas present from my kids
• We just got back from a week’s trip to California – here’s how miles and points saved us over $5000 and let us spend a week in expensive California for under $600

And here are a few other posts that have some of our other trips or other interesting information.  We sometimes travel together as a family, sometimes my wife and I travel without the kids, and sometimes my wife and I take our kids individually on “travel dates”

• My wife and I used miles and points to fly first class around the world for nearly nothing out of pocket.
• Our family of 8 has used points to take 3 Amtrak overnight train trips – most recently on the Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle.
• My son and I hiked to the highest point in Texas – Guadalupe Peak
• My 10 year old daughter and I spent a weekend in New York City almost completely using miles and points – she even wrote 2 posts for the blog – 4 New York City mistakes my Dad made and 5 awesome things to do in New York

Welcome and if you have any questions about how to use miles and points to help you or your family travel, post them on our miles and points Facebook group or send me an email at dan at pointswithacrew dot com

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