Welcome to another in a series of helping “regular” families travel using miles and points. One of the reasons that I started Points With a Crew was to show that it was possible for regular folks to take their families on vacations that they might otherwise not be able to do, using miles and points. Here are a few of the previous posts helping regular families
- Reader request: Family of 5 to Seattle
- Will we get this family of 3 to Australia?
- Reader Q: Help me plan a Europe backpacking trip for free!
- Reader Request: Family of 5 to Berlin
- The 3 best options down the coast
A family of 5 heading to Naples
Recently, my coworker Ronn talked with me about helping his family of 5 head to Naples, Italy to visit some family that will be moving there shortly. He is looking to travel in spring 2018, so nearly 2 years from now. While that may seem like a long ways off, it’s actually good to be thinking ahead! The more flexible you can be with your dates, times and locations, the cheaper you can fly (and that can hold especially true for finding award availability!)
We met up the other day to talk through a few strategies, and I pointed him in the direction of my Beginner’s Guide along with a few other basics (that many of you probably already know)
Planning some initial credit card signups
I recommended that he focus his efforts on getting enough miles for his family to travel one way in each of 2 different currencies. Although you do give up some of the stopovers that you are allowed with some roundtrip award tickets, the added flexibility is IMO worth it. Plus 2 different tickets by definition allow you to open jaw, should you desire.
(SEE ALSO: Stopover, layover, open-jaw? What are they and what’s the difference?)
Plus it’s a lot easier to get 125,000 miles (or so) in 2 different currencies than to get 250,000 miles in only one!
Which cards to get
My recommendations for him were
- One direction: Focus on Chase points, with an aim to redeem on United miles, Singapore miles or Flying Blue. So Chase Sapphire Preferred (to open up Chase transfers), and then perhaps something like a Chase Freedom or Freedom Unlimited, Citi ThankYou Premier (if going with Singapore or Flying Blue miles), or United card (for United miles)
- Second direction: Focus on Alaska miles, to fly with either American or Delta. With Alaska miles, you can still book a 20,000 mile off-peak one way to Europe on American (for now). And while you can’t fly one way with Delta using Alaska miles, it’s certainly possible that would change between now and March 2017. Alaska also offers a free stopover even on one-ways, and their cards are eminently churnable (at least for now!) so that might be a way to visit a 2nd or 3rd city on this European trip
So over the course of the next year or so, Ronn and his wife might sign up for 4 or 5 new cards and put the regular spending they’re already making on these new cards, and with those signup bonuses, they should be able to get enough miles to make this Naples trip happen!
Note that this might NOT be the recommendations I would suggest for you. I always recommend that, like Ronn did, you FIRST figure out WHERE you want to go, and only THEN sign up for cards.
As always, if you want to apply for these or other cards and support Points With a Crew, I appreciate when you use my affiliate links.
Looking to plan a trip and want some advice on which cards can help make it happen? Get in touch – I’m happy to help! More suggestions for Ronn and his familiy? Leave them in the comments!
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Good advice. I would caution them about the fact that the points or miles WILL devalue by then so it may be a moving target so they should plan accordingly.
They have a huge advantage if they can stay with family instead of points at hotels as well.
Yes – I think that is their plan (to stay with family)
Load up on Chase and Amex points.
We are flying to Italy for visiting family there this summer. Our preference is usually to fly Virgin into Heathrow. Spend a couple of days in London to adjust to timezone, light tourism, then hop across on EasyJet to Italy.
Return on a separate one-way from anywhere in Italy.
Last year we actually hopped to Iceland on WowAir for the return. Then used Delta from Iceland to return to US. We did spend money obviously on EasyJet and Wow, but the rest was literally seat of the pants, we didn’t have a booking home from Iceland until we were in Iceland. Miles gave us a fair amount of freedom to do last minute bookings and our schedules were flexible.
I question Alaska miles a little bit. Getting the miles 25.000 at a time seems to me to be a tougher route than membership rewards points from AMEX, where scoring the right sign up bonuses would mean just two card applications versus 4 or 5 for Alaska.
Good points – I always find the problem with these types of scenarios is that there are just SO many valid ways to do it, that it’s hard to recommend just one. My thinking with the Alaska is that both Ronn and his wife could sign up for Alaska cards every couple of months, and that, coupled with the ability to get a stopover and book on several partners makes it attractive. Amex would be good as well