About Points & Miles

How do we travel so much, especially overseas, as an upper-middle-class couple with three kids at home? Travel points and miles make it possible. Award travel is central to my travel strategy and a major topic for The Suburban Travelers. To explain how I use points and miles to meet our goals, let’s start with my overall travel philosophy.

My Travel Philosophy

I seek to make travel experiences memorable and high-quality—flight, hotels, food, culture, and sightseeing. For long-haul flights, I prefer first or business class so we arrive rested as well as to enjoy premium perks. For trains, I choose first-class or sleepers for comfort. For lodging, I stay in centrally-located hotels to better connect with the city we are visiting and to use more of our time seeing sights rather than commuting from cheap but distant properties. At attractions, I buy premium access to make the most efficient use of my limited vacation time. At mealtime, I want to try local cuisine but without eating at budget-priced restaurants for every meal.

Obviously, premium travel isn’t cheap, so we must choose: fly first class and stay in central-city hotels but travel less, or pick cheaper, less premium options and travel more. Thankfully, there’s a way to have premium experiences and travel frequently: travel points and miles!

Points and miles - a Premium Travel “Cheat Code”

Let’s be clear: traveling isn’t free. Despite headlines about points and miles fans “traveling the world for free”, you should know that that is the exception. Almost certainly, you’ll still need to spend money to explore our country or the world. The key question is: what’s your travel budget, and what kind of experiences can you afford within it? However, points and miles offer access to first-class experiences on an economy-class budget! While this may sound like a sales pitch or a gimmick, points and miles are legitimate and widely used. When you collect points and miles, you can “pay” for the premium experiences you want with your points and miles balances.

I’m not writing this blog to promote a secret world that only I can reveal. Travel points and miles are real and obtainable, regularly used by many people. While there are those who go to extreme lengths to earn and spend them, the majority of people use them inefficiently and never fully realize their potential. Of course, the more money you can afford to spend, the greater the benefit you can derive from points and miles. However, even on a moderate budget, if you’re willing to invest some effort, you can extract significantly more value. The Suburban Travelers will help you explore the possibilities and guide you in determining how far you want to delve into pursuing higher points and mile balances.

My History with Points and Miles

I started earning Delta SkyMiles in the mid-1990s. After college I signed up for the American Express Delta SkyMiles Optima card. A few years later, I began collecting hotel points. For nearly 20 years, I earned points only from flights, hotel stays, and charging everything to the Optima card. I used SkyMiles for domestic first-class awards and to reduce fares for domestic economy flights. For my first trip to Europe in May 2014, I spent 95,000 SkyMiles plus $202 in taxes and fees for a round‑trip economy ticket. Though I thought I was using miles well, looking back, those awards were inefficient. The European ticket was not a bad use of miles, but I soon learned that I only knew the basics about reward currencies. Then I discovered points and miles blogs.

After that first trip to London and Paris, I wanted to go more of Europe...soon. During my research for a second trip, I found two blogs, of which the former is still actively published and a must-read: One Mile at a Time and Million Mile Secrets. I learned that not only was I not getting the most out of my credit card spending, but I could also be earning many more rewards via credit sign-up bonuses. My education had begun! 

Sharing My Points and Miles Expertise

A big reason I started Debrian Travels was to share my points-and-miles know-how so others could enjoy better trips like my wife and I do. Last December I had lunch with a friend who asked which credit card he should get to earn more rewards. After asking about his goals and how much time he wanted to invest, I suggested a card that balances effort, simplicity, and flexible awards. I realized then it would be handy to have blog articles to give him — that was the light-bulb moment.

Debrian Travels was always a little unfocused, straddling the categories of general travel blog and points and miles blog. Advising my friend, made me realize that sharing my knowledge and experience should be my central theme in rebooting the site. I can write about how I have earned, tracked, and used miles. I can still review our travel experiences, but with an emphasis on the role played by points and miles in enhancing those journeys. Furthermore, I get a creative outlet by publishing a blog and writing articles, producing some videos, and sharing my photography. That sounds like a win for me and, hopefully, a win for you as well!