Step 3: Time to TRAVEL!!!

Once again, if your big question is which credit card should I apply for???  Well that depends on where you want to go.  What is your next travel destination that you want to make happen?  That should determine what cards you apply for.  If you are happy to travel anywhere and just want a stash of miles to give you possibilities, then I would say get a stash of Delta miles.  They will be the easiest to use for those of us living in SLC.  To get a bunch of Delta miles, I recommend applying for the Delta Gold, the Delta Platinum, and the Amex Gold (this is different than the DELTA Gold) and Amex Green Cards.  Remember if you are married, you AND your spouse can each apply for each of these cards (so that is a total of 8 credit card offers you can take advantage of).  Make sure you apply when the offers on these cards are at their highest since Amex only lets you apply (and earn) the bonus once in your lifetime.  Once you have applied for and earned a bonus on one of these cards, start following my instagram page (milesfromslc) for delta sky miles deals and you'll be able to book a trip for a steal of a deal!

Disneyland - click here for my recommendations for how to do it on points and miles!

Hawaii- click here for my recommendations for how to do it on points and miles!

Europe- click here for my recommendations for how to do it on points and miles!

Bora Bora- click here for my recommendations for how to do it on points and miles (oh and this is not a trip for the fam- trust me and just take your spouse!)

Cruises-
Cruises are tough because they typically don't let you book using points or miles.  So I would recommend getting a credit card that gives you a travel "credit" that you can use towards ANY travel purchase.  So once you get one of these cards, book the cruise on the card and you'll earn back a credit which reduces your out of pocket expense for the cruise.

Capital One venture or Venture X- you can use the 50,000- 100k points as a $500-$1000 credit towards any travel purchases 

the Wells Fargo Propel card ($200 travel credit) no annual fee.

the Bank of America Travel Rewards (no annual fee).  Spend $1000 and get $265 credited back

Or Discover It Miles (you don’t get a welcome bonus, but it is annual free and you earn 3x points in the first year on all purchases)

Chase Travel Portal - for even cheaper airfare tickets than you can imagine!

Do you follow Flightsfromhome.slc on instagram or someone else that posts great sale prices on flights? Want to get a sale priced ticket even lower???? Get a Chase Sapphire or Chase Preferred credit card! Whenever you find an amazing deal on google flights, head over to your Chase credit card website and use their travel portal. Put in the same dates and see if it pulls up the same sale flight. Recently I found sale prices from SLC-Hawaii and LAX-LHR for just $350, Chase's travel portal pulls up the same $350 flights, and now I have the option to purchase those flights using my chase points. It'll cost 35K chase points, unless you have the Chase Preferred credit card (which makes your points worth 1.25) so that will reduce the price to 28K chase points, or the Chase Reserve credit card (which makes your points worth 1.5) which will reduce the price to just 23K chase points!!!! Flying SLC-Hawaii or LAX-London for just 23K points is a heck of a deal!

So, if you love a good deal you might want to consider getting a Chase credit card so that you can make those good deals even better (and use points to purchase vacations instead of your hard earned dollars!!!). Personally I'd recommend starting with the Chase Sapphire Preferred, it has a $95 annual fee and will give you that 1.25 point benefit when using their travel portal. The Reserve Card is awesome because it makes your points worth even more (1.5) but it also has a hefty fee $550 ($300 will be reimbursed to you if you use the card on travel purchases so really it's a $250 fee. So basically $150 more than the preferred card fee. There are also other benefits and credits that help justify that fee, read this article for more info). Here is more info for how to use the chase travel portal.

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Here are all my credit card referrals - it's your way of thanking me for putting all this information together for you! :)