I’m happy to report that travel returned to my life in 2022! During the course of the year, I visited some great destinations, enjoyed time with family and stayed at some fabulous hotels. Plus, by utilizing several free night award certificates and redeeming lots of points and miles, these trips were virtually free!

It felt really good to travel again and I look forward to doing more in 2023. Let’s take a look back at what I accomplished in 2022.

Credit Cards

• Credit cards opened: 3
• Sign-up bonus points earned: 215,000 points
• Referral bonus points earned: 0 points
• Retention bonus points earned: 0 points
• Everyday spending: 198,067 points

Bonus points earned from credit card sign-ups were down, from 415,000 points in 2021 to 215,000 points in 2022. In both years, however, I opened up the same number of cards. The difference is due solely to the types of cards opened. In 2021, I opened three hotel credit cards, which came with huge sign-up bonuses. In 2022, I opened three airline credit cards, which had much smaller sign-up bonuses. While the bonuses earned were lower, airline miles are almost always worth more than hotel points. So while I may have earned fewer points, the value I received was about the same.

In 2022, I opened a United Explorer MileagePlus card and two American Airlines cards. Unfortunately, I didn’t earn any referral or retention bonuses this past year. All in all, I earned a total of 413,067 points!

Now let’s take a closer look at each of the new cards I opened in 2022.

United Explorer MileagePlus Card

With most non-Sapphire Chase credit cards, you can apply for and receive another sign-up bonus on the same credit card as long as 24 months have past since receiving the original sign-up bonus and the original card is no longer open.

So with my annual fee coming due in November of 2021, I decided to downgrade my existing Chase United℠ Explorer Card to a no annual fee United Gateway℠ Card. That saved me from paying the $95 annual fee in 2021. Since I no longer had an Explorer Card, I was then eligible for a new sign-up bonus. It’s always good to wait at least a month after closing or downgrading a card before applying again, so I waited until January of 2022 before reapplying for the Explorer Card.

After meeting the minimum spending requirements, I earned 60,000 bonus miles. Plus Chase waives the $95 annual fee for the first year, so this card was free for the second year in a row! Some other great benefits of this card are free checked bags, priority boarding expanded award availability, and annual United Club passes.

AAdvantage Aviator Business Mastercard

I applied for both American Airlines cards in June after they announced their new loyalty program. The new program incentivizes loyalty beyond just flight activity, making earning status easier for those who don’t fly very often. Around the same time, I ran across a terrific offer on the AAdvantage Aviator Business Mastercard from Barclays. The sign-up bonus was a whopping 80,000 bonus miles after spending $2,000 in the first 3 months. Plus the annual fee is waived for the first year. While the sign-up bonus didn’t count towards earning status, the spending needed to earn it sure did. Other perks of the card include free checked bags, priority boarding and a 5% annual mileage bonus.

AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite Card

Soon after earning the sign-up bonus on my new Aviator card, Citi announced an all-time best sign-up bonus of 75,000 miles on the Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select card after spending $3,500 in the first 3 months. Even though I had just finished earning the sign-up bonus on my Barclays card, I couldn’t resist applying for this one as well.

Some of the benefits of owning this card are free checked bags, 25% back on in-flight purchases and priority boarding. Since there’s lots of overlap between this card and the Aviator card, I’ll likely cancel one of them to avoid paying annual fees on both.

Trips: Flights and Hotel Stays

• Flights taken: 8 (0 business + 8 personal)
• Miles flown: 11,023
• Points/miles redeemed: 727,200
• Individual hotel stays: 7
• Total hotel nights: 19

After barely any traveling the two years prior, I took several outstanding trips in 2022. I took three big trips during the course of the year and mixed in several smaller ones as well. The first two big trips centered around stays at specific resorts and the final one was purely location-driven. It all began in April when I used three Hilton free night award certificates to stay at the historic Hotel del Coronado. Then over Thanksgiving, I took the family to Phoenix for a 4-night stay at the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa. Finally, we closed the year visiting friends in Orange County, California where I used an IHG free night award certificate and points to stay 5 nights at the Casa Laguna Hotel & Spa.

	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
Miles Flown	10,034	34,791	0	1,634	11,023
Hotel Stays	7	20	0	3	7
Hotel Nights	13	38	0	7	19

I’m particularly proud of how I was able to use points and miles to stay at some absolutely terrific hotels for hardly any out of pocket cost. For the three big trips mentioned above, I spent only $513 (mostly on resort fees and taxes) for 12 total nights. If I had paid cash for all 12 nights, it would’ve cost over $7,000!

Here are a few highlights from my favorite hotel stays of 2022:

Hotel del Coronado

The annual free night award certificate I earn as a Hilton Honors Aspire® cardholder, typically must be used within a year or it expires. During the pandemic, however, Hilton postponed the expiration of annual free night award certificates. When they finally decided to reset the expiration dates, I had accumulated three of them in total. My certificates were set to expire on July 1, September 1 and December 31 of 2022. To get the biggest bang for my buck, I wanted to use all three on the same hotel stay.

After finding a really cheap flight to San Diego in April, I decided to use those award certificates at the Hotel del Coronado. The total cost for three nights would’ve been $1,920, but we paid absolutely nothing! In addition, that same credit card also gives me $250 in annual statement credits for incidentals charged to my card at participating Hilton resorts. So once we arrived, the first $250 we spent on food and drinks at the hotel were also reimbursed as a statement credit. 

JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa

Over Thanksgiving, we took a family trip to Phoenix and stayed at the JW Marriott Phoenix Desert Ridge Resort & Spa. It was the best of both worlds, because the resort was amazing and since we family in Scottsdale, it still felt like a real Thanksgiving. The resort was wonderful and is packed with amenities including five pools, a lazy river, a spa, golf, pickleball and several restaurants.

To aid with the cost, I used the sign-up bonus I received from the Marriott Bonvoy Business™ American Express® Card, which I applied for late in 2021. After meeting the minimum spending requirements, I earned 125,000 Marriott points plus two free nights, up to 50,000 points each. I used those free night award certificates and 87,000 points to book the 4-night resort stay. Marriott charges resort fees and taxes, even on award stays, so in total the hotel only cost $203, when the cash price would’ve been around $2,600.

Casa Laguna Hotel & Spa

To close out the year, I used a free night award certificate and redeemed 220,000 IHG points to stay five nights at Casa Laguna Hotel & Spa. With the award certificate set to expire in January 2023, we decided to visit our good friends in California and put the free night to good use.

This beautiful boutique hotel is located in Laguna Beach and has terrific views of the Pacific Ocean. The castle-like property has only 23 rooms, so we often felt like we had the place to ourselves. We also found the service to be outstanding with friendly staff willing to go out of their way to make our stay memorable.

Points Redeemed

Giving into my pent up travel desires meant lots of point redemptions in 2022. I redeemed 638,200 points/miles, which broke down to 330,000 points/miles for flights and 307,000 points for hotel stays.

Airfare Redemptions

• 120,000 American Airlines miles were redeemed for airline tickets from Chicago to Phoenix
• 125,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points were redeemed through Chase’s Pay Yourself Back program to reimburse the cost of airline tickets from Phoenix to Chicago
• 41,200 United Airlines miles were redeemed for airline tickets from Chicago to Orange County
• 45,000 American Airlines miles were redeemed for airline tickets from Orange County to Chicago

Hotel Redemptions

• 87,000 Marriott Bonvoy points were redeemed for the hotel stay in Phoenix
• 220,000 IHG points were redeemed for the hotel stay in Laguna Beach

Points Transferred

I also transferred a total of 81,000 points to three travel partners via Chase and American Express.

• 1,000 points went to Air Canada
• 79,000 points went to British Airways
• 1,000 points went to Hyatt

Air Canada

I transferred American Express Membership Rewards points to Air Canada because they were running a special promotion of 15% more miles. Plus my Air Canada Aeroplan miles were expiring soon and transferring points is an easy way to keep them active for another year. Since Air Canada is part of the Star Alliance, I have the added flexibility of using those miles on United Airlines too.

British Airways

The transfer to British Airways was done prospectively. American Express ran two separate promotions on transfers to British Airways in 2022. Instead of the normal 1:1 transfer ratio, they offered 25% and 40% more miles. British Airways miles, which are called Avios, are particularly valuable because they’re part of the OneWorld alliance. American Airlines is part of that alliance too, so you can redeem Avios for flights on American Airlines. In many cases, especially on short haul flights, the number of Avios needed will be much less than what American would charge. In addition, Avios are also the currency for Ibiera and Aer Lingus so you can freely transfer Avios between the three airlines. At some point in the next few years, I’d like to use my Avios on Iberia for business class seats to Spain.

Hyatt

Similar to Air Canada, my 41,000 Hyatt points were set to expire towards the end of 2022. So I transferred the minimum amount of Chase Ultimate Rewards points to keep my Hyatt points valid for another two years.

Points earned off airline flights and hotel stays:

• American Airlines: 19,724 miles
• Hilton Hotels: 13,004 points
• Marriott: 27,417 points
• IHG: 20,547 points

Promotional Activity

Promotions come in many forms, but the most common is earning bonus points/miles or cash back on certain purchases. Even better, some promotions offer bonuses with no spending requirements at all. Signing up for promotions is free, so I make it a point to register for every one I come across.

Points and miles earned via promotional activity in 2022:

• American Airlines: 12,500 miles
• United Airlines: 10,743 miles
• Hilton Hotels: 5,000 points
• Marriott: 28,000 points
• InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG): 4,000 points
• American Express Membership Rewards: 34,160 points
• Citi ThankYou Rewards: 5,400 points

I earned just short of 100,00 bonus points/miles in 2022 because there were so many great promotions! Below you’ll find more detail on how I passively earned American Express Membership Rewards points and actively earned Marriott Bonvoy points, American Airlines miles and United Airlines miles via promotions.

American Express Membership Rewards Points

With no spending requirements at all, I earned 20,000 Membership Rewards points for opening up a business checking account and performing a few qualifying activities. Those activities included depositing at least $5,000 and then making a few bill payments. These kinds of promotions are such an easy way to earn bonus points and it costs absolutely nothing!

Marriott Bonvoy Points

Marriott ran a bunch of valuable promotions in 2022. Between February and May, they offered 1,000 bonus points plus one bonus Elite Night Credit for each night stay. Those extra elite night credits went a long way in helping me earn Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status.

The second promotion occurred over the summer, when they offered up to 22,500 bonus points (6,000 for the first stay, 7,500 for the second stay and 9,000 for the third stay). With three short trips booked during this promotional period, I was able to earn all 22,500 points!

The final promotion of the year was an extra 2,000 points per eligible stay.

American Airlines AAdvantage Miles

On two separate occasions in 2022, my Citi MileUp credit card offered bonus American Airlines miles, with very small spending requirements. Both times, the promotion was for 5x miles on online purchases up to a total of 2,500 miles. When promotions like these occur, I simply switch my purchases to the applicable credit card in order to earn the maximum bonus miles.

United MileagePlus Miles

In the fourth quarter, Chase offered 10x miles on groceries through a promotion on my United Explorer card. Similar to the Citi promotion, I switched all my grocery purchases to my Explorer card to earn as many miles as possible throughout the quarter.

Surveys

The amount of time I spent in 2022 doing surveys remained fairly low. So when I did spend time on them, it usually coincided with some kind of promotion, giving me extra rewards for my time. A few years back I earned over over 100,000 points/miles through surveys, but that dipped to less than 4,000 in 2021. In 2022, by doing surveys when bonuses were being offered, I was able to earn just under 20,000 points/miles without spending much time doing it.

I earned points via 5 different survey websites. Points and miles earned via surveys in 2022:

• American Airlines: 3,552 miles
• United Airlines: 600 miles
• Alaska Airlines: 50 miles
• Southwest Airlines: 1,265 miles
• Hilton Hotels: 14,130 points

Shopping and Dining Portals

Shopping and dining portals are another easy way to earn extra points and miles.

To earn a ton of miles when shopping online, instead of going directly to the merchant, start at a shopping portal first. There are a ton of different shopping portals out there, so I like to check Cashback Monitor to see which ones are giving the most bonus points at that merchant. Typically I use the portal offering the best bonus, but this past year I decided to try to earn Gold elite status on American Airlines. So unless another portal was far and away the better option, I started most of my online shopping at the American Airlines AAdvantage eShopping portal. In total, I was able to rack up over 43,000 American miles just from their shopping portal.

With dining portals, any restaurant participating with the Rewards Network will earn bonus points or miles. You must register your credit cards before dining, and then points/miles will accumulate automatically.

Points and miles earned via shopping and dining portals in 2022:

• American Airlines: 43,574 miles
• United Airlines: 4,656 miles
• Chase Ultimate Rewards: 102 points
• American Express Membership Rewards (via Rakuten): 5,684 points

Bottom Line

This past year finally felt normal again as I was able to take some great trips with my family. I also had a lot of fun going for elite status on American Airlines. American Airlines basically gamified their loyalty program, so by utilizing their shopping portal and SimplyMiles, I earned a ton of miles towards elite status. I was able to achieve AAdvantage Gold elite status in the fall of 2022 and will achieve Platinum status by January or February of 2023.

We’ll see what 2023 holds but as always, I’ll be on the lookout to ensure I don’t miss any points-earning opportunities.