Here's How I Saved $5,687 With Travel Credit Cards

I'm a huge fan of travel credit cards, for a pretty simple reason. They usually save me at least $5,000 to $10,000 per year. Case in point, we're less than a month into 2024. I recently booked a pair of business-class tickets on Air France for 154,000 miles, plus $525 in taxes and fees. In cash, those tickets would have cost $3,106 a piece, for a total of $6,212.

That means I saved $5,687. Part of the reason I saved so much is because I booked business-class airfare, but you can save on any type of flight and seating this way. If you're interested in learning how to travel with credit card points, I'll cover the easy method I use for booking airfare.

Earn enough points to pay for the flight

The first thing you need is enough travel rewards to book the flight you want. My preferred method is to load up on transferable points. I open travel cards that earn transferable points, and I use those cards for all my regular expenses.

Transferable points are credit card rewards that can be sent to any of the card issuer's travel partners. Let's say you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. You can send your Chase points to any of Chase's partners. That includes United Airlines, Air France/KLM, British Airways, and many other airlines and hotels.

There are a few types of transferable points:

• Chase Ultimate Rewards points
• American Express Membership Rewards points
• Capital One Venture miles
• Citi ThankYou points

I regularly apply for cards in these programs to earn sign-up bonuses and have more points available. Since I knew I'd be flying with Air France, I also opened an Air France credit card with a welcome bonus of 50,000 miles. I earned some additional miles from my spending on that card, and another 20,000-mile bonus. To be honest, I'm not sure what that last bonus was for, but I'll take it.

Search for award availability

The next step is shopping for award tickets -- tickets that you can purchase using miles. With most airlines, it's nearly the same as doing a flight search on the airline's website. The only difference is you choose the "book with miles" option. You may need an account with the airline's frequent flyer program. You can set one up free of charge.

Plug in your travel dates, where you want to go, and select the option to book with miles. If you know you want to fly in a specific cabin, such as economy, premium economy, or business class, most airlines also let you specify that.

The flight search will show you all the award ticket options. Many airlines also show you the lowest prices (in miles) on other dates, so you can see when the best deals are available.

If possible, be flexible about your travel date and time. You'll likely find that prices vary quite a bit from flight to flight. For example, I was able to get business-class tickets for 77,000 miles a piece. On some flights, business class costs 193,500 miles. By being flexible, I didn't have to spend nearly as many miles.

Transfer points and book the airfare

Once you've found the flight you want, you can select it and book it. The checkout process works the same way as when you pay in cash, except it will be a lot cheaper. All you'll need to pay are the taxes and fees for your award ticket.

If you're using credit card points to book your ticket, you'll need to transfer them first. All transfers are final, so only do this once you know exactly what you're going to book. Here's how to transfer credit card points:

• Log in to your credit card account and go to the rewards section.
• Select the option to transfer points.
• Select the travel partner -- in this case, the airline where you're booking the flight.
• Enter your account details in that partner's loyalty program. If you don't have an account yet, create one.
• Enter the amount of points and submit the transfer.

In my case, I needed another 76,000 miles to book with Air France. I logged in to Chase Ultimate Rewards and transferred 76,000 points over, using my frequent flyer number with the airline. Transfer times vary, but they're usually fast. I had the miles in my Air France account in under a minute.

It takes a little work to earn points and use them to book your travel, but it's well worth it. I got business-class seats for me and my wife, which will make an 11-hour flight much more comfortable. With the right credit cards, you can earn points and save on travel, too.