Affordable Luxury Travel Guide: 10 Tips for Luxe Travel for Less

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We’ve been traveling together as a couple for over 15 years and traveling with kids for 9 years. People are always asking us questions about how we manage affordable luxury travel. How can you afford to travel so much? How much money do you need to travel the world? How can you afford to fly first class and business class, especially with two kids? How do you have so many airline miles and credit card points? How do you stay in luxury hotels for free? How can I do what you do?

We share travel tips daily on our social media channels, so make sure to follow us on whatever platforms you use regularly.  We are on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and YouTube.  We put together this affordable luxury travel guide to share how we travel for nearly free in luxury thanks to points and miles earned from travel credit cards (learn about our favorites here).

Here is our guide for families and couples seeking luxury travel experiences who value their hard-earned money and like to hold onto it. We’ve put together our best tips to experience luxury travel for less. Our slogan is “Travel like a millionaire.” We are here to show you how to travel like a millionaire WITHOUT spending a fortune. It can be done. We do it all the time. In fact, we saved over $271,000 on luxury travel over 2.5 years and are on pace to having saved about $500,000 in 5 years – thanks to our travel savvy and ability to reap the rewards of travel credit cards and travel loyalty programs. So here it goes!

How We Can Afford Luxury Family Travel

We have many ways that we can afford luxury travel as a family without breaking the bank. To give you an idea of what we will discuss more in detail below, here’s a quick rundown of how we do it. We leverage huge sign-up bonuses on the best travel credit cards- learn more about them here and the #1 card we recommend to get started in the world of points and miles. We open a credit card when there’s a really great sign-up bonus that earns points or miles we can use for future travel.

We use that card for all purchases to meet the minimum spending requirement, and then earn a ton of points as the “sign-up bonus” or “welcome offer”. Sometimes we earn as many as 150,000 points depending on the card and current offer. We redeem those credit card points or miles to get almost free flights and hotel stays. We repeat this process over and over, opening new credit cards when there’s a great sign-up bonus offer, which allows us to travel for next to nothing in luxury with our family.

Since we travel freqently, we take advantage of hotel reward programs and have elite status with several hotel chains. This earns us free nights, free room upgrades, free breakfast, and other great perks like welcome gifts and complimentary happy hours depending on the property.

We’ve earned free stays in some of the most luxurious resorts around the world thanks to our Leading Hotels of the World Membership. Our kids fly for free with us thanks to our Southwest Airlines Companion Passes, which we earned from strategically opening a Southwest personal (this one is our top pick) and business credit card (Bertaut has this one and Alexis has this one). In fact, we saved almost $15K in a few years flying with Southwest Airlines. Have we piqued your interest yet? That’s a small taste of what is possible for you and your family when you learn how to leverage travel credit cards.

Affordable Luxury Travel Tip #1: Mix Business with Pleasure

Bertaut works full-time in the Information Technology field and used to travel frequently for work. The great thing about business travel is that he has accrued tons of airline miles and hotel points. I (Alexis) have been fortunate to come along on some of his business trips. He goes to Las Vegas every year for a conference that just happens to fall around my birthday. So I’ve celebrated my birthday in Vegas several times as a tag along with my hubby. While he’s hard at work all day, I can lounge around at the pool or explore the lavish casinos. Throw in a delicious dinner and show after he finishes working and we have the makings for a very pleasurable business trip. Sometimes we extend the trip on our own dime to see more in the area.

The Bellagio is our favorite Las Vegas hotel, which used to participate in Leading Hotels of the World. We’ve stayed there many times to earn free award nights which we’ve redeemed at far more expensive hotels including Le Sirenuse,  Grand Hotel Excelsior Vittoria, and Palazzo Avino on the Amalfi Coast.  We saved $9K on our Amalfi Coast and Paris trip thanks to points, miles and loyalty programs.

Sometimes we even bring the kids along. We brought them to Las Vegas and were surprised by how many family-friendly activities there are in the area. They had a blast at the pool at Mandalay Bay, Shark Aquarium, and Siegfried and Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat. They also love the Bellagio Conservatory with its beautiful flower displays, a must-visit in Vegas.

He had a conference in Orlando several years ago, so I joined him with our daughter who was not quite 2 years old yet. We enjoyed a wonderful day at Disney World before heading back home. It was fantastic and barely cost us anything. I was Bertaut’s companion for Southwest Airlines so my flight was free, and our daughter was under 2 so flew free and got into Disney free. We only had to pay for our 2 tickets to Disney and our food. Learn how to do Disney on a budget with points and miles here.

Deluxe Holidays Tip #2: Stay in luxury hotels for free on points

We travel as a family often and stay in hotels around the world. Although it is rare for us to actually pay money for a hotel stay, sometimes we do pay instead of using points when the cash rate is very low. Every paid stay is earning us points toward another future stay. One of our favorite hotel chains for using points is Hyatt. We have stayed in some of the best Hyatt resorts across the globe for free thanks to redeeming Hyatt points, including the Park Hyatt Maldives, where rooms are often over $1,000 per night.

We earn Hyatt points through our World of Hyatt Credit Card (learn more about that card here). There’s also a World of Hyatt Business Credit Card. We also can transfer Chase Ultimate Reward points to Hyatt at a 1:1 ratio when we don’t have enough Hyatt points to cover a hotel stay. Our favorite cards to earn Chase points are the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card (learn more here), the Chase Ink Business Preferred®️Credit Card (learn more here), the Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card, and the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card.

For example, we spent a weekend in New York City to see the Christmas decorations. We stayed at the Park Hyatt New York for free by booking with points on more than one occasion. We received a suite upgrade thanks to being Hyatt Globalists, their elite status reward program for guests who stay at Hyatt often. Our Park Studio Suite would have cost us $1125 per night but we paid 30,000 Hyatt points/night.

If you don’t have enough points for your hotel stay, you can opt to pay with points and cash. We sometimes use this option to make our points go further and still get an excellent deal. We stayed at the Park Hyatt New York 2 years ago in a $4000 luxury suite for only $300 plus 15,000 Hyatt points by paying with points and cash. We also used points and cash to stay in a beautiful suite at Hyatt Capital Gate in Abu Dhabi for only $75 plus 6,000 Hyatt points.

One of our favorite Park Hyatt Properties was Park Hyatt Dubai, where we only paid $125 plus 10,000 points for a luxurious suite overlooking the water.

Tip #3 for luxury holidays: Sign up for hotel reward programs to earn free stays and perks

Sign up for hotel reward programs for every hotel chain you visit. You should never pay for a hotel stay without it working toward some kind of reward. The programs that we belong to include Radisson Rewards, Fairmont President’s Club, Hilton Honors, Jumeirah, Leading Hotels of the World, Marriott BonVoy, MGM Resorts M Life Players Club, Caesars Rewards, Wyndham Rewards, and World of Hyatt. Since I’ve already been talking about Hyatt, I’ll keep going with that example. It is our favorite, and we’ve stayed in more Hyatt properties than any other hotel chain.

The World of Hyatt program has earned us some amazing benefits. We are Hyatt Globalists which earns us complimentary breakfast for two adults and two children per night. We also receive complimentary room upgrades based on availability and free parking if paying with points or reward nights. Some hotels offer additional perks, such as complimentary cocktails and canapés like at Park Hyatt Tokyo and Grand Hyatt Tokyo.

One of our favorite perks for Hyatt Globalists was at Park Hyatt Maldives, which included a complimentary cocktail and canapés every evening at the poolside bar or the beach cabanas. Park Hyatt Maldives also had the best breakfast food and view combination we’ve ever had at a Hyatt resort. Our elite status also earned us a complimentary upgrade from a Park Villa to a Park Pool Villa. We loved it there so much that we returned 2 years later and stayed in a Park Water Villa. We returned a third time with our kids.

If you don’t travel enough to earn elite status with a hotel loyalty program, it is possible to earn elite status automatically through certain travel reward credit cards. For example, The World of Hyatt Credit Card comes with automatic Hyatt Discoverist status with just 5 nights booked per year. The Platinum Card®️ from American Express (learn more here) comes with automatic Hilton Gold status and Marriott Gold status, which earns you free breakfast for 2 people for every stay at a Hilton property plus room upgrades at both chains.

Tip #4 for luxury vacations: Get a hotel-affiliated credit card for free stays

Several hotel chains offer credit cards affiliated with their reward program, such as Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott BonVoy, IHG, and Radisson. Using those credit cards for everyday purchases earns you points toward free stays. More importantly, sign-up bonuses for these credit cards often include enough points for several free stays when you meet the spending requirement. We’ll stick with Hyatt again to explain since it’s not only our personal favorite, but is regarded by many as the best hotel credit card in the industry.

The World of Hyatt Credit Card sign-up bonus earns you Hyatt bonus points (see current offer to know exactly how many points you’ll earn) when you meet the minimum spending requirement within the first 3 months of opening the card. Free stays at Hyatt properties start at 5,000 per night for Category 1 hotels and go up to 30,000 per night for Category 7 hotels. So if you earned 60,000 bonus points, that would get you 12 free nights in a Category 1 hotel or 2 free nights in a Category 7 like Park Hyatt Tokyo. Another great option is 3 free nights at a Category 5 hotel like Andaz Costa Rica or 3 nights at all-inclusive Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos for 2 people.

Tip #5 for luxury escapes: Fly almost free with airline miles/points

We rarely pay for flights anymore, with money at least. Airline miles have become our preferred currency for flights. It is important to note that when redeeming airline miles, you are still responsible for taxes, which have ranged anywhere from $5.60 for domestic flights in the U.S. to almost $200 flying into Montenegro.

We have become experts at working credit cards to our advantage so that we can travel for nearly free with points and miles. We’ve saved about $500,000 in 5 years of traveling with points and miles. Our minds are constantly churning on how to book our trips using points, miles, and award nights.

We spend a lot of time reading about changes to mileage programs and transfer partners so we know how to stretch the most value out of our points and miles. We became experts in points travel and enjoy deluxe vacations for a fraction of what they would normally cost. The payoff is substantial and absolutely worth the time invested. We love fitting all the pieces of the puzzle together to get a fantastic flight deal.

We have a few dozen credit cards between the two of us to earn travel rewards. This hobby can be dangerous if you are not extremely financially responsible. The rewards for travel credit cards are only in your best interest if you are able to pay off your credit card bill every month. Having high credit card interest can quickly make those travel rewards go down the drain. So only play the credit card game if you are 100% confident that you’ll be able to pay off your credit card every month. Otherwise, it will end up costing you more than it helps.

We have an app called AwardWallet to help keep track of all our airline reward programs and mileage banks. With over 30 credit cards and so many different airline reward programs, that’s a lot to remember. Some of the programs we participate in include Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards, Alaska Airlines MileagePlan, Turkish Airlines Miles and Smiles, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyers, and United Airlines MileagePlus.

Our first premium airline reward redemption was flying Emirates First Class on the Airbus A380 from NYC to Milan with Alaska Airlines Miles. That was our first taste of flying premium on points, and we sure did start with a bang. Go big or go home, right?

We also flew Emirates First Class on the Boeing 777  from Milan to Dubai before heading to the Maldives. On our return home we flew Etihad Business Class using airline miles. We also have flown Lufthansa First Class for just $39 in taxes and 110, 000 United Mileage Plus Miles from Washington D.C. to Budapest. Other premium flights booked with miles include Air France Business Class from Venice to Washington D.C. and Turkish Airlines Business Class from Rome to Washington D.C.  We also flew Emirates First Class again to the Maldives 2 years after our first trip for $38 plus 100K JAL miles.

Our most impressive airline reward redemption was our family trip to Japan on Japan Airlines. We flew JAL 777 First Class as a family of 4 for only $72 in taxes and 280,000 Alaska Airlines Miles total. We saved about $55,000 on that flight alone and saved almost $73K on that trip to Japan! We are still impressed that we were able to find 4 reward seats in First Class so last minute. I think it was divine intervention to keep us from losing our minds on a 14 hour flight with 2 restless kids. Read our JAL First Class Review to hear all about that exceptional flight.

Tip #6 for affordable travel: Fly a companion for free with Southwest Airlines Companion Pass

We wrote a very thorough blog post about how the Southwest Companion Pass saved us thousands of dollars  and another one with all the details about how to earn a companion pass. In a nutshell, if you fly 100 qualifying one-way flights with Southwest Airlnes OR earn 125,000 qualifying points in a calendar year, you earn the Companion Pass.

The companion pass is valid for the remainder of the year in which you earn it and the following calendar year. You designate a companion and that person flies for free with you, paying only taxes and fees. You are able to change your companion 3 times per calendar year, giving you flexibility to treat your mom or best friend to a girls getaway and then switch it back to your child for the next family vacation. Since we both have had the Companion Pass for several years, our kids fly free with us on family vacations.

Exclusive Travel Tip #7: Sign up for email newsletters to get deal alerts

Sign up for email newsletters to get alerts for travel deals, sales, and special promotions. Hotels, airlines, and travel agencies are all email lists you want to be on. We are on the email list for Southwest Airlines and get notified every time they run a sale, and they have some great deals! We also signed up for WOW Airline’s email list (before they went bankrupt) and have seen flights for as low as $69 each way to Iceland from Baltimore. Check out our WOW Air review for our experience on this budget carrier.

We also like the deal alerts on Travel Zoo and Cheap Caribbean. We purchased an extremely affordable vacation package to the Dominican Republic as a babymoon several years ago and loved it. Groupon and LivingSocial also offer vacation deals, but we prefer them for finding deals on activities in the location we’re visiting. For example, you can get discounts on Las Vegas shows or discounted admission to museums and amusement parks through Groupon and LivingSocial. We always check them first before paying full price for an activity or attraction.

Travel Tip #8: Get a Priority Pass for luxury at the airport

When you’re a frequent traveler like us, it pays to have a Priority Pass membership to add a little luxury and peace to airport experiences. There’s nothing like a glass of wine or cocktail to calm any pre-flight jitters or take the edge off the stress of traveling with a wild preschooler. 😉  It’s especially handy to stash some extra snacks from the lounge in your carry-on to bribe your kids for good behavior on the flight. Oh yes, we’ve come to appreciate those lounge visits before flights!

We each received a Priority Pass Select membership for free with The Platinum Card®️ from American Express (learn more about that card here). There are several other premium travel credit cards that also come with a Priority Pass membership, including the Capital One Venture X Rewards Card, Chase Sapphire Reserve®️, The Business Platinum Card®️from American Express, Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card, Marriott BonVoy Brilliant™️ American Express Card, Hilton Honors American Express Surpass®️ Card, and The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card.

If your credit card doesn’t come with the Priority Pass Select, an annual membership can be purchased starting at $99. Priority Pass has 1200+ lounges worldwide and is especially helpful if they have a lounge (or sometimes several lounges) in your most frequented airports. The lounges offer complimentary pre-flight food and drinks including alcohol. Other benefits include complimentary wi-fi, cozy chairs to relax in while your devices charge, and clean restrooms where you can freshen up in between flights.

Our Priority Pass Select cards allow us free entry plus free entry for two guests per visit, which has come in handy when traveling with the kids, extended family, and friends. Lounge visits have been especially handy for long layovers or passing time when flights are delayed. Sometimes we arrive to the airport extra early to give us enough time to enjoy the lounge before we board our flight. If we’re traveling without the kids, it feels like a free date night! If we’re traveling with the kids, it helps us survive the flight. I know there are other parents out there who know EXACTLY what I’m talking about!

Tip #9 for savvy travelers: Try luxury vacation rentals

Although we love staying in luxury hotels for free or cheap, it is not always an option depending on where we are traveling. For example, when we went to Cuba, we were not able to use our hotel rewards due to limited hotel options there. We instead opted for AirBnB and found a luxurious 3 bedroom ocean-view apartment in Havana for far less than what a hotel room would have cost, let alone 3 separate hotel rooms.

Similarly, we stayed in several AirBnB’s in Iceland since there weren’t as many hotel options outside of the major cities. These affordable accommodations saved us money on food, which is very expensive in Iceland, since we were able to cook meals.  If you’ve never used AirBnB before, get $40 off your first trip of $75 or more through our link. The Capital One Venture X Rewards card included a limited time introductory sign-up bonus of $200 credit for vacation rentals including Airbnb, VRBO, and Vacasa. Learn more about that card by clicking on the image of the card here.

It’s also possible to book Vacasa rentals with Wyndham Rewards points. Vacasa rentals cost 15K Wyndham Rewards points per bedroom per night. You cannot book them online, you have to call 800-441-1034 to reserve with Wyndam Rewards points.

If you don’t have any Wyndham points, did you know that Wyndham is a transfer partner of Capital One and Citi? So if you have the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (click on card image here to apply),  Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, or Capital One VentureOne Credit card, you can transfer your Capital One miles to Wyndham at a 1:1 ratio for a Vacasa rental.  If you have the Citi Premier, you can transfer your Citi ThankYou Points to Wyndham at a 1:1 ratio.

Think beyond hotels when considering luxury accommodations. We know some people who also use VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner) to stay in luxury homes. Others even house sit in luxury homes around the world and therefore stay for free. We haven’t tried this option but it sounds fantastic! Let us know if you’ve tried this and how it went.

Tip #10 for traveling families: Score deals from timeshare companies

As much as we dislike pushy timeshare presentations, we’ve sat through a few to receive valuable vacation packages as a promotional gift. For example, we purchased a Bluegreen Vacations Disney package several years ago that was a bargain. We paid $997 for 7 nights at The Fountains in a 2 bedroom condo (with a full kitchen) and received four 2-day tickets to Disney World (any park) plus a $100 MasterCard gift card to use on anything.

The Disney package was the promotional gift in exchange for attending the timeshare presentation, which typically lasts between 90 minutes and 2 hours. However, we are Maryland residents and in the fine print the offer stated that Maryland residents are able to receive the promotional gifts without attending the presentation. That was the best Disney deal we’ve seen to date! If you don’t want to sit through a timeshare presentation, learn how to do Disney on a dime with points here.

We’ve also scored substantial gift cards and vouchers to be used for fun activities when traveling. In Whistler, we got free tickets to the Peak to Peak Gondola by signing up for a timeshare presentation. We were running a few minutes late and luck had it that it was overbooked so we didn’t even have to attend and still received the gift. What a deal!

Do you want 2 bonus tips for those interested in becoming a travel blogger?

All the travel tips we’ve shared above apply to everyone. However, we have 2 more bonus tips for anyone who is interested in becoming a travel blogger or “influencer”. To get those 2 bonus tips, simply share or like below to unlock the bonuses below.
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Bonus Tip #1: Provide services for sponsored stays, flights, activities

We have two last bonus tips that won’t apply to everyone, but could apply if you decide to start your own blog. As travel bloggers with a large audience of visitors to our website and social media followers on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest, we are considered “influencers”. That means that our blog posts and social media posts show people what to expect when planning a trip and may influence their decision. We inspire people to visit a destination we showed them, stay in a hotel we reviewed, fly an airline we love, take a tour we featured, buy a product we recommend, etc.  Our online presence has marketing power, and many brands have tapped into that power by collaborating with bloggers.

Although the majority of our hotel stays and flights have been paid for using our points/miles or other methods we discussed above, we’ve also worked with brands on sponsored hotel stays, activities, flights.  Each brand and blogger comes to an agreement about what services & sometimes payment will be exchanged/bartered in a way that is mutually beneficial to both parties. Typically the higher the value of the complimentary service received from a brand, the more the blogger offers in exchange so that they provide a good return on investment. Sometimes we provide simply a social media post in exchange for something we value, but more often we choose to provide a blog post about that service, such as a hotel review.

For example, our stays at The Springs Resort and Spa and Peace Lodge in Costa Rica were done in exchange for coverage on our blog. We wrote honest hotel reviews and shared posts on social media about the hotels. You will always know which hotel stays or services were comped because we disclose it in the blog post and on social media. We might say something like “We received complimentary accommodation for the purposes of this review, but all opinions are our own” or #sponsored on social media.

We strive to be objective in our reviews and even have a set list of criteria we look for in every hotel we review so that we  are not biased by having a free stay.  We’ve stayed in some absolutely stunning resorts through comped stays, such as Anantara Al Jabal Al Akhdar in Oman. We also went glamping in Oman through a sponsored stay that included a micro light flight over Wahiba Sands desert, which was incredible!

Bonus Tip #2: Work with tourism boards on press trips

Another fantastic opportunity for bloggers is working with tourism boards or brands on press trips, which is another form of sponsored travel but is more comprehensive. Press trips can be either paid or unpaid, but typically all expenses are covered including transportation, accommodation, meals, and activities. In exchange, bloggers create content to promote that location or brand, such a blog posts, social media posts, Instagram and facebook live stories, videos, etc.

Typically press trips are action-packed with a full itinerary and often involve group press trips with other bloggers and influencers. We’ve opted for press trips where we have full control over our itinerary because of our kids. Press trips can involve a lot of work but the rewards are substantial. We worked with the Visit Philly Tourism Board as Visit Philly Ambassadors for a weekend trip to Philadelphia.

Since we live just 2 hours away in Baltimore, we drove there and had a fun-filled family weekend exploring the city of brotherly love with our kids with everything being taken care for us from the hotel accommodations, meals and activities. Thankfully our media specialist gave us freedom to choose how to spend our weekend, which meant we didn’t have to follow any specific itinerary. Our media specialist gave us some suggestions on best things to do with kids and scheduled dinners for us. We also received free entry into all the attractions, so we were able to do so many exciting things.  Our kids loved Philly so much that they said they wished we lived in Philadelphia.

You can also see our post from our press trip with Snowmass Tourism, which was a blast! We learned how to ski from a private instructor, went snow tubing, ice skating, nature trekking, and so much more on this all expenses paid trip to help Snowmass get the word out about their family-friendly village and activities.

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Last words on our affordable luxury travel guide

So now you have our insider tricks and tips for saving money on luxury travel. Our mission is to help families travel more and travel better by showing them that travel, even luxury travel, doesn’t have to cost a fortune. We hope we’ve inspired you to make your dream vacation a reality, whether through traveling with points and miles, mixing business with pleasure, saving on accommodation with vacation rentals, scooping up timeshare presentation deals, or any of our money-saving travel tips.

We want to reassure anyone who is worried that opening several credit cards will hurt their credit score that the opposite is what happened for us. In fact, most “travel hackers” with a dozen or more travel credit cards have excellent credit and have improved their credit since entering the world of award travel. The key is keep your debt to credit ratio low, below 30%. For example, if your credit cards have a limit of $10,000, don’t put more than $3,000 on your cards at any time. When you open more credit cards, you have more available credit. So if you have more credit available but are utilizing a small percentage of it, your credit score should improve.

It’s also essential to pay off your credit card balance in full and on time every month to keep your credit score high. Also, never close a credit card within the first year. The banks can take back your sign-up bonus if you close the card within the first year. It also flags you as a risky consumer to the banks and they will be less likely to approve you for any more credit cards in the future. If you decide to close a card, wait until the annual fee hits for year 2 and then close it within one month to get the annual fee reimbursed. Alternatively, try to downgrade your card to a different card within the same card family with a lower or no annual fee. This is called a product change and does not impact your credit score.

Get started traveling for nearly free with points and miles today with the #1 travel credit card for beginners. If you already have that card, here are our top picks with current offers. If you apply for any cards, we appreciate if you use our links so we can earn a commission at no cost to you. That helps us be able to provide valuable free content.

Please share in the comments which tips you found most helpful and which ones you’ve used! We love to hear your success stories! If you have any tips to add, please share those below too!

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*Editorial Disclosure-The editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.