The Chase Ultimate Rewards program has made it possible for my wife and me to fly to St. Martin, Aruba, Fort Lauderdale, New York City, Houston, and Charleston all free of charge.

A couple things I love about the program are:

• Variety of Options to Gain Points – There are a bunch of credit cards with sign-up bonuses that can quickly give your points balance a boost, as well options for getting points from ongoing spend.

• Partner Programs – There’s a variety of airlines and other rewards programs that you can move your Chase points to 1:1, including United Mileage Plus which we’ve taken full advantage of.

These two perks are more than enough to make me a huge fan of Chase’s rewards program, but they also offer additional benefits such as ability to convert your points to cash and the option to book travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal, which sometimes has even better rates than if you had transferred the points 1:1 to a partner program.

This simple guide to Chase Ultimate Rewards will tell you how to earn your points, options for redeeming your points, and finally some quick tips for maximizing your points.

How to Earn Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

 
Chase currently has three credit cards available that allow you to gain Ultimate Rewards points directly.

Chase Sapphire Preferred

 
When people reach out to me and ask what travel rewards credit card they should get, the first question I ask is if they already have the Chase Sapphire Preferred? If they don’t, then this is the card I typically recommend.

You can get 60,000 points after you spend $4,000 on your card within the first three months. Those points are worth $750 in travel when booked through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal (1.25 cents per point), or you can transfer the points to Chase’s travel partners, such as United Airlines (see all the travel partners in the “How to Redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards Points” section below.

Signup Bonus: 60,00 points after spending $4,000 within three months of account opening

Annual Fee: $95

Learn how to apply here

Chase Sapphire Reserve

 
For the average person who travels a few times a year, but not super frequently, the Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card. But if you travel frequently or already have the Chase Sapphire Preferred then the Chase Sapphire Reserve is a great option.

With this card you get 50,000 points after spending $4,000 on the card within the first three months. When you book through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal, your points go further as you will get 1.5 cents/point instead of 1.25 cents/point. That means your 50,000 points end up being worth $750 when you book through the portal. This card also comes with a $300 annual travel credit that can be used on any type of travel, which helps offset the $550 annual fee. One additional perk that is worth pointing out is the complimentary Priority Pass Select Membership, which gives you access to 1,000+ airport lounges.

Signup Bonus: 50,00 points after spending $4,000 within three months of account opening

Annual Fee: $550

Learn how to apply here

Ink Business Preferred

 
If you’re a business owner, you’re in luck: the Ink Business Preferred card is a business credit card that has an amazing signup bonus of 80,000 points when you spend $5,000 within three months of account opening. When you book through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal, those points are worth $1,000 in travel.

There are some business-specific perks that come with this card as well, such as 3x points on the first $150,000 spent on travel and select business categories each year, and 1x point on all other purchases. A great credit card for any business owner, and one that I highly recommend.

Signup Bonus: 80,000 points after spending $5,000 within three months of account opening

Annual Fee: $95

Learn how to apply here

How to Redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

 
There are a few different ways you can redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points, some of which I’ve mentioned already. At a high level they include:

• Redeeming through the Chase Ultimate Rewards Portal

• Transferring 1:1 to Chase Travel Partners

• Redeeming through cash back

Redeeming through the Chase Chase Ultimate Rewards portal can be a solid option. First of all, it’s pretty straightforward what you will get. As mentioned earlier, with the Chase Sapphire Preferred you have the opportunity receive 60,000 points with their signup bonus, which equals $750 when redeemed through the Chase portal (1.25 cents per point). In a similar way, you have the opportunity to get a 50,000 point signup bonus when you sign up for the Chase Sapphire Reserve, which also equates to $750 of travel through the Chase portal (with this card you get 1.5 cents per point). There is also a variety of travel you can book through the portal, from flights to hotels and more.

Another option is to transfer your points 1:1 to Chase travel partners. This is the approach that my wife and I took with our points. We transferred 1:1 to United Airlines, mainly because we were certain we could get a better value on the flights we booked than if we kept the points in the Chase travel portal. What I like about United airlines is that they fly everywhere and offer a ton of options if you are redeeming rewards points. This contrasts to an airline like American Airlines where the options are pretty limited.

The current travel partners that you can transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards points to include the following airline reward programs:

• Aer Lingus AerClub

• Air France/KLM Flying Blue

• British Airway Avios

• Emirates Skyward

• Iberia Plus

• JetBlue TrueBlue

• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer

• Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards

• United Airlines MileagePlus

• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

These hotel programs are also partners that you can transfer points 1:1:

• World of Hyatt

• IHG Rewards Club

• Marriott Bonvoy

You can also receive your Chase Ultimate Rewards points in the form of cash back. Receiving cash is hardly a bad thing, but the reality is that your points will go further if you book travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal, and could go even further when you transfer the points to certain travel partners.

Tips for Maximizing Chase Ultimate Rewards

 
Once you have Chase Ultimate Rewards points, it’s tough to go wrong with the Chase portal. But if you want to stretch your miles further, take a look at what the value of a flight or hotel is and compare it to the cost of redeeming through the portal. For some hotel rewards you may get a better deal booking through the portal instead of transferring the points to the hotel rewards program. This can be true of flights as well.

The reverse can be true as well. Let’s say you can get a $1,200 flight for 35,000 points via the airline’s rewards program. This is clearly a better deal than using the portal to purchase the flight. Taking advantage of this difference is what has allowed my wife and I to travel to so many places for free. We transferred our Chase Ultimate Rewards points to our United Airlines MileagePlus accounts, and then booked flights through that rewards program.

I didn’t mention this redemption option earlier because it’s so bad: do not redeem your Chase Ultimate Rewards points for merchandise. Once you have some Chase Ultimate Rewards points you will get mailers or online offers to redeem your points for merchandise. The amount of points you need to trade to get the merchandise simply does not make sense.

Summary – Chase Ultimate Rewards Simple Guide

 
As a quick recap, here are the cards that allow you to gain Chase Ultimate Rewards points directly:

Chase Sapphire Preferred: signup bonus of 60,00 points after spending $4,000 within three months of account opening

Chase Sapphire Reserve signup bonus of 50,00 points after spending $4,000 within three months of account opening

Ink Business Preferred signup bonus of 80,000 points after spending $5,000 within three months of account opening

And the primary ways to redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points:

• Redeeming through the Chase Ultimate Rewards Portal

• Transferring 1:1 to Chase Travel Partners

• Redeeming through cash back

I hope you’ve found this simple guide to Chase Ultimate Rewards useful. If you are new to the program I’m excited for you – it’s the best travel rewards program out there with a ton of perks. Click here or any of the links on this page to get started!

This is the advice many personal finance experts will give. You should completely deprive yourself until you are out of debt.

They want you to feel ashamed of your debt.

In reality feeling ashamed isn’t healthy and can impact your mental, physical, and emotional health. It can also prevent you from seeing the big picture.

Paying off student loan debt can be a long process. Even if you can afford the standard ten-year repayment plan, you could still be making payments for years before the debt is eliminated, even if you aggressively pay it down.

There are also those who are strategically pursuing student loan forgiveness, either through Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) (ten years) or income-driven loan forgiveness (twenty to twenty-five years).

Being ashamed of student loan debt can lead to decisions that make no sense. For example, a social worker making $40k a year with $110k in student loan debt is much better strategically pursuing PSLF. When done properly, a borrower like this could build up a solid emergency fund, Health Savings Account, and retirement account, and have their loans wiped out tax-free.

The social worker in this example would achieve the same result as if they had paid off their loans, in full, by working 80 hours a week for ten years straight. They would actually be much better off due to the savings and investments they built up, not to mention the fact that they wouldn’t be broken from 80 hour work weeks for ten years.

Even if you are working towards paying off your debt in ten years or less, borrowers should try to avoid tunnel vision with student loan debt. There are other financial goals that should take precedence:

• Credit Card Debt and Personal Loans
• Emergency Fund
• Health Savings Account (Medical Emergency Fund)
• Investing (especially any contributions matched by an employer)

A balanced approach to student loan repayment is ideal.

First, borrowers should look into whether they would benefit from going down the path of student loan forgiveness. They should also consider, at least temporarily, whether moving onto an income-driven repayment plan would benefit them by helping increase their cash flow, which can then be used to hit other financial priorities, such as paying off high-interest credit card debt and building an emergency fund.

This brings us to travel.

Travel isn’t as important as building an emergency fund or starting to invest for retirement. It’s a “want” and is thought of as a splurge in many cases.

But should you really not travel at all until your student loans are completely gone?

From what I’ve seen, the experts who recommend this are typically people who had no student loans or were able to pay them off aggressively in less than two years.

That simply won’t be the case for many borrowers.

Many people who have student loan debt are motivated to work hard in their careers. Many also have a side hustle.

For me and my wife, trips have been an escape from the daily and weekly grind. We both have demanding 9-5 jobs and we both also have side hustles. Taking time for travel, even a 3- or 4-day trip, has been important for our health. Longer trips, such as our trip to Vietnam and Thailand, have created memories we will keep with us the rest of our lives.

We didn’t want to wait until we are out of student loan debt to see the world. We don’t have kids, so it’s a good time for us to take trips (like the Southeast Asia one I mentioned) that will be more difficult if we have children. And even if we had kids we wouldn’t want them to have to wait until our student loans are gone to go on trips.

I took a similar approach to travel as I did with other things that we spend money on: I challenged myself to find ways to save money on travel.

Let’s say a trip is going to cost $3,000 after flights, hotel, ground transportation, and other costs are taken into consideration. What if I could spend $2,000? Or $1,000?

That’s exactly what we’ve been able to do.

But before we get into ways to make travel more affordable, I want to re-iterate that I think it is okay, if not beneficial, to travel when you have student loans, even if you can’t travel hack in the ways I’m about to describe.

I do not think many of the large personal finance names who make you feel ashamed of your student loan debt understand how difficult it is for borrowers to repay large amounts of student loans. Cost of living has increased disproportionately to wages, and the ratio of student loan debt to income has increased to unprecedented levels. Don’t feel ashamed for making travel a priority.

Which is our first tip for traveling with student loan debt: make travel a priority.

Make Travel a Priority

 
When planning on how much to spend on a wedding the most quoted piece of financial advice is to spend more on what you care about and less on what you don’t. If you don’t care about flowers, spend as little as possible on them. If you care about the drinks that will be available, spend more on that.

This same advice can be applied to your personal budget. If you care about travel, allocate more money towards travel and less towards other things. That may mean driving a car that isn’t that cool but is affordable and practical (my used Kia Spectra is certainly not cool but has been reliable and affordable). It may mean spending more time making recipes at home and bringing lunch to work. Or spending less on clothes by looking for deals and only purchasing them when you can get them cheap.

Having a dedicated travel fund can be helpful. You can open a high yield savings account at CIT Bank and make regular weekly or monthly deposits to it from your checking account (or check out some other high-yield savings account options in this post).

I don’t want to pretend like a side hustle is easy. It can be time-consuming and draining. But there’s no denying that a side hustle can be a good way to help achieve specific savings goals. If your goal is to save $300 a month that can be used towards travel, a side hustle could be a good option. A two-week trip across Europe may be just the motivation you need to make a few extra grand through a side hustle this year. I share 10+ side hustles I’ve tried and in another post I list 50+ online or at-home side hustles.

For me personally, side hustles have been helpful in hitting savings goals. But what has helped more than anything is credit card rewards, which we’ll talk about next.

How Credit Card Rewards Can Save You Thousands on Travel

 
Over the past five-plus years my wife and I have used credit card rewards to save thousands on flights, hotels, and other costs. For example an airline credit card typically waives checked baggage fees. For two people traveling round-trip this fee typically can be about $100. That’s $100 in savings right there on every round-trip flight.

While many travel rewards credit cards come with benefits, such as the free checked baggage perk I just described, where you can really benefit is from the sign-up bonus.

One of my favorite credit cards is the Chase Sapphire Preferred®. When you spend $4,000 within the first 3 months of account opening, you get 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards® bonus points. Those points are redeemable for $750 through the Chase Ultimate Rewards® travel portal, or you can transfer 1:1 to travel partners (like United Airlines). Depending on where you are traveling, 60,000 miles can potentially cover a round-trip international flight on United Airlines.

And this is just one card. Another card that is a solid choice for travel is the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card. This card offers 50,000 miles when you spend $3,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening. These points translate to a $500 credit towards travel-related expenses, which I recommend using towards a hotel stay (we used ours towards a hotel stay in Aruba – highly recommend it).

Each month I update our top travel rewards credit cards. If you aren’t taking advantage of these rewards, especially if you want to travel but have student loan debt, you are missing out on hundreds or even thousands of dollars of savings.

Don’t let student loans hold you back from traveling. A balanced approach to student loan debt is best. If you don’t feel confident about your student loan strategy, check out my book Student Loan Solution: 5 Steps to Take Control of Your Student Loans and Financial Life.

Our trip involved long flights from the United States and back, as well as multiple flights across Vietnam and Thailand.

We wanted to be as prepared and comfortable as possible. After all, we would be in no one place for more than four nights. We’d be unpacking and repacking often, and we would need to sleep on some of the flights.

This is the list of things we bought to make international travel easier. I think you’ll find them helpful as well.

You can also browse this list on Amazon.

Teppy Pocket WiFi

 

 
One of the most important things to me when I embark on international travel is having service on my phone. There are many places around the world that have WiFi networks, but if you want seamless and reliable connection I highly recommend renting a Teppy Pocket WiFi.

Teppy Pocket WiFi is a piece of hardware that is similar in size to a phone, but slightly thinner. All you have to do is turn it on and connect to the WiFi hotspot it creates. This was a lifesaver when we were in Vietnam and Thailand, since we could look things up on the go.

Read my full review of Teppy Pocket WiFi.

External Battery

 

 
The last thing you want to do when you are out and about in a foreign country is get caught with your phone or other electronics drained of battery in the middle of the day. An external battery is a must.

I bought and recommend the Anker PowerCore 13000 Portable Charger. This battery is powerful enough to recharge your phone multiple times, but what I really love about it is the two USB ports. You can charge two phones at once, but what I often found myself doing was charging both my phone and Teppy Pocket WiFi at the same time. Super useful and not too bulky considering how much of a charge it carries.

Noise-Cancelling Headphones

 

 
Noise-cancelling headphones don’t block out 100% of the noise around you, but there is a huge difference between noise-cancelling headphones and earbuds. Besides blocking out noise on the plane, it also helps protect your eardrums because it naturally makes it so you don’t have to listen to your audio as loud as with earbuds. I’m always surprised more people don’t use them when flying.

I admittedly didn’t buy mine for flying because I use them when I’m working. Unlike some of the things on this list, noise-cancelling headphones have a use outside of your international travel. They also aren’t as expensive as you might think. I love these Boltune bluetooth headphones and they only cost about $50.

Clothes Organizers with Compression Built-In

 

 
On most of my international trips where I am only staying at one location the entire time I haven’t had to worry much about having my clothes super organized. But on our Asia trip we were packing and repacking often, so I wanted to make sure we had everything as organized as possible.

These Lermende Compression Packing Cubes were a big win. They come with a handful of bags in different sizes. There is compression built-in with how the zippers are set up, and it was easy to divide up clothes based on type or leg of the trip.

Neck Pillow

 

 
I’m a light sleeper, so sleeping on flights is something I rarely do. But when you think about a long international flight, especially a red-eye, you have to at least try to sleep for part of the flight.

What made a big difference for me was a neck pillow. This is a basic travel necessity, but at the same time an essential one when we are talking about international travel.

I recommend this memory foam neck pillow that costs around $15.

Medicine Organizer

 

 
I take allergy medicine regularly and typically like to have ibuprofen and benadryl on me in case I need it. The problem with traveling is that it’s annoying to bring multiple bottles of pills.

Until recently I would bring my pills in their prescription bottles or in little plastic bags. My wife found these pill organizers and they worked really well. I also used a label maker to label each section.

These compartments are small. If you have larger pills you won’t be able to fit a ton, or will need to fill many of the compartments with the same pill. For most pills, though, the organizer will work well.

One thing I will warn about this is that you could run into issues if the country you are entering has some rules around pills needing to all be in labeled bottles. I didn’t read deep into this topic so I’m unsure what countries, if any, would cause issues. I had no problems and it was super useful having such a compact organizer in my bag.

Finally, always make sure to have copies of your prescription information.

Water Bottle

 

 
Having a large, quality water bottle can make your trip more comfortable – you don’t want to run out of water right away on a long flight.

A travel water bottle should also have a covered mouth piece, for obvious reasons. I admit at one time my water bottle didn’t have a cover and it’s pretty gross to think about.

We went with this 32 ounce Hydracy water bottle. I don’t like fruit in my water, but this water bottle does come with a removable fruit strainer.

Rewards from Credit Cards – Free Flights and Credits towards Travel Expenses

 
We’ve been using travel rewards credit cards and cash back credit cards for nearly a decade to save money on flights, hotels, and more.

For example, our flights to and from Asia cost only about a hundred dollars from taxes and airport fees, and we also saved money on hotels through travel credits we gained through our credit cards. I go into more detail in this post.

Besides free flights and savings on hotel stays through travel credits, another credit card rewards we really value is a credit for Global Entry, which includes TSA PreCheck. There are a few cards that offer a credit for Global Entry or TSA Precheck, including the Capital One® Venture® Rewards credit card which offers up to a $100 credit. The Capital One Venture Rewards card also has a one-time bonus of 50,000 miles once you spend $3,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening. These 50,000 miles equal $500 in travel, which is a huge perk.

Electronics Organizer

 

 
Chargers. Batteries. USB cables.

The amount of cords and electronics can get a bit ridiculous. That’s why I decided to purchase an electronics organizer for when I go on trips. This helps keep all your cords and equipment in one spot. I went with this BAGSMART Electronic Organizer, which may have a little too much space since I got the double-layered version. The single-layer is likely enough for most people.

Tablet & Accessories

 

 
For years I went back and forth on whether to get a tablet or not. Typically it’s not that big of an issue to bring my laptop with when I travel. Yes, it can be a bit bulky, but if I’m not constantly on the move it doesn’t matter much to me.

I finally decided to get a Microsoft Surface for our trip to Asia. We were going to be traveling often throughout the trip and a laptop didn’t seem practical. The Surface was a bit more expensive than some lower-cost tablets, but it has Microsoft Office on it which I use all the time.

I also bought a couple accessories including the Microsoft Surface Go Type Cover, this screen protector, and this case.

Backpacks

 

 
Luggage works just fine for many trips, but if you are on the go it can help to have a large backpack. I went with this Kelty Coyote backpack, which has an 80 Liter capacity. There are many opinions on what size of a bag is needed, so it’s worth noting that 80L is a pretty big bag. My wife went with a smaller 55L/65L backpack.

I’m not going to lie, when you have these bags packed full of stuff it can be a bit heavy. But that has more to do with what you pack versus the bag itself. I think it would be challenging to fully pack an 80L bag and walk around with it for an extended period of time.

Here are some other things we bought that are worth checking out:

• Silicone Rings – Men’s and Women’s – Even if you have insurance on your rings, there is no reason to make yourself a target when traveling internationally. Buy these inexpensive silicone wedding rings and leave your expensive rings at home.

• Waterproof Phone Case – When you are close to the water don’t risk your phone getting wet, use one of these waterproof cases. One warning is to make sure that the case is clean if you are taking pictures. And since I mentioned that, check your camera lens, too. Mine got dirty on an excursion and a bunch of the pictures are a bit blurry.

• Charcoal Pills – Charcoal pills are becoming a popular way to combat digestive issues while traveling.

• Adidas Soccer Pants – One of my greatest travel purchases were these pants. Yes, a pair of pants. These pants have zippers on the side which makes pickpocketing way more difficult. They also are tapered and super comfortable. I wish I had bought these years ago.

Hopefully you found this list useful and have some ideas of things that will help make your next international trip easier. If you have anything you would add to this list, please drop a comment. We are always looking for new products that will help make traveling a breeze.

Don’t forget – you can browse this list on Amazon.