Welcome to Wander Worldschool. It's trivia time. What coastal city gave the country of Portugal its name? Tune into this month's listener locations to find out.

I'm Suzy, a travel-loving money nerd, mom of two, and our family lives between Spain, Colorado, and soon Japan. On this show, we discuss the stories, logistics, and finances of traveling families and the many ways to learn along the way. Today's end-of-the-month episode includes my heartfelt thoughts as we wrap up our time in Spain until next year, as well as my favorite takeaways from this month's episodes and listener locations, including the answer to this week's opening trivia question. For our deep dive, we are breaking down all things travel hacking.

Whether you're an experienced points and miles guru or still perplexed by words like sign-up or transfer bonus or travel booking portal, I'm going to break it all down for you in today's episode. If you're an expert, you won't want to miss this month's transfer bonuses and predictions for upcoming transfer bonuses too. And drumroll, please... I'm launching the Wander Weekly Newsletter.

Love the worldschooling and traveling family stories on the show? Now you can get even more in a weekly newsletter. Everyone who signs up will get the ultimate slow travel and worldschooling pre-trip checklist. You may like to pack minimally or load up the RV, but this checklist will ensure you have everything you need for your next trip.

In addition, the first one hundred people to sign up will get a personal shout-out on this show and be entered into a drawing to win a shout-out on a beloved kids' podcast that I've mentioned before on this show, the Culture Kids Podcast. I will donate $20 to support Culture Kids and include whatever message you want from your family and your kids so that Kristen and Asher over on the Culture Kids Podcast will give your family a shout-out on a future Culture Kids episode. Culture Kids recently won a Webby Award, and their immersive kids' episodes transport our family around the world in such a loving and supportive way. So I'd love to support them with this newsletter giveaway. But ultimately, you won't want to miss the worldschooling and slow family travel tips in the newsletter. It's going to include things like traveling family spotlights, program highlights, money tips for affordable travel, community news, and more. So sign up now. No fluff, just a one-stop email for worldschooling and family travel. Click the link in the show notes, and I'll also remind you at the end of the episode too.

Before we jump in, how has your month been treating you? June was extra hot in Sevilla, Spain, and that brought neighborhood water blaster fights and a lot of pool time. I also shared in this month's Worldschooling Mama Network Substack about a difficult realization I made about my past work as a nurse and how I just don't think that career fits me anymore. I'm wondering, is there anyone else who is having a millennial career crisis, you could say? Maybe you'll relate to the article and follow along for the other Worldschooling Mamas' weekly Substacks as well. I'll link that in the show notes.

Our kids wrapped up at the German school. They said adiós to their friends and are now enjoying cousin time in Colorado. My youngest son can roll his R's like a local. And even though he doesn't love going as much as his brother, both of their language skills in both Spanish and German have really exploded, which makes me really excited for them and really proud. I have a lot of mixed feelings about school in general, but my main conclusion from our months here in Spain is that no school is the same, and no kid will experience school or alternative education in the same way. What I do lean on here is the close-knit community that is so, so impressive in Spain. Mark was at a dads' dinner right before we left until two in the morning. We also spent a day at the beach with an incredibly kind Spanish family over the weekend.

We don't really have many non-Spanish friends in Sevilla and we aren't 100% in the Spanish family community, but yet through our kids and through this very close-knit community, which again I find fits those Spanish communal vibes very well because the parents truly support each other. They love each other's kids and each other. And I see that in the WhatsApp groups, in the daily interactions with other families, and in the way we just include everyone. I really love it. Through all this, I know that we belong in Sevilla for now, half the year, in our own special way.

When we first ventured to Spain nearly three years ago for our one year abroad, I never would have imagined that we would still be calling this lovely place our second home. I look forward to going to Sevilla, and I also look forward to leaving because I know that there are other adventures to be had. For example, we're doing a five-week pet sit soon in Denver. We have Japan this fall. I'm really excited for all of this. I'm curious, are you doing any pet sitting this summer? Don't forget that my tips for a successful pet sit and TrustedHousesitters referral link are in the show notes.

Are you based out of Cape Town, South Africa; Calgary, Canada; or Porto, Portugal? I love looking at the listener locations from this past month. Porto, Portugal is that unique city from the opening trivia. Porto actually gave Portugal its name. The country's name originates from the ancient Roman settlement called Portus Cale, located at the mouth of the Douro River. This eventually evolved into Portucale and today, Portugal.

Faith LS on Apple Podcasts gave this five-star review for the show. She says, "This is a valuable resource. I've been loving this podcast for months now, as we prep for our year-plus abroad with three kids. So many amazing resources and tips. Thank you, Suzy, for doing this podcast." I love to hear reviews and messages like this. It means so much to me. If you're finding value in these episodes, will you pop over to Apple and give a five-star review, or Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows? You can also leave me fan mail with any feedback, questions, or ideas for future episodes.

For the monthly episode recaps, we're going back to episodes 55, 56, and 57. In episode 55, Marissa Lipovsky from Amani Light Wellness Hub in Tanzania brought to life her community in rural Tanzania and how her bicultural family brings the world to their doorstep with their month-long immersive cultural hubs. I would love to join one of the cooking classes at her mother-in-law's house while the kids are playing soccer. It sounds lovely. A good friend always spoke so highly about the Tanzanian people after she did a two-year Peace Corps stint there, so it's always been high on my to-visit list. If it is high on your to-visit list too, check out Marissa's hub dates in the episode. In episode 56 with Christy Brouker from Wanderworks, she divulged all the tips and tricks for finding the best summer camps abroad. Have you considered an overnight surf camp in Portugal yet? We are splurging on a YMCA overnight camp for my oldest to do with his friend this summer in Colorado. It was a bit more than what Christy recalls her daughter's camp costing in Portugal. I am also working on a comprehensive Spain and Portugal list, so look for that to drop soon. But if summer camps abroad are on your to-do list, check out the Wanderworks website with Christy. And in episode 57, we heard from Italian-born Filippo Pesotti and how his full-time traveling family felt inspired to create nature-based worldschooling opportunities in a beautiful slice of Tuscany, Italy. If your kids love building, getting outside, and turning nature into their classroom, this just might be the perfect 2027 opportunity for your family. After the call, Filippo also shared his best tips for Kamakura, Japan, which is where they are right now. And I will say, the worldschooling community is truly the best. They are always willing to share what they've learned along the way and help the next family. It's truly amazing. So thank you, Filippo. How about you? What episode from this month resonated the most with you? Send me a text in the show notes with your feedback, thoughts, and questions.

It's time for our deep dive, which is all things travel hacking. Whether you have not paid for a flight for years or you are baffled by how points can actually save money on travel, this conversation is for you. First and foremost, the number one rule for travel hacking is to know thyself. If you know that you are likely to get into credit card debt or you are already dealing with credit card debt—and in that case, go back to episode 54 for all those debt pay-down tips we talked about last month—then it is okay to skip this travel tactic completely. Paying high-interest credit card fees is not worth the potential gain for travel savings. Also, let's touch base on credit scores. So go check your credit score if you haven't recently. A few things influence that credit score. And again, this is US-specific predominantly, but maybe some of these factors apply if you're outside the US. Your payment history, which means you should be paying bills on time with no late payments. Your credit utilization is how much credit you're using versus how much is available. Ideally, you have cards that you could spend up to $20,000 or $30,000 on, but you don't, but that means you have that low credit utilization. You put charges on it and you pay this off monthly or even more often—you can pay it off weekly if you want to keep that utilization low. The length of credit history matters, so ideally, keep a no-fee credit card open as your longest credit card. Request that this card has a high credit availability; this helps keep that utilization low. Your credit mix, such as if you also have other types of loans like a mortgage loan—these things can also influence your score—and how many new lines of credit you're opening. This is less than 10% of your score though, which is why if the other factors affecting your credit score are fine, you can open new cards with minimal effect on your overall credit score. To address some of these credit issues, I have a credit card from 20 years ago that I requested a high credit limit for, and I'm going to keep this card open forever. It has one recurring monthly charge and autopay set up. Additionally, my kids are listed as authorized users, so it's helping build their eventual credit score too. If your credit score is not great right now, or you have credit card debt, again, go tackle that and then come back to this episode. If you know that you can consistently use credit cards responsibly and pay them off every month, then you are ready to save money on flights and hotels using credit card points.

Also, spoiler alert to our friends not in the US or not in a country that has a strong credit card points game: you are most likely not in luck when it comes to these travel point plays. However, if you ever have access to a US credit card in the future, keep these tips in mind and know that you are most likely saving anyhow because your credit card fees are often lower. And in some ways, I play the credit card points game just to recoup what I know I'm inadvertently spending in fees anyhow. But also make sure you're always signed up for your airlines' and hotels' loyalty programs, because you can always build points in other ways, even if you don't have these credit cards. Okay, are we ready to jump in? Remember, this is education, not financial advice. We talk strategy here, but always consult your own financial advisor or legal counsel for your exact situation.

We are going to cover things like what points and miles even are, the magic of the sign-up bonus, an overview of each credit card company's points currencies, how to actually redeem points for flights and hotels, the best starter cards for families, mistakes to avoid, and then we'll finish with some additional resources that you can continue to explore. So let's start with that big picture. What are points and miles? The difference between points and miles—and again, they're often used interchangeably—is that miles are an airline-specific currency. So the Delta SkyMiles, United MileagePlus, the American AAdvantage... these are miles. Points are a flexible bank currency. So think Chase Ultimate Rewards points, Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One Venture miles, and Citi ThankYou Points. These flexible bank points are generally more powerful for beginners because you can move them to multiple airlines or hotel chains, and these points have a real-world dollar value. This is often calculated as cents per point, or CPP. For example, one Chase Ultimate Rewards point might be worth one or more cents depending on how you use it. There are three ways to earn points. This is through credit card spending, welcome bonuses, and transfer partners, which all requires you to ultimately spend money on this credit card. Again, you want to be careful not to spend just to earn points. That defeats the purpose of saving money, which is the whole goal of using these points for travel. But when you are working on a sign-up bonus, maybe you will strategically pay ahead on bills or ask extended family that you trust if they have any big purchases coming up that you could pay for on the card, and then they pay you back. I will say though, as a family of four, we often do not have trouble meeting the minimum spend with just our regular grocery and life spending that we are already planning on spending. The key takeaway here is that points are like a second currency that runs parallel to dollars. Your spending will earn both. Let's talk about the welcome bonus because this is where the real value lies. We are going to cover what a welcome bonus is and how you can earn it.

A welcome bonus is often interchangeable with a sign-up bonus. This is where if you open a card and you spend X amount of dollars in three or six months, you're going to get Z number of points. The welcome bonus often is so much larger than anything you can accomplish with just organic daily spending. For example, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card right now is running a hundred-thousand-point bonus. This is amazing. And again, if you are listening to this later in the future, this does pop up once or twice a year, so keep an eye on this one. That hundred-thousand-point bonus can transfer over to being worth a thousand to fifteen hundred dollars in travel value or more through transfer bonuses. Again, you want to meet the minimum spend requirements through your daily spending, your actual spending. For beginners, starting with one card at a time is a great way to focus on just meeting that minimum spend before you move on to other cards. Another consideration to keep in mind is these outsized welcome bonuses often come with cards that have an annual fee. So then you're wondering, "How long do I keep this card open for?" You want to plan to keep the card open for at least a full year. If you close it early, such as right after you get that bonus, that bank may take back that welcome bonus or, worst case, blacklist you from future cards. So here's the trick for that: you want to wait until the second-year annual fee has been posted to your credit card. You will often then have 30 days to cancel the card or downgrade it to a no-fee card, and they will refund that annual fee. But yet you've already passed that one-year mark, so they won't take back your welcome bonus. Again, all of these factors could affect your credit score. I'll just also say: if you're actively buying a house, do not play the points game until you are done with that transaction. But in summary, if you have a plan to open new cards slowly, you plan on keeping your longest cards open, and you keep your utilization low, you are just fine to open a few cards a year and play the points game.

But before we talk strategy, we need to understand the major points currencies. There are four ecosystems that any points nerd will need to understand. This is Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One Miles, and Citi ThankYou Points. Let's start with Chase because it is a great starter ecosystem. These points are easy to earn, easy to use. The important cards here are the Chase Sapphire Preferred for travel, which again has that great bonus right now; the Freedom Flex, which is cash back that you can convert to points; and it also has a large array of business cards through its Ink program that can also have giant sign-up bonuses. You can transfer these points to United, Hyatt, Southwest, British Airways, and Air France-KLM—some of the major airlines that people are going to be flying from the US or from some major hubs around the world. The sweet spot for these points is also the World of Hyatt transfers for hotel stays. Let's talk about the Amex Membership Rewards. This program also has a huge transfer partner list. It has premium cards. The Amex Gold is awesome for groceries and dining, especially if you're in the US predominantly. The Platinum has travel perks. The Blue Business Plus is another great business card. And again, with business cards, often those do not reflect on your personal credit score. And most everyone has access to a business—if you sell things online or you have a little side hustle, you have a business and you can access business cards. Amex Membership Rewards can transfer to Delta, Air Canada Aeroplan, British Airways (which is a great way to get over to Europe), ANA, Hilton, and Marriott. The sweet spot is ANA first class via the Amex transfer. And again, we don't really do a ton of first class or business because I'd rather get more out of my points, but I know a lot of people really do love being able to get first class or business for some of those longer flights. So keep that in mind for where you can get good redemptions on first class or business.

Capital One Miles is the easiest to understand. It is great for beginners. The important cards here are the Venture X and the Venture. The transfer partners include Air Canada Aeroplan, Turkish Airlines (which is expanding from the US and also gets you over to Europe and Central Asia), and then TAP Air Portugal and Wyndham for hotels. The sweet spot for Capital One Miles is that you can actually erase travel purchases. Now, this is only at one cent per point, which may not be the best redemption, but sometimes it feels good to just wipe out a travel cost. And you can also transfer to other transfer partners for that outsized value. Lastly, the Citi ThankYou Points. This is often overlooked, but a very powerful program and one that I've been tapping into more recently with that Citi Strata Premier card. You can transfer here to Turkish Miles&Smiles, and also to Air France-KLM's Flying Blue program, and Avianca LifeMiles, which gets you to South and Central America. The sweet spot is the Flying Blue monthly Promo Awards. This is how we booked our flight back to Colorado this year. Those Promo Awards pop up on the first of every month. So if you have Flying Blue miles, you can often get some great additional value through those Promo Awards. In addition, airlines and hotels have their own loyalty programs too, and you can earn those directly from flying or staying, separate from the credit cards entirely. So always make sure that if you are paying for a hotel or a flight, you want to be enrolled in their points program so that you are earning points for that hotel and the flight that you're already paying for.

So now that you understand earning points and the different currencies, how do you actually turn those points into free flights and hotels? You can redeem points in two main ways: booking on the travel portal for that bank, such as the Chase travel portal, or you can transfer points to partners and book directly on their website. The portal is easy to access. You just access it through the bank website. It is predictable. However, some of the disadvantages are that you're going to have a lower ceiling—you're not going to get as many cents per point. Also, if you are booking through that portal, it's like booking through another travel website; you won't necessarily have the support you need if something changes with your flight. If you transfer directly to the airline, this may seem more complex at first, but many of the transfers can be instantaneous as well. And when you transfer, you can unlock three to ten cents per point on flights. So this is really where you get the best value. Airlines release award space ahead of time. These are seats that you can book with miles instead of with dollars. And these are often released early on; you want to be checking farther out. But if you have flexibility, you can certainly find other times that you can get on award space without having to book as far out. You also want to be aware of where the sweet spots are for specific routes or programs where the math is dramatically in your favor. I've already mentioned the Flying Blue Promo Awards. For example, you can get from Paris to New York for 15,000 miles one way. Also, the Hyatt category one through four hotels—you can often get a forty-five-thousand-point-a-night value for a four-hundred-dollar-a-night hotel. Hotels also often have a cash and points option that can knock down the price a little bit too. The key takeaway here: sign up now for all the major airlines' loyalty programs so that you have that account in place already to transfer points directly to that account with the airline. Link those in your Chase or Capital One travel portal, and then you're good to go when those transfer bonuses come up or you know that you're looking at a flight that requires those points. You can transfer much easier if you set up these connections ahead of time.

Let's create a playbook for a family that is just starting out with points and miles. We're going to talk about a couple of cards that are great to start with, most notably the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card. This has a $95-a-year fee, which is not that much considering it also includes a $50 hotel credit if you book through their portal. Also, right now it has a huge sign-up bonus, 100,000 points, which again could be up to $1,500 off on flights. You might only have one chance to get this sign-up bonus. I've been able to get it twice in my life, but they recently changed it, so check if you have had this card before if you are eligible to get the sign-up bonus again. It is a great all-around beginner card though. You earn three times points on dining and on travel. Also, you can get into Chase's full transfer partner ecosystem to United and lots of different airlines. It also includes primary rental car insurance, which is huge for traveling families. You often do need to book and pay for the rental car directly using that credit card, so I will often not use points for rental cars for this reason. For the Amex Gold, this comes with a $325-a-year annual fee, but this is often offset with credits. So you want to make sure that you can get your value with this card. This is great for families that spend heavily on groceries and dining, especially in the US. Four times points at US supermarkets up to $25,000 a year, and four times at restaurants. You also get a $120 dining credit and some Uber Cash that can offset that annual fee. The Capital One Venture X also has a $395-a-year annual fee. This is a premium card that is great for straightforward travelers. You can earn ten X points—so ten times—on hotels and cars booked through the Capital One travel portal, and two X on everything else. It also includes a three-hundred-dollar annual travel credit and ten thousand anniversary points, which effectively brings the cost to $0 net. It also has excellent lounge access—Priority Pass and Capital One's lounges—that can make your stay at the airport much more relaxing, especially for a family when you can get some food out of it. Lastly, I'm going to mention the no-annual-fee entry point of the Chase Freedom Flex or Unlimited. These are often cards that you can downgrade to when you are trying to alternate different cards, but these points can be transferred when paired with a Sapphire card. They're great for a first card if you're building credit and you're not ready for an annual fee. I'll finish with business cards. They often have those huge bonuses, they don't appear on your personal credit reports, and many people will have access to them even if they don't have an official business. However, some of these high sign-up bonuses may have a higher minimum spend in the first three months, so make sure you look at those details as well.

On this show, we love to chat about slow and long-term travel. So I can read your mind. You're wondering, "Okay, Suzy, so how does this work for us slow travelers specifically?" Slow travelers have an advantage when it comes to points because you are spending consistently and often in the same categories: groceries, accommodations... you have time to plan, which means you might have better award availability. And also, you're often maybe taking fewer flights, so fewer point needs to save on those flights. When you're booking long-haul flights with points, this is where the return on investment for these points can really explode. For example, a $4,000 business class seat for only 60,000 miles is life-changing math. Again, you can get those points right now with your Chase bonus and save potentially four to six thousand dollars with that. We did this with our Japan flights this year to get from Japan back to Madrid and got an amazing value on that. Also, you might want to keep in mind hotel points versus Airbnb. Points hotels often work best for city nights between longer stays. This may not erase a three-week stay somewhere; you will most likely still need things like apartments or Airbnbs or home exchange or pet sitting for the majority of your lodging. And you can keep points for those short city stays when you're flying in and out or you're going into a big city for a short period of time. Also, I want to make sure you are tracking your annual fees. You do want to ensure that you're getting value from the credits before you continue to pay those annual fees. For example, there are a lot of benefits on the Chase Sapphire Reserve card that make it worth it for this first year that we have it, but we will most likely not be continuing because a lot of the credits are monthly and only apply if you're in the United States, which isn't helpful if we're outside of the US most of the year. I will say I have enjoyed the Priority Pass with all the flights I've had to take this year; it has made it really enjoyable. The last thing that applies to slow travelers is that it is okay to have the "one good card per adult" strategy. You do not need to overcomplicate it early on. As long as each adult in the household has a strong card that's optimized for their top spending category, you will come out ahead with the points and miles. If you have two players in your household or two adults, you can make sure that if you're opening a card, you're referring the other adult and vice versa to get those referral bonuses as well.

Let's finish up with beginner mistakes to avoid and then tools and resources. The first mistake, to go back to our very start of this discussion, is that you don't want to carry a balance. Interest charges will always wipe out the point value, so this whole game only works if you are paying your credit cards in full every month. Another mistake is chasing the wrong card for your spending habits. If you're out of the US, cards with benefits to use in the US are not as useful. However, you may want to buy a family member a Dunkin' coffee every month—this is something I have done a few times with my Amex benefit to treat someone back in the US, even though I'm not there to take advantage of it. Also, you do not want to let points expire, especially airline miles. So the key to this is tracking monthly. Put another spreadsheet tab alongside your monthly net worth tracking. So every month you are looking at all of your miles across all the different programs and the credit cards, so you can understand which ones are possibly due to expire, move them out, or make a purchase so that you can keep those points alive. Another mistake is not hitting the minimum spend for the welcome bonus. This is where as soon as you open a credit card, put some reminders in your calendar so that you know, "I need to spend this amount three months from now," and you can keep track of it as you're tracking your expenses. Another mistake could be booking through that portal when a transfer would give far more value. So again, set up those points programs and the transfer connections now so that when you are ready to transfer, all those connections are already made. Lastly, a mistake involves ignoring transfer bonuses. Airlines will often have 20 or 30% bonuses when you transfer points in; this is basically just free extra miles. And so this is where if you're a points pro and some of this has been a repeat for you, you are going to want to tune into the June 2026 transfer bonuses because they are pretty good. For City ThankYou Points right now, you can transfer a 30% bonus to Qatar Airways, and these transfer to Avios points, which can then transfer to Finnair, Iberia, and British Airways. So these can be very valuable points. Chase Ultimate Rewards points have a 30% bonus to the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, and I see this bonus quite a bit. This is great if you fly from one of the Virgin Atlantic hubs in the US, like JFK or LAX. For Amex points right now, you can have a 25% bonus to Air France and KLM's Flying Blue program. And again, there are those additional points bonuses released through Flying Blue on the first of every month. This is a great option for flights to Europe, and I'm considering transferring points over now in anticipation of the flight that we will need next summer because I've found that the Flying Blue program has really great redemption values. And lastly, Amex has a 15% bonus to Avianca LifeMiles. This is great for connecting to Colombia and South America.

So let's wrap up with my favorite points and miles tools and resources. I've done a lot of this research on things like The Points Guy, which has valuations, news, and card comparisons. NerdWallet also compares annual fee math. They have a great Smart Money Podcast that I like to listen to. Though some of it is for short trips and some of it doesn't apply to family travel, you still get a general gist of what's going on in the points world. Seats.aero is the website that I have used to search award space across multiple programs at once. You can pay for one month at a time for less than $10 and do a lot of route searches that way. I also just signed up for Card Pointers. This is an app and a browser extension which helps you maximize credit card rewards, cash back, and points without actually needing to link your bank accounts. So I will give you an update on this in a future episode as I've had time to work through this Card Pointers Plus program more, but I'm excited to explore that.

So that is Travel Hacking 101. Let's end with three things that you can do this week. You can check what cards you already have and what points you're sitting on right now. Create your own points tracker so you can update that regularly and know what points you have. Secondly, I want you to pick one card to apply for based on your top spending category. If you have never had the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, now is the time to open that for that 100k bonus. Use my referral link in the show notes. And lastly, go ahead and create a free account on Seats.aero and start searching. Search whatever dream routes you have in mind for future travel. This helps you see what is possible and what points and miles you may need to accrue in order to redeem for these amazing flights and opportunities.

So that's it. I'm gonna make sure to link everything in the show notes that we talked about here so you can find that. I want you to tell me: have you opened a new points and miles credit card recently? Which one did you open and why? Don't forget to use the links in the show notes to support this show. There are links for the Worldschooling Mama Network Substack, Preply language lessons, HomeExchange, TrustedHousesitters, and Monarch Money, which is the app that we use to track our expenses and our travel budget savings. All of those are in the show notes. Next month I chat with some really amazing, cool traveling families. We're going to talk about housing specific for slow travel families, a family that's launching on their gap year, and Spanish language immersion. So until next time, make sure you sign up for the Wander Weekly newsletter, stay curious, and keep exploring.