A List of Resources for Your Journey Ahead

Thank you for spending these days with us. We hope it was as enjoyable for you as it was for us.

In this Travel More course, you have learned:

• The Basics of Using and Earning Airline Miles
  
• Different Travel Rewards Programs
  
• Coming Up with an Optimal Card Strategy
  
• Redeeming Airline Miles
  
• Redeeming Hotel Points

Yeesh, that's quite a bit of information to decipher and mull over.

Our Favorite Trio

Here is our favorite trio of travel credit cards to help you get started.

• Chase Sapphire Preferred: Chase Ultimate Rewards is our favorite travel program, and the Sapphire Preferred card is a great one to get started with. You get a large sign-up bonus and 2x miles on all dining and travel. It also has great travel benefits, such as primary car rental insurance.

• Capital One Venture: This is a great fixed-value card to have in your stash. You get 2x points on every purchase. It's also useful that you can redeem your points for travel expenses other than flights.

• American Express Gold Card, a CreditDonkey partner: American Express Gold earns 35,000 Membership Rewards® Points after spend $2,000 on eligible purchases with your new Card within the first 3 months. This card earns 4x points at U.S. restaurants. 4x points at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $25,000/year in purchases, then 1x). 3x points on flights booked directly with airlines or on amextravel.com. You can earn up to $10 in statement credits monthly when you pay with The Gold Card at Grubhub, Seamless, The Cheesecake Factory, Shake Shack, and Ruth's Chris Steak House (enrollment required). There is a $250 annual fee (See Rates & Fees).

  This card includes benefits for travelers: There is no foreign transaction fee (See Rates & Fees) and a $100 airline fee credit to cover up to $100 per calendar year in incidental fees (such as baggage fees) at one selected qualifying airline. Terms apply.

We think these 3 cards are a great starter combination for most people. Chase Sapphire Preferred and American Express Gold Card gives you a wide range of airline transfer partners to work with. And with all 3 cards, you'll have options to redeem for a variety of travel options.

What You Need

© CreditDonkey

To help you out, we've put together the ultimate resource page. Here, you will find the links you may need, all in one place. You'll find quick links to frequent flyer programs, award charts, useful travel websites and resources, as well as our most useful travel articles.

Check it out: CreditDonkey Ultimate Travel More Resources List

And of course, all of the Travel More lessons will remain here if you ever need to refer back to them.

Find them all here at:

• Welcome Letter
  
• How Airline Miles Work
  
• How to Earn Airline Miles Without Flying
  
• What You Need to Know About Travel Credit Cards
  
• How Travel Rewards Programs Compare
  
• How to Choose the Right Credit Cards
  
• Smart Tips on Opening New Credit Cards
  
• How to Redeem Airline Miles for Flights
  
• How to Redeem Points for Hotel Stays

Final Word: Staying Organized

Lastly, we leave you with some final tips to help you on your journey:

• Keep track of credit card applications and account opening dates.

• Keep track of minimum spend requirements so you can get the bonus. Don't apply to more than one card at the same time unless you can meet the combined minimum spending requirements AND pay them off.

• If you sign up for multiple frequent flyer programs (they're all free), you'd want to keep track of your points with tools such as AwardWallet or TripIt. You can see all the points from different programs in one place and get notified if any are about to expire.

• If you have transferable credit card miles, don't transfer them until you're ready to use them. While credit card points usually never expire, miles can expire once you have transferred them into a loyalty program. And you cannot reverse the transfer if you didn't want to use that airline program anymore.

• Keep track of all your loyalty programs and miles expiration dates. Most airline miles expire if the account has been dormant for a certain amount of time.

• If it takes you a while to accumulate enough points for a free flight, make sure you know what it takes to keep the account active. Some programs only require a certain kind of activity, like a shopping portal purchase. But for some programs, you actually need to take a qualifying flight.

Once again, thank you so much for completing this course. We now declare you - Junior Travel Warrior: achievement unlocked!