If you've ever been curious about the nitty-gritty details of cheap family vacations, travel hacking, and using credit card points for flights, this is for you.

In this video, I'm walking you through exactly how I saved more than $3,000 on flights for my family of six as we began planning an epic European summer vacation.

And the best part? I'm only halfway through planning the trip.

I'm turning this into a bit of a series because I want to show you exactly how I use credit card rewards, airline transfer partners, transfer bonuses, and tools like seats.aero to stretch our points into multiple vacations.

In this particular trip-planning session, I booked 12 flights using several different strategies. I'll walk you through different transfer bonuses, reward programs, airline partners, and the tools I use to make sure I'm getting the best possible redemption value.

Think of this as a virtual travel-shopping trip: except instead of looking for the cheapest cash flights, we're figuring out how to maximize credit card reward travel and miles for good family getaways.

If we haven't met before, hi! My name is Lisa Mecham, founder of Her Travel Club, where I teach women how to strategically use credit card rewards and travel points to give their families incredible experiences they might not have been able to provide otherwise.

Let's dive in.

How Much Would Flights to Europe Cost Without Travel Rewards?

Tonight, I'm starting the process of redeeming the reward points and miles we've been accumulating.

My goal is to book flights for my family of six to Europe this summer, and I'm going to walk you through the exact tools and thought process I use to find the best flight redemptions.

First, I wanted to see what this trip would cost if I booked it the way many people start their travel search: through a site like Expedia.

When I searched for round-trip economy flights for six travelers from my home airport to London for two weeks during the summer, the cheapest options were around $1,000 per person.

Most of the flights were actually more than $1,100 per traveler.

That means that, without using credit card points for travel, I could easily be looking at more than $6,500 just to get my family of six to Europe.

And that's before we even start the vacation.

So let's see what happens when we approach the exact same trip using travel rewards and airline miles.

Seats.Aero: The First Tool I Use to Find Award Flights

One of my favorite tools for finding flights with points is Seats.aero.

The reason I love using an award flight search tool like this is that it searches across different airlines and shows you how many points or miles are required for available flights.

Instead of searching every airline individually, you get a much better bird's-eye view of your options.

Seats.aero offers both free and paid memberships. I personally use the paid version because it gives me access to additional filters and allows me to search farther into the future.

More importantly for this particular trip, I can filter the search to make sure there are at least six award seats available.

When you're trying to book family travel with points, this is incredibly important.

I don't just need one great award ticket. I need six seats on the same flight.

I also filtered my search to show only nonstop flights.

Once the results loaded, I could begin sorting the flights by the number of points required.

And that's when things started to get interesting.

How I Found a Flight to New York for Just 9,600 Points

One option showed a JetBlue flight from Salt Lake City to JFK in New York for just 9,600 points plus $5.60 in taxes and fees per person.

The same flight was roughly $1,000 when paying cash for the full itinerary.

Now, I specifically started looking at Salt Lake City to New York because many of the flights to Europe included layovers anyway.

Two of my daughters have always wanted to visit New York City.

So I started thinking: What if we controlled the layover?

Instead of simply spending a few hours in an airport, we could intentionally stop in New York, explore the city for a couple of days, and then continue on to Europe.

This is one of my favorite parts of travel hacking with credit card points.

You're not always limited to the exact itinerary that appears when you search for a traditional round-trip ticket. Sometimes, breaking up the trip can help you create an entirely new experience.

It may even make jet lag easier to manage.

Instead of one extremely long journey, we're splitting it into two long but much more manageable flights.

Why the Same Flight Can Cost Different Amounts of Points

One thing I always pay attention to when searching for award flights is which loyalty program I'm booking through.

For example, I found a flight that would cost:

• 30,000 points through United MileagePlus
• 9,600 points through JetBlue

The flight was essentially the same.

The difference was the program I used to book it.

This is one of the most important concepts in points and miles travel: the same seat can have dramatically different redemption prices depending on which airline loyalty program or transfer partner you use.

So even if you find the flight you want, don't automatically transfer your points and book it.

Check your options first.

Using a Strategic Layover to Turn One Vacation Into Two

Once I found our potential flight to New York, I opened another search.

This time, I changed our departure airport to JFK and searched for flights from New York to Europe.

A helpful trick when searching is to use the broader Europe airport region rather than searching only one city. This allows you to see award availability across major European airports.

Again, I filtered for:

• At least six available seats
• Nonstop flights
• A flexible date window
• Reasonable taxes and fees

At first, my search was too broad, so I narrowed the dates.

Then I saw something incredible.

There was a flight from JFK to London for only 6,000 points per person.

At that point, I got very excited.

Why Flexible Dates Matter When Booking Flights With Points

When I started looking at the available dates, I noticed something that happens all the time with award travel.

One flight might cost 6,000 points.

Another flight on the same day might cost 10,000 points.

Another flight, only a few hours apart, could cost 31,000 points.

Same airline.

Similar route.

Completely different redemption prices.

This is why flexibility can be one of the most powerful tools when learning how to maximize travel points.

Sometimes shifting your trip by one or two days can save you thousands of points.

What Is a Credit Card Transfer Bonus?

Now, here's where this redemption got even better.

When you earn flexible travel rewards through cards such as:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred
• Chase Sapphire Reserve
• American Express Gold Card
• American Express Platinum Card
• Capital One travel cards

you can often transfer those points to airline and hotel loyalty programs.

Sometimes those programs offer something called a transfer bonus.

A transfer bonus gives you additional points when you move your credit card rewards to a participating airline or hotel program.

For example, at the time I booked these flights, Chase Ultimate Rewards was offering a 40% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic.

That meant that for every 1,000 Chase points I transferred, I received 1,400 Virgin points.

So although the flight required 6,000 points per person, I didn't actually have to transfer the full 6,000 Chase points per ticket.

The transfer bonus allowed my points to go significantly further.

This is one of the reasons I always check for credit card transfer bonuses before transferring points.

Booking Six Flights From New York to London

For all six of us to fly from JFK to London Heathrow, the total came to:

• 36,000 Virgin points
• $645 in taxes and fees

Because of the 40% Chase transfer bonus, I only needed to transfer approximately 21,600 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to receive enough Virgin points to book the flights.

Since Chase transfers in increments of 1,000 points, I transferred 22,000 points.

Once the transfer was complete, I refreshed my Virgin Atlantic account.

There they were: enough points to book all six flights.

And suddenly, we had six flights from New York to London.

The flights included checked baggage, carry-on allowances, meals, and other amenities included with our ticket.

Of course, I still needed to account for the $645 in taxes and fees.

But compared with paying more than $1,100 per person for traditional airfare, this was an incredible redemption.

How Much Did We Save Flying to London With Points?

After completing the booking, we had six flights to London for:

36,000 total points + $645 in taxes and fees.

That $645 was less than one-tenth of what I potentially would have spent booking all six tickets through a traditional travel search.

At this point, I felt pretty confident that we had found an exceptional deal.

But I still wanted to double-check.

Why I Compare Multiple Award Flight Search Tools

I like using both Seats.aero and Point.me when searching for flights with credit card points.

Even if you're only using free versions of these tools, comparing multiple search platforms can give you a better idea of what's available.

Sometimes one tool finds an award flight that another doesn't show.

I searched again for our Salt Lake City to JFK flight and confirmed that JetBlue was still offering the flight for around 9,600 points.

Then I began looking at which credit card programs I could use to transfer points to JetBlue.

Not Every Transfer Partner Has the Same Value

Initially, I considered transferring points from American Express.

However, when I checked the transfer ratio, I found that 250 American Express Membership Rewards points would convert to only 200 JetBlue TrueBlue points.

That isn't necessarily a terrible redemption.

But it's important to understand that not every transfer partner offers a 1:1 ratio.

I also checked Capital One and found a different transfer ratio.

This is exactly why I love having multiple types of flexible travel rewards.

By structuring our everyday spending across different cards and reward programs, we have more options when it comes time to book travel.

Instead of being locked into one airline or one loyalty program, we can compare transfer partners and choose the option that gives us the best value.

Is a Bad Transfer Ratio Still Worth It?

After thinking about it overnight, I decided to take a closer look at the JetBlue flight.

At first, transferring points at an 80% value felt frustrating.

My instinct was to want my points to grow through a transfer bonus, not shrink.

But the important question isn't simply:

"Am I getting a 1:1 transfer?"

The better question is:

"Am I still getting a good redemption value for this flight?"

Even after accounting for the reduced transfer value and the taxes and fees, I ran the numbers through my reward calculator.

The answer was yes.

I was still getting an excellent deal compared with paying cash for the flight.

And there was another benefit.

By intentionally stopping in New York, we now had a built-in mini vacation.

We were breaking up the travel time, helping reduce the intensity of jet lag, and giving my daughters the chance to experience New York City before continuing to London.

Booking Our Flights From Salt Lake City to New York

After doing the math, I decided to book the JetBlue flights.

For all six of us, I needed to transfer enough American Express points to receive the required JetBlue TrueBlue points.

I also had to account for the transfer ratio and the additional fees involved.

Once the points transferred, I returned to JetBlue and completed the booking.

Since I'm traveling with a family of six, I generally choose the least expensive flight option when possible.

My teenagers are independent enough that I don't necessarily need everyone seated directly beside me on every flight.

On the New York-to-London flight, I did choose seats so we could all sit together.

But for shorter domestic flights, I'm often willing to skip the extras if it allows me to save more points and money.

The final cost for our six one-way flights from Salt Lake City to New York was just $33.60 in airline fees, plus the applicable transfer fee.

And just like that, our tickets were booked.

The Final Numbers: How We Saved More Than $3,000

Let's recap what happened.

If I had simply gone to Expedia and paid cash for our flights, I could have spent more than $6,500 just getting my family of six to London.

Instead, I started searching for award flights using credit card points and airline miles.

I found that many of the cheapest routes included layovers.

So instead of treating the layover like an inconvenience, I decided to control it.

We booked:

Salt Lake City → New York City

Then we'll spend a few days exploring New York.

After that:

New York City → London

For our flights from New York to London, we booked all six tickets for 6,000 points per person and took advantage of a 40% Chase transfer bonus.

The taxes and fees for those six flights totaled $645.

For our Salt Lake City to New York flights, we paid $33.60 in airline fees, plus a $43.20 American Express transfer fee.

Total Out-of-Pocket Cost

Our total out-of-pocket cost was:

$721.80

That covered our flights for six people from Salt Lake City to New York and then from New York to London.

The cash value of those flights was approximately:

• $504 per ticket for the New York-to-London flight
• $138 per ticket for the Salt Lake-to-New York flight

For six travelers, those flights would have cost approximately $3,852.

Instead, we paid:

$721.80 in taxes and fees

That means we saved approximately:

$3,130.20

And that's only the beginning of the trip.

How Travel Rewards Can Create More Experiences

Now comes the fun part.

As I started searching for flights from London to other parts of Europe, I began finding incredibly inexpensive award flights.

For example, there were options requiring as few as 1,400 points to fly to Brussels.

I also found opportunities to visit Switzerland, which my kids absolutely love.

And this is where reward travel can completely change the way you plan vacations.

We're not just saving money.

We're creating opportunities to add experiences that might not have been possible if we had paid cash for every flight.

We can stop in New York.

We can explore London.

We might hop around Europe.

We can build the trip around experiences rather than simply choosing the cheapest itinerary.

For our return trip, I also found a nonstop option from London to Salt Lake City for around 20,000 points per person through Virgin.

The transfer bonus had changed from 40% to 30%, but that was still an excellent opportunity to stretch our travel rewards further.

The Biggest Lesson From This Travel Hacking Experiment

I hope watching this process helps make travel hacking, credit card points, and reward travel feel a little less intimidating.

A lot of these concepts can sound incredibly complicated at first.

Transfer bonuses.

Airline partners.

Award availability.

Redemption values.

Transfer ratios.

Points and miles.

It can feel overwhelming.

But once you start seeing the process happen in real time, it becomes much easier to understand.

The biggest takeaway is that you don't always have to book travel the way you traditionally would.

Instead of searching for a round-trip ticket and accepting whatever itinerary comes up, you can:

• Compare cash prices with award prices.
• Search multiple airline loyalty programs.
• Check different transfer partners.
• Look for active transfer bonuses.
• Compare the value of different redemptions.
• Adjust your travel dates.
• Break a trip into multiple segments.
• Turn a layover into another vacation.
• Use flexible travel rewards to create more options.

That flexibility can completely change what's possible for your family.

Want Help Calculating Your Travel Rewards Value?

One of the tools that helped me the most during this process was my Simple Reward Calculator.

It was especially helpful when I was trying to decide whether transferring points at a reduced ratio for our Salt Lake City-to-New York flight was still worth it.

Instead of guessing, I could plug in the numbers and compare the value of the points against what I would have paid in cash.

I use this calculator all the time when deciding whether I'm getting a good deal on an award flight.

If you'd like access to Her Travel Club, you can find the link to join right HERE.

And stay tuned, because this European summer adventure is far from over.

We still have the rest of Europe to explore.. and eventually, we have to figure out how to get home.

📌 Affiliate & Legal Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Her Travel Club may receive compensation if you apply and are approved for a credit card through these links. Card details are believed accurate at time of publication but are subject to change — verify directly with the issuer before applying. Point values and redemption rates fluctuate and are not guaranteed. This content is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice. Lisa Mecham is an independent travel advisor affiliated with FORA Travel (IATA #33520476).