hello welcome to the pony room of the madonna inn that's me yep me i'm colby kirkpatrick marketing
manager here at tpg let me give you a little context i'm a total points and miles novice
and as they say the best way to learn something is just by doing it so my partner nate and my friend
dedrick and i hit the road for five days and set out on one of the most classic american road trips
up california's pacific coast highway from los angeles to san francisco but here's the
catch we attempted to cover our flights car rental accommodation gas and activities only using points
and miles what lessons did we learn on the road you ask did hollywood chew me up and spit me out
did we do it all with zero dollars out of pocket well let me guide you through our itinerary
before we dive in you and i need to cover some groundwork this whole zero dollar points only trip
was made possible by my three beginner friendly credit cards each of which has different perks
that allow me to earn rewards and redemptions for nearly every purchase i like to think of my three
cards as my three favorite hats i pack all three in my suitcase but i wear each at different times
throughout my trips and for different reasons my classic baseball cap would be my chase sapphire
preferred card and i like it because it's a versatile card that works great as a starting
point for your points and miles journey when i signed up last year i earned a hundred thousand
points after making four thousand dollars in purchases in the first three months those hundred
thousand points are worth one thousand two hundred and fifty dollars towards travel i can also redeem
points for travel through the chase portal for one dollar and 25 cents a piece in beginner talk that
means i can just redeem my points at a solid rate directly through chase for things like hotel stays
and flights if i don't want to hassle with frequent flyer or hotel programs
my pink cowboy hat is my capital one venturex rewards credit card it's a premium travel card
that is super easy to use but makes me feel like a points and miles expert the sign up bonus is
subject to change but when i applied i was able to earn 100 000 miles after spending 10 000
on purchases in the first six months those miles are worth a thousand dollars for travel
potentially more if you take advantage of capital one's airline and hotel transfer partners
my blue cash preferred card from american express is my tie-dye bucket hat it's a great cashback
card for gas and groceries that rounds out the benefits of my beginner arsenal the first year's
annual fee was zero dollars before it goes up to ninety five dollars i earned three hundred dollars
cash back in my welcome offer after spending three thousand dollars on purchases in the first three
months and finally for flights to and from the west coast ibooks through the chase travel portal
using 28 928 points which saved me 362 out of pocket all right the groundwork has been covered
now for the fun part to kick off our pacific coast highway road trip we flew from new york city
to los angeles ah la the city of dreams and in and out burger first up on our itinerary renting
a car a car is the primary ingredient to any road trip and we rented ours through dollar rental car
i used the venture x to rent our sweet chevy tahoe for the week for 380 dollars through the capital
one travel portal since the card offers up to 300 in annual statement credits towards travel
booked through the portal then i use my capital one miles to cover the remaining eighty dollars
at a rate of one cent per mile so i'm using eight thousand miles for the extra cost of the rental
we officially anointed our tahoe as the points mobile we only had 24 hours in la
so obviously we made the most of it we laid by the pool we went on a sad excuse for a very hot hike
so our plan was to hike to the back of the hollywood sign but due to poor signage and gay men
not being able to follow directions we just walked around some tennis courts and realized we were
very far from the hollywood sign so where okay we're way off wait where ever is it we're here
we started over there we're here so we had a nice little jaunt in and around the la hills
and mountains but failed to ever see the back of the sign our first night was spent at the tommy
hotel in hollywood it's a world of hyatt category 4 property so i transferred 15 000 chase ultimate
rewards points to my hide account and then used them to book a night that would have cost 300
otherwise the next morning we hopped on the 101 and headed towards bulton we gassed up at
jack kolker's 76 station originally designed to be on-site at the lax airport our gas budget for the
trip came out of that 300 cashback welcome offer from the amex blue cash preferred so while i'd
consider gas to be free thanks to that cash back the card also earns three percent back at u.s gas
stations as well on transit like taxis and ride hailing services like the old truism says points
but get more points we made two very important stops along our first two hour and 20 minute route
i've been obsessed with ostriches my entire life so going to the sanctuary was
absolutely a dream come true for me until i actually met the ostriches
i was both like amazed and also equally terrified we also stopped in the beautifully quaint town
of solvang california where there is just eye candy to be seen all over we stopped at the hans
christian anderson museum that was the cutest most idyllic little museum above a bookstore that i've
ever seen it captured the author's whole life as well of some of the early inspirations
into a lot of his famous fables and fairy tales and then we also popped into this antique clock
store and had about an hour-long conversation with some of the associates there and learned
all about old clocks from the 1800s it truly was the most wholesome little town in all of america
our home for the evening was this rustic glamping tent at flying flags rv resort and
campground which is the dose of americana you never knew that you desperately needed
this resort has small cabins it's got places for rvs it's got these glamping tents and
it's got a cross section of everyone in america staying at it we use myventurex
to book our stay at this quirky glamping rv park hybrid directly on its website you can
redeem capital one miles at one cent a piece for travel purchases made within the past 90 days
so i used 19 200 of them to cover the 192 dollar nightly rate next stop san luis obispo
on tap for day three were two equally wholesome pit stops first we were going to take a detour at
morro bay to kayak in an area practically teeming with sea otters and sea lions but it was too windy
and instead we just went to see the sea lion that looked a little beach outcropping honestly what i
enjoyed more than the sea lions is there were some squirrels at this beach pull off nate literally
fed one out of his bare hand it was like truly like a snow white hans christian anderson moment
full circle why are they not scared then we took a trip back to one of my favorite ever discoveries
for my solo travels poly canyon this nine acre swath of land at polytechnic state university is
a playground of experimentation for the school's engineering architecture and design students
there's all these structures built by the students at cal poly over the last 20 or so years
the landscape is beautiful the structures themselves are beautiful as well
back in civilization the evening took us to the madonna inn
easily one of the quirkiest campiest hotels in all of america here every room has its own
design and own theme and we were staying in the pony room which meant a giant uh
carousel style pony in the middle of the room it is the gaudiest most beautiful spectacle to behold
we used the chase travel portal to book this campy classic to the tune of 18 000 points saving me a
booking that would have cost 210 dollars if i had paid cash pony another day another highway
and we set out for one of the most scenic parts of the route at pfeiffer big sur state park and
it's gorgeous purple sand beach it was super windy like cowboy hat blow off head windy and
i hate to be the bearer of bad news as gorgeous as this beach is it is not entirely purple there
are small pockets of purple-ish sand emphasis on the ish it's not quite a purple sand beach after a
day full of activities it was time to think about food and that inevitable trip to the grocery store
one of the points in miles basics that took me the longest to wrap my mind around is that
spending money strategically on the right card earns more rewards or cash back it kind of feels
like cheating at economics with my amex blue cash preferred what i'd consider to be the ultimate
grocery card i earn six percent back on up to six thousand dollars in purchases at us supermarkets
each calendar year meaning that i get six dollars cash back from a hundred dollar grocery run
with the snacks and groceries secured for the evening we set off across the street to our home
for the night ripple wood cabins an off-the-grid big sur experience for our evening at ripplewood
we stayed in a very lovely logwood cabin that had a living room bedroom full kitchen as well as a
fire pit and deck we built a bonfire and roasted s'mores we stargazed we've truly checked all the
big sur boxes in these really lovely cabins we use my venture x to book our night at this remote
oasis you can redeem capital one miles at one cent a piece for travel purchases so i use
25 000 of them to cover the 250 nightly rate day five was a very special day on the road because
we visited the setting of a classic american film sequel the monterey aquarium the backdrop
of finding dory so we actually weren't able to take any cameras into the aquarium because
of rules but the aquarium is truly i think the best in america up next we headed to dust bowl
brewing co a train station turned brewery in the heart of monterey here we had a great sampling of
some beers and also enjoyed food trucks parked out back using my chase sapphire i received
three points per dollar on dining purchases with our bellies full it was time to head a
bit further up highway 1 to our final layover a solar-powered airbnb tiny home in the redwoods
so our tiny home was an absolute dream it was kind of the perfect way to reflect on what
was a really great trip to just kind of unplug we didn't have cell service so we truly just enjoyed
the nature that was surrounding us and just kind of like getting back to basics before we headed
back to the east coast we used another perk from the venture x to book this quaint little airbnb
a 200 statement credit for vacation rentals that i earned as a part of the card's welcome bonus
and all i had to do was book the airbnb using myventurex within the first year of
having the card and a few days later the credit was posted directly on my account
the home stretch san francisco was our final destination on this pch road trip
and i actually used to live in san francisco for two years so we didn't do a whole lot here
but here's a shot of the golden gate bridge
i can officially say that this experiment has taken me from a points and miles infant to a
points of miles toddler but i've learned a lot and that's all part of the process yes i do work at
the points guy but i've exclusively used my debit card for everything until i started here about 8
months ago which is really crazy to think about now one of my biggest takeaways from this trip
is just really rationalizing that there is a slew of bonus points up for grabs for nearly every spin
category and every purchase if you're just willing to do a little research and play your cards right
and one of my other big takeaways was that road trips just really are the best way to travel
with friends it forces you in the car together to unplug and just learn things about each other
that you never knew before and thanks to some advice from my colleagues and reading some of
their articles i was able to accumulate 200 000 points across three cards in less than a year
and with that i was able to take a week-long trip with these great pals for zero dollars it's easier
than i thought and if i can do it trust me so can you well that's all she wrote until next time you