Name
Kim Shearer
www.instagram.com/thatminivanlifeblog
How long have you been in the travel hacking game? Briefly describe how you got started.
In 2018 a coworker introduced us to travel hacking. He was taking all of these amazing vacations with his family of 6 on a nonprofit employee’s salary and we were so intrigued! When we found out that he was doing it all for free I wanted in, immediately. I was already a couponer which requires a certain level of organization and a little bit of OCD so I think that set me up well to succeed in travel hacking.
What is your day job/ side hustles? Are you able to incorporate travel hacking into this? If so, how?
It’s complicated, but here’s the gist of it. Currently I’m homeschooling my kids full time. The 2019 school year was the first year all 3 of my kids were in school all day so I was starting to work again a few days a week, but when the pandemic hit I pivoted pretty quickly to being a homeschool mom out of necessity.
But normally, my husband and I both work for a non-profit Christian ministry. He works in fund development and I work in event planning.
When it comes to integrating our travel hacking habit into our jobs, I’ve been able to earn some points through hosting large events at hotels here and there. We are also able to put our business expenses on personal cards and have them reimbursed later which helps a lot. We travel quite a bit for our jobs so I wish all the time that we had figured this whole thing out sooner! I try not to think about all of the points we could have accumulated over the years.
I also started my family travel blog about a year and a half ago. It’s my “after the kids’ bedtime side hustle” that I wish I had more time for! It’s just now starting to earn a little side income so we’ll see where that takes me professionally in the future, but I’m excited about the possibilities!
What’s your favorite points and miles redemption story?
So I think my favorite redemption was our very first redemption! If we weren’t in quarantine for most of 2020 we might have more fun redemptions to choose from. But thankfully we were able to squeeze in a pretty awesome trip not long before the pandemic.
In August of 2019 we took a 10 day trip to Costa Rica with our kids, and it was a blast. We’re actually considering going back later this year because there was just so much more to see and we all loved it so much!
I’ll try my best to break down all of the points we earned and how we spent them. It feels like a lot when I see it all typed out, but I find numbers like this helpful when I’m planning so hopefully someone else will too!
At the time we had 6 credit cards between my husband and I that made it possible: The Chase Sapphire Reserve (50,000 point sign-up bonus), the Chase Freedom Unlimited (15,000 points), the Chase Freedom (15,000 points), the Chase Ink Business card (80,000 points), a Southwest Airlines personal card (40,000 miles) and a Southwest Airlines Business card (60,000 miles). Between the sign-up bonuses, earning a Companion Pass, and additional spend over the timespan of about 10 months we were able to pull together a pretty full trip.
The 2 southwest card sign-up bonuses more than covered our flights. We found round trip flights for 16,926 points out of Baltimore into San Jose, Costa Rica. So 16,926 x 4 = 67,704 miles plus one companion flight. Taxes were about $86 a person so out of pocket we spent $430 on flights, which we put on our Chase Sapphire Reserve so that they would qualify for the travel insurance that comes with the CSR.
We booked our hotels through the Chase travel portal. What I love about booking this way is that there are so many options, many of which are not major hotel brands. And in a place like Costa Rica there are some really beautiful hotels to choose from.
We spent our first 2 nights in a 2 bedroom suite at the Villa San Ignacio about 30 minutes from the airport for a total of 27,844 points. While staying here we visited the Starbucks coffee farm and La Paz waterfall gardens. We were even able to pay for our waterfall tour with Chase points! So that was another 11,800 points we used for admission.
Then we made our way to the ocean and spent 6 nights at a little place called Encantada Ocean cottages for a total of 86,112 points. It was small and quiet and lovely with a beach we had almost completely to ourselves and delicious coffee and food.
Later that week I earned my cool mom badge by agreeing to go ziplining in the rainforest! Again, fully funded by Chase points through a company called Canopy Safari near Manuel Antonio National Park. That excursion was a little bit of a splurge but totally worth it! For 28,330 points all 5 of us got lunch and about 2 hours of ziplining. It ended up being the highlight of our trip so I highly, highly recommend it.
In total we used 67,704 Southwest Miles and 160,781 Chase Ultimate Reward Points. While we didn’t stay at the fanciest hotels or fly business class, we were able to stretch our points far enough to take an entire family on an epic 10 day vacation in a way that is totally realistic for any newbie travel hacking parent to obtain. Not to mention that we felt like we were traveling in style with access to airport lounges thanks to the Chase Sapphire Reserve.
Needless to say, we have totally caught the travel hacking bug. As a family on a limited income, I never thought a trip like this would be possible for us. So I feel incredibly grateful for the opportunities it has provided and the memories we have made because of it.
If you want more details you can read about our 10 day itinerary here!
Give a travel hacking shout-out to someone whose content you find particularly helpful for someone trying to level up their game.
There are so many I could choose from! Kyle from @packyourbagwithpoints really challenges me to up my point-earning game, Max from @maxmilespoints is amazing at the education piece, and Julia (that’s you!) is so generous and makes a point to elevate other entrepreneurs which I really admire.
But someone else I really resonate with is Katie from @katiestraveltricks. She’s a frugal homeschooling mom too, so I appreciate her style and would love to “worldschool” my kids the way she and her husband do. In the travel hacking world, it seems like everyone is traveling solo in lay flat, first-class seats. But realistically that won’t be our style with a big family and limited time to dedicate to the hobby. So I love seeing other families making this work for them in a way that I can easily replicate myself.
Where can we find you on the internet?
You can find me on Instagram at @thatminivanlifeblog. I also have a daily deal Facebook group where I share Amazon promo codes and other online discounts called That Minivan Life’s Daily Deals. And lastly, you can find me online at thatminivanlife.com where I write about saving money on family travel along with lots of Disney World vacation tips… because deep down I’m just a kid who loves Disney pretending to be a grownup.
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geobreezetravel
Julia Menez is a travel hacking coach, speaker, and founder of Geobreeze. Through her content and coaching services, she aims to spread travel hacking to underrepresented communities by featuring the points and miles stories you won't normally find on the first page of Google or in the bigger blogs. Julia has been a speaker for FinconX and has led a travel hacking workshop for thousands of registered attendees at the SHEFACTOR 2020 Launch Your Life Summit, an event that featured speakers such as Bethany Hamilton, Kaitlyn Bristowe, and Missy Franklin. She has also been featured in numerous business and travel podcasts.
