Making a Childhood Dream Come True with Credit Card Points

Instead of spending close to $2,000 to watch a Manchester United-Liverpool game in South Carolina, I spent $0.

Growing up as a Manchester United fan in Bangladesh, I have always dreamed about watching them play in real life.

Because of myriad reasons, it never materialized. That is, until last week when Manchester United decided to play a preseason game against Liverpool 3-hours away from where I live.

I was very excited, but I also knew that it could be very expensive. I didn’t know “how” expensive until I looked it up.

2 Nights in Columbia, South Carolina — $1,300

Match tickets for 2 — $700

That is a whopping $2,000 to watch 90 minutes of football! I had to find an alternative.

Enter: Credit Card Points.

In this blog post, I will share the following:

What credit cards did I use?

How many points did I need?

How can you do the same for similar sporting events?

Let’s get started.

What Credit Cards Did I Use?

These are the 2 cards that helped me immensely:

Capital One Venture X

American Express Marriott Bonvoy Business

In short, using the Capital One miles earned through my Venture X, I booked my 2 game tickets. On the other hand, using 2 of the 5 free nights I earned from the American Express Marriott Bonvoy card, I stayed 2 nights in Columbia, South Carolina for free.

If you are still interested, let me elaborate.

Capital One Entertainment w/ Venture X

When I signed up for Venture X, Capital One was running their record-high sign-up bonus (SUB) — Earn 90,000 miles by spending $4,000 in 3 months.

That SUB could have gotten me ~$900 worth of flights and hotels.

Instead, I only got $700 worth of value when using the Miles to buy my tickets using Capital One’s Entertainment portal.

Why did I redeem my points for a lower value?

Simple — I could not justify paying $700 out of pocket for sports tickets. I was comfortable with the tradeoff I was making.

Additionally, I don’t always find good use of Capital One Miles. Previously, I used to use it for Turkish Airlines, but since their devaluation, that is not an option any longer.

I valued the memories I will make by fulfilling a childhood dream higher than what cents-per-point (CPP) redemption I got.

To me, that’s the best part about traveling with credit card points — not the nerdy redemptions but the joy of creating memories that I wouldn’t have if I had to pay cash.

Free Night Certificates w/ AMEX Marriott Bonvoy

Similarly, I signed up for the American Express Marriott Bonvoy when AMEX was running an all-time high SUB promo — Get 5 Free Night Certificates (FNC) by spending $8,000 in 6 months.

Each of the FNCs could be used for properties that would normally cost up to 50K Bonvoy points.

I was surprised to find 2 nights for exactly 50K points in a small city that was hosting a huge sporting event.

Because of higher demand during that weekend, cash price on average went up to $700! On a regular weekend, prices per night hovered around $160, just to give you a perspective.

This is not uncommon. One of the best uses of points is to fund your travel during busy/special times of the year — big sporting events, the 4th of July, Christmas, etc.

I used 3 of the 5 FNC in Nashville last month. The remaining 2, I used for the Sheraton Columbia Downtown Hotel.

Sporting Events For You

I don’t watch a ton of live sporting events, that’s why I don’t maximize Capital One Entertainment.

Unlike me, if you are really into live sports, and love to go watch your local NFL, NBA, MLB, or MLS team, I encourage you to check out Capital One Entertainment.

Sure, you won’t get the best redemption value, but if you are a beginner in credit card points and miles, you won’t be disappointed.

With a 2 credit card setup — Venture X and Savor One — you can earn tons of points to redeem in Capital One Entertainment.

Once you purchase your tickets through the portal, your ticket is directly added to the ticket provider’s app — such as TicketMaster — so that you can directly manage your ticket on their app.

Use Cashback to Purchase Tickets

I can already see the points-savvy people from you upset about my above recommendation. Getting less than 1 cents-per-point (CPP) is a sin in the credit card community.

The more optimal approach is to strategically use credit cards to earn cashback. Then, you can use the cashback to buy tickets wherever you find them cheapest.

The problem I have with this approach is that to truly maximize cashback for every purchase, you usually need 3-5 credit cards. For the average consumer, that’s too much, in my opinion. Then, there’s the additional hassle of pulling together all cashback from all different accounts, across many different banks and credit card issuers.

Because of that, I recommend a 2-card Capital One setup with Capital One Entertainment for ticket purchase.

But if you are open to the cashback approach, and can find a system where you are getting 3-5% cashback on most categories, that is the better approach.

Closing Thoughts

Okay, folks, that’s all for today.

Thank you for your time. I hope you found it valuable.

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