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Jason Steele
It doesn't seem that long ago that our first child was born, but somehow I found myself planning a trip to visit prospective colleges with her last spring.
After living her entire life within a mile of where she was born in Denver, it was no surprise that this high-achieving child wants to consider colleges on the other side of the country.
Before I paid my first tuition bill, I really didn't want to spend thousands of dollars just to visit some schools that she might want to apply to. Thankfully, my rewards credit cards mean I didn't have to.
It's still too early to know where my oldest daughter will go to college, but it was important to me that she visit a wide variety of schools to get a sense of the opportunities available to her. By using my points and miles to pay for this trip, we saved money to pay for whichever school turns out to be the right choice for her.
My oldest daughter shares my passion for all things related to aviation and space, and she would love to have a career in the aerospace industry. So our first stop was Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Its modern campus actually adjoins the airfield of the airport in Daytona. However, it only offers limited air commercial service, and we'd have to change planes to get there. Instead, we took a direct flight into Orlando on Southwest and drove about an hour to campus.
We typically use points to fly Southwest for two reasons. First, we can instantly transfer our Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Southwest. We easily earn these points from personal cards like our Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and business cards like the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card.
In fact, the rewards we earn can be combined with our Chase Sapphire Reserve and Ink Business Preferred accounts, allowing us to transfer them to airline miles and hotel points.
Also, I hold a Southwest Airlines Companion Pass, which I earned from signing up for the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card and the Southwest® Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card. The combined new account bonuses are enough to earn the necessary points, and I can add my daughter to any flight I book, cutting the number of points needed for our flights in half.
We left Denver on a Sunday afternoon and arrived in Orlando that night. We were able to book an award night stay at the Hyatt House by Orlando Airport. I use the World Of Hyatt credit card and the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card to earn points, but it's also a transfer partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards.
The next morning, we drove from Orlando to Embry-Riddle, attended an orientation, and took the tour. She was excited by all of the fun aerospace engineering opportunities available there, but we were just getting started.
That afternoon, we drove back to the Orlando airport, and boarded another Southwest flight to Washington-Reagan National Airport, also paid for with points.
We arrived late at night and stayed at Hyatt Place by the Washington DC National Mall, again with World of Hyatt points. This allowed us to visit family in DC and see some sights before continuing to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, the next day. It would be impossible not to be impressed by the traditions of the Naval Academy and the achievements of its graduates, along with the beauty of the historic town.
We wished we had more time there, but it was off to the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab in Baltimore that afternoon, where we were lucky to receive a personal tour from my cousin, who works there designing space probes.
We finished the day by driving to my alma mater, the University of Delaware. It was fun to stay in the brand new Hyatt Place in Newark, Delaware, on Main Street, and I was proud to show my daughter the beautiful campus the next day. It was also another opportunity to use my Hyatt points — not to mention a major upgrade from the dorms and apartments that I used to live in as a student.
To have a little more fun, we drove two hours to New York City and got last-minute tickets to see "& Juliet," which is a really fun Broadway musical. It should be no surprise that I used my points to stay at the Hyatt Place Times Square and flew home the next day on Southwest — but not before visiting the amazing new Chase Sapphire Lounge in La Guardia, a perk of my Chase Sapphire Reserve® card.
