My name is Laura and I’m addicted to traveling. I refuse to pay full price for anything except a good pair of shoes and a nice handbag. So why would I pay full price for vacation?
It all started in 2013 when I realized I had 25,000 points from a Chase Freedom credit card. It was the only credit card I had at the time but I was excited to use my points. Imagine my disappointment when I found out that Chase Freedom points could only get me cash. $250 to be exact. $250 is not bad, but I realized that if those points were transferable to an airline program, I could book a plane ticket. At the time, we were planning a trip to Whistler, Canada and the flights to Vancouver were 25,000 American Airlines miles. We still had several months to book tickets, so I quickly applied for the Citi AAdvantage credit card. After getting my 50,000 sign-up bonus, I booked our first plane tickets with points.
Shortly after that, I realized that I could have redeemed even less points by using Chase Ultimate Rewards. I could have transferred the Ultimate Rewards to British Airways to book the AA flights. I know that sounds complicated but that’s what I’m here for. I’ll teach you how to leverage these indirect partnerships to get the most out of your credit card rewards. See this post about booking American Airlines with British Airways Avios for more details.
I have extensively researched earning and redeeming miles and since 2013, my husband and I have earned and redeemed millions of miles to travel to some pretty amazing corners of the world. We both have learned how to maximize the value we get out of airline miles, hotel points, and bank points and rewards.
How I came up with The Miles Genie name: we have a 9 year old boy and 6 year old twin girls. When I started this blog in 2017, our son was in preschool but the twins stayed at home with me. Many of my days were spent watching Shimmer and Shine, playing with dolls and unicorns, and daydreaming about our next vacation. For those of you not familiar with kid shows, Shimmer and Shine are genie twins. I figured it was fitting because miles and points make wishes come true! We do take our kids on some of our trips, but since they are too young to really enjoy some of the places we go, we are lucky to have our parents who are willing to watch the kids. We know many won’t agree with this but we think it’s always good to have some adult-only time with your partner!
More about me: I grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and went to college at LSU where I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. Months before graduation, one night my best friend (who was also about to graduate nursing school) and I decided to move to Dallas, TX after graduation. I met the love of my life, Ryan, through a mutual friend soon after moving to Dallas. I sidelined my career as a nurse after we had the twins (but I keep up my license!). Besides traveling, I love family time, girls nights, wine, Cajun food, rap music, shoes, and I will annoy the hell out of you about some LSU tigers!
About Ryan: He grew up in Sarasota, Florida and then came to Dallas to play college tennis at SMU. After college, he went back to Florida to attend medical school. He decided he wanted to be a urologist and matched at UT Southwestern, which brought him back to Dallas. We met during his residency and got married in Destin, Florida. He is now on staff at UT Southwestern and we couldn’t love his work family more. While he helps with some content on this site, his job keeps him very busy, so I will be doing most of the writing. Besides traveling, he enjoys family time, friends, tennis, cooking, and the Tampa Bay Bucs!
