Let's be honest: we don't travel for free. Nobody really does — at least not the way most points blogs would have you believe. But we do travel a lot better than we should be able to afford, and the Amex trifecta is the reason why.
The Three Cards
Our entire strategy revolves around three American Express cards that feed into a single pool of Membership Rewards (MR) points. Every dollar we spend — travel, food, business expenses — earns at an accelerated rate. Here's how we split it:
Our Card Assignments
Why This Works
The magic isn't any single card — it's that all three feed the same MR pool. You're earning 4-5x on almost everything you'd spend money on anyway. Over a year, that adds up to serious points without changing your spending habits.
What We Actually Earn
We're not going to give you a fantasy spreadsheet. Here's the reality: between normal household spending on food, travel, and business expenses, we earn roughly 200,000-250,000 MR points per year. Some years more, some less.
At a conservative valuation of ~2¢ per point, that's $4,000-$5,000 in travel value annually. Not life-changing money — but enough to meaningfully offset a couple of big trips. The flights to the Galápagos hurt a lot less when you're covering part of it with points.
How We Use the Points
We primarily transfer MR points to airline partners for flights. Amex has 20+ transfer partners, and the sweet spots shift over time. Some of our go-to transfers:
- ANA for flights to Asia (via Virgin Atlantic — great business class rates)
- Delta for domestic flights when SkyMiles deals pop up
- British Airways for short-haul flights (distance-based pricing)
- Hilton and Marriott for hotel stays (though the value per point is lower)
The Annual Fee Question
Yes, three cards means three annual fees: $695 + $250 + $375 = $1,320/year. That's real money. But between the Platinum's airline credit ($200), hotel credit ($200), Uber Cash ($200), the Gold's dining and Uber credits ($240), and the points earned on spending we'd do anyway — we come out ahead. Not by some absurd margin, but comfortably.
If you wouldn't use the credits, this setup isn't for you. That's fine. We'll cover simpler alternatives too.
The Honest Bottom Line
The Amex trifecta doesn't make travel free. It makes premium travel more accessible. It's the difference between "we can't justify that trip" and "let's do it — the points cover enough to make it reasonable." For us, that's meant the Galápagos, Alaska, Hawaii, Belize, Europe, and Mexico City — all in one year. Were they free? Not even close. Were they more affordable than they had any right to be? Absolutely.