2024 Travel Resolutions
We don’t typically set traditional New Year’s resolutions, but in the spirit of our blog, we have set some travel resolutions for 2024.
Every year is different. If you read our 2023 travel recap, you know that this was a huge travel year for us both in terms of number of days on trips and in terms of the amount we redeemed. 2024 is going to be a slower year for us for a number of reasons. So in the spirit of SMART goals, we wanted to focus on travel resolutions that would be attainable.
Earn 500,000 points and miles
In 2023, we earned over 1,100,000 points and miles through a variety of methods. We have outlined all the ways we earn points and miles in this post. The fastest way to earn tens of thousands of points quickly is through sign-up bonuses, which we definitely took advantage of last year. This year, we don’t have plans to open up as many credit cards. If there is one that makes sense with our upcoming spend and how we’re accruing points, we will consider opening the new card.
Because of all of our earning last year, we are still sitting on over 450,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points and more than 100,000 American Express points, so we have plenty for the travel we’re planning.
We will earn the majority of our points this year from maximizing spend on our regular credit cards and their elevated categories, airline shopping portals, the United MileagePlus X app, and travel loyalty programs when we do pay in cash (credit card) for trips.
Visit two new states
One of our long-term travel goals is to visit all 50 states. We’ve visited 35 states together, so the number of states left is getting smaller and smaller. With the states we have left to visit, we felt that two new states would be a realistic number. As of right now, we haven’t booked any trips to new states in 2024. If we happen to visit more than two new states, great! We’re closer to our goal of all 50.
Visit three new national parks
Another one of our long-term travel goals is to visit all 63 U.S. national parks. We visited our 20th national park (Congaree) in late December. As of right now, we have one trip already booked for 2024 during which we plan to visit a new national park.
With the months remaining, we figure we can fit in at least two new national parks as we chase our goal.
Visit one new country
In 2023, we were fortunate to use points and miles to visit six new countries. We already know that will not be possible for us in 2024. So in order to be realistic, we decided to set our sights on just one new country. We haven’t decided on the country or even the continent we’ll be visiting, but we’re looking forward to continuing to add stamps to our passport.
Redeem more than $10,000 worth of travel
Another travel resolution that’s a bit of a drop-off from our 2023 numbers. If you haven’t yet, check out our post on how we redeemed over $28,000 worth of travel last year!
We don’t have a lot of travel booked yet this year, but we do have some anticipated (weddings and other events), so we think this amount should be feasible.
2 Comments