Card and points strategy for high-spend households and businesses
Your card spend is an unmanaged asset.
Serious money already moves across your cards every month, and it's coming back to you as close to nothing. We build the card and spend-routing strategy that turns that spend into business class and hotel nights. You keep control and book your own travel.
The problem
The spend is already happening.
The larger the card spend, the more expensive it gets to leave it on autopilot, and high spenders are routinely the worst optimized of anyone. All of it moving through one or two cards chosen years ago, earning a flat rate across the board, including in the categories that pay four or five times that rate somewhere else. The spend happens regardless. Routing it on purpose is the part nobody gets around to.
Done properly, that same spending funds two to three real trips over eighteen months. Premium cabins, hotels that would otherwise cost $800 a night. Done by default, it funds a modest statement credit.
You don't need to become a points person. You need someone who already is.
Programs and currencies we work in
How it works
Three steps, and you keep every account.
The strategy is ours. The accounts, the applications, and the bookings stay yours.
Fit call, 20 minutes, free
Your spend, your entities, where you want to go. If this isn't worth your money, we'll tell you on the call.
The audit
A 90-minute working session, and a written 18-month plan you keep.
You execute, we stay reachable
Thirty days of email support, plus an optional check-in at month 6 when the decisions actually come up.
What the audit hands over
- Card sequencingWhich cards, in what order, across personal and business entities.
- Spend routingWhich spend belongs on which card.
- Trip mappingTwo to three trips, each timed to the month your balance supports it.
- Award researchOptions across programs and transfer partners, with booking instructions.
Award research is also available on its own. See Flight research.
Case studies
What a routed points balance actually books.
Four itineraries, each built the way an audit builds yours: what it cost in points, what the cash fare was, and how the routing came together. These four are our own travel, worked end to end. They're leisure trips because leisure is where the ceiling is; work travel comes out of the same balance for a fraction of it.
- Award tickets booked
- 50+
- Points redeemed
- 1M+
- Avg. value per point
- 2.0¢+
- Retail value, these four trips
- $16,000+
Pricing
Fixed scope. Priced on the call.
Every engagement starts with the same free 20-minute fit call. We quote the work once we've seen your spend, your entities, and where you want to go. If it isn't worth your money, we'll say so on the call.
Card Strategy Audit
Fixed scope, one-time engagement, one person
Typical value in play: $8,000–12,000/year
Includes:
- 90-minute strategy call
- Strategy for one person; a second person can be added
- 18-month card sequencing roadmap
- Spend-routing map
- 2–3 target trips, timed to your balance
- A named alternate for every card
- 30 days of email support
- Optional check-in at month 6
Most chosen
Audit + First Trip
Fixed scope, one-time engagement
Good fit when a large expense is already planned: a wedding that pays for the honeymoon, a renovation, a business build-out.
Everything in the Card Strategy Audit, plus:
- One award itinerary, up to 2 travelers
- Flights and hotels, 2–3 options each
- Booking walkthrough call
- Additional travelers can be added
Ongoing
Annual retainer
Quarterly and monthly options available
Includes:
- Quarterly 30-minute review: balances, progress, what to adjust
- Card review and strategy adjustment each quarter
- Application-timing alerts: eligibility windows, velocity rules
- Annual fee and retention decisions surfaced early
- Transfer bonus and deal alerts
- 2 flight searches included per year
- Newsletter access
- Email support for strategy questions, as often as they come up, answered within 72 hours
A founding rate is available while we're building out our first engagements.
The guarantee
If the audit doesn't identify at least $5,000 a year in travel value you're currently leaving on the table, the audit is free.
We're guaranteeing our analysis, not your travel plans. If there's nothing here for you, you shouldn't be paying us.
Founding rate
Why the founding rate
We're still building out our first engagements, and there's a discounted founding rate while we are. In exchange we're asking for a testimonial, permission to publish your before-and-after numbers anonymously, and one introduction if you're happy with the work. That's a real trade, and the rate goes away once we're established.
About
It started as a way to stretch a student budget.
We met in Madrid with more places we wanted to see than money to see them with, and worked out how to go anyway. That method is the business.
Read our storyFAQ
The questions we get asked most.
How much spend does this need to be worth it?
Lower than most people assume. Composition matters about as much as size: a household heavy in travel and dining has more to work with than a bigger spender who's flat across the board, so there's no one number that answers this honestly. Bring your real figures to the fit call. Twenty minutes is enough for us to tell you whether there's anything here worth paying for, and we'd rather say no than take an engagement that won't earn its fee.
I mostly travel for work. Does this apply?
Yes, and it's usually the easier case. Work travel runs shorter routes on more predictable dates, and award space at that end of the market opens up far more readily than the long-haul premium cabins in our case studies. Those trips are on the site because they show the ceiling. A recurring Dallas to Chicago run comes out of the same routed balance and costs a fraction of one.
Do you book travel for me?
No. You book everything yourself using your own accounts. We give you the options and step-by-step instructions. This keeps your loyalty accounts in your control and out of anyone else's hands.
What if I don't get approved for a card you recommend?
Approvals depend on the issuer and we can't control them. Every card in your roadmap comes with a named alternate for exactly this reason.
What if there's no award space for my trip?
For standalone searches, if we can't find options meeting your stated parameters, everything but the search fee is refunded. The search fee is a flat $75 and is not refundable.
What if the space disappears before I book?
Award availability is set by the airlines and can change without notice, sometimes within hours. That's why the ask is to be ready to book when results arrive. If something vanishes before you could reasonably act, reach out.
Do award prices change?
Yes. Award pricing and availability are set by third-party loyalty programs and can change without notice.
Do you earn commissions on the cards you recommend?
Sometimes, and we'll tell you which ones on the call. Where you have a spouse or business partner who can refer you instead, we'll point that out, because that bonus is worth more to you than the commission is to us. Either way the recommendation doesn't change.
Can I just buy an hour of your time?
Yes. Hourly advisory is $200 an hour for one-off questions. Most people are better served by the audit, which is a fixed scope and a written deliverable rather than an hour of conversation.
Start here
Book a 20-minute fit call.
Your spend, your entities, where you want to go. If this isn't worth your money, we'll tell you on the call.
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Prefer email? Reach us at hello@thepointsppl.com