FAMILIES FLY FREE Private Podcast

The Chase Travel Portal can be a great tool to help you book everything from vacation rentals and hotels to car rentals and flights on other airlines. And AMAZINGLY, you can often find much cheaper points prices in the portal versus booking a hotel or airline directly using their own miles or points.

This is in part due to the fact that when using points earned from (or transferred to) Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve you get 25% or 50% more value from them. Cami will explain that in more detail in the next webinar.

In this webinar, Stephanie walks you through how to use the Chase Travel Portal for all of the above and explain how she uses it to help her family of 5 travel free. She also answers questions like can I cancel and get my points back and can I earn elite status with these bookings?

Follow Stephanie at AlmostFreeFamilyTravel.com. 

In this month's Q&A, Diane asks Lyn about the best ways to use Chase Ultimate Rewards points and how to book Airbnb and Vrbo using points.

Lyn reviews all aspects of the Companion Pass from how to earn one to how to best use one, including to how to add your Companion, hold a seat for them, change Companions etc.

How do you check in on a Southwest flight to get the best seat? What can you expect inflight? How do you access WiFi? Cami reviews everything you need to know about the Southwest inflight experience in this 50-minute webinar.

Travel apps can save you a ton of time from planning where to do and what to do to saving you time in customs, help you find an airport lounge, see current TSA PreCheck times and more!

Lisa and Stephanie review their favorite travel apps in this 30-minute webinar.

In this month's Q&A, Lyn answers questions about if you need to use your Southwest card when booking a flight, when adding your Companion and booking through SouthwestHotels.com. She also addresses if you can refer your spouse to a card and briefly discusses flying free to Canada.

Cami, who is one of the most organized people we knows, shares how she plans and gets ready for a trip from booking flights and hotels to packing to creating an itinerary.

Related Families Fly Free webinars and resources:

• Packing Lists
• Itineraries
• Webinars on Car Rentals
• How to Stay Free in Hotels
• Frugal Flyer Course (How to fly free on other airlines like American, Delta and United)

Helpful websites and resources Cami mentions in the webinar:

See Cami's sample itinerary under Downloads...

• AwardWallet keeps track of frequent flyer miles and hotel points as well as lets you book reward tickets.
• Google Flights & Google Flights Explore help you find a flight and explore destinations.
• Costco Travel for members to book rental cars, hotels
• Turo finds a car share based on destination.
• Autoslash finds great deals on car rentals and tracks your reservation for price drops, even if booked elsewhere.
• AwardMapper shows hotel chains available by city.
• Vrbo (affiliate link) finds available apartments, condos and houses for nightly rental rates
• Hotwire finds hotels
• Priceline finds hotels
• Booking.com finds hotels
• DirtinmyShoes help you plan National Park vacations with insider tips and itineraries.
• TripAdvisor helps you find hotels, things to do and restaurants

Securing a car rental without paying an astronomical price -- or at all -- has continued to be an issue. After being unable to find a car rental less than $5,000 a week this summer, Lyn shares some alternatives for what to do when you CAN'T find a car rental and some updated car rental option tips.

Award-winning travel journalist Candyce Stapen discusses the state of cruising in light of the pandemic, hot deals, activities for families, her favorite ships and cruise lines and answers' members questions in this webinar.

• Find Candyce at GreatFamilyVacations.com
• Squaremouth.com (site she recommends for comparing travel insurance policies)
• Find her books on Amazon here

New to cruising or considering your first cruise? Cami will fill you in on everything you need to know to enjoy smooth sailing :) from what to expect on a cruise to what to bring to how to get the most out of it. Even experienced cruisers will learn a lot from this webinar jam-packed with helpful information!