Mapping a Trip to Italy: How to Plan Your Points Redemption

For decades, Italy has been among the most popular tourism destinations for U.S. citizens. Many U.S. citizens have Italian heritage and want to reconnect with their ancestry, while others simply want to enjoy Italy’s top-tier cuisine or world-famous wine. There are nearly endless iconic destinations to visit within Italy as well, including the Roman Colosseum, the canals of Venice, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Vatican City, the Amalfi Coast, Lake Como, the city of Pompeii and so much more. Indeed, for Italian descendants, foodies, history buffs and many others across the globe, a trip to Italy is an important pilgrimage.

Unfortunately, if you’re living in the U.S., flying across the Atlantic Ocean and booking a hotel in an Italian city can be rather expensive. Luckily, in this article, we’re going to look at a few points/miles strategies to make your next trip to Italy a whole lot more affordable.

We’re going to look at frequent flyer programs that offer high-value redemptions for flights between the U.S. and Italy, hotel rewards programs through which you can book affordable stays at luxury hotels in Italian destinations and, finally, credit cards that you can use to rack up points quickly.

So, if you think that a trip to Italy is out of your financial reach, read on to see how you can achieve your dream vacation to Italy on a limited budget.

Best Ways to Fly to Italy With Airline Miles

In the following section, we’re going to look at some of the best ways to book a flight to Italy through frequent flyer programs. We will discuss each of the different credit card rewards programs that allow transfers to our chosen frequent flyer programs. And, in a later section, we’ll discuss how to rack up credit card points to purchase flights through these programs.

Emirates Skywards

If you’re willing to pay a decent amount of taxes and fees, perhaps the best way to book a flight from the U.S. to Italy is to book a round-trip Emirates-operated flight from New York (JFK) to Milan (MXP) through the Emirates Skywards program. You can find these flights in economy class for as little as 35,000 miles round-trip, which is better than the rates you’d get for one-way flights through most other frequent flyer programs. However, take note that these flights often charge fairly high taxes and fees.

For instance, we found a round-trip Emirates-operated award flight between New York and Milan for 35,000 miles and $144 in taxes and fees.

This mileage rate is so low that it’s still a good deal, despite the high taxes and fees.

You could also book a round-trip business-class award on this route for just 141,000 miles and about $247 in taxes and fees, which is a pretty solid rate if you’re willing to pay more miles and cash to fly in a higher cabin class.

This is also a nonstop fifth freedom flight (meaning it doesn’t stop in Emirates’ home country of the United Arab Emirates). So, this flight is not only affordable but also very convenient. In many ways, this is the best way to fly from the U.S. to Italy with miles.

To earn Emirates Skywards miles, you can transfer points at a 1:1 ratio from all of the following credit card rewards programs:

• American Express Membership Rewards
• Bilt Rewards
• Brex
• Capital One Rewards
• Chase Ultimate Rewards
• Citi ThankYou Rewards

As you can see, the Emirates Skywards program is a transfer partner of pretty much every major transferable credit card rewards program, making Emirates miles a very easy currency to earn.

American Airlines AAdvantage

Another excellent program through which to buy an award flight from the U.S. to Italy is American Airlines AAdvantage. Through this frequent flyer program, you can find round-trip flights between certain cities in the U.S. and Rome (FCO) for as little as 44,000 miles. And taxes and fees on these flights are fairly manageable.

We found a round-trip flight between Boston (BOS) and Rome (FCO) for just 44,000 miles and about $109 in taxes and fees, which is a great rate.

This is an excellent option for U.S. citizens who wish to travel to Italy, especially because many U.S. citizens may already have a balance of AAdvantage miles from taking flights with American Airlines. But, you’ll need to be willing to endure a rather long itinerary on the way home.

There are other U.S. to Italy routes at affordable rates through the American Airlines AAdvantage program as well. For instance, we found a flight from Chicago (ORD) to Naples (NAP) for just 45,000 miles and about $165 in taxes and fees.

This flight also includes very long itineraries in both directions. However, if you’re able to endure a few layovers, this is a great way to get to Italy cheaply.

Unfortunately, the only major transferable credit card rewards program partnered with American Airlines is Bilt Rewards (which is less lucrative than other credit card rewards programs, such as American Express Membership Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards).

So, if you want to earn American Airlines AAdvantage miles through credit card spending, the best way to do so is to sign up for an AAdvantage co-branded card. Luckily, there are some solid options for AAdvantage credit cards, and signing up for one of them might be a good idea if you’re U.S.-based and you fly on American Airlines often. Here are some of our top picks for AAdvantage miles-earning credit cards:

• Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard® ($0 intro annual fee, then $99)
• Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® ($595 annual fee)
• AAdvantage® Aviator® Red World Elite Mastercard® ($99 annual fee)

With these credit cards, you can earn AAdvantage miles for making everyday purchases and earn toward your next award flight (maybe to Italy). Each of these cards also includes a large welcome offer that could help you earn enough miles for a trip to Italy instantly.

For instance, here’s the welcome bonus currently being offered by the Executive World Elite Mastercard:

As you can see, by signing up for this card and earning the welcome bonus, you can quickly earn enough AAdvantage miles to fly yourself to Italy.

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer

The Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer program also has some excellent options for flying from the U.S. to Italy with frequent flyer miles, granted at a slightly higher rate than the two aforementioned programs. However, what this program lacks in affordability, it more than makes up for in flexibility. Through the KrisFlyer program, you can find flights from cities all over the U.S. to many different cities in Italy.

For example, we found a round-trip economy class itinerary between San Francisco (SFO) and Milan (MXP) for 61,000 miles and about $265 in taxes and fees.

This is an excellent option for U.S. travelers who live on the West Coast and want to visit Italy. And, you can adjust your city of origin in the U.S. as well as your destination in Italy without affecting the mileage required (since the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer program uses a region-based award chart to price partner award flights).

For instance, we found a flight from Los Angeles (LAX) to Rome (FCO) for the same mileage rate of 61,000 miles.

Unfortunately, for the itinerary above, you’ll have to pay about $351 in taxes and fees, which is pretty expensive. However, when you consider that you’re flying to Italy all the way from the U.S. West Coast, it’s actually a pretty good price.

Also, one of the best aspects of the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer program is that it’s a transfer partner of all of the major transferable credit card rewards programs, including:

• American Express Membership Rewards
• Bilt Rewards
• Brex
• Capital One Rewards
• Chase Ultimate Rewards
• Citi ThankYou Rewards

So, if you have a rewards-earning credit card from any of the programs listed above, you should be able to transfer your points to the KrisFlyer program at a 1:1 ratio and redeem them for a flight to Italy.

Other Frequent Flyer Programs

If you can’t find the award flight you’re looking for among the three frequent flyer programs mentioned above, there are a few other programs that you can search through.

For one, the Etihad Guest program has good rates on partner award flights between the U.S. and Italy in theory. However, it can be very hard to find availability on these kinds of flights through the Etihad Guest program. But, if you can find a good award flight on one of these routes, it could be a good deal. The Etihad Guest program is a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One Rewards and Citi ThankYou Rewards.

The Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan program also offers decent rates on transatlantic award flights from the U.S. to Italy. Unfortunately, these partner award flights can be scarce and Alaska Airlines isn’t a transfer partner of any of the major transferable credit card rewards programs.

Finally, ANA Mileage Club and Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles occasionally have good rates on partner award flights from the U.S. to Italy. So, if none of the aforementioned programs offer what you need, it’s worth searching through these programs as well.

Best Ways to Stay in Italy with Hotel Points

Now that we’ve discussed how to fly to Italy using airline miles from various frequent flyer programs, let’s take a look at how you can use hotel points to book award stays once you’ve arrived in the country. We’re going to discuss a few different hotel rewards programs and also which credit card rewards programs transfer into each one.

World of Hyatt

By and large, the World of Hyatt points are considered one of the most valuable hotel rewards currencies out there. And the World of Hyatt program has many options for award stays in many popular Italian cities. In the following example, we were able to find an outstanding deal on a hotel in Florence.

We found a one-night stay in a 1 King bed room at IL Tornabuoni Hotel in Florence for just 25,000 points.

If you were to book this same night in the same room with cash, it would cost you 684 euros (about $741) at the Member Advance Purchase rate.

Thus, this redemption would give you a value of nearly 3 cents per point, which is great. So, if you plan on staying in Florence during your voyage to Italy and you want to pay with points, make sure you check out IL Tornabuoni Hotel. There are also several other hotels that are bookable with Hyatt points throughout Italy that are also worth looking into.

The only credit card rewards programs that transfer to the World of Hyatt program are Bilt Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards, both of which transfer at a 1:1 ratio.

Marriott Bonvoy

Another excellent hotel rewards program through which to book your stay in Italy is Marriott Bonvoy. Marriott has a fairly large portfolio of hotels in Italy, including hotels in 28 different cities from nine different brands, many of which offer great value when booked with points.

However, if you’re planning an extended stay in one Italian city, the best way to maximize the value of your Marriott Bonvoy points is to utilize the program’s “fifth night free” feature. With this feature, if you book five consecutive nights at the same Marriott Bonvoy hotel, you’ll only pay the points required for four of those nights. This feature applies only to stays paid for entirely with points and doesn’t apply to cash nights or Cash+Points nights.

It’s worth noting that you’ll receive the lowest-value night free with the “fifth night free” feature. For example, if three of the nights that you booked cost 20,000 points and two of the nights cost 15,000 points, then you’d receive one of the 15,000-point nights free and the total cost of your stay would be 75,000 points ((20,000 x 3) + 15,000 = 75,000).

Using this feature, you can get some excellent value on hotel stays in Italy. For instance, through the Marriott Bonvoy website, we found a five-night stay in a Standard Double Room at STRAF, Milan, A Member of Design Hotels for 160,0000 points.

If you were to book the same stay on the same nights at the “Prepay and Save” rate, you would have to pay 2,163 euros (about $2,338) for this stay.

So, by booking this stay with points instead of cash, you’d be getting a value of about 1.5 cents per point, which is definitely solid. Plus, you get the opportunity to stay in a top-notch hotel in Milan without paying much out of pocket. You will have to pay 25 euros ($27) out of pocket for this award stay.

There are plenty of other award stays in Italy available through the Marriott Bonvoy program that cost even fewer miles than the example above. And, many of these award stays may offer similar value or even more value than the one above. So, you can simply search the Marriott Bonvoy website for stays in your desired Italian city and then do some calculations to find out which one offers the most value.

And if you really want to maximize the value you get out of Marriott Bonvoy points and it works with your travel plans, you should definitely utilize the program’s “fifth night free” feature.

The Marriott Bonvoy program is a transfer program of some of the most popular credit card rewards programs out there, including:

• American Express Membership Rewards
• Bilt Rewards
• Chase Ultimate Rewards

All of the programs listed above allow you to transfer points to the Marriott Bonvoy program at a 1:1 ratio.

Wyndham Rewards

Wyndham Rewards is considered the one of the most valuable hotel rewards programs around, and this still rings true when booking stays in Italy. Through this program, you can consistently award stays in Italy that offer outsized value (exceeding 1 cent per point). Unfortunately, Wyndham has a fairly small footprint in Italy.

In fact, there are only two hotels in all of Italy that can be booked with Wyndham points: Ramada by Wyndham Naples and Wyndham Garden Florence. While these hotels are definitely geared towards budget travelers, you can still get decent value out of them.

For instance, for just 15,000 points per night, you can get a 1 Queen Bed, Standard, Non-Smoking Room at the Wyndham Garden Florence.

If you were to book the same night with cash at the Wyndham Rewards Member Rate, it would cost you $209.

Thus, you’d be getting a value of about 1.4 cents per point for this redemption, which is decent. You may be able to get more value per point from luxury stays in Italy from other hotel reward programs but, if you’re trying to stay in Italy for the fewest number of points possible, staying at the Wyndham Garden Florence (or the Ramada by Wyndham Naples) is a good option.

The only major transferable credit card rewards programs that allow transfers to Wyndham Rewards are Capital One Rewards and Citi ThankYou Rewards. Capital One Miles transfer to the Wyndham Rewards program at a 1:1 ratio and the transfer ratio for Citi ThankYou Points depends on which Citi credit card you have.

The following Citi cards allow you to transfer to the Wyndham Rewards program at a 1:2 ratio:

• Citi Prestige Card
• Citi Strata Premier℠
• AT&T Access More Card from Citi

If you have any other Citi credit card that allows points transfers apart from the cards listed above, your points will transfer at a 1:0.96 ratio.

For instance, if you have the Citi Strata Premier Card and you were to transfer 20,000 ThankYou Points to Wyndham Rewards, you’d receive 24,000 Wyndham points. If you have the Citi Double Cash® Card and you make a 20,000-point transfer to Wyndham Rewards, you’d receive 19,200 Wyndham points.

Best Credit Cards for Booking a Trip to Italy

Now that you’re familiar with the best ways to book flights to Italy with miles and the best ways to book hotel stays in Italy with points, let’s look at the best credit cards to quickly rack up enough points to make those bookings.

Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card

One of our favorite credit cards for booking a trip to Italy is the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. This card has an annual fee of $395, which you’ll have to pay once you get this card. However, if you’re planning a trip to Italy, you’ll easily be able to make up for that fee and then some.

First off, the Venture X card offers a large welcome bonus that can help you quickly earn enough miles for one or possibly even two round-trip flights from the U.S. to Italy. Here’s the current welcome offer from the Capital One Venture X:

Plus, this credit card comes with $300 in annual travel credits. So, any hotel, rental car or flight expenses for your Italy trip that you can’t cover with miles, you can book through the Capital One Travel portal and get reimbursed from this annual statement credit.

You’ll also receive an anniversary bonus of 10,000 miles every year, starting on your first anniversary. So, if you’re willing to wait a year after signing up for your Venture X card, you’ll have an additional 10,000 miles to put towards your Italy trip.

You’ll earn the following everyday spending bonuses with the Venture X card, which can help you rack up more miles toward your Italy trip:

• 10X miles on hotels and rental cars booked through the Capital One Travel portal
• 5X miles on flights booked through the Capital One Travel portal
• 2X miles on all other purchases

Finally, to make your trip to Italy more relaxed and comfortable, the Capital One Venture X card includes access to Capital One, Priority Pass and Plaza Premium airport lounges. Plus, this card includes a reimbursement for the application fee for either TSA PreCheck or Global Entry, which means you’ll be able to skip the lines at the airport.

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card

One great combination of cards that can help you rack up Chase Ultimate Rewards points quickly is the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card. Both of these credit cards charge an annual fee of $95. So, by signing up for these two cards, you’d have to pay $190 annually. However, these cards can easily offset that cost with their welcome bonuses, spending bonuses and other benefits.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred offers solid welcome bonuses and is one of the best all-around credit cards for most consumers. Here’s the current welcome bonus being offered by the Chase Sapphire Preferred card:

The Ink Business Preferred Card has offered some impressively high welcome bonuses in recent years. Here is the current welcome bonus being offered by the Ink Business Preferred:

With the welcome bonuses from these two cards, you should easily be able to cover a round-trip economy flight to Italy for at least two people and probably even three people. Plus, you should be able to cover some of your hotel stays in Italy with the points from the normal spending bonuses that you’ll earn while working towards your welcome bonuses.

For instance, at the current time, you’ll need to spend $8,000 in the first 3 months after account opening in order to receive the welcome bonus from the Ink Business Preferred. And, since this card offers a baseline of 1X points per $1 spent, you’ll earn at least 8,000 additional points from these bonuses (and probably more). While working towards the welcome bonus from the Chase Sapphire Preferred, you’ll probably earn another 4,000 points or so. With these 12,000+ points, you should be able to book one night at a budget hotel in Italy.

You can earn even more Chase Ultimate Rewards points by utilizing the normal spending bonuses offered by these two cards, which are listed in the following table:

Aside from its bonuses, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card offers $50 in annual statement credits for hotel bookings made through the Chase Travel℠ portal, which can help you cover any hotel bookings in Italy that you don’t make with points.

Finally, with both the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Ink Business Preferred, your Chase Ultimate Rewards points will be worth 25% more when redeemed through the Chase Travel℠ portal. So, for instance, if you were to buy a flight that cost $1,000 through the Chase Travel℠ portal and you had either of these cards, it would only cost you 80,000 points (instead of 100,000 points). This is a solid backup option to have in case you can’t find better redemptions for flights to and hotels in Italy through transfer partners.

Citi Strata Premier℠ Card and Citi Double Cash® Card

While the Citi ThankYou Rewards program isn’t as popular as other programs such as American Express Membership Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards, this program has made some major improvements recently that have made it a serious competitor. Namely, Citi recently revamped the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card, which is currently offering a great welcome bonus and charges an annual fee of just $95.

Here’s the current welcome offer from the Citi Strata Premier Card:

If you want to earn even more Citi ThankYou points towards your upcoming stay as well as supplement the spending bonuses offered by the Citi Strata Premier, you can also sign up for the Citi® Double Cash Card, which doesn’t charge an annual fee and offers a modest welcome bonus (which should be enough for a one-night hotel stay in Italy).

Here’s the current welcome offer from the Citi Double Cash Card:

With these two welcome bonuses, you should be able to book a round-trip flight to Italy through transfer partners for two people. Plus, for a combined annual fee of just $95, these cards offer some excellent spending bonuses that complement each other well. The following table includes the normal spending bonuses from both of these cards:

With the Citi Strata Premier card, once per year, you can get $100 off a $500-or-more hotel booking made through the Citi Travel℠ portal. This perk could come in handy if you’re planning on booking any hotel stays in cash during your Italy trip.

Putting It All Together

Now that you’re an expert on earning credit card points, transferring those points to frequent flyer programs and hotel loyalty programs and then redeeming those points for flights to and hotels in Italy, let’s put it all together.

In the following sections, we’re going to create three separate itineraries including flights and hotel stays that you can pay for entirely by signing up for credit cards.

New York to Milan With the Capital One Venture X

In this section, we’ll take a look at how you can take an affordable vacation to Milan, Italy, departing from New York City with the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card.

At the time of writing, the Venture X card is offering a welcome bonus of 75,000 miles for new cardmembers who spend $4,000 in the first three months after account opening. And, since the Venture X card earns 2X miles on all purchases, the $4,000 in spending required for the welcome bonus will yield at least another 8,000 miles. Thus, you’ve got at least 83,000 Capital One Miles to start with.

If you wait one year, then you’ll receive another 10,000 miles as an anniversary bonus. Over the course of that year, let’s assume that you earned another 30,000 miles (which would require a maximum of $15,000 in spending on your card, a modest assumption). That brings your minimum total of miles at the end of one year to 123,000 miles.

Now, since the Emirates Skywards program is a transfer partner of Capital One Rewards, you can transfer 70,000 of those miles to Emirates Skywards and purchase two economy round-trip tickets between New York City (JFK) and Milan (MXP) on Emirates.

It’s worth noting that you’ll also have to pay about $287 in taxes and fees on top of those points.

Before you depart for your flight to Milan, make sure you use your Venture X card to enroll in Priority Pass. If you do, you’ll be able to access the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse airport lounge in JFK Terminal 4 (the terminal from which Emirates flights depart) before your flight.

If you use your Venture X card to enroll in either TSA PreCheck or Global Entry for free, you’ll be able to skip the lines at the airport. To use this perk, simply pay the application fee for either TSA PreCheck or Global Entry with your Venture X card, and you should be automatically reimbursed.

Once you’ve touched down in Milan, you’ll need a place to stay. You can transfer Capital One Miles to the Choice Privileges program at a 1:1 ratio and book a stay at the Quality Hotel San Martino, which is located outside of the city of Milan.

This is a very affordable option. Unfortunately, this is the only option for accommodation near Milan available through Choice Privileges or Wyndham Rewards (Capital One’s two hotel transfer partners that offer a 1:1 ratio) and it’s relatively far from Milan’s city center. So, if you want to stay somewhere closer to the city center, you can always use the $300 in Capital One Travel credits to cover the cost of one or all of your hotel nights in Milan.

If you want to visit another major city in Italy while you’re in the country, you can get from Milan to Venice in about three hours by car or bus. Then, you can transfer about 32,000 of your remaining Capital One Miles to Choice Privileges and book a night at the Hotel Aquarius Venice, Ascend Hotel Collection, which is a four-star boutique hotel in the heart of Venice.

Finally, when it’s time to return to Milan and fly back to New York, make sure you get to the airport a little early so you can check out the Club S.E.A. – Sala Monteverdi airport lounge in Malpensa Airport with your Priority Pass membership.

If you enrolled in Global Entry (but not TSA PreCheck) using your Venture X card, you can skip the customs line upon reentering the United States.

So, as you can see, by signing up for the Venture X Card and using all of its perks to the fullest, you can get a vacation to Milan (and possibly also Venice) for very little cost out-of-pocket. In the itinerary we described above, the only real out-of-pocket costs are the taxes and fees for the award flight, transportation from Milan to Venice and back and whatever food and activities you want to pay for while in Italy.

San Francisco to Rome With Two Chase Credit Cards

As mentioned above, you can earn a ton of Chase Ultimate Rewards points by signing up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card as well as the Ink Business Preferred Card. These two cards each have a $95 annual fee, meaning that your combined annual fee will be $190. You should also be aware that, in order to qualify for the Ink Business Preferred Card (or any other business credit card), you must be a small business owner. However, the definition of a “small business owner” is very broad in this case and includes gig economy workers (such as Uber drivers), freelancers (such as blog writers) and independent contractors (such as babysitters).

At the current moment, the Ink Business Preferred is offering a massive welcome bonus of 120,000 points to new cardholders who spend $8,000 on their card in the first three months after account opening. However, these offers are subject to change, so this welcome bonus could shrink in the future. The Chase Sapphire Preferred currently has a welcome offer of 60,000 points for new cardholders who spend $4,000 in the first three months. So, with the current welcome bonuses, you could earn 180,000 points immediately.

Both of these cards earn 1X points per $1 spent on all purchases. With the spending requirements needed to earn the welcome bonuses, you’ll get another 12,000 Chase points. So, right off the bat, you’ll have 192,000 points by signing up for these two cards.

Then, you can transfer 122,000 Chase points to the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer program and redeem those miles for two economy round-trip tickets between San Francisco (SFO) and Rome (FCO).

This itinerary includes flights on both United Airlines and Lufthansa, two very highly rated airlines. You will, however, have to pay taxes and fees of about $508 to book these award flights, which is a fairly high out-of-pocket cost.

While in Rome, we recommend searching for a hotel through the World of Hyatt program. For instance, we found a 1 King Bed Room at The Tribune in central Rome for 17,000 points per night.

So, for 68,000 points (which you should have left over after buying your flight), you can book four nights at this location for you and your travel companion.

Alternatively, through the Marriott Bonvoy program (which is also a 1:1 transfer partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards), you could book a five-night stay, utilizing the “fifth night free” feature, for 68,500 points at Sheraton Rome Parco De’ Medici.

While The Tribune is a slightly higher-quality hotel, you can get five nights at the Sheraton Rome Parco De’ Medici for nearly the same price as four nights at The Tribune. Both are good options from a value standpoint.

By signing up for these two Chase credit cards and earning their welcome bonuses, you could afford a round-trip flight from San Francisco (or many other U.S. cities) to Rome through the KrisFlyer program as well as a hotel stay of up to five nights in Rome.

Chicago to Naples With Three Citi Cards

As mentioned above, a great way to rack up Citi ThankYou points quickly is to sign up for both the Citi Strata Premier Card and the Citi Double Cash Card. In fact, if you’re signing up for these two cards, you should also consider adding in the Citi Custom Cash℠ Card as a third card. The Strata Premier has an annual fee of $95 whereas the other two cards don’t charge annual fees. So, the combined annual fee between the three cards is still just $95. Regardless of whether or not you use these cards for a trip to Italy, getting these three Citi cards is one of the best possible credit card strategies available.

At the current time, the Strata Premier Card has a welcome offer of 70,000 points for new cardmembers who spend $4,000 in the first three months after account opening. The Citi Double Cash Card and the Citi Custom Cash Card both have the same welcome offer, which is 20,000 points for new cardmembers who spend $1,500 in the first three months after account opening. Thus, if you sign up for all three cards, you can earn a total 110,000 points from welcome bonuses.

Since the Strata Premier Card and the Custom Cash Card both earn 1X points on all purchases, you’ll earn at least an additional 5,500 points through the spending requirements for these welcome bonuses (4,000 points from the Strata Premier and 1,500 from the Custom Cash). The Double Cash Card earns 2X points on all purchases, which means that you’d earn at least an additional 3,000 points while working towards the welcome bonus from this card.

So, altogether, with these welcome bonuses and the spending bonuses you’d earn while working towards your welcome bonuses, you’d end up with at least 118,500 ThankYou points (and probably even more). It’s important to note that the Custom Cash Card and the Double Cash Card are both cashback cards but actually earn ThankYou points. However, if you transfer points earned with either of these cashback cards into your Strata Premier account, you’ll have the option to use these ThankYou points through transfer partners.

If you want to use your points for a flight to Italy, one of the options is to transfer 61,000 ThankYou points to the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer program and redeem them for a round-trip economy flight from Chicago (ORD) to Naples (NAP).

Unfortunately, this flight has fairly high taxes and fees of about $405. This is largely because three legs of the itinerary are operated by Lufthansa, which is a very highly rated airline but tends to levy high taxes and fees.

After booking this flight, you’d still have 57,500 ThankYou points left over to put towards your accommodation. However, if you have the Citi Strata Premier Card, you can transfer ThankYou points to Choice Privileges at a ratio of 1:2. So, essentially, you have 115,000 potential points that you could spend through the Choice Privileges program.

Unfortunately, the only option for accommodation available through Choice Privileges near Naples is the Comfort Hotel Gardenia Sorrento Coast, located about an hour by car away from Naples in the city of Sorrento. However, Sorrento is a fantastic destination itself and a great midpoint between Naples and the Amalfi Coast.

If you wanted to stay five nights at the Comfort Hotel Gardenia Sorrento Coast, it would cost you 68,000 points, which means you’d only need to transfer 34,000 Citi ThankYou points to Choice Privileges to purchase this stay (with the 1:2 transfer ratio).

So, regardless of whether you plan on traveling to Naples or another Italian city, if you’re traveling with Citi ThankYou points, we recommend trying to book your hotel through the Choice Privileges program as you’ll get double the value for your points with the 1:2 transfer ratio.

However, transferring to Wyndham Rewards is also a solid option. Wyndham is typically considered a high-value hotel rewards program and the Citi Strata Premier Card offers a 1:1.2 transfer ratio to this program. So, for instance, we found a 1 Double Bed, Non-Smoking room at the Ramada by Wyndham Naples for 15,000 points per night.

If you were to book four nights at this location, it would cost 60,000 Wyndham points, which means you’d have to transfer in 50,000 Citi ThankYou points with the 1:1.2 transfer ratio to afford this stay. This is also a great option if you plan on staying in Naples.

As a side note, if you are planning a trip with your Citi Strata Premier Card, you should keep in mind that this card offers a $100 discount on hotel bookings over $500 once per year. So, if you don’t want to use points to book your hotel stays in Italy and would rather use cash, this feature could save you $100.

As you can see, by signing up for these three Citi credit cards, you can quickly rack up enough points to take a wonderful trip to Naples or some other Italian city. Plus, having these three cards in your wallet will ensure that you’ll earn fantastic rewards far into the future.

The Bottom Line

Italy is one of the most popular international travel destinations for U.S. citizens, and it’s easy to see why. The country is full of beautiful coastline, historic cities, excellent food and delightful people. And, as you’ve seen from this article, you don’t have to break the bank to achieve your dream vacation to Italy.

By signing up for credit cards and earning welcome bonuses and regular spending bonuses, you can rack up enough points to cover all or at least a major portion of your Italian vacation.

When it comes to booking your flight, you can transfer credit card points to certain frequent flyer programs (usually at a 1:1 ratio) and then find great deals on flights between the cities in the U.S. and cities in Italy. Then, you can also transfer credit card points to hotel rewards programs to cover the cost of your hotel stays while in Italy.

By using the strategies included in this article, anyone with a good credit score can take a wonderful vacation to Italy regardless of their budget.