How to Book Dream Romantic Trips Using Points

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Whether you’re going on your honeymoon, surprising your special someone with a vacation or just getting away from your day-to-day life for a while, planning a romantic trip can be expensive. The cost of airfare, hotels, food and experiences can add up quickly, so many couples never end up going on that romantic getaway they’ve been dreaming of.

However, regardless of your financial situation, you may be able to get that much-needed holiday at a low out-of-pocket cost by booking romantic getaways on points. By applying for credit cards, earning welcome bonuses, paying attention to transfer bonuses and utilizing the tips included in this article, you can find flights, hotels and more at affordable costs.

In this article, we’ll discuss the best ways to book romantic holiday getaways on points so that you and your loved one can add some adventure to your relationship.

Why Points and Miles Are Ideal for Romantic Travel

Knowing that you’re spending a significant amount of cash on your vacation can really put a damper on things. However, by using points and miles, which are essentially a free byproduct of paying for your everyday expenses, you can fully enjoy your vacation knowing that you paid very little in cash.

Additionally, by using points and miles, you may be able to gain access to luxury products that you otherwise couldn’t afford, such as premium airline seats and hotel suites.

How Couples Earn Points Faster Together

Before you start booking romantic trips on points, you’ll need to first earn some points or miles. Luckily, as a couple, you have double the earning power.

Credit Card Pairing and Welcome Bonus Timing

One of the quickest and most effective ways to earn rewards points that can be redeemed for travel is by applying for credit cards and earning welcome bonuses. In addition to welcome bonuses, many credit cards also offer everyday spending bonuses, which can help you rack up points when spending in certain categories. By maximizing these bonuses between yourself and your partner, you can quickly earn enough points for your romantic vacation.

When deciding which credit cards to apply for, it’s worth comparing welcome bonuses. In general, high-annual-fee premium credit cards often offer the largest welcome bonuses. So, it’s worth considering whether earning a larger welcome bonus justifies paying a higher annual fee.

For example, The Platinum Card® from American Express (rates and fees) consistently provides one of the most valuable welcome offers of any consumer credit card. However, this card also has a very high annual fee of $895. Here’s the current welcome offer from the Amex Platinum:

You can sometimes find sizable welcome bonuses on cards that don’t charge a substantial annual fee. For instance, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card charges a $95 annual fee and consistently offers a valuable welcome bonus:

If you’re looking for a business credit card with a good welcome bonus, it may be worth looking into the $95-annual-fee Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (sometimes referred to as the Chase Business Preferred).

Welcome bonuses are a great way to earn a large sum of points quickly, which you can then put toward your romantic getaway.

Maximizing Everyday Spending as a Two-Person Household

While welcome bonuses are a one-time bonus, most rewards credit cards offer everyday spending bonuses that can help you earn points as long as you have the card. When applying for a new credit card, it’s important to consider whether a card’s spending bonuses align with your spending habits.

We recommend looking at past bank and credit statements to identify your top spending categories. If you discover that your top spending categories are dining and groceries, for instance, then you’ll want to apply for a credit card with high spending bonuses in those categories.

In this example, a good card to consider is the Citi Strata Premier® Card, which has an annual fee of $95 and offers the following spending bonuses:

• 10X points on hotels, rental cars and attractions booked through CitiTravel.com
• 3X points on air travel and other hotel purchases
• 3X points on restaurants and supermarkets
• 3X points on gas and EV charging stations
• 1X points on all other purchases

As you can see, this card offers excellent spending bonuses for dining and groceries at a relatively low annual fee.

Using Points for Premium Flights Couples Actually Enjoy

Spending miles or points can help ensure that you arrive at your romantic vacation feeling well-rested and happy. If you’re flying to the Maldives on points for your romantic getaway, for instance, things could get off to a rough start if you’re forced to take a super-long-haul flight in an uncomfortable economy-class seat. It may be worth checking if you have enough miles or points to upgrade your seat so you can enjoy your flight and arrive ready for adventure.

Booking Two Business- or First-Class Seats on One Award

If you’re looking to book two business- or first-class seats for yourself and your significant other, finding award availability can sometimes be an issue, particularly if a premium-cabin award offers very high value or is on a high-demand route.

For the best chance at finding premium-cabin award availability, it’s a good idea to book either right when an award becomes available (which is often between 330 and 365 days in advance) or at the last minute when airlines begin offering unbooked premium-cabin seats as awards (often a week or a few days before departure).

Using third-party search tools, such as PointsYeah, AwardTool and seats.aero, can also make searching for premium-cabin award space much easier. These tools can help you determine which frequent flyer programs are most likely to offer premium-cabin award space on your desired route.

Stopovers and Open-Jaw Awards for Romantic Itineraries

If you’re interested in stretching your romantic vacation across multiple locations, it’s worth looking into how you can use stopovers and open-jaw itineraries to your advantage when booking your flights

A stopover is an extended stop (longer than 24 hours) that you take on your way to your final destination. For instance, if you were to fly from Boston (BOS) to Frankfurt (FRA) via London (LHR) and spend more than 24 hours in London, the time in London would be considered a stopover.

Several frequent flyer programs allow you to add stopovers to your itineraries for extra miles or even for free. The following table includes some of these programs and their stopover rules:

By using these stopover rules to your advantage, you can get a lot more value out of your points or miles and add another stop to your vacation.

Luxury Hotel Redemptions That Feel Truly Romantic

For a truly romantic vacation, you may want to book a nice boutique hotel, all-inclusive resort or villa. While these properties can be very expensive when paying with cash, you can often find luxurious stays at fine hotels for low out-of-pocket costs when booking with points.

Boutique Hotels, Suites and Villas Worth the Points

Generally, transferring credit card points to hotel loyalty programs doesn’t offer great value. However, you can use points to access some incredible properties that you might not otherwise be able to with cash.

For example, if you want to take a romantic trip to Hawaii on points, you might consider staying at The Royal Hawaiian, a Luxury Collection Resort, Waikiki. This is one of the finest resorts on the Hawaiian islands and one of the best properties in the Marriott portfolio.

We found a four-night stay in a Historic Garden Room with two double beds at The Royal Hawaiian in August 2026 for 364,000 Bonvoy points (plus $52 per day in resort fees for a total of $208).

If you wanted to upgrade to a Historic Garden Suite on these dates at The Royal Hawaiian, you’d have to pay the difference in cash. So, the rate for the entire four-night stay would be $1,620 plus 364,000 points (in addition to the $208 resort fees).

Unfortunately, Marriott points tend to have a low value per point. For instance, if you were to book the Historic Garden Room with cash on the same nights as in the example above, it would cost $1,849. This means that this redemption would give you a value of slightly under 0.5 cents per point (factoring in the resort fees you’d have to pay).

If you were to book the Historic Garden Suite on these dates entirely with cash, it would cost you $2,873.

Thus, factoring in the cash portion you’d have to pay for the Historic Garden Suite redemption, this would give you a value of about 0.3 cents per point, which is very poor.

We wouldn’t recommend transferring flexible rewards points (such as American Express Membership Rewards® points or Chase Ultimate Rewards) to the Marriott Bonvoy program since these points are typically worth much more through other transfer partners. However, if you want to earn points specifically for Marriott Bonvoy redemptions, it may be worth applying for a Marriott co-branded credit card.

In determining the best Marriott credit card for you, you’ll want to consider your spending habits and how often you stay at Marriott properties.

All-Inclusive and Adults-Only Resorts on Points

Through several major hotel rewards programs, as well as through credit card travel portals, you can use points to book stays at all-inclusive and adults-only properties. Unfortunately, you’ll often have to pay extra cash fees (such as resort or housekeeping fees) when booking stays at all-inclusive resorts with points, which can diminish the value per point for these redemptions.

However, it’s worth noting that you can often increase the value that you get out of an award stay by booking through a credit card hotel collection, many of which include all-inclusive and adults-only resorts around the world.

For example, let’s say you have the American Express® Gold Card (rates and fees). One of the most often overlooked Amex Gold benefits is access to The Hotel Collection, which includes all-inclusive resorts such as Hyatt Ziva Cancun and Hyatt Zilara Cap Cana. When booking either of these resorts through Amex’s The Hotel Collection, you’ll receive special on-site perks, including a complimentary room upgrade (when available), 12 p.m. early check-in (when available) and late checkout (when available). You’ll also receive a $100 credit toward eligible charges* with every booking of two nights or more through AmexTravel.com. *Eligible charges vary by property.

These types of special perks (which are also available through other hotel collections, such as Capital One’s Premier Collection or Chase’s The Edit) can significantly increase the value of your award stays.

Avoiding Mistakes That Reduce Romantic Travel Value

Credit card and hotel points can be incredible tools to empower you and your significant other to take the romantic vacation you’ve been dreaming of. They can significantly reduce the cash burden and help you gain access to properties you couldn’t otherwise afford.

However, it’s important to use discretion when spending your points. Pay attention to the value per point you’re getting, look out for hidden fees (such as resort or housekeeping fees) and consider whether you might be better off paying for certain flights or hotel stays in cash and saving your points for the future.

Using the tips in this article, though, your dream romantic vacation could be just a credit card away.