how i became THE chief pointS officer
Travel for me has always been a rewarding escape. The final family vacation that we took before my mother passed away was to Disney World. We escaped the reality that she was going to leave us soon, for one last moment of magic before things turned bleak. And then soon after my mother passed away, my family decided we would jet away again and travel for the holidays to avoid stewing in the loss of our rituals with our mom no longer in our lives. Travel became a bright spot in my otherwise dark life.
Then every February for the next eight years my grandparents would have us travel to visit them in Florida for winter break. We started as unaccompanied minors cruising the airports when I was 10 years old and my brother six. Rather quickly into my teen years, I became quite airport savvy and started to handle the airport navigation on behalf of my brother and I. Navigating terminals became incredibly comfortable for me and planes signaled my happy place, and a new adventure was in store.
Travel became a sense of escape, wonderment, and something that I could always look forward to, especially since we did it to change our narrative.
Taking cruises to the Caribbean with my grandparents and brother in my teens. Instilling my travel bug early and the need to afford adventure.
I entered college and my 18-year-old self had no one paying for those fun family trips any longer. I needed to figure out how I could keep my travel bug flowing, while on a dime.
I was privileged to take a handful of trips through my collegiate career tied to clubs and extracurriculars, which only fueled my itch and reinforced that mama needs to figure out how to keep this going... if money wasn't at my disposal, I had to get creative... usher in the points and miles bonanza.
I got my first Blue Sky AMEX card when I was 20 years old, and quickly realized that you could accrue points to be used for travel, alongside earning frequent flier miles as I flew with various airlines. I figured that getting the pathways to free travel under my belt would be the door opener to more travel overall.
When I started my first NYC job on a $42K salary, equating to $2200 monthly take home, with $1375 on rent, having extra spending money was rough. Oye! Points and miles were going to be the way to fuel my adventurous spirit. And so they did. Over the next few years as I had solid credit and getting more business travel under my belt, I started to see the miles incrementally trickle in. That coupled with strategic signup bonuses for credit cards and then eventually getting to use my personal card to pay for business expenses, points and miles started to pile up! Now, let's get booking!
One of my first big redemptions, using my Delta Skymiles to take a trip to Spain and Morocco in 2012 (worth $1200).
I quickly became quite savvy traveling in my early 20s and got the attention of a newfound friend, who was building his hotel startup. He was impressed by my vigor and ability to navigate the travel and credit card programs at an early age that he asked me if I wanted to join his company as a contractor... and yes, that included expense-paid travel. Checkmate.
Not only did I join his company, but for the next 2.5 years I got to travel to dozens of cities around the US helping to build their hotel database and it was on their dime. Hello DREAM gig! Especially as I did this on the side to my ad job. This only helped me see my points and miles piggy bank get more rich. I was hooked on the points and miles game and I knew that it would change my life and open up possibilities.
I picked up the philosophy that I would earn on every possible dollar I could. That I would spend points and miles whenever I could to never pay for a trip. And to maximize and hack as many programs to get the most bang for my faux bucks. I lived by a new mantra, "some gals buy purses, I buy plane tickets... actually I don't pay for them at all." I believed in experiences. Not material things. And it's served my escape spirit well.
Instead of using my "real" money on travel, I could dump that away into my savings and investments to support "Future Alicia" and put the points and miles portfolio to work for "Present Alicia"- it's something that has served me very well as now, I have a rewarding life.
For the last 12 years, my Queen's Gambit style of travel hacking has scored me six figures worth of virtually free travel to 35 countries and counting—all through strategic earning, regular usage vs hoarding, and maximizing value across programs. I'm proud to be someone that uses miles often, not letting the credit card, airline, and hotel programs devalue them for sitting in my accounts too long. I use them to see the world and have rewarding escapes often.
All of this, coupled with my love of helping and empowering people to live their best lives, is why I started Case & Points — a service focused on unlocking more affordable ways to travel that are tailored to each person's spending and
travel goals.
I'll bring a human-centered approach to travel points and miles planning, in a world that can so often be overwhelming, and should just be fun. I want to be able to make the best case for how you can earn and use, points and miles to change your life and have your own rewarding escapes too.