I Earned 825K Credit Card Points Worth $18,000 in 2025

In 2025, I earned 825,000 credit card reward points across 6 different programs through a combination of spend and new card bonuses, worth approximately $18,000 in travel value.

Generally, I consider myself to be quite a frugal individual. The fact that I could accumulate such a colossal amount of points is a testament to the various easy points earning mechanisms that are out there.

With high bonus category multipliers and extremely generous sign-up-bonuses, American Express Membership Rewards points takes the top crown, quickly followed by Citi ThankYou and Wells Fargo Rewards points (see breakdown table above).

I prefer earning such transferable currency over hotel or airline specific ones, but between Delta, Hilton and IHG, I always welcome earning points in a program that I can regularly put to good use.

$18,000 in Estimated Travel Value

Everybody's travel habits demand a different point valuation.

For some people, American Express Membership Rewards (MR) points might provide 1.2 cents-per-point (used on AMEX Travel), while for others it might provide 3-4 cents-per-point (redeemed for business class flights through transfer partners).

There's no "one value to rule them all". Because of that, I have provided two different values - TPG's valuation and my personal valuation based on historical redemptions.

Using TPG - $12,000

Using Personal Redemptions - $18,000

The major difference is valuation of transferrable currencies (AMEX MR, Citi ThankYou, Wells Fargo Rewards). More often than not, I transfer them to Qatar Avios, Avianca LifeMiles and Flying Blue to redeem Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines, Delta / Air France, respectively, easily getting more than 3 cents-per-point (CPP) for business class flights.

Hence, I value all transferable points at 3CPP. Your mileage may vary.

When it comes to Delta SkyMiles, I value them slightly higher (1.2 vs 1.5 CPP) because I hold the AMEX Delta Gold credit card that automatically gives me 15% off all domestic award flights. Even with Delta's dynamic pricing, in one of my most frequency routes (ATL - SFO), I easily get 1.5 CPPs.

Finally, hotel currencies - Hilton Honors and IHG Rewards. I usually take full advantage of 5th-night-free or 4th-night-free (respectively) benefits. Yet, I don't consistently get significantly more value that TPG.

Recap - across these 6 programs, I have accumulated a massive 825K points, worth $18K according to my valuation (and $12K by TPG's).

Notable Credit Cards

They key to earning points so quickly is having a strategic core credit card setup that earns you the highest number of points on your highest spend categories (dining, grocery, gas, etc).

Here are a few notable ones from my setup:

American Express Gold

Capital One Venture X

Citi Strata Elite

AMEX Hilton Surpass

Chase IHG One Rewards Premier

American Express Blue Business Plus

Closing Thoughts

All in all, 2025 was a great points-earning year. I have earned enough points to feed all my travels in 2026 and 2027.

Next I will create a strategy for some big targeted redemptions in 2028, starting with a new core wallet setup for 2026.