How I Fly Business Class With Miles

Ever since my son was born, flying with a bit more space, especially on long-haul flights, has become more important.

Not only do we sleep better when we can fully recline, but the service is always better, and having space for my now one-year-old to move around is essential.

I used to think business class flights all cost $10k+ and were out of my reach, but with a combination of finding good deals and moving mileage points around, it’s been possible to fly business 4 times (and first class once!) this year on our longest flights. Here’s how I do it:

Mileage Transfers from Credit Card Points

Over the years, I’ve found one of the best ways to get great value with points and miles is to have a credit card that partners with several different airlines and allows mileage transfers. I used to be loyal to United, but their redemption values have been terrible lately for business class, so it’s much better to have points with some of the key banks I’ll mention in this post, rack up points spending in the categories that certain cards reward the most, then transfer the points.

Sometimes, airlines even offer better than a 1:1 ratio on transfers. I once got 1.5 miles per points on Emirates, possibly the best airline ever, this way!

Here are my favorite cards and how I use them:

Capital One Venture X:

Current signup bonus is 90,000 points when you sign up through this referral link and spend $4000 in the first 3 months. (it has to be through that link, by the way, or the offer you’ll see on their website is for only 75k points).

Right now, this card is my favorite since they offer 2x points in ANY spending category, plus a whopping 10x points on hotels and rental cars and 5x on flights when you book through their portal. They’ll also price match, so do some recon before booking to make sure it’s the best price.

Most cards just offer one point per dollar spent outside of their key categories, so this is the card I reach for the most lately when I’m buying anything day-to-day like baby items, groceries, clothes, or really anything that isn’t travel or business related (more later on my favorite cards for those categories).

The minimum spend to earn the bonus miles is also very reasonable at $4,000 within the first three months. The other perks are great as well:

• Hertz President’s Circle Membership (We got upgraded to a 4WD vehicle, which would have cost almost double, thanks to this on our trip to Namibia!)
• Priority Pass airport…