A Must-See for Travel Lovers! Effortless and Relaxed Point Earning

Hello.
I wrote about travel expenses in my article the other day. Related to that, today I'm going to talk about saving on hotel and flight costs.
The reason hotel and flight costs become cheaper is thanks to the point-earning activities I practice daily, or "poi-katsu" for short.

What is poi-katsu?

Depending on how you do it, poi-katsu can allow you to earn a large amount of points.
First, let's look at the general definition of point-earning activities and how to accumulate them.

What is poi-katsu?

Basic ways to earn points

There are various ways to earn them, but here are the four classic methods.

• Shopping (at physical stores or online)

• Earning points through credit card payments

• Using point websites

• Earning points with electronic money

By combining these according to the situation, you can earn points efficiently.

For example, when buying children's clothes on Rakuten Ichiba.
Access Rakuten Ichiba via a banner on a point site like Moppy and select your items. Once you've decided on the products, pay with a credit card. This way, you are triple-dipping by earning Moppy points, Rakuten points, and credit card usage points.

Recommendation for effortless and relaxed poi-katsu

"Effortless and relaxed poi-katsu that accumulates before you know it, even though you aren't trying hard."

Now that I've covered the basics, let's talk about the effortless and relaxed poi-katsu I practice.
The basic principle is "don't incur extra expenses or go through troublesome efforts just to earn points."
Since digging deep into how to earn and use points would take a long time, I will explain the overview of the poi-katsu I practice this time.

Steps for effortless and relaxed poi-katsu

1. Set up a system to earn points in advance

2. Go about your daily life and economic activities as usual

3. Check and consolidate your points periodically (about once a month)

4. Book your trip using points

5. Now, let's go on a trip!

The goal of effortless point earning is to cover hotel and airfare costs

The most expensive parts of travel costs are hotels and airfare.
My goal for point earning is to cover these almost entirely for free using hotel points and airline miles.

From here on, I will explain in more detail, focusing on how to earn points—which is the foundation of this system—and how to use them.

[How to Earn Points] Building a System to Accumulate Points

There are three main ways to earn points.

1. Pay with hotel or airline credit cards
I use three types of cards for my daily spending.

・Marriott Bonvoy Premium Card (AMEX): 100 yen = 3 points
・United MileagePlus Saison Gold Card (VISA): 1,000 yen = 15 miles
・Sorachika Card (JCB): 1,000 yen = 0.5 miles

I basically pay for all my expenses, including daily shopping, utility bills, and my children's cram school fees, with these cards.
Since hotel and airfare costs are high when paid out-of-pocket, paying by card also earns you points based on the transaction amount.
By paying for almost all household expenses with cards, I earn points without waste.

2. Earn points from various companies

You can earn points through shopping at physical stores or online, and via point sites. You also earn points when purchasing hotels or air tickets out-of-pocket.

Earn by using hotels and airlines
Marriott hotel stays (100 yen = 18.5 points)
Airline usage (ANA, United Airlines: Redemption rates vary by route and seat class)

Earn by shopping on Rakuten
Shop on Rakuten (100 yen = 1 point *base redemption rate. Varies by service)

Earn with Moppy
Access various general shopping sites, travel agencies, hotels, and flight booking sites—including Rakuten—via Moppy, and earn Moppy points when you purchase products or book travel. (Redemption rates vary by offer)

3. Payment processing services (PayPal, Rakuten Pay, Amazon Pay
) When payments for 1 or 2 are made through a payment processing service, if you designate a credit card for which you are earning points as the payment method, points will be added according to the credit card usage amount.

[How to Use Earned Points] Now, let's go on a trip!

That covers the system for earning points. Next, I will explain the system for consolidating the points you have earned.

There are three types of points I earn for the purpose of saving on travel costs: Marriott Bonvoy, United MileagePlus, and ANA Mileage Club.
Some points can be transferred and others cannot, so depending on the situation, you will transfer them to one of the following.
Note that Rakuten points are convenient because they can be transferred to any of the three below.

・Marriott Bonvoy
・United MileagePlus
・ANA Mileage Club

You can also transfer between consolidated points

While you cannot transfer directly between United MileagePlus and ANA Mileage Club, Marriott Bonvoy points can be transferred to and from both United MileagePlus and ANA.

■ Marriott Bonvoy / United MileagePlus
・Points to Miles: 3:1
If you transfer 60,000 points at once, you get 20,000 miles + 5,000 bonus miles
・Miles to Points: 1:1

■ Marriott Bonvoy / ANA Mileage Club
・Points to Miles: 3:1
If you transfer 60,000 points at once, you get 20,000 miles + 5,000 bonus miles
・Miles to Points: 1:1
There is a limit on transfer points; if you exceed the limit, it becomes 2:1

Use your consolidated points to book hotel stays or award flights

Marriott Bonvoy points can be used for free stays at Marriott-affiliated hotels. You can also stay at luxury hotels by using a combination of points and a small cash payment.

United MileagePlus and ANA miles can be exchanged for award tickets not only on their own airlines but also within the Star Alliance group, which is a great advantage due to the wide variety of routes available.

Points to Note for Effortless Point Earning

As I have written so far, there are many benefits to effortless point earning. You can stay at luxury hotels for free or travel abroad by plane.
However, it is not all good news.
I would like to touch upon some points to be aware of.

Expect that it will not be easy to earn points for travel right away

To stay at a hotel for free, you need at least 30,000 to 40,000 points. Also, to book award tickets with miles, you need at least 20,000 miles for domestic flights and 25,000 to 30,000 miles for international flights.
As an example, the point return rate for the Marriott Bonvoy card is 3 points (hereinafter p) per 100 yen, and 18.5p per 100 yen when using affiliated hotels.
It is calculated that it takes 1 million yen in credit card spending alone to accumulate 30,000 points.
What a long road ahead. If you are planning a trip with your whole family, be prepared to continue patiently until you have saved enough points.

If you want to save as quickly as possible, the shortcut is to use a combination of point-earning mechanisms.

Since you get 1p for every 100 yen spent on Rakuten Ichiba, if you spend 10,000 yen at Rakuten and pay with your Marriott Bonvoy Premium Card,
Rakuten (100p) + Marriott Bonvoy (300p) = 400p
Something like this.

Be careful with offers that provide a large amount of points (not recommended for effortless point earning)

There are offers on point sites where you can earn a large amount of points.
In fact, there are families who earn hundreds of thousands of points a year through these offers and go on a family trip to Hawaii! If you can set goals as a family and enjoy the process of earning points while accumulating them, that is wonderful.

However, you need to be careful with large-point offers on point sites.
For example, offers where you can earn points by issuing a new credit card or opening a bank account. The procedures for card issuance and account opening take time and effort, and there are risks such as annual fees required after the contract, or the risk of unauthorized use if you leave an unused bank account for a long period of time, so caution is required.
I recommend that you promptly cancel any unnecessary cards or bank accounts after receiving the points.

Large-point offers come with risks, so I do not recommend them for effortless point earning, but the benefits are significant. Make sure to check the conditions for earning points thoroughly before trying.

The golden rule of point earning is to do it as part of your daily economic activities

Doing it as part of your daily economic activitiesis the golden rule of effortless point earning.
Since you need a certain amount of spending to accumulate enough points and miles to travel, avoid making unnecessary expenditures for the purpose of earning points.

Point transfer rules are a bit complicated and change frequently!

The rules for point transfers via routes that were previously available are a bit complicated and change frequently.
There is a lot of information being shared through notifications from point sites, as well as by people who are active in point earning on X and blogs. As you check these frequently and gather information, you should be able to customize your own point-earning system.

In conclusion

I have explained this from the perspectives of how to earn, how to collect, and how to use.

Once the system is in place, you don't need to do anything special on a daily basis, but
if gathering information is not a burden for you, I recommend effortless point earning.

Thank you for reading this long post.