With the streets decked in a white blanket of snow, all you think that’s left for you to do now is stay indoors with a steaming cuppa. While you sit there in your cashmere attire and stare at the wonderous white, transform the scene you’re looking at to be an imaginative beach setting. Or a rocky mountain sight. That’s right. It’s the perfect time to plan your summer vacation!

The cards suited to plan your summer trip

Besides for a snow day being a great time to plan your next vacation, there are currently two credit cards with welcome offers suited to make your dream summer break almost pay for itself, and you don’t want to miss these.

By signing up for the cards, you get a multitude of travel benefits that will cover your summer trip almost in it’s entirety.

Flying expenses, airport lounge access, a free suitcase, your hotel stay, and auto rental insurance, are all included in the deal. These travel benefits are very much in reach if you just sign up for the cards I’ll be listing shortly.

Often time, we’d love to fly off to explore some parts of our beautiful world, or fly off just to get some breathing space and fresh air, but we fear the expenses a trip of the like would cost. These card benefits will give you the best of both worlds so that you can fly off and also have so much of the expenses covered, using the travel benefits to your advantage.

With the airport lounge access you get 10 free lounge Priority Passes annually.

No foreign transaction fees means you can access your accounts back home for no extra fees while extracting the money from your vacation site.

Also included in the Hilton cards is Hilton Gold status which includes complimentary room upgrades, bonus rewards, free beverages, and more.

The welcome offers

Let’s explore the cards with their welcome offers.

Amex currently has two Hilton cards, one personal and one business, suited for your vacation. You can get one or the other, or both if you’d like!

Hilton Honors Surpass card and Hilton Honors Amex Business card: With each of these cards, you earn 150k points after you spend $2,000 within the first 3 months of account opening. In addition, get a $150 statement credit after you make your first purchase on the card (which you can use as pocket cash:)

There is a low annual fee of $95 on these cards, still well worth it.

Pointwise, you can earn 12 points on Hilton purchases made at Hilton hotels or resorts, 6 points at US supermarkets, restaurants, and gas stations, and 3 points elsewhere. The business card offers 6 points also on flights made directly through airlines or Amex travel and car rentals booked directly from the car rental companies.

Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite Mastercard: Earn 50k points after you spend $2,500 within the first 3 months of account opening. All for an annual fee of $99 which is waived the first year!

Earn 2 points on AA purchases, on gas and restaurants, and 1 point everywhere else.

Or choose the Citi American Airlines Platinum Business: Earn 65k points after you spend $4,000 within the first 4 months of account opening. Here too, the $99 annual fee is waived for the first year.

Earn 2 points on AA purchases, on gas, car rentals, and 1 point everywhere else.

How it adds up to make your trip well worth it

The 150,000 Hilton points are enough to book up to a 7-night stay at many of the 6,110 Hilton hotels across 6 continents. You can find hotels for as low as just 20,000 points per night (rates will vary between hotels)

With 50,000 AAdvantage points, you can book on average two round trip domestic economy tickets on American Airlines.

Your dream vacation can happen

By spending a total of $4,500 within the first few months of your new card ($2,000 on the Hilton Surpass card and $2,500 on the Citi Advantage Platinum card), you will get thousands of points to make your summer vacation a reality.

Just think of all those travel benefits: free lounge access in airports, Gold status, free nights at hotels, car rental insurance… Can you let these slip through your fingers?!?

I know it’s white outside and you’re still at your hot chocolate, but do this for yourself or you will regret it later when the snow melts away and you’re stuck with a summer break to fill, yet no travel offers to help you out.

Sign up now and thank me later, when you get back after the summer, refreshed to head into yet another long year. I tell you, try it, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how beneficial and simple it is.

All you should do now is sign up for two of these credit cards.

Hilton Honors Surpass card >>

Hilton Honors Amex Business card >>

Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite Mastercard >>

Citi American Airlines Platinum Business >>