Here's an example of how this can work.

I'm contemplating a trip from Sacramento to El Paso over a long weekend later in 2014. I have 50000 Southwest Airlines miles, recently obtained from getting their credit card (sign up bonus). That will (easily) cover roundtrip airfare for 2 people to ELP, plus another flight or locally to southern CA.

Now, I'm looking at hotels. I need 3 nights, in Carlsbad, New Mexico (Carlsbad Caverns and environs). I look at a travel website to see what hotels are there. Then I check to see how many points are required to stay 3 nights. I decide that Holiday Inn is a good bet at 15,000 points per night. Then I look at what the signup bonus is for the IHG credit card. It's either 60,000 or 80,000, apparently. So, now I've applied for that card. After $1000 of spending over 3 months, I'll have the bonus, and that should be enough to bring my hotel cost down to zero for this trip. Assuming, of course, that credit is granted. If not, we move to plan B...some other hotel card.

The value of this free travel exceeds $1000, and all it took was a few keystrokes.

Is this helpful?