Alaska had been on our family’s travel list for years.

But instead of taking a cruise, we planned a DIY Alaska road trip, flying into Anchorage and exploring Seward and Valdez on our own. We just got back, and I can tell you now: it was one of the best trips our family has ever taken.

Trips like this can feel intimidating to plan.

Flights to Alaska are expensive. Rental cars can be extremely expensive in summer. Hotels and cabins book up early.

So I approached this trip the same way I approach most of our family travel: use points and miles to cover the biggest costs first.

In this post, I’ll walk you through exactly how we paid for this Alaska trip, including the flights we booked (and the smart switch we made before departure), our Anchorage hotel, how we handled vacation rentals, our rental car strategy, and the cards I would open today to earn the points for a trip like this.

If you want the full trip details, my complete Seward itinerary is here, and the Valdez itinerary is here (coming soon).

Our Alaska Trip Route

We flew into Anchorage, drove south to Seward, explored the Kenai Peninsula, continued to Valdez, and returned to Anchorage to fly home. Ten days, glaciers, coastal scenery, wildlife, and small Alaska towns, all without a cruise ship.

Flights: The Switch That Made This Trip Even Smarter

Here’s where I get to teach you the most valuable lesson of the whole booking process, because our flight plan changed, and the change is the lesson.

Originally, I booked our flights with American Airlines miles: 60,000 miles plus $22 in taxes for our family of four, round trip from Kansas City. An excellent redemption, and I was proud of it.

Then I looked at our December trip to Europe and realized those American miles were worth far more to me for Christmas flights than for Alaska. So I asked a question every points traveler should ask before flying: is this still the best use of these miles?

It wasn’t. We canceled the American bookings, the miles went back into our account for Christmas, and we rebooked on Southwest using points and our Companion Pass.

Here’s what that looked like. We flew Southwest from Kansas City to Anchorage, connecting through Las Vegas on the way out and Denver on the way home. With the Companion Pass, meaning we paid points for [two] fares and just taxes and fees for the rest. Our family of four flew to Alaska and back for 106,000 Southwest points and about $45 in taxes and fees.

That’s the real power of points and miles. It’s not just booking one great redemption. It has enough flexibility to rearrange the puzzle when a better picture emerges. One decision covered Alaska AND protected Christmas.

If you don’t have the Companion Pass yet, it’s the single most valuable thing in domestic travel for families, and I wrote the complete guide to earning it here: Southwest Companion Pass Ultimate Guide.

Our Anchorage Hotel: Hyatt Place Anchorage Midtown

Our flight landed at 10:45 PM, which meant we just needed a comfortable landing spot for night one before picking up our car the next morning.

We stayed at Hyatt Place Anchorage Midtown for [12,000] points. The room had plenty of space for the four of us, breakfast was included the next morning, and the front desk handled our late arrival without a hitch. When you land at nearly 11 PM with two tired kids, a free, reliable, warm hotel room feels like the best redemption of the whole trip.

Anchorage actually has three Hyatt properties bookable with points, so if the Hyatt Place is unavailable, Hyatt House Anchorage (around 9,000 points, with kitchenettes) and The Wildbirch Hotel (around 12,000 points, a boutique JdV by Hyatt property) are both solid backups.

One timing note for anyone reading this soon: if you have Hyatt transfer partners in your points strategy, check current transfer ratios before you count on them, because programs change their partnerships and ratios regularly.

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Why We Stayed in Vacation Rentals (And Booked the Simple Ones on Purpose)

For the rest of the trip we stayed in vacation rentals, cabins in Seward and Valdez.

Alaska’s small towns are cabin country, and rentals give families space and flexibility that hotels can’t. But here’s the strategy layer most people miss: I deliberately booked bare minimum cabins, the kind with just a microwave and a mini fridge, because that’s all our food strategy required, and simple cabins cost dramatically less in peak Alaska summer.

To offset the cost, I used flexible travel points redeemed as statement credits toward the bookings. Book the rental first, then apply points against the purchase. My full guide on using points for vacation rentals is here.

I’m writing a whole post about how we fed our family affordably in Alaska (spoiler: it involved a suitcase full of food and a very expensive cup of oatmeal), and I’ll link it here when it’s live.

Your first card if you want to go to Alaska

Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

The third card I would open is the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, which currently offers up to $1,000 toward travel once you meet the spending requirement.

What makes the Venture card particularly useful for trips like Alaska is its travel purchase eraser feature.

Here’s how it works:

Book your travel normally (vacation rentals, rental cars, flights, etc.)

Pay with your Venture card

Log into your Capital One account

Apply your miles to erase that travel purchase

Miles are typically worth about 1 cent per mile toward travel purchases.

So if you booked a $500 cabin in Seward, you could apply 50,000 miles to cover that cost.

This flexibility makes the Venture card especially helpful when you’re booking:

• cabins
• Airbnbs
• smaller lodges
• rental cars

All things that are common on Alaska road trips.

Complete Guide to Capital One Venture Miles

Rental Car Strategy: Our First Turo, and It Worked

Rental cars in Alaska are shockingly expensive in summer, so we tried Turo for the first time.

We rented a small sedan, a Kia Rio, from June 26 to July 3 for $820.81 total, with1,600 miles included. I paid cash for this car however, you don’t have to. My full rental car savings guide, including how to make sure you have primary coverage, is here: Save Big on Rental Cars.

Why Points and Miles Work So Well for Alaska

Alaska felt expensive at first. Flights, cars, and cabins all spike in summer, and grocery prices climb the further you get from Anchorage. But we covered the biggest costs with points: flights with Southwest points and the Companion Pass, our Anchorage hotel with Hyatt points, and flexible points offsetting our cabins. That meant the money we actually spent went where it mattered.

And here’s where it went. A wildlife cruise where our kids counted nine species in one day. Sea kayaking across Resurrection Bay to a beach most visitors never see. Whitewater rafting through Keystone Canyon on Lowe River on our son’s 14th birthday, because when your kid asks to go to Alaska for his birthday and you know how to use points, the answer gets to be yes.

That’s the whole strategy, honestly. We don’t use points to travel for free. We use points to move the budget away from airplane seats and hotel beds and toward the days our kids will still be talking about at Christmas dinner in twenty years.

Plan Your Own Alaska Trip

Everything from our trip is on the site or coming soon. The complete 4 day Seward itinerary is live here, the Valdez itinerary is coming next, and my deep dive on the Kenai Fjords cruise is here.

If you’re starting from zero on points, begin with my free Blueprint course, which walks you through the exact system we used to make this trip happen on two teacher salaries. And when you’re ready to choose your first card, my current recommendations are always updated on the Best Offers page.

Alaska is not out of reach for a regular family. We’re the proof. Go get your proof.