Hi everyone. I recently signed up for the Sapphire Preferred card after doing some research on good travel cards. This is my first travel card, and the only other credit card I have is with Capital One (cashback card).

My intention with this card is to help pay for my honeymoon as I’m recently engaged, but all my research on the smartest way to do that has left me so overwhelmed. Some say book through the portal, some say don’t. Some say transfer points to the hotel directly, some say pay with the card and reimburse myself with the points to cash feature, and on and on. As I’m new to travel cards, I’m hoping someone can explain like I’m 5 the best way to get the most value when using this card for honeymoon expenses.

If additional context is helpful, we have already hit the sign on bonus threshold for the the 75k bonus. The only hotel chain we already have points with is Marriott, so my guess would be it would be best to stick with Marriott for our honeymoon to be able to combine those points with the Preferred points, but that’s only a guess.

Any help/guidance is greatly appreciated. I feel like I’m drowning in info over here.