Ark Encounter and The Creation Museum are like many of the major theme parks around the country in the sense that they are quite expensive. Park tickets for Ark Encounter range from $15 to $48 a ticket depending on the age of the guest. (Children under 4 are admitted for free) The Creation Museum ranges from $15-$35. They also sell 7 day vacation combo passes that are $149 for singles, $249 for couples, and $499 for families. These passes give you access to both parks over a seven day period.
The ticket costs are just the starting point, we will address them later in the article. Your trip may also include flights, accommodations, and/or a rental car. Let’s explore how you can greatly reduce your trip cost with a few simple strategies including using credit card travel rewards.
What is Travel Rewards?
Credit card travel reward programs are programs that major banks and credit card companies use to incentivize people to open up credit card accounts. Almost every major bank has some version of credit card rewards program. These programs will either reward the card member with proprietary reward points, cash back, or credits to be used with certain types of spending, for example, travel. Some banks like Chase offer their own points called Chase Ultimate Reward Points. Chase also offers partner cards that accumulate the points of the respective partners. For instance, Chase offers a United Airlines card that accumulates United Points, and a Southwest Airlines cards that accumulates Southwest points, and the list goes on. This is important because you can use these cards and leverage sign-up bonuses to pay for your travel. It may seem too good to be true, but it’s not. All the banks require is that you meet a minimum spend within a certain time period to receive the point bonuses. For instance for the Chase Saphire Preferred card Chase requires the cardmember to spend $4,000 in the first 3 months to receive a 60,000 point bonus. Those points can be redeemed as cash back for $600 or be transferred to one of Chase’s 11 transfer partners (United Airlines, Hiatt, etc) for a MUCH better redemption. (sometimes $2 or $3 per point) It’s completely legitimate and a great way to reduce your travel expenses.
*Important – In order to receive the value that these programs offer you should ONLY use the credit cards for your normal everyday expenses, and your cards should be paid on-time and in-full each and every month. If you pay interest or purchase things you wouldn’t have otherwise you WILL NOT receive the value of these programs. If you carry existing credit card debt, travel rewards may not be for you.
You can find out much more about the concept of travel rewards here: https://travel.choosefi.com/ and check out the latest credit card options here: https://www.cardratings.com/advisors/travelmiles101?SRC=637743#csp
Step 1 – Booking Airfare
If you fly to Northern Kentucky you have a choice of several airports in the area. You can fly into the following airports:
- Cincinnati (CVG) – 35 min drive to Ark Encounter | 12 min drive to Creation Museum
- Lexington (LEX) – 52 min drive to Ark Encounter | 1 hr 30 min drive to Creation Museum
- Louisville (SDF) 1 hr 30 min drive to Ark Encounter | 1 hr 40 min drive to Creation Museum
*The Ark Guide Recommendation: Cincinnati (CVG)
Credit Card Reward Strategy
Our favorite card program is Chase Ultimate Rewards because of their many transfer partners. However, there are many other cards that can help you redeem flights such as The Delta Skymiles cards by American Express and the American Airlines AAdvantage card by Citi Bank. Depending on the city in which you depart you can choose the airline in which you can get the most value.
*Keep in mind that many credit cards waive their initial annual fee upon sign-up but after the first year you will want to cancel the card before you incur the annual fee if you are no longer using the card. If you don’t, your free trip will no longer be free.
When booking flights we recommend using Google.com/flights to search for the best flight options. Then once you find a flight you like you can go to that airline’s website and search for that exact flight to book using travel rewards.
Important Note: Each individual with qualifying credit can obtain these credit card rewards bonuses. So a good strategy for couples is for one spouse to apply for a card and hit the minimum spend and receive the bonus. Then the other spouse applies for the card and hits the minimum spend and gets the bonus. This doubles the amount of points you have access to if you are a couple. DO NOT get the cards at the same time if you don’t have enough normal everyday expenses to reach both minimum spends within the allotted time frame. It is safer to do one card at a time to insure you will receive the bonus.
*Make sure each individual applies for the card independently. DO NOT add your spouse as an authorized user. As an authorized user, aren’t able to receive the sign up bonus.
Fictional Family of 4
Here is an example of how a family of 4 can use Chase Ultimate Rewards to take a free trip to visit Ark Encounter in Kentucky. Our fictional family will be flying from Charlotte, NC to Cincinnati, OH. We used United Airlines for this example because they are a Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partner. However, you could redeem Delta Skymiles or American AAdvantage miles if you apply for those cards and redeem their bonuses.
Search for the desired flight on Google Flights:
Then navigate to the airline’s site to search for reward tickets that match your itinerary.
In the example above United has a reward fare for the selected flight for 10K each way, so 20K points per person. Notice that United only has 5 tickets available at that price. (reward fares will vary for dates & flights)
Chase Sappire Preferred
If you apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and reach the minimum spend you will receive 60,000 points. (as of mid-2019) Just that one credit card would result in 3 tickets from Charlotte to Cincinnati. If each spouse applied for the card our example family would have enough points for 6 FREE TICKETS! You would only be responsible for the taxes and fees that add up to a little over $10 per person in this example. Not bad!
*Bonus Idea: If you own a small business or are thinking of opening a business you can open business credit cards as well. These points can be placed into your rewards account and be used for travel.
Transfer your points from Chase to Transfer Partners
Once you have selected your flights it is extremely easy to transfer your points using Chase’s rewards page.
Just select your travel partner and click transfer points. It will direct you to sign in to your travel partner account. In our example it would be a United MileagePlus account. If you don’t have a reward account for a particular partner you can go to their respective website and sign up for one at no charge.
*IMPORTANT – Once you transfer from Chase Ultimate Rewards to a partner they CANNOT be returned to your Chase account. So don’t initiate your transfer until you are ready to book the flight.
This is just one example of how to redeem points for flights. Sometimes you can find better deals by booking directly through the Chase Reward Portal and not officially transferring to their partners. It’s good to check both options.
HUGE Value: If our example family would have purchased the tickets outright the cost for airfare would have been $860.00! After following the steps above they will fly for FREE (other than a small amount for taxes/fees).
Step 2 – Accommodations & Rental Cars
The next step to a free Ark Encounter vacation is accommodations. Hotels and rental houses can be approached in a similar fashion as flights. There are hotel reward programs that are quite similar to the airline programs. Popular reward programs include, World of Hyatt, Hilton Honors, Marriot Bonvoy, and IHG Reward Club. All of these programs excluding Hilton are direct Chase transfer partners, so you can use your chase points to book these as well.
There are several routes you can take to book your hotel for free. You can open as many Chase Ultimate Rewards cards as you can and pile up chase ultimate reward points or you can open up specific hotel credit cards to obtain points from that specific hotel chain.
Here is a list of cards that provide chase ultimate reward bonuses: https://www.cardratings.com/advisors/travelmiles101?SRC=637743#chasetransfer
In our example, our fictional family of 4 decides to stay at The Hyatt Place Airport Hotel after arriving on their United Flight.
The room that is available for their stay has a cost of 5,000 World of Hyatt points. The normal price for this room is around $166 per night. If our family decides to stay 5 nights this will cost them 25,000 Hyatt points OR 25,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points. (because Hyatt is direct transfer partner for Chase) Isn’t this fun!
Let’s recap. Our family received two Chase Sapphire sign-up bonuses which resulted in 120,000 Chase Ultimate reward points which has resulted in the following:
Scenario 1
| 120,000 Chase Ultimate Reward Points |
| -80,000 Airfare Through United |
| -25,000 Hotel through Hyatt |
| 15,000 Chase Points Remaining |
As you can see, our family can FLY & STAY for FREE by just opening those two credit cards and receiving the bonuses. However, let’s consider ground transportation. In this scenario we don’t quite have enough points for a rental car once the family arrives. If we search the Chase Rewards Portal we can see that a rental car will cost about 35,000 Chase points. In our example above we only have 15,000 Chase points remaining. That doesn’t quite cut it!
One solution would be to open the World of Hyatt credit card which offers up to a 50,000 point sign-up bonus to cover the hotel cost. This would free up 25,000 Chase Reward Points to be used elsewhere (like a rental car).
Scenario 2
| 120,000 Chase Ultimate Reward Points (2 Chase Saphire Preferred Cards) |
| -80,000 Airfare Through United |
| -35,000 Rental Car Through Chase Portal |
| 5,000 Chase Ultimate Reward Remaining |
| 50,000 Hyatt Points (1 World of Hyatt Credit Card) |
| -25,000 Accommodations At Cincinnati/Florence Hyatt Place for 5 nights |
| 25,000 Hyatt Points Remaining |
The cars above can be booked for 5 days for 33k and 35k Chase Ultimate Reward Points. Now we have a FREE flight, a FREE hotel, and a FREE rental car. (*Que slow clap) We are almost there, but not quite. The last frontier on our trip to Ark Encounter is park tickets.
Step 3 – Booking Park Tickets
As mentioned, earlier in the article, park tickets can be a large part of your expense when coming to Ark Encounter. In our scenario our family is choosing to visit both Ark Encounter and The Creation Museum during their 1 week stay. The best option for the family will depend on the amount and age of their children. Let’s look at a couple different cost scenarios.
Park Pass Scenario 1
| 2 Adults – $249 (Up to 7 Day Vacation Pass for both Parks) |
| 2 Children Under 4 years old – (FREE) |
| Total Ticket Cost – $249 |
Park Pass Scenario 2
| 2 Adults & 2 Children Over 4 years old – $499 (Up to 7 Day Vacation Pass for both parks) |
| Total Ticket Cost – $499 |
In general if you are staying 4 days or more (for a family of 4) it’s a better value to go with the Vacation Pass. If you are staying for 3 days or less then you can examine the individual ticket prices based on age. The vacation pass offers other perks such as free parking, access to special activities, and retail discounts as well.
Check out our article about park passes here: Ark Encounter Park Passes: What Pass Should I buy?
For now let’s use our fictional family to get our park passes paid for. The total price for the 7 day family park pass is $499. Ark Encounter and The Creation Museum are not transfer partners for major credit card companies so we will need to take a slightly different approach. The best way to re-coup the cost of the passes is to use cash-back bonus credit cards. Cash-back is a good option because this allows the cardholder to transfer their points directly to their account as a credit. So in effect, it erases any expense you make on the card. Boom, gone. There are a couple different options for this.
Option 1 – You guessed it. Chase Ultimate Rewards.
There are a few other Chase Cards that can get you the points you need including the Chase Saphire Reserve, Chase Ink Business Preferred, and Chase Ink Business Cash. If you don’t have a business then the Chase Saphire Reserve is a good option. The main thing to consider with the Saphire Reserve is the large annual fee. It has a $450 annual fee, however, $300 of that can be reimbursed each year if you use the card to spend on travel.
Once the minimum spend is reached on the Saphire Reserve the cardmember will receive 50,000 Ultimate Reward Points that can be used to cover the expense of the park tickets. Wow!
Option 2 – Barclays Arrival Plus Card
This credit card is useful because after obtaining the minimum spend and receiving the sign-on bonus the cardmember will receive 70,000 travel miles which is equivalent to a $700 statement credit for qualifying travel purchases. Therein lies the rub for this card. Ark Encounter DOES NOT code as a travel expense, therefore isn’t eligible for the statement credit. However, there is a work-around. If you book your Ark Encounter passes through a travel agency or tour company in it may then code as a travel expense. (This works the same way for other theme parks as well – Disney, Universal Studios, etc.)
Option 3 – Capital One Savor Cards
Capital one has two cards that offer cash-back bonus options that can offset your ticket cost. The Capital One Savor and Captital One SavorOne. The combination of these two cards will result in $450 in cash back that can offset the price of Ark Encounter and Creation Museum Passes.
Conclusion
Using the techniques above for airfare, accommodations, rental cars, and park passes our fictional family of 4 was able to save nearly $2700.00 and have an amazing family vacation for (nearly) FREE!
The process may seem complicated at first glance, however, once you practice obtaining points and redeeming them you may realize the process becomes quite easy. Keep in mind this is just an example scenario of what is possible using travel rewards for Ark Encounter and The Creation Museum. This is in NO WAY the only way to benefit using travel rewards. If you come up with a more efficient way to utilize travel rewards for visiting Ark Encounter please share below in the comments.