Yeah we've got a card with rewards on it and thankfully have been able to use that for what we needed it for. It’s certainly the best way to help offset the travel related expenses!
I think one of the other challenges we ran into is that it was difficult to figure out when to get the best price for flights. It used to be on Tuesday evening but that wasn’t the case anymore lol.
I think that era is mostly gone. The only thing I see actual price differences in is flight times. And even that can be relatively thin depending on how much of a popular destination it is. Travel is such a big thing these days and social media has led to such an increase in demand for air travel that the airlines know people will pay these prices. Even if it's a flight at 4AM they know there will be people happy to pay up to get on.
My main problem with travel these days is seeing how utterly insane accommodation is. Good prices on things like Booking (ESPECIALLY Airbnb) are a rarity. Most places are charging 60+ a night for something that doesn't even have the same quality of most 4 star hotels. Even here in Georgia I see places that are trying to get that foreigner spend in. It's insane to see when you realise the average salary in a place like this can be $400 a month and the most basic Airbnbs are asking for that for a week.
For context the apartment I'm renting in Tbilisi is $400 a month. The place we stayed in for a week through Airbnb when we arrived and started apartment hunting was about $300. And that was one of the cheapest options I could find.