Is it too good to be true to fly somewhere for free? Or to stay at a hotel for… free? One thing is for sure, money does not have to stop anyone from traveling. It is possible to pay nothing for your flight with the use of some travel hacking. You do this with strategy and it does not have to be hard.
Now may not be a great time to travel as we want to prevent the spread of COVID-19. With the ongoing travel restrictions, time is on your side. Use this time to start planning for your tip and start racking up points and miles.
Article Contents
What is travel hacking?
How do I use travel hacking to travel for free?
Use travel hacking to earn extra miles
How to redeem miles
Extra travel hacking information
The FAQ’s
Best practices for travel hacking success
What is travel hacking?
Travel hacking is about using miles and points to get the best deals on flights and hotel stays. Certain strategies help you earn more points without spending more money.
Why do people do it? Because you can fly to your destination for free. We have flown roundtrip from Orlando to Amsterdam using only miles. Everyone can travel hack, from a single traveler to a family. You need the information to do it and a little bit of your time.
Disclaimer: This information pertains to U.S. citizens. This article has information about credit cards that are available to U.S. citizens.
How do I use travel hacking to travel for free?
By racking up miles and points and redeeming them. That’s it. There are several ways to travel for free and when you get the hang of it, travel hacking can be a part of your lifestyle. This way you keep earning points and miles with (almost) everything you buy.
So how do we get those points? Keep on reading my friend.
Sign up for loyalty and reward programs
Frequent flyer programs
Most airline carriers have their own miles and their own frequent flyer programs. A frequent flyer program is a loyalty program offered by the airline where you can save miles.
You can redeem your miles to book award seats on flights. Airline carriers have a certain amount of award seats available per flight.
For example, you can save miles with United Airlines but also with Delta Airlines. You cannot use your United miles to buy a flight with Delta. Does that mean you have to save thousands of miles with every airline carrier? Nope!
Alliances
Airline carriers partner up with each other and form alliances. There are three.
– One world (American airlines)
– Star Alliance (United airlines)
– SkyTeam (Delta airlines)
We recommend signing up for these three loyalty programs. If you have miles with Delta, you can use those miles to book flights with all the airlines in the SkyTeam alliance. You do not need to save miles with all the individual airlines out there. A must-do step in your travel hacking game!
This goes for airlines as well as hotels, but we will cover hotels further down in the article.
Travel does not have to be expensive, you can hack your way to your destination!
Apply for travel credit cards to earn points and miles
A travel credit card helps you earn points and gets you status. The points can be used for travel expenses and the status can give you upgrades. A travel credit card has more perks, such as airport lounge access or cash back on purchases made for travel!
Minimum spending requirement
You can earn the welcome bonus after spending the minimum spending requirement. The generous welcome bonus can be enough for free international and domestic flights.
The minimum spending requirement varies, mostly from $1000 to $3000. Normally you would have 3 months to meet the requirement.
Here is where travel hacking comes into play. You hack your way to earn points and maximize the dollars spent.
A great idea is to apply for travel credit cards when you know you have big purchases coming up. Using your travel credit card to pay for your monthly bills is one travel hacking strategy to meet your minimum spending requirement.
Annual fees
Most credit cards that give you miles have an annual fee. Do not let this scare you away, some credit cards waive the first annual fee and if they don’t, it still pays off.
Let’s say you earned 60.000 points from your travel credit card that has a $95 annual fee. Your points could be worth $600 that you can use to book a flight with.
But don’t get caught up on the monetary value of your points, often the deals are just good. You can use 35.000 miles to book a one way international flight from North America to Europe or even Australia. See what we’re talking about?
Applying for credit cards as a couple
You can earn more points when you strategize as a couple. We recommend following these guidelines to maximize your points.
- Refer your partner to that same credit card. This way you get the referral bonus, which is usually 10.000 points.
- We do not recommend adding each other as an authorized user. You will not be able to refer the other person and receive the referral bonus.
- You can combine credit card points (for couples who live together). This way you have all your reward points in one account, which makes it easier to book flights together.
What if you’re not approved for the credit card?
It happens, don’t let this affect your travel hacking game. The bank will let you know why you weren’t approved for the credit card. You could call them and ask to reconsider you for the card.
The agent on the phone will most likely ask you some questions and reevaluate your situation. We have tried calling in the past and it did not work for us, but it doesn’t hurt to try!
There are several reasons why you could be denied. Your credit score, too many inquiries in the past 90 days, your income is too low, you name it. Figure out what the reason may be and work on improving it.
We reapplied for the same card after 90 days of being denied. We got approved!
Companion Pass
The Southwest travel credit card is beneficial if you travel within the U.S. They have something called the companion pass. This means that you can travel with your friend or family member for free. You just pay the taxes. You get this perk with their travel credit card.
Use travel hacking to earn extra miles
There are more ways to earn miles than just opening credit cards. Once you have your credit card you can start maximizing the dollars you spend. These are the ways to do it:
– Dining portals
– Shopping portals
– Lyft and Uber
– Airbnb and Hotels
– Gift Cards
Dining portals
Airlines have online dining portals, like Delta Dining (Delta Airlines) or dining Mileageplus (United Airlines). You link your travel credit card to the dining portal and you automatically earn miles when you eat out at participating restaurants. You also earn points (1x, 2x or 3x the points) when using your travel credit card. Hello double dipping!
Shopping portals
Both banks and airlines have online shopping portals. You log in to their website and click on the shopping website (for example, best buy). You will get transferred to best buy and will earn miles for every dollar spent.
Often there are deals to earn more miles per dollar. For example, 8 miles per dollar spent or even 20 miles per dollar spent. This way you earn miles while shopping for something you would buy anyways. This can be an amazing travel hacking strategy to maximize the amount of miles you earn!
Lyft and Uber
Some travel credit cards have deals with ride sharing companies such as Lyft and Uber. You can earn points with your bank when you register your credit card with the ride sharing company. Chase works with Lyft and American Express works with Uber.
Airbnb
You can book your Airbnb bookings through the Delta website. You will earn miles per dollar spent with your Airbnb booking.
Use your travel credit card to pay for your booking and you will earn 2x or 3x points with your credit card, and 1 mile per dollar spent with Delta. You can google if other airlines partner up with Airbnb as this might change in the future.
Gift cards
Be creative. Travel credit cards run promotions from time to time. For example, you could earn 5x points at grocery stores. Use that promotion to buy gift cards at the grocery store for gas stations, home improvement stores or anything else you use.
Every time you spend something, you could and should earn miles! Creativity can definitely help your travel hacking game.
How to redeem miles
The miles you earned are in different places. You can have miles with your credit card company, like Chase or American Express, or with specific airlines (through dining portals, shopping portals or from booked flights).
Bank or airline?
You can redeem your miles with the airline or with your bank. Redeeming miles with your bank can be advantageous as the points are worth more.
Transfer ratio
Points also have different values. For example, the Chase points have a different value from Delta Sky Miles. When applying for a travel credit card you want to look at the transfer ratio.
This refers to how your points transfer to miles. For example, the transfer ratio 1:1. This means that one point equals to 1 mile. Your 60.000 points are worth 60.000 miles.
It is easy to transfer your credit card points to miles online by logging into your online bank account.
Restrictions when travel hacking
- You need good or excellent credit to reap the benefits of travel credit cards.
- Chase has the 5/24 rule where your credit card applications will be denied if you have 5 approved credit cards within 2 years. That is any approved credit card from any bank, not just with Chase.
Extra travel hacking information
Stopovers and open jaws
Knowledge is power. You can use stopovers and open jaws to maximize your itinerary. More travel for less money.
A stopover is a break in your travels of more than 24 hours when flying international and more than 4 hours when flying domestic in the US. You can book a stopover to have an extra trip in your itinerary.
For example, you book a trip from New York to Rome with a stopover of 3 days. You then leave from Rome to your final destination.
An open jaw is also a break in your travels, but you leave from a different airport. For example, you fly from New York to Paris, and from Rome to Morocco. You make your own way from Paris to Rome to continue your travels.
Booking a trip with a stopover or open jaw does not have to cost more money. But you do get to see more!
Mistake fares
A mistake in the price of a ticket = cheap tickets to your destination. A flight ticket that costs you in the single digits… it happens! So how can you find mistake fares? Check out these websites to get alerts on mistake fares.
The FAQ’s
How do I keep track of everything?
There are apps out there that will track all your loyalty programs and miles. This way you have all your miles and credit card rewards in one spot.
Two apps you could check out are AwardWallet and Key Ring. We do not use them as we keep track of our rewards ourselves with the notepads in our phones! But check out these websites to see if they would work for you.
Doesn’t it hurt my credit score to open up all these credit cards?
In our experience it didn’t. It actually increased our credit scores as we made purchases and payed the balance in full each month.
I thought miles were earned in the air?
Yes, you can earn miles when you fly. However, most miles are earned on the ground with the travel hacking strategies we discussed in this post. Keep in mind that you will not earn miles in the air when you booked your flight using miles (award seat).
Where can I learn more about travel hacking?
Here are some websites we find really useful. Check them out!
The points guy
Million mile secrets
Best practice for travel hacking success
• Do not spend more money than you normally do just to earn miles. You are not travel
hacking if you do.
• Pay your balance each month in full.
• Be loyal to your loyalty program! Fly with the same airline and stay at the same hotel
chain as much as you can, this way you rack up the points and miles faster.
• Downgrade your credit card instead of canceling to avoid the annual fee. Canceling the
card may affect your credit score.
• Do not use your points and miles for experiences. Experiences are activities, like a
cooking class or excursion. Your points and miles have a better value when you use them
for flights.
Let yourself be heard!
Have you ever travel hacked before or is this the first time you’re hearing about it? Let us know what you think and what your travel plans for the future are! Leave a comment in the comment section below.
thank you very much
interesting post