Are you tired of paying thousands of dollars on travel? Well, good news! Travel hacking is the answer to all your travel woes. It’s an exciting method to convert bonus and sign-up incentives into airline miles, which can be used to obtain discounted or cheap flights from your dream destinations. With a bit of creativity and some insider know-how, you’ll travel for free within a matter of minutes.
The Basics of Travel Hacking
Travel hacking is the art of trading credit card sign-up bonuses and rewards for airline miles. The miles can be used to purchase cheap or free flight tickets. Certain credit cards allow you to redeem miles for hotel stays and car rental offers.
How Does it Work?
The secret to success in hacking your travel plans is to take advantage of the credit card sign-up bonus and establishing frequent flyer miles with a limited number of airlines. When it comes time to book a flight take a look at the price. If the flight is under $300, it’s best to pay cash and use your miles to pay to take a more costly flight. If your flights begin to climb over $500, you’ll need to check your frequent flyer accounts to see which airline can give you the most value. It all comes down to the amount of miles or points in your travel account for each airline.
Begin by Getting Started with Travel Hacking
Ready to learn the secrets to travel hacking? The first step is to open a credit card with a sign-up offer. There are many great credit cards with a variety of benefits and features. It is all dependent on the airline, your spending habits, and what features are crucial to you.
Top Credit Card Picks
Here are some credit card options that can be perfect to hack travel
- Chase Sapphire Reserve
- Chase United Explorer
- JetBlue Mastercard
- Capital One Venture X
After you’ve been accepted for a credit or debit card, you’ll have to meet the spending limit for minimum expenditure in order to receive the bonus. Every card has different guidelines, so make certain to verify the details. Then, it’s all about racking miles and then using them to book your dream vacation!
Ready to jet-set with your goals?
After you’ve accrued your points balance, it’s time to redeem them for some sweet getaway! Different credit card providers will have different methods of redeeming your points. Here are a few examples from some of the companies I have experience with:
Escape by using Chase Ultimate Rewards
If you’re a holder of an Chase credit card, then you can redeem your points via the Ultimate Rewards portal. Within this portal you’ll get access to nearly every airline, and you can make use of a combination of points and cash to book your travel. You can even book completely using points if you’ve got the funds to pay for it! Sometimes even if you do not be able to accumulate enough points in order to pay for total price, you can purchase flights through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal and pay the balance cash using any credit card.
United
Are you tired of paying the full cost for your flight tickets? Did you know that when you book directly through United you can choose the option to pay with either points or dollars? Butbe aware, if you don’t have enough points, you aren’t able to combine points and dollars for the same flight. If you’re a few point short United also offers the option of buying additional miles.
JetBlue
Looking for a flight within the United States? You should look no further than JetBlue! JetBlue provides passengers a relaxing and pleasant flight experience with extra legroom as well as free snacks. In addition, their booking procedure is similar to that of United Airlines, allowing customers to book using either JetBlue either dollars or points, but not both. But, JetBlue is unique in that they offer a feature that allows you to combine your points with family members to accrue points twice as fast. Just make sure you can prove you’re really family before trying to hack into the system.
Reach that Minimum Spend
If you’re anything like me and my travel companion Becca You’re probably quite economical and it’s difficult to think of spending thousands of dollars to reach the minimum amount required to earn credit card bonuses. But don’t fret as we’ve done it and are here to share some of our tips and tricks.
Pay your rent (if you can)
This is an important one! If you’re able pay your rent with a credit card, do it! Just be prepared to be charged a fee, typically around 3%. It could be worthwhile over the long term in the event that the bonus is substantial enough.
Pay for a medical bill
Another way to reach the required spending is to pay for a medical bill. If you do not have any medical expenses due, ask your family members to pay them for theirs, and they can repay you.
Repay the loan
If you’re a borrower, consider paying them off with the credit card you have. Make sure to pay the credit card balance in full , so that you don’t accumulate more debt.
Ask family for help
Talk to your family and look into any large expenses coming up which you could help pay for. Be sure to be sure that you’re able to have confidence in the person you are talking to and they understand why you’re doing it.
Give gifts
If it’s the holiday season you should consider purchasing all your gifts using the credit card you have. This way you can meet the minimum spending limit and be ready for gift giving. Just make sure you’re not spending more than you were already thinking of.
There are many methods to get the most of the travel credit card and accumulate miles or points that you can spend on airfares or other travel-related costs. Here are a few more suggestions for maximising your rewards:
Book travel expenses with your credit card
Whenever you’re planning a trip, use the travel credit card to pay for your flight, hotel, rental car, and any other travel expenses. In addition, you’ll be able to meet the minimum spend for your credit card bonus, however, you’ll also earn points or miles to cover the expenses.
Utilize your credit card to pay to pay for your everyday expenditures
Another method to reach the minimum amount of spending and earn points is by making use of your credit card to pay for daily costs. This could include items like groceries, gas and even your telephone bill. Be sure to pay the balance off in full every month to ensure you don’t accrue interest charges.
Make the most of bonus categories
Some travel credit cards will offer bonus points or miles on certain kinds of purchases, including eating out or traveling. Make sure you review the rewards program of your credit card and make use of the bonus categories that are in line with your spending habits.
Consider the possibility of transferring your balance
If you’re in the middle of a debt on a high-interest credit card, think about transferring that balance onto the travel credit card which has the introductory APR of 0% for balance transfers. This will let you pay off your debts without accruing interest, and also assist you in reaching the minimum spend for the credit card bonus.
Utilize your miles and points wisely
Once you’ve accumulated a substantial amount of miles or points Make sure to utilize the points or miles wisely. Review the rewards program for your credit card and then compare the worth of various redemption options. For example, using points to book a ticket directly with the airline could offer better value than using them for the purchase of a gift card.
Another tip is to use an rewards card that permits you to transfer reward points into other loyalty programmes. This allows you to enjoy a greater variety of choices and more freedom when it comes to you want to redeem your rewards. For example, you may be eligible to transfer your rewards to the frequent flyer program of an airline or hotel rewards program. This can give the benefit of a wider range of flights, hotels, and other travel perks that aren’t available through the rewards program on your credit card.
Also, determine whether your credit card has any perks that can save you money on travel-related expenses. Some cards offer travel insurance as well as rental car insurance baggage protection and other benefits that could be extremely valuable when you’re traveling.
Finally, when you’re traveling with a companion each of you will be able to get rewards on your own credit card. Make sure you don’t divide the cost with the same card. Also, make sure to track the rewards you earn separately.
The key to making the most of your travel rewards is to understand the rewards program on your credit card and ensure that you’re making use of this program in the most effective method possible. By using an array of strategies I’ve listed, you’ll be able to get rewards in a short time, use rewards for valuable travel experiences and benefit from a wide assortment of travel-related perks.