Are you tired of paying an enormous amount on flights? Well, good news! Travel hacking is the answer to your travel-related problems. It’s an exciting way to convert credit card bonus and sign-up incentives into airline miles which can be used to score discounted or cheap flights from your desired destinations. With a little bit of imagination and a little bit of insider know-how, you’ll fly for no cost in no time.
The Basics of Travel Hacking
Travel hacking is all about exchanging credit card sign-up bonuses as well as incentives to earn airline miles. These miles can later be used to pay for cheap or free flight tickets. Certain credit cards will also permit you to use miles to pay for hotel stays or car rental discounts.
How Does it Work?
The key to successful travel hacking is to take advantage of credit card sign-up bonuses and to establish frequent flyer miles on a select group of airlines. When you are ready to book a flight take a look at the price. If the price is less than $300, it’s usually better to pay in cash and save your miles for a more expensive flight. If the prices start to rise over $500, you’ll need to look into those frequent flyer accounts to determine which airline offers you the best price. It all comes down to the amount of points or miles in your travel bank for each airline.
Get Started with Travel Hacking
Are you interested in learning the secrets of travel hacking? First step to open a credit card that comes with a welcome bonus. There are plenty of great credit cards that offer many features and benefits. It all depends on your preferred airline, spending habits and the features that are most essential to you.
Top Credit Card Picks
Here are some credit cards 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 limit of spending minimum in order to receive the bonus. Every credit card has its own set of guidelines, so make certain to verify this information. From there you can begin to rack miles and using them to book your dream trip!
Are you ready to go on a jet-setting with your points?
After you’ve accrued your points balance, it’s time to redeem them for some nice vacation! Different credit card companies will have different methods of redeeming your points. Here are some examples from some of the ones I’ve worked with:
Escape through Chase Ultimate Reward
If you’re a holder of an Chase credit card, then you can redeem your points via the Ultimate Rewards portal. In the portal, you’ll have access to virtually every airline. You can use a combination of the points as well as cash in order to book your travel. You can book your flight entirely on points if you have the balance for it! Sometimes even if you don’t be able to accumulate enough points in order to pay for total cost, you still can buy flights with Chase Ultimate Rewards portal and pay the balance in cash with every credit card.
United
Are you tired of paying the full cost for flights? Did you not know that when you book directly through United you can choose the option of paying with dollars or points? Be careful that if you don’t have enough points you cannot combine dollars and points on flights. No worries though, if you’re only a couple of points away, United provides the possibility of purchasing additional miles.
JetBlue
Looking for a domestic flight? Look no further than JetBlue! JetBlue provides a comfortable and enjoyable travel experience that includes extra legroom as well as free snacks. Plus, their booking process is like United’s which allows customers to book using either JetBlue points or dollars, however, not both. The difference is that JetBlue is unique in that they offer a feature where you can combine your points with family members to accrue points twice as fast. Make sure to prove you’re really family before trying to hack into the system.
Reach that Minimum Spend
If you’re like me and my travel companion Becca, you’re probably pretty thrifty and it’s daunting to try to spend thousands of dollars in order to meet the minimum amount required to earn credit card bonuses. Don’t worry as we’ve done it and we’re here to share some of our tips and tricks.
Pay your rent (if you can)
This is an important one! If you’re able to pay for your rent using credit card, then do it! Make sure you pay a fee, usually around 3 percent. It might be worth it in the long run in the event that the bonus is substantial enough.
Pay a medical bill
Another excellent way to meet the required spending is to pay for the medical bills. If you don’t have any medical bills in the near future Ask your family members to pay them for theirs, and they will pay you back.
Repay a loan
If you’re in the middle of a loan you owe, think about repaying them using the credit card you have. Be sure to pay the credit card balance in full , so that you don’t end up with more debt.
Ask family members for assistance
Ask your family members to look into any major expenses in the near future that you can contribute for. Just make sure you are able to trust the person and that they know why you’re doing this.
Purchase presents
If it’s the holiday season you should consider purchasing all of your gifts with cards from your credit account. So you’ll be able to meet the minimum spending limit and also be ready for giving gifts. Be sure to avoid spending more than you already contemplating to.
There are many methods to get the most of using your credit or debit card for travel and earn miles or points to spend on the cost of flights or other expenses related to travel. Here are a few additional suggestions for maximising your rewards:
Book travel expenses with your credit card
Whenever you’re planning a vacation, make use of you travel credit card to pay for your flight, hotel, rental car, and any other travel-related expenses. Not only will you be able to meet the minimum amount of spending required to qualify for a credit card and earn points, however, you’ll also earn points or miles to cover those expenses.
Use your credit card for all your daily costs
Another way to hit the minimum spend in order to accumulate points using your credit card to pay for everyday costs. This could include things like gas, groceries, and even your phone bill. Just make sure to pay off the balance in full every month to ensure you don’t accumulate interest.
Benefit from bonus categories
A lot of travel credit cards provide bonus points or miles on certain kinds of purchases, like eating out or traveling. Be sure to review your rewards program on your credit card and avail any bonus categories that match with your spending habits.
Consider a balance transfer
If you have existing debt on a credit card, you might want to transfer that balance to the travel credit card which has an introductory rate of 0% for balance transfers. This will enable you to pay off your debts without accruing interest and simultaneously help you hit the minimum spending requirement for the credit card bonus.
Utilize your miles and points wisely
When you’ve earned a significant amount of miles or points, be sure to use the points or miles wisely. Check out the rewards program on your credit card and then compare the worth of various redemption options. For example you can use your points to book a flight directly with the airline could provide you with a greater return than using them for the purchase of a gift card.
Another suggestion is to use an rewards card that permits you to transfer your rewards to different loyalty program. This will let you enjoy a greater variety of choices and more freedom when it comes to redeeming your rewards. For example, you may be able to transfer your rewards to an airline’s frequent flyer program or Hotel rewards programme. This will give an access greater selection of hotels, flights, and other travel perks that aren’t available through your credit card’s rewards program.
Also, find out the card’s benefits. certain benefits that will help you save money on travel costs. A lot of credit cards provide travel insurance as well as rental car insurance baggage protection and other benefits that could be extremely valuable when you’re traveling.
When you travel with a friend each of you will be able to get rewards on your own credit card. Just remember that you can’t split the cost on the same card. Also, make sure you keep track of your rewards separately.
The key to making the most of your rewards for travel is to be aware of the rewards program of your credit card and make sure you’re using it in the most effective way possible. Utilizing an array of strategies I’ve outlined that you can earn rewards quickly, redeem rewards for valuable travel experiences, and enjoy a wide range of travel perks.