Are you tired of paying an enormous amount on flights? Well, good news! Travel hacking can be the solution to all your travel woes. It’s an exciting method to convert sign-up bonuses and incentives into airline miles, which you can use to score discounted or complimentary flights for your ideal destinations. With a little creativity and some insider information, you’ll travel for free in no time.
The Basics of Travel Hacking
Travel hacking is about swapping credit card sign-up bonus as well as incentives to earn airline miles. These miles can later be used to pay for discounted or even free flights. Certain credit cards will also permit you to use miles for hotel stays and rental car discounts.
How Does it Work?
The most effective method for success in hacking your travel plans is to take advantage of the credit card sign-up bonus and establishing frequent flyer miles for a specific group of airlines. When it comes time to book a flight, evaluate the cost. If the cost is under $300, it’s generally better to pay in cash and save your miles to take a more costly flight. When the flights start getting higher than $500, it’s best to look into your frequent flyer accounts to see which airline can give you the best price. It all comes down to the number of points or miles you have you have in your travel savings account for every airline.
Get Started with Travel Hacking
Are you ready to discover the secrets to hacking travel? Your first task is to open an account with a sign-up offer. There are a lot of fantastic credit cards that provide many advantages and features. It is all dependent on the airline, your spending habits, and what features are essential to you.
Top Credit Card Picks
Here are a few credit cards that are perfect for travel hacking:
- Chase Sapphire Reserve
- Chase United Explorer
- JetBlue Mastercard
- Capital One Venture X
Once you’ve been approved for a credit or debit card, you’ll need to hit the spending limit for minimum expenditure in order to qualify for the bonus. Each card has its own rules, so be sure to look up this information. Then, it’s all about racking up miles and then using them to book your dream trip!
Ready to jet-set with your goals?
After you’ve accrued the points balance, it’s time to cash them in for some delicious vacation! Different credit card companies will have different methods for redeeming your rewards, here are some examples from some of the companies I have experience with:
Escape with Chase Ultimate Rewards
If you’re a holder of a Chase cards, you are able to use your points to redeem them through the Ultimate Rewards portal. Within the portal, you’ll get access to almost every airline. You can combine money and points to pay for your travel. You can even book completely with points if you’ve the balance for it! Sometimes even if you do not have enough points to cover the entire price, you can book flights using the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal and pay the balance in cash with every credit card.
United
Are you tired of paying full price for flights? Did you not know that when you book directly through United, you have the option to pay with either points or dollars? Butbe aware, if you don’t have enough points, you aren’t able to combine dollars and points for flights. No worries though, if you’re only a couple of points short, United gives you the possibility of purchasing additional miles.
JetBlue
Looking for a domestic flight? Take a look at JetBlue! JetBlue provides passengers a relaxing and pleasant flight experience with extra legroom as well as free snacks. Plus, their booking process is similar to that of United Airlines, allowing customers to book using either JetBlue points or dollars, however, not both. The difference is that JetBlue offers a distinct feature that lets you join 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.
Hit that Minimum Spend
If you’re like me or my travel companion Becca I’m sure you’re pretty frugal and it can be daunting to try to spend thousands of dollars in order to meet the minimum amount required to earn credit card bonuses. But don’t fret because we’ve been there and are here to share our tips and tricks.
Pay your rent (if you can)
This is a huge one! If you’re able pay your rent using credit card, go for it! Make sure you be charged a fee, typically about 3 percent. It may be worth it over the long term in the event that the bonus is substantial enough.
Make a payment on a medical expense
Another excellent way to meet the spending limit is to pay for a medical bill. If you don’t have any medical bills coming up then ask your family members to pay for theirs and they can repay you.
Pay off the loan
If you’re in the middle of a loan, consider making payments on them with the credit card you have. Just make sure you pay off the credit card balance in full so you don’t accumulate additional debt.
Ask family for help
Talk to your family and determine if they’ve got any major expenses in the near future which you could help pay for. Make sure that you are able to are able to trust the person and that they are aware of the reason for doing this.
Give gifts
If you’re celebrating the holidays take into consideration buying all of your gifts with cards from your credit account. This way you can hit that minimum spend and also be ready for giving gifts. Be sure to avoid spending more than you thinking of.
There are many ways to make the most from using your credit or debit card for travel. accumulate miles or points that you can use towards flights or other travel-related expenses. Here are a few additional ways to maximize the rewards you earn:
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 expenses. You’ll not only achieve the minimum spend for your credit card and earn points, but you’ll also earn points or miles to cover those costs.
Make use of your credit card to pay for everyday expenses
Another way to meet the minimum amount of spending to earn rewards is making use of your credit card for everyday expenses. This could be things like gas, groceries or even your phone bill. Just make sure to pay off the balance in full every month to ensure you don’t accumulate interest.
Take advantage of bonus categories
A lot of travel credit cards provide miles or points in exchange for certain types of purchases, including eating out or traveling. Check out the rewards program of your credit card and make use of any bonus categories that match with your spending routines.
Consider the possibility of transferring your balance
If you’re in the middle of a debt on a credit card, think about transferring the balance to an account with a travel credit card that has an introductory rate of 0% for balance transfer. This will allow you to pay off the debt without accruing interest, and also aid in achieving the minimum spend for the credit card bonus.
Utilize your miles and points wisely
If you’ve amassed a large amount of miles or points make sure you use them in a responsible manner. Review the rewards program for your credit card and then compare the benefits of different redemption options. For instance, using points to purchase a flight directly through the airline may give you a better value than using them to purchase the purchase of a gift card.
Another option is to get an rewards card that permits you to transfer your points to other loyalty programs. This will let you have a wider range of options and greater freedom when it comes to you want to redeem your rewards. For instance, you might be able to transfer your rewards to the frequent flyer program of an airline or a reward program for hotels. This will give you access to a larger selection of hotels, flights, and other travel perks which are not available through the rewards program of your credit card.
Additionally, try to 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 very beneficial when traveling.
If you’re traveling with someone else, both of you can get rewards on your own credit card. Just remember that you can’t split the cost on the same card, and be sure to track the rewards you earn separately.
The key to maximizing your travel rewards is to understand your credit card’s rewards program and ensure that you’re making use of it in the most efficient method. Through an array of methods I’ve described that you can earn rewards fast, exchange them for travel experiences that are worth it and take advantage of a broad variety of travel benefits.