Travel Hacking

[Gonzosan]

So I figured this was probably the best area to discuss this. So "travel hacking" is a pretty popular thing and although I don't travel as much as I'd like I'd definitely get some of the benefits from learning how to get free trips around the world. I'm particularly fond of Asia and have been to South Korea, Japan, and the Philippines a few times and I plan on visiting a new country every year. I'd like to start doing it, especially since I could use the miles to visit my family as well and maybe even help my mom fly out once in while to visit me.

 

So with all that said does anyone do this kind of stuff? Any recommendations for getting started? I've been reading thepointsguy.com for some useful info but I'm not sure if it's as easy as signing up for a credit card then accruing miles that I can use later in the year for flights. I'm going to do my research but I wanted to create these thread to have a place to talk about this kind of stuff and to share the info with everyone.

[minderly]

I've never even heard of travel hacking...but if exists...I'd do it...one of my goals for later in life is to travel...I've been everywhere in N. America that I want to go...I want to hit a new continent...

[msuroo]

I'm not sure if it's as easy as signing up for a credit card then accruing miles that I can use later in the year for flights.

 

This is pretty much the gist of it.  CC companies really want to get their cards in your wallets, so they offer big bonuses for signing up.  Most come with some kind of preliminary spend threshold (spend $3k in the first 3 months of card membership, or something) to earn the bonus, but after that the miles are all yours.  I've usually gotten somewhere between $500 and $1000 worth of points/miles for a new card signup.  The signup bonuses are usually a one shot deal, so you want to make sure find the best offer for each card that you're going after.

 

After that, the goal is to run spend through your card without actually spending any money.  This used to be a lot easier than it is now.  For a while, the US Mint was selling $1000 worth of dollar coins with free shipping.  This meant you bought a box of coins on your CC, deposited them in your bank, and repaid your card.  Boom - 1000 miles.  I was a sad panda when that deal got shut down.  You can still do this to a limited extent with services like Amazon payments (send your wife a few hundred dollars chardged to your card, use the transferred funds to repay), but most of them come with some sort of fee that would outweigh the value of the points/miles earned.  Most of the schemes today involve gift cards, merchant bonuses, and other trickeration, and more complicated than I could explain in one post.  Lots of people still rack up lots of miles this way, so  it's doable, but more than I care to deal with anymore - so I just earn what I earn with my normal spend.  If a great signup offer comes around, I'll pick up a new card, meet the initial threshold, then cancel it - but I don't get too crazy about it anymore.

[Gonzosan]

This is pretty much the gist of it.  CC companies really want to get their cards in your wallets, so they offer big bonuses for signing up.  Most come with some kind of preliminary spend threshold (spend $3k in the first 3 months of card membership, or something) to earn the bonus, but after that the miles are all yours.  I've usually gotten somewhere between $500 and $1000 worth of points/miles for a new card signup.  The signup bonuses are usually a one shot deal, so you want to make sure find the best offer for each card that you're going after.

 

After that, the goal is to run spend through your card without actually spending any money.  This used to be a lot easier than it is now.  For a while, the US Mint was selling $1000 worth of dollar coins with free shipping.  This meant you bought a box of coins on your CC, deposited them in your bank, and repaid your card.  Boom - 1000 miles.  I was a sad panda when that deal got shut down.  You can still do this to a limited extent with services like Amazon payments (send your wife a few hundred dollars chardged to your card, use the transferred funds to repay), but most of them come with some sort of fee that would outweigh the value of the points/miles earned.  Most of the schemes today involve gift cards, merchant bonuses, and other trickeration, and more complicated than I could explain in one post.  Lots of people still rack up lots of miles this way, so  it's doable, but more than I care to deal with anymore - so I just earn what I earn with my normal spend.  If a great signup offer comes around, I'll pick up a new card, meet the initial threshold, then cancel it - but I don't get too crazy about it anymore.

 

 

Hmm never thought of doing that actually but it makes sense. Honestly I just wanted to use my card for everyday purchases. I figure I spend at least $1000-2000 a month that I can use on the card anyways and rack up the miles then use them once or twice a year to make some trips to new places. I just figure this is a smart way to use a credit card and reap the benefits of travel miles for something I was going to buy anyways. My wife is from the Philippines and the ticket is anywhere from $1000-1700 depending when I go so if I could rack up some miles throughout the year and use it towards that it would be awesome.

[Gonzosan]

I've never even heard of travel hacking...but if exists...I'd do it...one of my goals for later in life is to travel...I've been everywhere in N. America that I want to go...I want to hit a new continent...

 

Steve actually does it and he has a blog post talking about how he went around the world for like $458 or something like that. He used "travel hacks" he learned from people like Chris Guillebeau through his travel hacking resources. There's a pretty big following with travel hacking where people can easily accrue miles to use for flights around the world and even use them to upgrade to First Class. That's the gist of it, there's plenty involved with all this stuff but I definitely want to start doing this.

[Gonzosan]

So I'm thinking of signing up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card since it seems to be the one they suggest to get started. I already have an account with Chase so it'll be easier to manage as well. I just realized I can use my credit card to pay my rent and just about all my bills which means I can easily rack up $2000 a month with the card without having to change any of my spending habits whatsoever. I think I'm going to give it a try and see how it works. My mom will be coming down to visit me in June and the ticket will cost about $400 right now. I'd love to be able to "buy" her ticket using nothing more than the free points I've acquired.

[msuroo]

That's a solid every day card - especially if you aren't married to a particular airline or hotel chain.  Another good option is the Capital One Venture - the signup bonus isn't as good (at least right now - sometimes they run some killer offers though), but all spend earns 2 points per dollar (as compared to the Chase card, where only travel and dining earn 2 per dollar).  You also have to compare the point values - the Venture points are worth exactly $0.01, where the Chase UR points are worth $0.0125.  The Chase points can potentially be worth more too, if you transfer them to your United account and find a good redemption value there (for example, if you can find a $500 flight for 25,000 miles, that's a $0.02 per mile redemption).

 

Anyway, it's a complicated game, but you can't really go wrong.  Anything is better then running spend through your debit card.

[Gonzosan]

Thanks for the info. I'd like to have just a few cards at most so I just signed up for the Chase Sapphire preferred card. I figured that one had a nice selection of places  I could use my points at. I figure if anything it'll introduce me into this world of hacking. I'll probably check out the Starwood card as well since I heard it was better for hotels and such. I'm looking forward to trying all this out and it might make managing things much easier since it'll all go through my one card. I'm hoping I can earn enough points to pay for my wife's flight from the Philippines to the US by late this year.