You Don’t Have To Fly To Earn A Million Frequent Flyer Miles
Posted on Feb 8, 2012 | 9 comments
Over the past few years I have kinda become addicted to playing the travel hacking, frequent flyer game. I've managed to save up over 600,000 miles and rewards points to use during our travels, and the funny thing is - I hardly ever fly.
In a few weeks I'm going to share with you how these free reward miles will save us thousands of dollars as we travel and allow us to visit a few places we would normally never be able to afford, but for now I just wanted to give you some ideas to get you going in the right direction.
I asked Justin from InACents.com to write a guest post and tell us just exactly how to get started collecting and benefiting from travel reward programs. Justin started visiting our site last year, and after getting to know each other a bit, I realize that the guy knows his stuff! He really breaks the process down perfectly here. As well, he's actually running a cool contest to find the best travel story of 2011 that all you travel bloggers should check out!
I'm sure you'll learn a lot from this post, and make sure you contact either of us with any questions.
How To Earn Reward Miles Without Flying
Are you envious after reading about people online traveling to exotic locations? Ever wonder how lots of them do it? Guess what? Those elusive travel-hounds have NOT won the lottery. They are NOT privileged to large trust funds. Becoming a super traveler for cheap has become amazingly economical in recent years for numerous reasons, and there is no excuse for not replicating the same.
Your Responsible Credit
First and foremost, one needs to be ultimately responsible with their credit prior to participating in the game. If you carry a credit card balance each month and/or do not pay on time, then you need to start cleaning up your credit file. There is no secret to maintaining an excellent credit score. While the formula's calculating your credit score can be complicated, the pure logistics on how to do it are simple. One needs to start paying their balances each and every month and if you can not pay them off immediately, at least make a plan and do not miss a payment. By focusing on paying down your balances, and being on-time, you can work on improving that credit score that plagues the haves from the have nots.
If you have not checked your credit report in a while, there are several free resources that consumers can utilize. First and foremost is the U.S. Government mandated site, www.annualcreditre
Two of the more reputable sites are Credit Karma and Credit Sesame. Both allow consumers to have free access to their credit scores, as well as get pointers for ways to save money on your existing accounts. In simple terms, these sites purchase credit scores for you directly from the credit agencies, and in turn review your credit file to offer you products that may be of interest to you. There are lots of sites that offer you free credit scores, but beware of the terms as they typically are trying to get the consumer to sign up for a service in exchange for your scores. Both Credit Karma and Credit Sesame are not like that, in that they are completely free to monitor your scores other than they will market to you offers that may be of interest, but there are no backdoor hidden costs.
Now assuming one has a good credit score (in this case you are looking for a score around 700+), you can change your travel life forever by being rewarded for your responsible credit usage.
Follow Up
Once you have your credit card balances paid off, do yourself a favor. Put them in the drawer or safe and only use them when you have enough money to pay off the balance each and every month. When you do not have a credit card balance looming in the back of your mind each and every month, it is a freeing experience that will then allow one to start working on seeing the world at a fraction of the cost.
One more quick tip...do NOT cancel any of your credit cards. How long you have had credit plays a factor into your credit scores. Therefore, even if you do not use those old cards that are sitting in your drawer, they still are doing great things for your credit scores. You may want to occasionally dust them off and put a small purchase on them to keep in good standing with the card issuers. The last thing you want for them to do is cancel an account that is not being used.
The one instance where it may be of some benefit to closing a credit account is when there is an annual fee. One needs to justify to themselves whether it is worth it to pay the fee. Lots of credit card companies now keep it in your best interest to pay the fee for another year by offering the user account credits and/or free miles, points, or lounge passes. For example, a airline affiliated credit card might come with an $89 annual fee, which is typically waived for the first year. Upon your anniversary year, they will automatically charge the card for the annual fee. However, if you call up a month or two prior to the anniversary date and ask to cancel the card, they might give you an $89 statement credit, or thousands of miles to keep the card. Depending on the amount of the annual fee, only the user can decide if the stated benefits are worth the costs. Credit card companies do not want to lose you as a customer and will work with you to keep the account active.
Be patient with your credit score! Just because you pay off all your balances each and every month and do not miss any payments does not mean your credit score is going to skyrocket to the top overnight. It takes months or years to build a good credit history.
The Offers to Get You to See the World
Credit card companies are working harder than ever to get your attention and sign-up for their products. Several years ago, 25,000 miles was the typical bonus for opening a new credit card. Airlines billed it as 1 domestic round-trip ticket. However, I was never too impressed because if I really watched for a sale, I could snag a $200 ticket anywhere in the continental US. Now, anything less than 50,000 miles is not worth your time in most circumstances. I always look at 50k miles as two tickets, or approximately $500 worth of airfare, which can get one a lot farther than the continental US. When you factor in both my wife and I can open each of the credit cards, we can quickly grow our airline frequent flyer balances to pay for our entire family to travel.
Several years ago my wife and I opened United Airline credits cards when they first offered 50k miles for opening a new account. Looking at United's reward charts, I knew 40k miles was enough to get us to Hawaii for FREE (except for some minor fees)! So we did not hesitate at opening new cards. We already had exceptional credit, so opening one new credit card would not, and did not, effect our credit scores at all.
Fast forward to late last year, and while we already had our Hawaii flights booked for a total cost of $30 in fees, we went and opened up new Continental Airlines credit cards to again score 50k miles each. Those same miles allowed us to bring my in-laws along with us to Hawaii for a total of $15. So for taking a small 2-5 point hit in our credit reports, we were able to save thousands of dollars on flights to Hawaii, let alone free babysitting!
The number one concern I hear from people is "doesn't opening up all these credit cards negatively impact your credit score?" The answer is absolutely not if you smartly manage your credit. Your success all hinges on that excellent credit score you have been working so hard to maintain. If you can manage to average a credit score in the 700+ range, than the credit card game is an excellent way to rapidly build up your mileage portfolio and leverage those miles to score free flights around the world.
No one in our family travels at all for business (i.e. we are far from being "frequent flyers). We are not highly compensated individuals, and are not sitting on large trust funds from our elders. We are a normal, middle-class family with a desire to travel and see the world, and we have learned the power of airlines miles and other reward programs. Airlines miles and other rewards are printed like money these days, and there is no shortage of ways to earn them, build up your accounts, and redeem them for high reward vacations.
Non-Travel Rewards
The big talk around the credit card universe is typically with airline miles. The reason being is that, as I mentioned above, credit card companies have no problem giving away 50,000, 75,000, or even 100,000 miles just by getting you to open a credit card. The card issuers can purchase airline miles really cheap, and give them out like candy. Hotel credit cards are not always as lucrative, with smaller sign-up bonuses, but can still be utilized to build your family vacation. Depending on the hotel credit card, one might receive anywhere from 1-7 nights worth of points towards room nights. Last, the most commonly overlooked reward credit card is universal rewards in the form of points.
Justin, with The Great Family Escape, pointed out to me that by opening up a credit card that offered reward points as a bonus, he was able to leverage them into Christmas gifts for his family. The point being, if traveling is not in your best interest, there are plenty of other opportunities out there where the credit card rewards can be used to enhance your family experiences.
The best spot to look for the best credit card offers is either directly from the card issuers (Chase, American Express, Citi, Discover, etc.) and airline or hotel companies. Those sites should list the best available offers available to their customers. However, there are instances when better offers are available that may not be shown publicly on their sites. That is why it might be worth your time to call the card issuers and see what the best offer they can give you.
Even after you get the card, keep an eye of the current bonus offers. Lots of credit card companies will give you the higher reward bonus within 90 days of account opening. For example, my wife and I each opened Continental credit cards for 40,000 miles. However, right after getting the cards, we learned of a better offer for 50,000 miles. So we called up Chase and they instantly gave us the better offer. The feeling of extra free miles was great!
Credit cards, when used responsibly, can play a pivotal role in how you are able to provide amazing travel experiences for your family. Who knows, if you get started now, maybe we will see you in Hawaii one day!
Save Money, Travel More.
My husband and I have gotten several cards in the last year as well. On our recent trip I used some miles/points for an unexpected night in a hotel and it was great not to have to shell our $200 for it! I wouldn't dream of spending that one night's accommodation, but since they were free miles I "splurged"! We've had the Alaska Airlines cards for years and taken our family to Mexico several times. We've paid as little as around $500 for all of us to fly, just by using the card for all our regular spending and paying it all off each month. It's been enough to get us a couple free tickets each year, and combined with their companion fare has been really worthwhile.
HA! I remember when you said you were thinking of getting them Rebeca, and now look. Good for you.
I actually got all the Christmas presents this year thanks to a nice offer from the VISA Thank You Rewards Card. I Thanked Them Very Much!
We've been stockpiling frequent flier miles for years in hopes of using them for travel to Europe this summer. We were really hoping to go via Iceland, but of course Iceland Air won't release "award seats" during the summer months because that's their busy season and they can sell them. It's not "blacked out," they just "don't release" seats. Spending hours on the phone with the airline, we learned that yes, we could get to Europe with award miles, but it would be really circuitous with multiple flights and long layovers. So annoying! We're switching to cash-back cards because what's the point of accruing miles if you can't use them when and how you need them?
@Heather: While it may seem to your disadvantage, why don't you try seeing if there is any routing where you can purposely include a long stay in your layover cities? I don't know your home airport, your routing, or dates, but let's say you can route a day or two stopover in NYC (or any other city with routing) on your way to Europe.
If there is one thing I have learned, it is you have a lot more flexibility on routing and changes when it comes to airline mile, even though you need to be very flexible with when and where you can redeem them. For example, on our way to Hawaii this summer, I originally redeemed for our seats with a 6-8 hour layover in LAX. It wasn't enough time to get to Disneyland and make it worth our time. Within 24 hours (the window for free changes on Continental), I called up and asked if they could make the LAX portion longer, and they were able to include a several day stopover in LAX, which is perfect to see Disneyland on the way to Hawaii...and it didn't cost us anymore miles.
So you might be able to use the long layovers to your advantage if they can make a full day or two out of it.
I also recommend trying to locate reward availability online if possible, then call to redeem if you can not book online. In addition, just like when you are purchasing airfares, reward availability constantly changes, so you need to keep watching it until something opens up. Good luck!
@InACents: Thanks for your reply with all the good tips! I'll definitely broaden my search for routing and consider long layovers like you suggest. Thanks again, Bon Voyage!
Just stumbled on your blog! I also earned 600,000 Delta skymiles last year and am on course to breaking that record this year. Love the post! Its amazing how many people don't realize that they can earn free travel without ever stepping on a plane. I haven't paid for an airline ticket since about 2009 and since our miles never expire they just keep adding up!
My wife and I try to maximize our miles, by always using our rewards cards and signing up for free rewards bonus programs like the SkyMiles Dining program. We will earn 5 miles per dollar spent just from eating out.
Great tips by the way about never closing credit cards! Some of your credit score is based on history, so closing a credit card, especially an old credit card will definitely affect your overall credit score.. and we need a good credit score to keep the free miles coming
Thanks Derek! It amazes me how scared of cards people are, but then again, if everyone took advantage of the deals, I guess they would disappear.
Keep doing it man. These deals help me do so many things I wouldn't normally do!
Thanks Derek! We can try and educate people on the advantages of using credit responsibly to fund their future travel paths, but lots of people will still not get it. Like Justin said, if everyone did it, the offers would not be as lucrative as they are right now.
InACents recently posted..Is It Acceptable to Remove a Family From A Flight for Toddler’s Tantrum?
The great thing about this.. not everyone will do it
Also you have to look at it from a credit card company's prospective.. they see this as an easy way of signing up new customers. If only cell phone companies had it that easy.. but I've been with ATT forever.. Ive been with almost all of the credit card companies out there.. except Discover Card.
I plan on getting a million more miles this year.. should be almost half way there by next month
Derek recently posted..What Are Airline Miles Really Worth?