I just scored a set of free flights for next year’s vacation, and I’m thrilled about it! This year, I spent nearly $2,000 on flights alone for our family trip. Determined to find a better way to book our trip to Orlando next year without compromising our travel quality, I started searching for smarter options. My goal? Get more for less, much like we did with our mortgage refinance, cell phone bill, and property taxes.
That’s when I discovered an incredible resource: a free ecourse and website dedicated to “travel hacking” – techniques to get deeply discounted or even free travel. I’d heard about travel hacking before but never took it seriously. Now, having secured my first set of free plane tickets, I’m a believer!
Here’s how I did it and how you can too.
It all began with one of my favorite podcasts, The Mad Fientist Podcast. A new episode featured a website I’d never heard of: Travel Miles 101. I’d previously thought travel hacking was just about saving credit card points to redeem for free flights. But after listening to the podcast, I realized there’s much more to it.
The podcast invited listeners to visit the Travel Miles 101 website and sign up for a free ecourse. The course, run by Brad and Alexi, teaches everything you need to know about travel hacking. As a blogger, I was impressed by their email capture technique.
The ecourse was fantastic! Each day, a new email linked to a lesson on travel hacking. It was self-paced, allowing you to revisit any missed lessons. Topics ranged from credit card bonuses to airline miles, hotel programs, transfers, and strategies.
Inspired and eager to try out a strategy, I chose the Chase Sapphire Preferred Rewards credit card. This decision was based on several factors, and eventually, our Ultimate Rewards account had around 96,000 points. It was time to book flights!
I compared flight costs on Delta’s website, finding flights priced at about $350 per person. In my Chase Ultimate Rewards portal, the same Delta flight was the cheapest at $250 per person. With the Sapphire Preferred account, our points were worth 25% more, reducing each flight’s cost to roughly 20,000 points.
I couldn’t resist and booked immediately. We secured around $1,400 worth of flights for $800 in Chase rewards points, which cost us nothing. By strategically accumulating Chase points, we got our plane tickets for virtually free by striking while the iron was hot.
Success! Free flights for next year’s vacation were achieved. Next, we’ll tackle the rental car and hotel, and I’m interested in finding ways to score free tickets for Universal Studios in Orlando.
I’ll likely revisit the Travel Miles 101 ecourse for more tips, especially their new lesson on the Chase Ultimate Rewards program. Like a good book, revisiting detailed materials always brings new insights. After all, family vacation 2018 planning is just around the corner!
(Disclaimer: Neither Travel Miles 101 nor Mad Fientist asked me to write this. This is my genuine experience of saving over $1,000 on flights for next year, and I’m incredibly grateful to have learned these techniques. This is what personal finance blogging is about – people helping others do more with less!)
