I started this
"game" of accumulating miles and points for free travel the very beginning of 2013. We had just returned from saving and paying for
two round-trip tickets to Asia as well as intra-China round-trip flights. Being the budgeter I am, I could not help but
see how much the cost of flights would limit us from taking future trips. With
the help of my brother-in-law who sparked the interest, and Amanda saying she
was on board, we decided to dive in. Oh boy, what ride (pun intended)!
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| A+D and M+A flying China Southern to Beijing |
Earning miles and points can be great
savers for travel, but how can you earn enough miles to fly for free? Flying
non-stop roundtrip from Minneapolis to New York would only earn about 2,000
miles. You would need to fly that route 6 TIMES before even earning a
free ONE WAY domestic on most airline reward programs. That is why the ability
to earn miles of 40k, 50k or even the rare gold nugget of 100k on a single
credit card sign-up bonus can help tremendously.
There are other ways to earn miles as well which I will go through that can get you quicker to the next free flight. I'll also go through other travel saving experiences and methods in future posts. If you would like to add to the mix, I would love to hear your ideas/experiences.
There are other ways to earn miles as well which I will go through that can get you quicker to the next free flight. I'll also go through other travel saving experiences and methods in future posts. If you would like to add to the mix, I would love to hear your ideas/experiences.
But for today, here are a five introduction ideas to get you started.
1. Think
about travel goals.
What is on your travel bucket list? Who would you like to visit (family and friends)? Dream big! It is hard to have a plan for accumulating miles and points, if you do not have a plan for how you would like to use them. Within reward programs, there is usually a “sweet spot” where miles/points can be used most efficiently to get to or stay at a certain place. Every reward program could be different, so it would be worth it to check in advance what might work best for you.
2. Sign-up for as many reward programs as possible.
What is on your travel bucket list? Who would you like to visit (family and friends)? Dream big! It is hard to have a plan for accumulating miles and points, if you do not have a plan for how you would like to use them. Within reward programs, there is usually a “sweet spot” where miles/points can be used most efficiently to get to or stay at a certain place. Every reward program could be different, so it would be worth it to check in advance what might work best for you.
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| Checking Italy off the travel bucket list |
2. Sign-up for as many reward programs as possible.
Reward programs are free to join and many times there are special offers just for being a member. You never want to miss a credit for miles or points when taking a flight or staying at a hotel just because you did not have a rewards account yet. Many times there will be "targeted offers" that are not available to the public but are sent directly to members with the hopes of generating future business.
This of course means receiving a lot of emails, so instead of using our daily use emails, we opened up new ones. I created matt.rewardprograms@gmail.com, and I bet you can guess Amanda's email. I also suggest storing login information somewhere that is easily accessible. I started this before my miles/points hobby, but my password protected spreadsheet stored on my Google Drive account has grown to many tabs! Another method is using Award Wallet. This website will track all your reward accounts and also store your user name and password. You actually can just click one of your reward accounts, and it will log you in and take you right to it.
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| We have received a few upgrades while staying at hotels on points. |
3. Get connected to those in the know.
We use many resources to stay connected. I have a bookmarked folder of several bloggers we follow. I also have a folder with handy tools from other bloggers. Twitter is very important. Sometimes, there are travel specials or mistakes that are available for maybe a day or even down to a few minutes. We follow some twitter handles that tweet the info out fast. This is how we booked our flights to Italy. Also, if more serious, I would suggest creating a login for Flyertalk which is a large message board site that you can find answers for just about any miles/points question. They also have forums on specific locations/destinations that other frugal travelers post about and help others with. Trip Advisor is another good resource that has a forum for just about anything.
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| Manda Points with Mommy Points (one of her favorite bloggers) and her friend Katy. |
4. Monitor your credit.
Another great side benefit of this past year’s learning in frugal travel has been better awareness of my own credit. If opening any credit cards to reap travel savings, I suggest two things prior to this:
1. Careful spending
2. Monitoring your credit
Monitoring your credit does not need to cost anything. I will explain many ways later on how to do this for free. There are three bureaus from which financial institutions report your credit information to (Experian, Equifax, and Transunion). I use a mix of free monitoring methods not only to track the info being reported as correct, but I also keep a running tally of how many inquiries I have with each bureau. Since inquiries only last on a credit report for two years, I know when they are showing up and when they are going to drop off. I will go through this information in more detail later. As for this game and any other part of your finances in life, make your credit an asset, not a liability.
5. Practice searching an
award flight/hotel.
Before getting a credit card just because it has a large sign up bonus or before using miles you have earned, see how far those miles/points can get you. One mile in one program will not necessarily be the same value in another program. Many reward programs will allow a flight search without having a reward program log-in. Some do not allow it, but reference point two above why that should not be a problem. Try clicking through an award booking even before being ready to use it. See if it is worth it to you. Earning a lot of miles/points is great, but redeeming them is where the savings are at. It pays to know how to redeem.
Otherwise, if you are about to book a revenue flight (paid dollars, not miles/points) check and see what the same flight would be in miles. It could actually be cheaper to buy miles and redeem them than paying for the revenue flight. Sometimes, there are even promotions on buying miles. Usually these come and go, but it doesn’t hurt to check.
And lastly, remember to be thankful for the opportunity, it could be gone tomorrow!
When flying or staying for free, it only goes without saying to be courteous to the flight attendants, hotel desk clerks, and customer service agents on the credit card application lines. There are some real jerks out there flying or talking with a credit card analyst, so you will start off at a much better position just by being nice when talking to those you come in contact with.
Reward programs can change or "devaluations" can occur at any moment. It is actually expected to occur to each program at some point. Just like money currency depreciates, the miles/points it takes to redeem will increase from time to time. Most airline and hotel reward programs have an award chart that lists out what it takes for redemption. Usually the reward program will give advance notice of an upcoming devaluation to their award chart, but sometimes they do not. Just recently AA cut-off a great perk of their rewards program (tacking on a free one way from Hawaii before a one way to Europe) that we recently booked, and I had several plans to use in the future. I was planning on going over this as well in upcoming posts, but we awoke Tuesday morning to find out it no longer existed in the program.
This "game" is constantly changing, but it is important to be thankful for the opportunity to play in the first place. We're thankful for the time God has given us together as a couple to travel. It has been enjoyable to work together and has made us stronger in our conflict resolution! Also, we are very grateful for other travel friends and families that join us in adventures and for the ability to visit those who live in other states or countries.
Before getting a credit card just because it has a large sign up bonus or before using miles you have earned, see how far those miles/points can get you. One mile in one program will not necessarily be the same value in another program. Many reward programs will allow a flight search without having a reward program log-in. Some do not allow it, but reference point two above why that should not be a problem. Try clicking through an award booking even before being ready to use it. See if it is worth it to you. Earning a lot of miles/points is great, but redeeming them is where the savings are at. It pays to know how to redeem.
Otherwise, if you are about to book a revenue flight (paid dollars, not miles/points) check and see what the same flight would be in miles. It could actually be cheaper to buy miles and redeem them than paying for the revenue flight. Sometimes, there are even promotions on buying miles. Usually these come and go, but it doesn’t hurt to check.
And lastly, remember to be thankful for the opportunity, it could be gone tomorrow!
When flying or staying for free, it only goes without saying to be courteous to the flight attendants, hotel desk clerks, and customer service agents on the credit card application lines. There are some real jerks out there flying or talking with a credit card analyst, so you will start off at a much better position just by being nice when talking to those you come in contact with.
Reward programs can change or "devaluations" can occur at any moment. It is actually expected to occur to each program at some point. Just like money currency depreciates, the miles/points it takes to redeem will increase from time to time. Most airline and hotel reward programs have an award chart that lists out what it takes for redemption. Usually the reward program will give advance notice of an upcoming devaluation to their award chart, but sometimes they do not. Just recently AA cut-off a great perk of their rewards program (tacking on a free one way from Hawaii before a one way to Europe) that we recently booked, and I had several plans to use in the future. I was planning on going over this as well in upcoming posts, but we awoke Tuesday morning to find out it no longer existed in the program.
This "game" is constantly changing, but it is important to be thankful for the opportunity to play in the first place. We're thankful for the time God has given us together as a couple to travel. It has been enjoyable to work together and has made us stronger in our conflict resolution! Also, we are very grateful for other travel friends and families that join us in adventures and for the ability to visit those who live in other states or countries.
Very Interesting.
ReplyDeleteGrandma