cody_ody_ody

Hi guys! Im 23 and am out of school a year now and am working in Nashville as a nurse, literally just joined and am looking for some knowledge.


So I just recently started reading into "travel hacking" or whatever you will call it and I'm hooked. I would love to start seeing some new places and travel. Everything I've read, however, makes it sound stupid easy and there are no catches, but it also all sounds outdated, like things that used to work for people like buying gift cards to pay MS on CC's are no longer allowed, or more credit cards are adding higher MS before receiving bonuses. I would love for any of you to maybe lay out what this whole process looks like in a nutshell. I get all the sign up bonuses with CC's are great but once they're used then what? How are these people continually getting free flights. From the looks of it FF points are limited and I'm struggling to see how to continually obtain them. Would you say more often than not you're paying for flights an not using points or what? I guess what I'm looking for is the reality of this whole deal, no sugar coating, time frames for all this. I've done a ton of research on this so far and most of it doesn't really show the difficult or challenging side of this.
I know everyone started from nothing at one point, but now many have it down pat. Would love to know how you got so far, or if "travel hacking" is loosing its glam and it really isn't as possible as it used to be.
I would greatly appreciate any information or advice any of you seasoned travelers could part to me.

Productivity

For what it's worth I think the blogs are selling you a fantasy - every credit card sign up they get is money to them. Without a doubt you can get lots of value for relatively cheap by being smart with using credit cards, but I personally think the constant churning that is encouraged is pretty reckless for an average person. For me the reality check is you can certainly get multiple free flights to interesting places, but you're not going to live like a rockstar flying Emirates first class every second week.

I personally would work out what you want to do then try to put together a plan to make that happen.

cody_ody_ody

Exactly the feeling I was getting, similar to the fitness magazines telling you everyone can look as big as they do with this 'one simple tip' etc.

By no means do I have a desire to fly first class everywhere. Honestly to be able to fly economy anywhere for a reasonable price would be ideal. I guess thats more my goal. With my current job my vacations would look like 2 week spurts of traveling, as opposed to month long trips.

Im just curious how frequent you will get these free flights. It seems earning enough miles through normal spending with a travel credit card might pay off minimally after a whole year. Obviously flying gets more miles but thats also more money to spend.

Are there any sources that portray a much more realistic approach to traveling, or is everyone going to say 'open 20 credit cards for points...'

MAXII

Hi. Not a business or frequent traveller and only been doing points/awards thing for about 3yrs but reaping in rewards. That's thanks to all I have learned on FT😃

I switched hubby & mine non rewards credit cards to AS & MR cards. We don't churn, use the cards for every purchase,take advantage of double point or mile bonuses. We fly economy if under less than a 4hr flight, paid or award tickets in FC if longer. We pay or use points to fly based on what our best option is for a trip we plan. (We don't base our trips on points/miles balances).

As for hotels, we generally go for a 3&1/2 star and above on hotwire or priceline bidding, if we don't have a free night cert. or points to use or if we don't see a Marriott or Hilton we like the price of.

Certainly, our flights & hotel rooms are not always free but we are definitely travelling more and I have to say, in much nicer style than before I learned the value of rewards. Hubby and I fly around 3 return flights a year and stay in hotels around 50 nights a year. Our average used to be 2 return flights & about 14 night stays. Hope this helps.

Kagehitokiri

1. signup bonuses - buy gift cards (some fees) to meet spend requirement
2. buy miles from airlines during sales, redeem for most expensive F

for Y, if seats are expensive, look at buying miles even when not on sale

but yes, have to have award availability (can be best on certain foreign airlines)

deals, mistakes, best rate guarantee, etc are completely separate, but related

Low Roller

Without getting into anything fancy, get a good travel reward credit card and put all of your expenses on it (utilities, groceries, gas, each cup of coffee, etc.). This alone usually gets us about 2 free flights per year in North America. Getting one or two cards with a good sign-up bonus will give you a jump start but don't get too carried away until you are comfortable with your knowledge level and ability to pay off the balance each month. Travel is great, but at your age don't do anything that might hurt your credit rating and your ability to get a house and whatever else you want out of life. Happy travels!

beachmouse

There are also some shopping portals that reliably manage to post points/miles to loyalty accounts. Example- using MyPoints.com, I can get get 3-10% back (paid in gift cards or
United miles) if I book an IHG (Holiday Inn) hotel through their portal and they recently had a 35% back deal with Magazines.com that will get me about 4,000 United miles for a one year subscription to Monocle.

For hotel loyalty program, there are often quarterly promotions that let you rack up lots of bonus points outside of peak summer months, and the ones for new enrollees in a hotel loyalty program can be quite cost-effective if you know how to work the system.

Productivity

So I would look at where you want to go and your home airport and workout which carrier makes sense for you to start off with. All three legacy airlines seem to serve Nashville reasonably well as well as Southwest. But if you're interested in trips to Europe (or elsewhere significantly overseas), Southwest isn't very useful, however in the US it may be a good choice.

If you are agnostic between the three legacies, I would suggest United myself as Delta points aren't as valuable and United points are easier to earn than American (combination of Chase Ultimate Rewards and their Mileage Plus X app).

If you're interested in hotels also look at what hotel programs make sense for you.

Once you've figured that out, work out a number of credit cards that make sense, that have low or no annual fees that compliment each other to help you with that rewards program. So for United that may look like a Chase Sapphire Preferred + Chase Freedom/Unlimited, with maybe a Mileage Plus Explorer (this may be hard to get as three Chase cards). AA that may look like a SPG Amex (earns at 1.25) + Citi AA Card (the $90 annual fee one). Delta I'm not really familiar with so I'm not going to comment on.

From there as an earlier poster mentioned, try to drive all your credit card spending onto those and try to minimize cash purchases. Start using ancillary earning options as well (Mileage Shopping Online, Dining Rewards Network, Mileage Pus X (United only)) and start building up mileage balances.

Note if you have any specific destinations in mind, some programs may not work (for example, if you really want to go to Tahiti, some programs can't get you there). Otherwise start looking at award charts for where you want to go now as well at least to get a feel for what you'll need.

I would stay away from speculatively purchasing cheap miles - the forums are littered with threads of people who purchased them then couldn't find availability or that devalued.

What I would really try to avoid doing is sign up in a scattered way as you often see in this forum, someone come on and say I want to get to place x, these are my balances and they have a large number of miles/points scattered over many programs. This goes against the advice of the bloggers, but again they see value in your sign ups. I personally see for a new person to this having one big stash of miles in one place it being far easier to manage than trying to thread together a chain of individual rewards.

FirstInFlight

If you stay in hotels a fair bit then you can accrue some free nights. IHG is perhaps the easiest because their card also has a decent sign up bonus.

If you do not, then step 1 is to realize that you do not do this for a living. So don't start thinking like a blogger.

I'd start by watching the mileage run posts. Recently there have been a lot posts about cheap dares to Europe. A few weeks ago there were cheap flights to Asia.

So, watch for some place you want to see. If you see HKG is $350 r/t from IAH and you eant to go to HKG (or that region) look at your calendar and buy a ticket before it disappears. Remember you have 24 hours to cancel.

When you see a great deal it is better to buy and then think about it as opposed to thinking about it and then buying.

Then look at how to get to IAH cheaply. Look at the airports close by. Look at the Barclay card that gets you essentially a $400 discount.

Then look at hotels. You can get 2 free nights with the Hyatt card etc.

At the end if the day, if you get to HKG for $350 you have saved at least $700. If you can stay three nights free you have saved hundreds.

And if you enjoyed HKG it was all worthwhile.

One other tip - since you are a nurse - if you decide you really like travel look into locum tenens work. That can help position you for cheap flights on either coast.

cody_ody_ody

I just got the capital one venture card and am planning on putting all my bills to that. I actually just bought my first house last december and I am very proactive about my credit score, I dont like to do anything drastic without first researching the pros/cons ahead of time, thanks for the advice!!

I was planning on sticking to UA, AA, and SW for now. Since UA and AA will help me build miles up in *A and OW, Ive heard Delta uses skypesos so I was thinking of staying away from them (however I am mostly uneducated on Delta). I havent done much research on the hotel game, since I was thinking of taking advantage of hostels or couchsurfing etc. not opposed though, will definitely look up info on them now. Also just scratching the surface on the online shopping through portals! Thanks for your in depth response!!!

I do like the idea of the spontaneous traveling! I agree if you save money and have a good time then its a success. Ive actually never heard of locum tenens work, it sounds similar to travel nursing, but looks like its geared toward physicians and practitioners, i could be wrong though. Ill have to look more into it! I've considered travel nursing before however my gf will be an interior designer and it would be hard to find a job with traveling for her.
Thanks for taking the time to respond!

JPG3392

Welcome to FT!

Two suggestions, in addition to the good advice that has been given above.

1) While it's fine to enroll in several award programs, it's usually advantageous to concentrate on earning miles in whichever program is the best fit for your particular travel plans and needs. Having small amounts of miles scattered among various programs is generally undesirable. Whether UA or AA is best for you depends in large part a) on where each airline flies from Nashville and b) on what destinations you have in mind for future award travel.

2) An easy way to earn a few miles and (more importantly) keep your accounts active is to register a credit card with an airline's dining program. There's no charge or obligation, and any credit card may be registered, though you cannot register the same card with two or more programs. Dining at participating restaurants will earn 1-5 miles per $ spent, and there is usually a bonus offer for new members.

sigma6

With a few signup bonuses, you can probably get your first flight in a year. Travel bloggers are always posting with them solo or sometimes with a companion. If you are single, great. If you are not, have your partner mirror yourself in signups.

Hit all the major flexible spending cards. I would hit up Chase first due to 5/24 with Freedom and Sapphire preferred and maybe the new reserve card. If you are in no hurry, wait for AMEX to target you, I just got 50k for AMEX gold. They have once in a lifetime bonus, so choose your timing wisely. Citi dropped its premier bonus and reducing the prestige bonus.

Your real question however, is how to keep it going? You gotta spend. A lot of FT are business travelers who generate points on paid flights/hotels with their company. They keep those points for personal use to gain elite status and take personal trips.

Are you a traveling nurse? If so, I would stick to one airline alliance like oneworld or star. If you are a standard nurse working in a local hospital, personal spend is you best bet.

toomanybooks

Think first in terms of flexible points. Points that can be transferred many places depending on the best redemption/value/your desire at the time.

Examples are Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou, Starwood SPG points (to airlines), and American Express Membership Rewards.

Decide what you want before running off willy-nilly. Say, for example, you want to go to Belgium or Spain. Southwest points will do you no good, nor will Hyatt points as there are no Hyatts in either country.

If you cannot pay off all your CCs every single month without fail, do not even THINK about getting into this game.

If you qualify, I think the best first card is Chase Ink. 5x UR points per dollar worth maybe 9% on cell/internet/cable/office supply stores (which sell a lot of useful gift cards like Amazon, gasoline, restaurants, etc.). Also on certain GCs bought on ebay.

Bloggers will tell you Chase Sapphire. And for travel, yes, that's good. But remember they get paid if you click on certain links. Their interest is not the same as yours.

cody_ody_ody

To everyone who's responded, thank you so much for taking the time to respond its all been so helpful! I tried to respond with multiple quotes earlier this morning and idk if they're going to post or not so you all know I'm not ignoring your posts!!

I think I have a much better understanding of the whole process here. Ill definitely be looking into more credit cards that benefit my lifestyle weighing the bonuses and spending vs the annual fees etc, and obviously pay everything off each month (which I've never missed a payment, and just bought a house last year) Im most likely going to stick with UA and AA probably with more focus in UA. Ill be signing up my gf to all my deals as well minus the credit cards. For me I imagine I'll be buying most of my flights domestically and redeeming for international travel, and definitely am starting to see through the glamour that bloggers portray 'travel hacking' to be.

Do any of y'all use any other sites when looking for the best deal on a flight or looking for where to get non-flight miles?

toomanybooks

You say you have a gf. If you travel much domestically you seriously need to look at the Southwest Companion Pass.