Travel Hacking 101: A Comprehensive Guide to Saving on Your Trip

If you want to learn how to begin travel hacking, you have come to the right place! Travel hacking is earning points or frequent flyer miles by utilizing programs like credit card rewards to travel at a discounted price (or even for free). Most often, these are sign-up bonuses where you must spend a certain amount of money in a specific time. Many options are available, and with some research, you can find a few cards that can provide the best rewards that fit your particular financial situation. It may sound intimidating, but it can save a lot on travel when done responsibly. We are not the ones who travel year-round and don't have to pay a cent for travel, but we have saved thousands of dollars by using the perks earned from different credit cards. We never carry a balance or pay any interest on any credit cards. We use them for everyday purchases to get these points.

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We started travel hacking right after we got engaged in 2016. We decided to take our dream honeymoon, but paying for a dream wedding and a dream honeymoon can cost tens of thousands of dollars. So how did we get to go to Italy for two weeks and be able to have our fantastic vineyard wedding? You probably already know the answer, travel hacking! This system works if you can stay organized and helps to have an end goal (like going to Italy). We've found travel hacking easiest when we forecast significant upcoming expenses (for example, booking wedding arrangements and house projects), making reaching the credit card's sign-up spending threshold much easier. I will also note that all of these credit card offers can change regularly, and some providers' points differ, so make sure you're double-checking what you're getting.

I started getting the Chase Sapphire credit card which gave us 50,000 points when you spend $4,000 in the first three months, with a $95 annual fee. The deal may be slightly different now, but this is still a great place to start. The Chase rewards are some of the best, but they are also a little more strict on their application process, so get any Chase reward cards first. One essential thing to note, if you are a couple, we suggest you DO NOT add your partner as an authorized user on your card. While they usually give you around 5,000 points to add an authorized user, we recommend one person take out a card at a time, then refer the other to take the same credit card out in their name. The benefits of this strategy are twofold. First, many credit cards have referral programs that benefit the referer (for example, Chase Sapphire, when writing this, provides 15,000 points for referring a friend). The second benefit is that you and your partner will earn double the credit card rewards points. Using Chase Sapphire, for example, you'd earn 50,000 points for one card, 10,000 points for the referral, and 50,000 points for the second card. In addition, you make one point for every dollar spent and spend at least $4,000 per card - totaling 118,000 points.

Then once you both complete the credit card, you can transfer the points to one account and use them. Some rewards programs have fees for transferring points, but Chase does not. We moved them to our Chase Freedom account to combine them with our other Chase cash-back rewards points. We did this to book our flights together instead of two separate flight transactions. With those points, we booked our round-trip flights to Italy for about $200 out of pocket.

If you continue this with a few different cards, you can save thousands on a trip. We also now have a few other travel credit cards (IHG Premier, Mariott Bonvoy, World of Hyatt, CapitalOne Venture) with a sign-up bonus, and most hotel cards also award you a free night each year. Most of these cards also have an annual fee, although we usually spend more on a night than the annual fee. For example, if the yearly fee is $95, the hotel room cost is usually around $150, so we save $55.

Travel hacking can be a great way to see the world cost-effectively. It opens up opportunities to visit bucket list destinations without breaking the bank. The experiences you can gain by responsibly using credit card points will be remembered forever!