Do you travel hack?

moneymom · June 2016

Do you travel hack?

What do you do to travel hack?

What are some of the deals you have gotten travel hacking?

als1982 · June 2016

We do. Mostly for flights, we never pay for domestic flights (yay Southwest companion pass!) and I've scored us round trip flights for 2 to Hawaii, London/Paris and Barcelona. It's mostly a combination of regular credit card use, online purchases through portals, having my CCs linked to dining programs and surveys for miles. H isn't a fan of churning cards, so we've only gotten 2 signup bonuses... So far, anyways.....

hoffse · June 2016

We travel hack.

We do it by churning credit cards for sign-up bonuses and being strategic with how we use points.

Deals we have gotten... I mentioned the trip to Belgium & Germany in a previous thread. We only paid about $170 in taxes (total) for the flights.

We have stayed in lots of hotels for free on points, though they are usually chains.

I coupon for cities we visit. Groupon, DaysOutGuide (UK), LivingSocial, etc. work for a lot of cities we travel to.

We fly out of Atlanta, so I also follow Clark Howard, who posts the best Atlanta travel deals each day. Recently we have been getting really good deals by following his travel philosophy: if you see a deal on flights, buy them, and then figure out why you want to go there. Any place you have heard of is probably worth visiting.

We tried his method last summer for the first time. I saw a really good deal on flights to Paris and booked them. Paris is expensive, so we took a train to a less expensive part of the country. We ended up renting a car and small apartment and explored Provence for a week. The food was cheap (and amazing), the attractions were cheap, the apartment rental was cheap... it was incredible. Fun fact: wine tasting is free in France, and many of the vineyards are open to the public to drop in.

We just scored a deal on direct flights to Madrid for March. $700 each. It's such a good deal that we decided not to burn any points on it.

hoffse · June 2016

I'll add, like @als1982, we don't usually pay for domestic flights.

Actually, I don't think I've ever paid for a domestic flight. I can't think of one.

We only fly domestically for pleasure about once a year though. It's infrequent enough that we always have the points for it. Most of our domestic flights are for business - and then we pay (and get miles), but we get reimbursed.

jtmh2012 · June 2016

I'm jealous of those of you not paying for flights. I'm looking at Rome flights and trying not to cry.

hoffse · June 2016

jtmh2012 said:

I'm jealous of those of you not paying for flights. I'm looking at Rome flights and trying not to cry.

Where are you flying out of?

smetter04 · June 2016

jtmh2012 said:

I'm jealous of those of you not paying for flights. I'm looking at Rome flights and trying not to cry.

I'm doing the same thing, for flights to Seattle! The prices feel like we should be flying to Europe...

jtmh2012 · June 2016

hoffse said:

jtmh2012 said:

I'm jealous of those of you not paying for flights. I'm looking at Rome flights and trying not to cry.

Where are you flying out of?

RIC - Richmond, VA.

I've looked at DC, but haven't found it to be cheap enough to warrant the 2-3 hr drive plus parking.

I'm killing myself for not buying over Memorial Day weekend, but we didn't have my wife's VISA back yet. Would have been $1500-1600 for the three of us. Right now I've been looking at $2300-2800.

moneymom · June 2016

als1982 said:

We do. Mostly for flights, we never pay for domestic flights (yay Southwest companion pass!) and I've scored us round trip flights for 2 to Hawaii, London/Paris and Barcelona. It's mostly a combination of regular credit card use, online purchases through portals, having my CCs linked to dining programs and surveys for miles. H isn't a fan of churning cards, so we've only gotten 2 signup bonuses... So far, anyways.....

Where do you do surveys for miles?

What is having your cc linked to dining programs?

Do you find using the portals better than going through cash back sites?

moneymom · June 2016

als1982 said:

We do. Mostly for flights, we never pay for domestic flights (yay Southwest companion pass!) and I've scored us round trip flights for 2 to Hawaii, London/Paris and Barcelona. It's mostly a combination of regular credit card use, online purchases through portals, having my CCs linked to dining programs and surveys for miles. H isn't a fan of churning cards, so we've only gotten 2 signup bonuses... So far, anyways.....

OH and awesome with the Southewest CP. I need to look into that. Did you get it by opening the 2 ccs?

moneymom · June 2016

jtmh2012 said:

hoffse said:

jtmh2012 said:

I'm jealous of those of you not paying for flights. I'm looking at Rome flights and trying not to cry.

Where are you flying out of?

RIC - Richmond, VA.

I've looked at DC, but haven't found it to be cheap enough to warrant the 2-3 hr drive plus parking.

I'm killing myself for not buying over Memorial Day weekend, but we didn't have my wife's VISA back yet. Would have been $1500-1600 for the three of us. Right now I've been looking at $2300-2800.

Ugh

This is for your upcoming trip then? Do you have miles for any airline?

Could you open a card and then use the flight purchase to meet the min. spend?

LillibetteV · June 2016

We do to an extent - we don't churn credit cards but our regular cash-back cards give us several hundred dollars a year which we put in the vacation fund. We also have a Southwest card for domestic flights.

Our real "hack" is being flexible in our travel dates - just by moving your arrival/departure date by one day can save hundreds (or thousands!) of dollars. We are also totally content to use discount airlines for shorter (under 7 hours) flights and pack super light so we don't get charged fees.

hoffse · June 2016

jtmh2012 said:

hoffse said:

jtmh2012 said:

I'm jealous of those of you not paying for flights. I'm looking at Rome flights and trying not to cry.

Where are you flying out of?

RIC - Richmond, VA.

I've looked at DC, but haven't found it to be cheap enough to warrant the 2-3 hr drive plus parking.

I'm killing myself for not buying over Memorial Day weekend, but we didn't have my wife's VISA back yet. Would have been $1500-1600 for the three of us. Right now I've been looking at $2300-2800.

Ouch, that sucks.

This won't make you feel any better, but I always figure $1500/person from Atlanta. Delta has a lock on it, and it's rare that they discount flights, especially direct. If I can get ANY flight to Europe under $1,000 during the summer, I feel OK about it.

Do you have an alert set up?

als1982 · June 2016

moneymom said:

als1982 said:

We do. Mostly for flights, we never pay for domestic flights (yay Southwest companion pass!) and I've scored us round trip flights for 2 to Hawaii, London/Paris and Barcelona. It's mostly a combination of regular credit card use, online purchases through portals, having my CCs linked to dining programs and surveys for miles. H isn't a fan of churning cards, so we've only gotten 2 signup bonuses... So far, anyways.....

Where do you do surveys for miles?

What is having your cc linked to dining programs?

Do you find using the portals better than going through cash back sites?

I like E-Rewards and E-Miles for Southwest points. There is also a United specific survey site, but I don't like it as much as you don't get anything if you don't completely qualify and finish the surveys.

United also has one, but here is a link to the Southwest dining program: http://www.rapidrewardsdining.com

As for cash back versus points/miles, it all depends on your goals. I also switch back and forth when one offers better benefits than others. (Southwest and United often run "back to school" or "holiday bonuses" offering extra points that Ebates and MrRebates.com don't offer.)

Xstatic3333 · June 2016

We don't churn but we do use points and miles cards and get what we can out of them. We often redeem Capital One Venture miles for flights from RI to FL to visit family or for hotel rooms for weddings and stuff. I have opened one card, the old JetBlue Amex, just for the signup bonus. For our next big international trip, which won't be for a while since we just did one, I'd like to work the Chase Sapphire signup bonus.

Do you travel hack?

Re: Do you travel hack?

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