Welcome to the bright and wonderful world of travel points and miles!
They’re the most valuable currency you can have as a traveler. The opportunities they provide are truly endless. Utilize them correctly, and you can book an entire trip (flights and accommodations) for basically free — the two most expensive parts of traveling.
Sound too good to be true? I promise it’s not. My partner and I have been accumulating travel rewards for years now and use them for all our travels near and far, including visiting bucket-list destinations. Places like the Maldives and Bora Bora, which we thought could never be possible unless we were filthy rich.
We have saved upwards of $50,000 in travel by leveraging our points and miles in the past year alone. Check out the posts below to read more on some of our redemptions:
If you want to see the world for much cheaper, it’s time to unleash your full travel hacking potential and start collecting points and miles ASAP!
Learning how to accumulate rewards can seem like a daunting task if you’re not a frequent traveler. However, most people don’t realize you can actually do this quite easily, even from home. The bulk of our points and miles are earned from our everyday spending, not by traveling.
Taking the time to learn the twists and turns of travel rewards will literally open up a whole new world. Whether you’re preparing for a future trip or have no plans for one at the moment, the sooner you start, the better! Then you’ll be ready to see the world smarter, better, and for much less.
How to Start Earning Points and Miles
If you’re entirely new to the travel rewards game, then you may be wondering what they are and how someone who doesn’t travel regularly can earn them? Anyone can earn rewards through hotel stays, flights, credit card purchases, and more. Here are my top steps to get you accumulating them in no time.
1. Sign up for Loyalty Programs
This step is completely FREE and something you should absolutely do when you first start traveling. I kick myself for not starting sooner. Both hotel brands and airlines have free loyalty or frequent flyer programs you can sign up for. You’ll be given a member number and each time you book, make sure you enter that member number to earn points.
Examples of loyalty programs are Hilton Honors, Marriott Bonvoy, United MileagePlus, and Southwest Rapid Rewards.
If you have children, do them a favor and sign them up for airline loyalty programs too so they can earn miles each time you fly somewhere.
2. Utilize Credit Cards
Credit cards are the fastest and easiest way to earn travel rewards from your daily spending. Depending on which credit card you use, you can earn multiple points for each dollar spent at restaurants, gas stations, groceries, bills, and more. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to receive something in return for the money I need to spend anyway.
For example, if you spend $300 on groceries each month, by using a credit card like the American Express Gold Card, you’ll get 4x points for every dollar you spend. That’s an easy 1,200 points every month on items you’re already buying.
Responsible Credit Card Use
Although credit cards are safer to use to protect yourself from fraud compared to debit cards, the biggest argument against credit cards is that people tend to overspend when using them. While this can be true, you know yourself better than anyone else.
Using Credit cards to acquire rewards requires self-discipline to manage them properly. The general rule to avoid overspending is only to buy things that you’d normally would with cash or debit card. Don’t buy unnecessary things to receive points as no amount is worth going into debt for.
Which Travel Credit Card Should I Start With?
With so many different credit cards to choose from, each trying to portray better benefits than the other. It can feel overwhelming on where to start. If you want to jump into credit card hacking, it requires a strategic approach. Jumping on any shiny, new card offer you see without a clear plan in place will likely cost you.
Start with Chase Ultimate Rewards
If you’re completely new to credit cards, then Chase Ultimate Rewards is where I highly recommend everyone begins. Chase has a strong portfolio of travel cards to choose from, and one of my favorite beginner cards is the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Chase Ultimate Reward points are diverse and can be redeemed easily on their portal to multiple transfer partners.
By starting with Chase, you won’t run into their 5/24 rule too early in your travel hacking journey and miss out on any high offers that come around. The 5/24 rule set by Chase is that you cannot have opened 5 or more new credit cards from any bank within the last 24 months to be approved for the majority of their cards. While this may seem like a lot of cards and not something you’ll have to worry about, you’d be surprised.
Most, if not all, of Chase’s best travel cards, fall under this rule, so if you aren’t tactful, you’ll have to wait a while before you can dive into their portfolio.
Transfer Partners
Transfer partners are the different brands that you can transfer over your points to. For example, you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to several top airlines and hotel brands worldwide.
If you’re a beginner in travel rewards, you’re likely not loyal to a particular brand yet. Having points that can transfer over to several different brands at a 1:1 ratio is key. This gives you the flexibility to look for the best rate when booking trips.
Besides credit cards that earn you transferrable points, there are co-branded credit cards that will earn you points to a specific brand (e.g., airline or hotel property) along with other benefits. An example of a co-branded credit card is the Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card.
Co-branded credit cards allow you to earn bonus points faster directly with that specific brand than you could with a card providing transferable points. A great bonus to the hotel co-branded credit cards is that most come with an annual free night stay. Other perks may include free breakfast, late checkout, loyalty status, possible room upgrades, and more. These are great cards to add to your collection for travel rewards.
Hit the Sign-Up Bonuses
Most credit cards come with a sign-up bonus of points or miles after meeting the minimum spend requirement within your first few months of opening the account.
This is honestly how most travel hackers earn the bulk of their points.
For example, when writing this post, Chase offers their Chase Sapphire Preferred card a sign-on bonus of 100,000 points for spending $4,000 within 3 months of opening the card. They value this amount of points worth $1250, which is easily a round trip flight to Europe or multiple flights domestically. This is definitely by far the best offer I’ve seen from Chase for this card, as it’s usually 60,000 points.
While spending $4,000 in 3 months can be a lot of money, there are creative ways to hit the minimum spend. I personally like to sign up for new cards when I know I’ll be making a big purchase soon. This could include buying new furniture, doing home improvements, wedding expenses, birthday presents, and more. There are even ways to pay for your rent using a credit card for a small fee if you’re struggling to hit the minimum spend with other purchases.
3. Dining Programs
Another great way to accumulate points is by leveraging dining programs. All major hotels and airlines have a program that will allow you to earn points per dollar spent while dining at restaurants. All you have to do is link your debit or credit card. Many offer a first-dine bonus for using the program. An example may be 1,000 bonus points for spending $25 within the first few months. If you eat out a lot, this is a great way to build up your collection.
4. Shopping Portals
In modern times, online shopping has become a way of life. While buying a new pair of running shoes or that shiny new purse likely won’t earn you any bonus points. Levering a shopping portal can supplement this whether you’re using a debit or credit card. If you want to earn points, this should become an essential habit whenever shopping online. Many airline and hotel brands have their own shopping portals you can use to maximize your spending.
One of my favorite portals is Rakuten, which you can use to earn American Express points. They even have a Google Chrome extension you can add to your browser to easily check if the site your shopping on has a bonus offer.
5. Complete Online Surveys
If you have some free time, completing online surveys is another easy option to earn points. Many airline and hotel loyalty programs have surveys they send to their members for market research. One example is Hilton Honors’ Guest Opinion Rewards.
Depending on the number of surveys you complete, you can earn hundreds to thousands of points.
Redeeming Points and Miles
This is where the fun begins. Once you’ve hit the minimum spend on that new credit card and built up your reserve of points, you can finally start putting them to use.
Although not all redemptions are the same, there’s really no right or wrong way to use them. It really comes down to what kind of traveler you are and what you hope to gain from them.
If you want to use them to book multiple small trips a year to visit family or go to a friend’s wedding, great! Or maybe you’re the type of traveler who wants to go all out once a year. Stretching your point value to take that aspirational, once-in-a-lifetime trip.
Don’t get caught up in having the best point value for each redemption as this can discourage you from using the points at all. You earned them, so use them however you please.
Bottom Line
Traveling hacking is A LOT of work. It takes time, consistency, strategizing, and plenty of patience. But if you’re willing to do the work, you can be rewarded with free travel and unforgettable experiences in the most beautiful places around the globe.
Starting out with points and miles can seem overwhelming on where to start from all of the different loyalty programs at your disposal. Remember we all started with zero. By following these beginner steps, you’ll be accumulating points and miles in no time.
If you have any questions about travel credit cards or want to share your favorite travel hacking secrets, let me know in the comments below.
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