Beginner's Guide to Travel Hacking

 Every time we share a trip that we are taking with points, we get TONS of questions on how we do it. It might seem overwhelming at first, but you can do it too, by just putting one foot in front of the other and GETTING STARTED!  It's not as hard as it seems! To put it simply: 

•  Apply for a credit card
•  Meet the minimum spend
•  Collect the bonus points
•  Repeat

Let's walk through the basics. 

Applying For A Credit Card
There are SO many card options out there!  Our personal favorite for beginners is the Chase Sapphire Preferred (<That's our referral link!). We like this card for beginners because it has an attainable minimum spend, and there are many different options on how you can redeem your points. Chase has a travel portal that you can book travel through, or they also have many transfer partners, like hotels and airlines, that you can transfer your points to in order to get a greater value for your points.  Our favorite Chase transfer partner is Hyatt!  Check out our blog post on how to get 12 nights at Hyatt for free by using your Chase Sapphire Preferred card!

Welcome Bonus
Most credit cards offer a welcome bonus. This simply means, you apply for a card, spend X amount of dollars in X amount of months, and VOILA, you earn X amount of points!  Every credit card has different levels of welcome bonuses, and even with one particular card, they may raise or lower the welcome bonus from time to time. 

Meeting the Minimum Spend
Let's talk about meeting the minimum spend, because this is where a lot of people check out. The general response is, "Welp, there's the catch." or "There's no way I could spend that much." or "I don't want to go in to debt to get credit card points." Let's break down these thought processes. 

Trust when we say, we NEVER want you to go in to debt to get credit card points! That would defeat the entire purpose of "free" travel if you are going in to debt and paying crazy interest rates to be there! We only recommend getting in to travel hacking if you can be disciplined to NEVER charge anything you can't pay for immediately, and ALWAYS pay off your bill at least monthly to avoid interest charges. 

In order to meet a minimum spend, for example, "spend $4,000 in the first 3 months to receive 60,000 points" we simply put all of our regular, every day expenses on that card. We charge things like gas, utility bills, groceries, eating out, car maintenance/repairs, etc... You can also use a time when you know you have a larger expense coming up, like a home repair or renovation, or even Christmas shopping. 

Travel Hacking With a Spouse or Friend
Let's be honest. The best way to rack up tons of points to schedule multiple travel experiences is by applying for multiple cards and getting multiple welcome bonuses. Here's a little breakdown of our strategy for doing just that: 

1. Spouse/Friend 1 applies for the first card (We recommend the Chase Sapphire Preferred!)
2. Spouse/Friend 1 meets minimum spend and collects welcome bonus points
3. Spouse/Friend 1 refers Spouse/Friend 2 and collects referral bonus points
4. Spouse/Friend 2 meets minimum spend and collects welcome bonus points

***Let's pause here and evaluate. If we are speaking of the CSP card in this example, you now have 135,000 points combined! That's enough for 27 nights at a Category 1 Hyatt hotel, or even 7 nights at the All-Inclusive Hyatt Ziva in Los Cabos!***

Now that you have dipped your toe in the water, so to speak, you simply repeat this process with other reward cards!  This is where you really have to decide what your travel goals are and match which cards might meet those needs. It could be the World of Hyatt card, a Southwest Rapids Rewards card, a Marriott Bonvoy card, or many others. 

Annual Fees
One thing to consider, is that often these credit cards will have annual fees.  The CSP card for example has an annual fee of $95. For us, that annual fee is more than justified by the rewards we get from the card, but that is something that you will need to factor in to your decision. If you have a business, either an LLC or a sole proprietorship (this isn't as hard as you might think!), Chase has a couple of great reward options with no annual fee! 

Wrap Up
Travel hacking is something that we only started a few years ago, and we have gone from just trying it out to see how it went, to being all in and traveling for nearly free. We love sharing our strategy with others because we know how much of a blessing it has been to our marriage to be able to travel and spend time together without having to worry about the financial aspect. 

Are you ready to begin your travel hacking journey? Our referral links are linked throughout this blog! We'd love it if you use them when you're ready to jump!