Your Cheat Sheet to Start Earning Free Travel with Points + Miles Hacking

As a travel loving family of five, we are always looking for new ways to reduce the cost of vacations and world travel. A big focus for us over the past few years has been low cost carriers to reduce our plane ticket costs. We've actually had some amazing success with budget airlines, like $280 non-stop roundtrip from Newark to Iceland. I also hustle for comped or discounted hotel stays and destination activities for our family by pitching bartering of my services as a travel content creator (comment below if you're interested in learning more about either of these strategies, and I can go into these in a future post!).

But the "new year new me" of January hits hard and I've very recently been lured to the *other* side. The side of hacking points and miles to get (nearly) free flights, cabin upgrades, and free hotel stays. And lemme tell you. It's EXCITING!!! And overwhelming.

There are a TON of resources out there, so I'm going to include the ones that have been recommended to me most, that I'm utilizing, so hopefully this will help lots of you out there looking to get started earning points and miles to travel more!

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Points & Miles Hacking in a Nutshell:

​The basic idea is that you sign up for a new credit card and spend the minimum amount in the specified time period to earn their large sign on bonus (usually something like 60 - 100k miles or points), then either keep that card because of the other perks (like free checked bags and lounge access), or cancel it and sign up for a new card and repeat the cycle. On top of that, you'll earn points or miles for every dollar spent on that card, sometimes 5x or 10x per dollar in travel categories, so points can rack up FAST! If you get a branded card, you'll only earn for that hotel or airline, which is simple but not quite as lucrative. Some generic cards allow accrued points to be used to purchase through their travel site, or transferred to their airline/hotel partners, which is generally the best bang for your buck, especially if you get a transfer bonus and/or find a great discounted points travel deal.

There are some caveats, and a LOT to learn, so I'm working my way through the FREE 10xTravel course and I recommended you do the same (and if your credit score is low or a big concern, chat with your accountant or trusted professional).

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CREDIT CARD UTILIZATION:

Based on 10xTravel's recommendation, I hit the ground running by applying for my first general points card, Chase Sapphire. I wanted to do Chase first since it seems they're the pickiest, enforcing a 5/24 rule - they won't approve your application if you've opened up more than 5 new credit cards in the last 24 months. With either of their Sapphire cards, you'll get 60k miles if you spend $4k in the first 3 months  (and I'll get some miles too if you use my affiliate link here)! Their regular sapphire is only $95/year and includes 1 year free DashPass, and their Reserve is $550 per year which seems kind of crazy to me but if you travel a lot, some of the perks more than pay for the annual fee - we're talking free lounge access, $300 travel credit per year, Global Entry or TSA PreCheck or NEXUS application fee statement credit, and more! 

click to learn more or apply for your Chase Sappire card with my points earning affiliate link

​There are tons of credit cards to choose from, but I thought this was the best to start with. After hubby and I hit the minimum $4k spend on this I'll probably cancel it and open up one of the Capital One Venture cards... You can learn all about the various cards and more in the 10xTravel course!

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HELPFUL RESOURCES:

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FACEBOOK GROUPS:

• 10x Travel Insiders (372k members, but you can't post til you've completed their free course)
• Travel on Point(s) (141k members)
• Award Travel 101 (115k members)
• Travel Mom Squad (77k members)
• JGOOT Village (58k members)
• Families Who Love to Travel (123k members - this one isn't about point/mile hacking but I find it really helpful when planning family travel in general, and most of the resources I'm including in this blog post were suggested in that group in discussions about saving money on family travel)

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WEBSITES:

• Card Match Tool - see what cards + sign up bonuses you are prequalified for (by The Points Guy)
• Travel Partner Transfer Cheat Sheet (by 10x Travel)
• Point Redemption Calculator (by JGOOT)
• The Points Guy - great blog posts and e-blasts
• 10x Travel Free Course
• JGOOT Free Weekly Livestreams​

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DEAL FINDERS:

• Expert Flyer - sign up for free seat alerts and more, pay for premium services
• Seat Spy - fee based but has a free trial 
• Roame - possibly the best of the points + miles flight and hotel redemption "freemium" search engines, giving you a 7 day search window up to 365 days ahead in the free membership
• Seats.Aero - search engine for booking flights with miles (free to search 2 months ahead, $9.99/month to search up to a year ahead)
• ​Point.Me - search engine maximizing value of your points (only very basic functions are free)
• Kayak Explore + Google Explore - great for kicking off cash-based flight search, even when you don't have a specific place you wanna go!

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