Using what many call travel hacking, we have been able to save over $12,000 in the past three years of travel.  This was money saved on Airfare, Hotels, Rental Cars and more.  If you want to get into using credit cards so that you never have to pay for hotel or airfare again, I recommend the following:

1. Don’t start until you are debt free and know that not paying off your credit card each month would cost you more in the long run than just paying for hotels and flights on your own.  Relatedly, never spend more than you would if using cash/debit.  The point conversion is not worth it.  If you are looking for an awesome budget tracking app for iOS, we highly recommend the Trail Wallet App.
2. Sign up for free at the following websites to receive monthly credit updates (This is a good idea in general even if not interested in the CC):
   1. http://www.creditkarma.com – TransUnion Credit Score Updates
   2. http://www.creditsesame.com – Experian Credit Score Updates
3. Only apply for cards with points you will use within the next 12 months.  The reason for this is that if you do not use the miles in the year after receiving them, some expire and/or may require paying high yearly fees to keep them thereby making them more costly than they are worth in most cases.
4. If you are wanting a few cards and can meet the minimum spends, apply to them all in one day to get only a single Hard Inquiry on your Credit report.
5. Take some time to look at the different grades on your Credit Karma Report Card to understand how different things may affect your credit.
6. Make sure you meet the minimum spend and get the bonus reward point otherwise the annual fee and hassle is not really worth it.

Download Valerie & Griffin’s Credit Card Comparison Chart

[click link or image to download]

PRO TIP:

If you are starting to get overwhelmed with keeping up with Rewards Accounts and Credit Card Payments, we recommend the following free services:

1. Award Wallet – free management of Rewards Accounts
2. Mint – free financial and payment management as well as goal setting and accountability
3. TripIt – free trip organization and travel itinerary service

Taking It Further

If you are looking for further resources, here are many free and a few paid options we use and highly recommend.

Related Posts By Valerie & Griffin on Travel Hacking

How To Save Money On Vacation

Airline Booking Tips

Summer Travel Plans

How To Get Free Air Miles & Save $600

Travel Hacking Related Sites & Blogs

Chris Guillebeau

Travel Hacking

The Points Guide

The Miles Professor

Boarding Area

Art Of Non-Conformity

Air Treks

Boots n All

eBooks

The Art Of World Travel

Frequent Flyer Master

We just finished booking our summer travel. Read on to find out how you can travel for pennies on the dollar next summer or even for this winter…

Here is what we booked and what it cost us

So, how did we save over two thousand dollars on hotels and airfare? Well we didn’t do it by racking up miles flying all over the USA doing life/soul sucking consulting work with little to no personal life. Nope. Griffin works from anywhere with and internet connection doing work he loves and Valerie works around town doing social work that she loves.

What we did was strategically sign up for and receive credit card rewards from different credit card companies without changing our spending habits or overspending. Here are the cards we used for this trip:

American Express Gold Delta SkyMiles Credit Card

Rewards Bonus Details

Bonus Amount: 30,000 SkyMiles
Minimum Spend: $500
Time Limit: 3 Months
Annual Fee: $0 for first year and then $95/year
Re-Apply Rules: Every 2 years
Bonus Perk(s): $50 Statement credit after you make a delta purchase on your card within time limit.

Chase IHG Rewards Club Select Visa

Rewards Bonus Details

Bonus Amount: 60,000 IHG Points
Minimum Spend: $1,000
Time Limit: 3 Months
Annual Fee: $0 for first year and then $49/year
Re-Apply Rules: Unknown
Bonus Perk(s):

• One free night per year after 1 year of having the card
• Upgrade to Platinum Elite Status as long as you are a cardmember. Benefit details here.

Chase Ink Bold Business Charge Card

Rewards Bonus Details

Bonus Amount: 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points
Minimum Spend: $5,000
Time Limit: 3 Months
Annual Fee: $0 for first year and then $95/year
Re-Apply Rules:  Unknown
Bonus Perk(s):

•  20% Off travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards
• 1:1 point transfer with no transfer fees

List Transfer Partners as of this writing

I hope the information above makes sense. Basically, each card has a minimum spend usually within three months. If you meet the minimum spend requirement within the time limit you should receive the award points shortly.

So, how do we recommend getting all these points? Here is our method.

STEP 1 – Credit Monitoring

Sign up for a free credit monitoring account at one or both of the following sites:

• Credit Karma – Free monthly TransUnion score
• Credit Sesame – Free monthly Experian score

These will allow you to get your current credit score as well as Monitor your credit for any issues from here forward. If you are in credit card debt or have a bad credit score, this may be a good step to take to monitor your credit, but please note, these companies are making money from commissions by recommending credit cards to you.  We recommend not going with their recommended credit cards as they are not always the best available.

STEP 2 – Pick Your Card

Once you have confirmed that you have a good credit score then you are ready to apply for your first card. We highly recommend only applying to cards for which you are sure you will be using the resulting rewards within 12 months. The reason for this is that many of the rewards points have expiration dates and/or other stipulations that affect the points after one year.

Example
We signed up for an Alaskan Airlines card to get 40,000 Alaskan Airlines Miles, but it turns out if you cancel the card you lose all your points. So we have paid two $95 fees so far in hopes to be able to use the card on a future flight. If this continues for much longer, we will not be saving any money.

We can personally recommend the cards above, but there are plenty of other cards for most of the major rewards programs you may be interested in. For example, if you are wanting Amtrak points, you could sign up for the Chase Ink Bold card above which can transfer points 1:1 to Amtrack, but you may also be able to find another option via a quick Google search for Amtrak Credit Card. If you are looking for another reward program, just sub out Amtrak for the rewards you are looking for and google that.

This gets a little complicated, but we recommend only applying to one Airline rewards card per Ailine alliance. The three major alliances are

One World | Sky Team | Star Alliance

The reason for this is so that your miles are in one main account instead of spread across a lot of accounts where you can’t leverage them as well. As long as you have miles in one of the alliances airline accounts, you can usually book flights with any airline on that alliance and sometimes even get better mileage value as well.

OK. Now, after you have thoroughly read and understood all there terms and conditions of the card you have selected, go ahead and apply for your desired credit card and best of luck! If approved, move on to Step 3.

STEP 3 – Use The Card

Be sure to spend the minimum required amount within the time limit on the card. We highly recommend not changing your spending habits as this is another way to get in debt, so make sure before that you can spend the required amounts, usually of $500 – $5,000 on the credit card in the time limit required. If you are unable to meet the minimum spend or do it in the time limit, you will not receive the major point bonus and all your effort will not be worth it. What we do is focus on one card every three months or until paid off. This way we can spend only on the desired card for the three months period and make sure we have spent the minimum before the time limit.

NEXT STEP – Collect & Track Your Points

So, you have been collecting points and Airline miles for a while and now you are having a bit of a hard time keeping up with it all? No problem. There is free service that can help with that. We use and highly recommend Award Wallet. It allows you to track most rewards programs balances for free. You can pay to view expiration dates and other features, but we have been more than happy with the free version.

FINAL STEP

Go travel! Enjoy your strategic work and book flights, trains and/or hotels and enjoy the time with your friends and loved ones!

TAKING IT FURTHER

If you are looking to take this all to the next level, below are a few resources that we have found well worth the investment.

1. Frequent Flyer Master

If you want to learn more about travel hacking and even get a guaranteed free domestic flight in the States, check out this great resource by someone who has traveled to every country in the world!

Frequent Flyer Master is a full e-book, a 20-minute audio, and a 4-page Priceline specific guide on the art of hacking airline miles. Click for a full description.

2. Travel Hacking Cartel

If you want to join a group of people passionate about finding the best deals, racking up points and traveling in style using points instead of cash, this is the place to be.  There is a monthly charge for this group, but we have found it more than worth the cost and have made back 10x our investment and more through the rewards travel from it.

3. Flyer Talk Forums

This is another great group to join if you are looking to really stay up to date and on top of all the different rewards travel options, hacks and strategies.  It takes a bit more time and energy than the above two resources, but it has the added benefit of being free!

We hope this has been encouraging and helpful. We have shared these strategies with many of our family and friends and have always enjoyed hearing about their travels using points for first class flights, resort hotels and more. Have you used miles and points to book an amazing trip? Share about it in the comments and let us know if we missed anything.

We were greeted at the King’s Center Hotel by a friendly staff and a smooth and quick check-in. (Also a plus when you’ve still got those backpacks on!)

Our greatest greeting, though, was when we entered our room. The room was absolutely beautiful. It included a large, wood-framed bed carved with beautiful designs, a desk, a beautiful wardrobe and others. I have to admit to you that I love a clean bathroom… I wasn’t disappointed with the bathroom in our room. It was spacious and clean and had everything we needed, including plush towels. We’re both into nice linens, so we love good towels! Is that weird? =)

We asked reception for a recommendation for a good restaurant nearby and we were so glad we did. The staff didn’t hesitate in directing us to Augustiner Keller, the famous beer garden and cellar that we didn’t even realize was close to us. We had a wonderful dinner there and then took a walk around the cellar as well.

After dinner we settled into our room and spent some time looking through guidebooks at the limitless things to see in Munich. (No easy task.)

We both slept like rocks and awoke feeling so much more rested and happier. If you’ve done long term travel, you know the importance of good sleep and recuperation to help you travel well. Cranky travelers are not good to be around!

We crept downstairs in our PJ’s to have breakfast and we were, again, pleasantly surprised. A buffet of deliciousness awaited us and we couldn’t wait. I love breakfast food and I could eat it three meals a day. This buffet had everything I wanted and then some! I definitely ate too much, but it was so worth it!

It is so much less stressful to go see the sights of a city when you know you don’t need to worry about the place you’re coming “home” to that night. We knew our hotel was centrally located, comfortable, clean, offered good sleep and a delicious breakfast the next morning. You can’t beat that.

To top it all off, when we were getting ready to leave, the staff made it leisurely by offering to hold our luggage for us while we spent the last day in the city seeing the rest of the sites on our list.

I will say that we encountered one slight issue, which was a slow internet connection. Internet is not included in the room prices, which is annoying this day and age, so we purchased it separately. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t the connection we were hoping for, which slowed us down in our work a bit. Overall, not a big deal, but something we feel the hotel should work on.

If you’re looking for good accommodation in Munich, we can definitely recommend King’s Center Hotel, a fantastic place to get rest and then get involved in everything Munich has to offer!

With a combined total of more than 50 countries visited, Griffin and I have stayed in our fair share of questionable hotels. It’s a rare opportunity to report accommodation that actually exceeds our expectations.

While checking out the sites in Brussels, Belgium, we had the absolute pleasure of staying in a fabulous boutique hotel called Pillows. This hotel is one of Sandton’s “concept hotels” being introduced throughout Europe. Basically, the concept is that the hotel is all-inclusive, with as many extras as you can possibly think up, all for the price of any room that you book. I think we must have asked the poor receptionist a million questions about this to be sure we had it right!

Upon check-in we were just in time for afternoon tea and sweets, which was provided in the downstairs lobby. We were permitted to help ourselves to whatever we liked. After settling into our amazing room and not really wanting to go out again for dinner, we went back downstairs and made a meal from the appetizers and drinks served in evening, which suited us fine. We were offered any drink we wanted and an array of finger foods that filled us up while we relaxed at the bar.

Initially, I thought the name Pillows was an odd one for a hotel, but after one night’s sleep in that bed, it seemed perfect! That was, hands down, the best bed I’ve slept in on our travels. It truly felt as if I were sleeping on a cloud for an amazing night of much needed rest and recuperation.

We slept in for an extra hour, which I can seldom do in most places, but the quiet location of Pillows afforded me the luxury. When we woke up, we padded downstairs in our PJ’s to see breakfast would hold for us.

This is just one of the three tables full of breakfast food to choose from.

We were not disappointed! If you’re counting the number of “bests” we’ve encountered, here is another: this was the best breakfast we’ve had in any of the 32 countries we’ve visited so far! Talk about a buffet! There was every kind of bread, spread, egg and sausage you can think of for breakfast, including what has to be my favorite kind of toast spread I’ve ever tried. (It tasted like a kind of ginger cookie, but with the consistency of peanut butter. I have yet to find this spread since, though I’ve been looking everywhere!)

After filling up on bacon and eggs, etc., we headed back up stairs to get caught up on some work. The internet was super fast, so that wasn’t a problem.

Before long we were off to see the sights in Brussels, feeling completed rested. We were pretty much just plain excited we had booked two night and could do it all again!

Honestly, after just two nights at Pillows, we felt like we’d had a week-long vacation. It was just what we needed and at just the right time!

My only complaint, if you can even call it that, was that the sensor lights in the bathroom (Yeah, I said sensor lights in the bathroom) were positioned just a little too far away from the shower, which prompted the lights to periodically turn off while I was in the shower. Not to worry, though. A quick wave of the hand and everything came back to life.

If the other Sandton Hotels are anything like Pillows Brussels, I can’t wait to try them! If you’re in going to Belgium, I cannot recommend Pillows highly enough!