How I Travel

One of the questions I hear the most is “How do you manage to do so much travel?” or the more defeatist statement of “I wish I could afford to travel like that”. Many people have the mindset that travel is out of their reach, so I will explain some of the things I do to make frequent travel possible.

1. Save

This is the most unpopular item on the list and something you rarely see from travel blogs. Most travel blogs put an emphasis on “free travel” but travel is almost never actually free. Even if your lodging and flight are free, you still need to pay for food, tours etc. If travelling is important to you find a way to save up for it.

I save twice a year for travel. My employer pays me every other week (26 checks per year). However, I follow a monthly budget to account for my expenses. Because I am paid bi-weekly there are two months in the year where I have am paid three times instead of the usual two. So for two months of the year I have extra money! During those months I move money into a separate travel account.

Of course not everyone can do this. Some people get paid bi-monthly (only 24 checks per year) or monthly. Some people have irregular paychecks if they work hourly or on commission. If that describes you, then you may need to find a small amount to set aside each pay instead. The key is to put it aside in a separate account. If you have a dedicated travel account you will find that you will feel that you can afford to travel more often.

2. Points & Miles

Frequent flyer miles and/or credit card points is one of the most important things that allow me to travel so often. I am always amazed that people don’t spend the time to even open these loyalty accounts. I often hear people say “I don’t fly enough to make it worth it”. That statement makes no sense. It is like saying “i don’t want to save money because I don’t spend enough to make it worth it”.

Frequent flyer and hotel loyalty accounts are free to open. Go open one for every domestic airline and major hotel right now. I’ll wait…. You do not have to fly or stay at a hotel to earn miles. Airlines and hotels give away miles and points in a variety of different ways. From following them on instagram, to dining out at restaurants, to shopping online, there are many ways to earn miles with minimal cost or effort. Marriott gave away miles with NFL trivia contests on Sundays. IHG once gave 5000 miles to anyone who tweeted a photo of themselves with a certain hashtag. I once got 2000 Southwest miles just to open an account and sign up for emails.

Travel credit cards also often have points. American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi Thank You points are some of the biggest point programs. Barclays, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America also have worthwhile points programs. Many times these points can be used to directly purchase flights and hotels, or they may be transferable to the frequent flyer miles or hotel points of their partners.

Now points can and do expire. But almost all accounts will extend the expiration as long as there has been activity over a certain period of time (usually within 12 months). There are apps that will help you keep track of all of your maturity dates which makes this even easier to manage. I use Awardwallet to keep track of my accounts.

2b. Earning Points

I touched on this topic in the paragraphs above. There are several ways to earn points and miles that do not involve actually travelling. The first is dining programs. Most airlines and hotels have a dining rewards program. You signup a credit card to the program and if you eat at one of the participating restaurants you earn points (in addition to the points you earned from using a credit card). Now I don’t go out of my way to dine out just for points, but if I was going to go out to eat anyway why not earn extra points while I do it? Sometimes I am not even aware that a restaurant was a part of the program until I see I earned extra points! Some of the dining programs I use are: https://www.rapidrewardsdining.com/ , https://www.aadvantagedining.com/ , https://skymilesdining.com/ , https://dining.mileageplus.com/

The next way is by using shopping portals. Each major airline has a shopping portal as a part of their rewards program. When you click on a retailer’s link in the portal it takes you to their website and you earn points if you spend money on the site. If I am going to buy something online, I always check the shopping portals first. If it is Mother’s Day, I buy flowers from FTD or 1800Flowers and earn anywhere from 15 to 30 points per dollar. Buying something from Walmart, why not earn 2 points per dollar by spending an extra minute by navigating to the portal first? Some of the portals I frequently use are: https://www.aadvantageeshopping.com/ , https://www.skymilesshopping.com/ , https://shopping.mileageplus.com/ , https://rapidrewardsshopping.southwest.com/ as well as the Chase shopping portal.

Social Media is a bit harder (since you need to be aware of the promotion) but the most lucrative (completely free!). Companies often give points for doing some activity on their social media pages. I have earned points by following airlines on Facebook, tweeting a particular hashtag on Twitter, liking a post on Instagram, and answering quiz questions via DM on Twitter. Often companies will have a giveaway on their website. When Marriott bought SPG they did a daily matching game that gave away points as a way to promote the new brands they acquired.

One way to earn that is specific to United Airlines is the Mileage Plus X app. This app not only links you to United’s shopping portal and dining program, but it also allows you to earn airline miles by buying giftcards. This allows you the potential to triple-dip on earning points! For example you could purchase a 1800Flowers.com eGift card using a Chase Freedom Unlimited card and earn 1.5 points per dollar on the credit card, 5 points per dollar from the app and then you can log into Aadvantage shopping portal and spend the gift card and get another 15 points per dollar. by maximizing these apps and portals you can exponentially increase your point earning. Another great feature of this app is that you can typically purchase a gift card of an exact amount. That means if I am at the cashier at Chipotle and I am told my burrito will cost $10.52, I can quickly purchase an eGift card for exactly $10.52 while standing in line (it is a very quick process). The cashier can scan my phone to apply the gift card. Without even reaching into my wallet I just earned credit card points and United Mileageplus miles at the same time.

Fill out a survey. That is right you can earn points simply by filling out surveys. This is a method of earning points that is completely free. All it costs is your time. Sometimes the surveys are fun (I once received $10 and bag of of a new flavor of trail mix to test, and I once got to watch an NBA playoff game), but more often than not the surveys are about mundane things like grocery shopping. That being said I don’t do nearly the amount of surveys that I used to do. With a growing family I just don’t have the time to do a 20 or 30 minute survey. If you do have free time, this is a great to earn miles or at least keep miles from expiring. The primary sites I’ve used to earn points and mils are https://www.milesforopinions.com/ , https://www.opinionmilesclub.com/ , https://www.theopinionterminal.com/ , https://www.e-rewards.com/

Lastly, earn points by taking advantage of every promotion you can. Hotels often hold promotions for double or triple miles per stay. Sometimes airlines or hotels will hold a challenge that awards points for flying, staying in hotels or downloading and booking via their app.

3. Credit Card Bonuses

This is the biggest way to jump start your points balances. A good travel card often offers a signup bonus for spending a certain amount within a certain period of time (on average $3000 within 3 months). Before I say anything further…DO NOT GO INTO DEBT IN ORDER TO GET POINTS. I make sure to have no credit card debt, ever. I exclusive use credit cards for all of my purchases (can’t get points using cash), but I pay off the card in full every month and pay no interest. If you have credit cards you should pay them off before going after credit card bonuses. Many of these cards require a higher credit score and the best cards will charge an annual fee. So I’ll say it again, this is not something you should pursue if you have credit card debts.

Everyone who wants to do international travel should have at least one good travel card. Beyond the points earning capabilities, these cards often have benefits such as no foreign transaction fees, and credits for TSA Precheck and Global Entry. There are limits to how many cards you can get so be sure to plan and choose your cards wisely. Chase limits you to 5 new cards in the last 24 months (5/24 rule). Other banks have their own rules about how many or how quickly you can apply for cards.

Bonuses can range from 10,000 points to 200,000 points. So you can see how applying for multiple cards can really add up to big point balances. Some people apply for an outrageous amount of cards per year. Personally I only apply for a couple per year.

You might be thinking, “why pay an annual fee? Alot of cards are free.” The best travel cards almost always have an annual fee. But the benefits of the card often exceed the fee. At one point I calculated that I had paid a total of $3,643 in credit card annual fees. And from that I had used $1,533 in travel credits, Global Entry (worth $100), 2 free hotel night certificates, 24 hotel nights redeemed, and 32 one way flights redeemed (8 of which were first class or business class). Those benefits far exceeded the cost.

You might be thinking, “What about your credit? That many cards surely has hurt your credit score.” This has actually helped my credit score. Your score decreases slightly for each credit inquiry and opening and closing multiple accounts reduces your average age of accounts which also negatively affects your score. However, having more cards has improved my utilization (credit used versus credit available), and paying on time every month has a far bigger effect than the negatives. My score has steadily marched higher every year.

The responsible use of credit cards is a powerful tool to help you travel more often for less money.

4. Travel Off Season

You can actually find good deals on travel if you are willing to go to certain destinations outside of their peak season. Peak season varies by location and is often influenced by weather. Many countries have rainy or monsoon seasons. Caribbean islands can be affected by hurricane season. You will often find that prices are lower during these off seasons. Obviously you don’t want to visit an island when a hurricane is bearing down on it, but hurricanes often form weeks before threatening North America. So you can plan a trip when the forecast looks good. Rainy season might not be as bad at the beginning. I found a good deal in Belize in June which is the beginning of their rainy season. It barely rained during the trip.

5. Business Travel

This one doesn’t apply to everyone. Business travel is an excellent way to earn miles and points without spending your own money. One of the biggest mistakes I have ever made regarding travel was failing to take advantage of business travel. I once got a job that required a month long stay in a Pittsburgh Residence Inn. Had I just signed up for the loyalty account anytime before my checkout (I had 30 days to do this!) I would have earned over 27,000 points and gold status without actually spending any of my own money (the company paid for the hotel). Nowadays I travel for work about twice per year, so this is not a big point earner for me. My wife travels quite a bit for conferences and she makes sure to use her loyalty account to boost her points balances.

6. Companion Pass

A companion pass is like a buy one get one free airline ticket. The two passes I have used are the Southwest companion pass and the Delta companion pass. The Delta companion passes I have used have been a perk of the Platinum Delta American Express card which gives you a companion pass each anniversary year. The Delta pass is only good for roundtrip domestic travel. The Southwest companion pass is far more valuable. Southwest will give you a companion pass if you earn 110,000 points in a calendar year. The pass is good from the date you earn it to December 31st of the following year. So if you time it right you can earn a companion pass for nearly two years! My wife earned a companion pass by applying for a Chase Southwest personal card and a Chase Southwest business card (at the time 50,000 and 60,000 bonus points respectively). She earned the companion pass in the February billing cycle which gave her a companion pass for 22 months! Southwest is not our favorite airline so we didn’ use it too often but I managed to fly for free for five round trip flights to Baltimore, Belize City, Fort Lauderdale (2x), and Nassau. Not bad for $179 of credit card annual fees.

7. No Loyalty

This is just my personal style. I’ve lived in Cleveland, OH and Indianapolis, IN. Airline consolidation had cost Cleveland its Continental Airlines hub and Indianapolis’ only hub is FedEx. So there isn’t a compelling reason for me to have loyalty to any particular airline. It is more important for me to find the best route to my ultimate destination as I nearly always will need to layover at a hub since my airport has few direct flights. The closest hub to Indianapolis is Chicago (United and American) Minneapolis (Delta) and Detroit (Delta). So I typically have an equal chance of flying any of the major airlines depending on the destinations. So I have given up on getting a top tier status on any particular airline. When I met my wife she was Delta Platinum so I had to convince her the logic of my no loyalty system.

If I lived in a hub city it would obviously make sense to be loyal to the airline with the hub. However airline consolidation has reduced the number of hubs dramatically over the last 20 years. Most of us do not live in a hub city however and I’d bet than many of you reading this are closer to my situation than those who live in NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, or Miami.

Edit: 2/25/2021 – So I now live in the Research Triangle, NC and while Raleigh-Durham International Airport is not a hub for any airline, it is a focus city for Delta. American Airlines also has a large hub in Charlotte. So while I still have no loyalty to anyone, I may eventually rethink airline loyalty.

I also never touched on hotel loyalty. While I am ambivalent to airline loyalty, I do aspire to hotel loyalty. Once I got married, my wife and I decided to split our loyalties amongst different chains. My main loyalty is with Hyatt and IHG, while my wife is focusing on Marriott and Hilton. The reason we are not focusing on the same chains it prevented us from achieving higher status when we travelled together. Before we had a strategy of how to handle our loyalty, we put no thought into which one of us booked the hotel. The result was I ended up with several stays at Marriotts with Gold Status and my wife ended up with several stays and Gold Status. While that sounds good, if we had booked all of those stays on my wife’s account she would have had Platinum Status!