Travel Hacking 101

17 Comments

  1. $38?! Steal!! I love collecting miles – I started about 6 years ago and my husband and I have been able to take at least one free roundtrip flight a year 🙂 Thanks for sharing your helpful tips. I didn’t realize that it can be cheaper to redeem one way flights rather than roundtrip. I usually always book roundtrip so I’ll have to look into that next time!
    ps. I read your post about teaching English online – I’m seriously going to look into this now!! Thank you for sharing your experience and tips to pass the hiring process!

  2. At first my heart fell – airline miles how am I gonna accumulate that 🙁 And then, voila – credit card signups! Thanks for the gold advice, I’ve always seen credit card deals like these but never understood what they’re for. Also $38 is an absolute steal!!

    1. I know the feeling! Bulk sign-up miles are the best way to maximize your earnings, and you can always close a credit card before the year is up to avoid accruing the annual fee. Most of them just have a period of time after which you an’t apply for a card with them again, and it may hurt your credit score to reduce your overall balance. You can keep them open until you switch to a new card to make up for any available credit difference. So many ways to game the system!

    2. Christiana says:

      Hi!! I’m from New York and I’m currently studying abroad in Australia. My round trip flight from Los Angeles to Brisbane then Brisbane to Los Angeles was just over $1000. I thought that was a good deal until I read this!

      Traveling in Australia is expensive, I tried to book a trip to New Zealand and I couldn’t find any flights less than $500. Obviously I’ve been doing it wrong the whole time.

      What airline did you open the travel credit card with that allowed to you travel for so cheap?

      1. Hi! Absolutely, Australia and NZ are both really expensive places to reach just by virtue of being so remote. I booked with American Airlines but you can open any credit card and have enough points from the sign-up bonus for a flight. There are so many partners now that it’ll be hard to find an airline that doesn’t fly tp NZ directly or have a partner that does. If you have good credit, the Chase Sapphire card is thought to be the best and is more flexible on point redemption.

  3. Totally agree with being flexible on airports – my trip planning usually begins not with a destination, but with a search for anywhere I can fly into (and out of, I guess) for cheap! Unfortunately we’ll never get these $38 deals in Canada – I am flying to Europe this summer entirely on points, and still had to pay almost $700 in taxes and fees!

    1. Don’t give up so easily Carly! Scott’s Cheap Flights has great deals leaving out of Canada all the time, I saw $400 roundtrip flights to Hawaii, Canadian dollars! Also check out secretflying.com. Hope this helps 🙂

  4. I’m sorry but how come you don’t list the airline credit cards you used? I understand that American is big in Miami and Jetblue is big our of Fort Lauderdale. Any reason for this?

    Also, is it recommended to have airline credit cards over say Chase Saphire Reserve?

    1. Hi JP, I no longer have the card because they changed my itinerary twice and after the initial sign-up bonus I didn’t find it worth it, it was the American Airlines card as you suspected. The Chase Sapphire Reserve, or any other card where you’re able to get transferable miles or points, is definitely a better way to go if you’re looking for flexibility, but if you’re loyal to one airline or the airline flies frequently out of a nearby airport, that could be a good starting point for award redemption. I hope this helps!

  5. I wish I could get a $38 flight to New Zealand. I live there and it costs a fortune each time I travel. I hope you enjoyed your week here.

    1. It definitely costs a fortune, it’s not close to anywhere and tough to reach. Airline miles made this trip possible for me. I recommend looking into ways you can accrue points with your daily spending if possible, not sure what the credit card reward programs are like in NZ and know that can be a source of frustration for many travelers from there. Upside, you have Australia and Hawaii within easy reach, places we’d love to access easily from this side of the world!

  6. new york houston cheap flight tickets says:

    Im also curious about cheap flights and airmiles.Do I still get airmiles if I have a discounted promotional flight ticket.
    Because I’ve found cheap dlight ticket while I was checking for New York Houston flight tickets.

    And have a promotion from.my company kind of discount by airlines.

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