Any "Travel Hackers"

[iwishiwascool]

Any travel hackers here?

 

I've managed to gain about 200,000 points in the last 2 months or so, but I know that is still amateur status. Anyone gaming the system and have some good tips?

 

Flyertalk is just too much to trudge through on a daily basis.

[copperhead]

I've been researching like crazy for months now, but haven't been in quite the right financial situation to properly game it. Right now I'm building Hilton points and I'll be shooting for gold status next year so I can take the woman to a resort in Destin, Florida. What kind of info are you looking for? The best source of info I've found is http://www.millionmilesecrets.com

 

A lot of the deals out there are luck and timing, which is where forums like flyer talk come in, but a lit of people there are hesitant to share the really good deals because they don't want them to get shut off.

 

I usually drive everywhere so I care more about hotels than air fare, but once I'm set with Hilton for a while I will probably go for southwest points, they have some good programs and fly out of here. That, and the places I like to fly to have dirt cheap tickets anyway

[iwishiwascool]

I'm interested in the inside secrets. I've done most of the basics...

 

I have a chase sapphire preferred (which is made of metal and therefore awesome); it gets great ratings and got us 40k sign up points. I use that for most day to day expenses and managed to rack up another 20k points since we got it. My wife and I each got the Hilton Honors select (80k points sign up total). I used the chase Priority Rewards Select all this week in hotels all over and racked up some significant points in addition to the 60k points sign up. We have the SPG Amex (25k points) but most of those hotels arent viable where I travel. My wife just told me she has a few hundred thousand delta sky miles too, but I think those expire.

 

I think we're covered on the cards (until we open business credit accounts next year). I just need whatever the equivalent is to buying gold dollars from the treasury.

 

What would you be doing if your financial situation were different?

[Mensan]

Write check in the airport for refundable ticket. Accept airport receipt. Go home, cancel ticket, book new ticket using miles. Turn in receipt for full reimbursement. Profit.

[iwishiwascool]

Write check in the airport for refundable ticket. Accept airport receipt. Go home, cancel ticket, book new ticket using miles. Turn in receipt for full reimbursement. Profit.

 

Does that actually work or are you speculating?

[copperhead]

I'm interested in the inside secrets. I've done most of the basics...

 

I have a chase sapphire preferred (which is made of metal and therefore awesome); it gets great ratings and got us 40k sign up points. I use that for most day to day expenses and managed to rack up another 20k points since we got it. My wife and I each got the Hilton Honors select (80k points sign up total). I used the chase Priority Rewards Select all this week in hotels all over and racked up some significant points in addition to the 60k points sign up. We have the SPG Amex (25k points) but most of those hotels arent viable where I travel. My wife just told me she has a few hundred thousand delta sky miles too, but I think those expire.

 

I think we're covered on the cards (until we open business credit accounts next year). I just need whatever the equivalent is to buying gold dollars from the treasury.

 

What would you be doing if your financial situation were different?

 

If I had some liquidity I'd be churning cards for the sign up bonus. Generally its safe to do 3-4 cards every 4-6 months. You want to do all of your sign ups on the same day. Generally if you get multiple cards from the same bank on the same day they will combine credit pulls into one so its less of a hit on your credit. Chase is very strict about their programs, you can only get one personal and one business card at a time, and have to put some time between apps, like 4 months. They don't allow you to get bonuses from the same cards ever again. Citi will let you get rewards over and over, except with their American Airlines cards. BOA lets you churn but doesn't have much.

 

I've got an AMEX basic Hilton card and love it, it got me 40k points and I've used it some since then. The Amex Hiltons give you AXON rewards which give you discounts if you book with points for 4 day increments at 5, 6 or 7 category Hiltons. For example, the resort we are going to stay at is a category 7 so basic rewards stays there are 50,000 a night. Our 4 day stay would take 200,000 points but AXON drops that to 145,000. By then, I'll probably get the Amex Surpass Hilton card which will give me another 40k plus gold status for a year. If we were able to schedule our stay over a weekend then I'd skip the Surpass and grab the Citi Reserve Hilton instead, their bonus is two free weekend certificates but they expire in a year, plus free gold status for as long as you keep the card. I'll probably pick that up when the Surpass status runs up. I'll always keep the basic Amex Hilton, the AXON awards are worth it and no annual fee.

 

I've got two of the Citi basic hilton cards, finishing the spend here in the next couple weeks. You can get two more of them every 4 months for 40k each, but this is if you aren't signing up for other better stuff. Citi is generally the only one you can get multiples of the same card at the same time from, just be sure to use two different browser's so the site doesn't think you accidentally tried to refresh the page and ignore one of the apps.

 

I've not found much in the way of cruises but I'd like to.

 

The approach you take will vary depending on how much you like to travel and your credit score and how much you spend a month. I'd like to be able to have one nice vacation a year, so I'm only focusing on Hilton, and eventually airfare to get down to south Florida or the Caribbean. Professional travelers seem to prefer Hyatt, but the easiest bonuses to get are Starwood which you already have and Hilton. Starwood doesn't have very many hotels in the US so their points may be better used when transferred to airlines in 20,000 point increments (gives you a 5,000 point bonus), although you are better off spending money on sign up bonuses.

 

As for sign up bonuses, gift cards are your new best friend so long as you have the cash to pay it back off. This is why I'm not gaming it like I'd like to.

 

I'll post more as I think of it, I gotta get to work now.

[copperhead]

Does that actually work or are you speculating?

 

I think he's talking about doing this as a work practice to make a couple extra bucks. If you travel for a living then its a good way to pad your paycheck, but it doesn't help the casual traveler.

[iwishiwascool]

 

I'll post more as I think of it, I gotta get to work now.

 

Good info. Especially on Citi, I only wish they had more cards to game. It seems like Chase has the corner on rewards cards.

 

We're doing the all-in-one day method. You are right about Chase, my wife has a well over 800 Experian score and was denied by Chase for the Priority Rewards card since we got the Chase Sapphire just 3 months ago. I was approved instantly with an over 700 Exp score since I wasn't on the Saphire card yet.

 

I wasn't sure how fast we spend but since we are both independent contractors and get reimbursed from our clients we managed to put on (and take off [obviously] over $20k is a few months on the Sapphire card. That helps with points. My travel expenses are (mostly) reimbursed so that will help with the Priority Rewards and HH cards.

 

We are trying to have a relatively inexpensive Europe trip this time next year so hopefully the work will pay off.

 

Let's post any tips and tricks we come across in this thread so we can make this shit happen.

[iwishiwascool]

I also just realized that I'm scheduled to spend 152 nights in hotels in the next year. I managed to get 1000 points 2/3 nights this week so far. If I can keep that up... boom.

[iwishiwascool]

So your link already helped me out. I didn't even think of paying our quarterly taxes by credit card. That link showed how to gain points that far offset the convience fee. You just got me ~120,000 points.

[iwishiwascool]

Side note: citi might be a bit more stringent. After just being approved for the weekday select card, I was denied the weekend Reserve card. Looks like we'll have to make a call in the AM.

[copperhead]

Before I go any further I need to say this - to anyone reading this thread, if you're credit score isn't in the 700's, or you have problems being responsible with credit cards, or you don't have the ability to move money around, or you have a very limited income, then this thread is NOT for you. Please hit the back button because this stuff can get you into serious trouble financially if you don't know what you are doing or are in a situation where you can easily get in over your head. A lot of this involves applying for a lot of credit cards, and getting denied will hurt your credit. The credit check for applying will also give you a small ding, but in the long run will help your credit, seeing how it will improve your credit to debt ratio so long as you keep the cards paid off. If you are in the process of building your credit score then start off by reading my building credit sticky in this forum. It's probably not the best guide out there for building credit but its a start.

 

Now, back to the show...

 

 

If you are on Facebook go to these pages and hit the like button:

 

https://www.facebook.com/BoardingArea

https://www.facebook.com/MillionMileSecrets?ref=ts

 

Boarding Area is a website that hosts a ton of travel blogs, and whenever someone posts something new the Boarding Area FB page posts it up, easy way to keep up with stuff.

 

If anyone decides to get an Amex Hilton card, please PM me for a referral first.

 

Since you are an independent contractor it would be simple for you to pick up business cards. Aim for the Chase Ink Bold and Chase Ink Plus. These give 5 points per $ on purchases at office supply stores, some of which sell gift cards. Depending on what you are going after, UR points can be worth more than straight Hilton points. Gift cards are an EASY way to rack up points either this way, or a lot of cards have bonuses for spending at groceries which also sell lots of gift cards and give discounts on gas in the process. My no-fee Amex Hilton gives 6 points/$ at groceries. Lets say I spend $400 a month on groceries and $300 on gas in a month. I go into Kroger, load $400 onto a Kroger gift card to keep things simple, then pick up $300 in Shell gift cards. That $700 is 4200 points for stuff that I'm buying regardless. The Visa and Mastercard gift cards are also great for other expenses if you don't mind the $4 or $5 fee to buy it. Avoid the reloadable debit cards, they are targeting people with poor credit and no banking accounts, and they shut down people trying to use them for anything else.

 

If you ever get denied on an app, call the reconsideration line immediately. Especially with business cards, those are generally denied until they talk to you on the phone. They will want to know how much money you make, spend, etc. More info on that here: http://millionmilesecrets.com/2011/08/15/credit-card-reconsideration/

 

One reason they may turn you down is they generally have a hard credit limit that they will extend to you overall. Let's say they will give you a total of $100,000 credit, and you have 4 cards with $25k limits each. They won't give you anything else, but what they can usually do is reduce the limits on existing cards, or you have the option of cancelling something to make it work. You won't know this until you talk to them. If they do this and you can prove that you move more money through cards than they will give you a limit for, then sometimes they will adjust your hard limit up.

 

As far as bank rewards go, Chase is really good so long as you have a card that has an annual fee, this allows you to transfer points to other rewards clubs. If you don't have an annual fee card, you can only use ultimate rewards on stuff in Chase's rewards mall.

 

Citi ThankYou points are crap, as well as Capital One Venture points. Amex points are good but not quite as good as Chase.

 

Do you decide what hotels you will be staying in when traveling for work? I would suggest making one chain your primary target. You will want to first spend on sign up bonuses, then go after whatever gives the biggest points payout. For Hilton, the Citi Reserve card gives 10 points for every $ spent at a Hilton, the Amex Surpass is 9. Get one or both of those and stick with them. Every other hotel chain except Starwood only has cards through Chase, so have fun with that. Traveling abroad, I'd probably stick with Starwood or Hilton anyway. Also consider Radisson abroad, but their US hotels aren't so hot. They tend to be old and a big run down, yet still charge a lot. They do occasionally run a promotion where you can get a ton of points for staying at 3 different branded hotels in their chain, and the good thing about that is their points don't expire and they have a resort in Orlando and one in Cancun that's only 9,000 points a night. I got about 145,000 points from staying 3 nights, so you can see why that was worth spending some money on. I'd also use this in Europe if I were to ever head that way.

 

When flying in and out of Columbus on domestic flights its usually cheapest to go with Southwest or Airtran so check them first. Southwest bought Airtran so eventually it will all be Southwest anyway. Airtran rewards are set up weird and will probably get merged with Southwest anyway so don't worry too much about them. Southwest is pretty decent, they have Chase 50,000 sign up points cards, including business cards so it would be pretty easy to hit 100k with them. I'd hold off though until they run a promo for a companion pass, sometimes they will offer if you hit 110,000 points they will let a companion fly for free with you for a year. When flying international look at United, their program is suppose to be a bit better than Delta I believe. Citi has American Airlines cards than used to have 70k sign on bonus but I think its gone way down. AA is probably the third choice for domestic flying, after SW and Airtran.

 

When flying, its generally cheaper to fly nonstop than to have layovers. Besides, layovers suck unless you are trying to rack up miles, which is another game entirely. The easy way to figure out what airlines fly where is to bring up the airport's wikipedia page, it shows what carriers fly where so you know where to look first for the cheapest air fare and shortest possible flight.

 

So I guess the best plan of action when playing this game is to figure out what you want to do and where, then figure out the route to make it happen, rather than just rack up as many miles as you possibly can since most points will expire after a year or so of inactivity. You can track most of your rewards points accounts through http://www.awardwallet.com

 

Another way to get easy points or cash back is to go through portals when making online purchases. Chase has one through their Ultimate Rewards program, Southwest has one here:

https://rapidrewardsshopping.southwest.com/

which is nice because so long as you use it once in a while your points won't expire. I'm sure there are plenty others that I don't know about to build points. For cash back, there's http://www.bigcrumbs.com/crumbs/ and http://www.topcashback.com/

 

Unfortunately it's very hard to find a portal for Amazon. Otherwise, whenever buying online check all the portals first for rewards. There's no reason to leave money or points on the table when it costs nothing but a little time to get it.

[copperhead]

So your link already helped me out. I didn't even think of paying our quarterly taxes by credit card. That link showed how to gain points that far offset the convience fee. You just got me ~120,000 points.

 

:fuckyeah:

 

glad I could help

[iwishiwascool]

Before I go any further I need to say this - to anyone reading this thread, if you're credit score isn't in the 700's, or you have problems being responsible with credit cards, or you don't have the ability to move money around, or you have a very limited income, then this thread is NOT for you. Please hit the back button because this stuff can get you into serious trouble financially if you don't know what you are doing or are in a situation where you can easily get in over your head. A lot of this involves applying for a lot of credit cards, and getting denied will hurt your credit. The credit check for applying will also give you a small ding, but in the long run will help your credit, seeing how it will improve your credit to debt ratio so long as you keep the cards paid off. If you are in the process of building your credit score then start off by reading my building credit sticky in this forum. It's probably not the best guide out there for building credit but its a start

 

Good warning. There is no way I could have done this 4-5 years ago.

 

This is great intel, ill read this again in the morning and do some more work.

[iwishiwascool]

Side note, I'm unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, out of Gulf Shores, AL now so I'm figuring out the best flight path still.

[Mensan]

Does that actually work or are you speculating?

 

Yes. Absolutely. Do NOT use a company tracked credit card, pay with a check or a personal card.

[copperhead]

Side note, I'm unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, out of Gulf Shores, AL now so I'm figuring out the best flight path still.

 

Looks like the closest airports are Mobile Regional Airport (MOB) and Pensacola International (PNS)

 

Neither have a direct flight here here. So, the next step is to load the wikipedia pages that I linked above, and also bring up the page for CMH

 

Now, what we are looking for is a carrier that has a connected city in the list.

 

If flying out of MOB we have:

American Eagle (American Airlines) through DFW (Dallas/Fort Worth)

Delta through ATL (Atlanta)

US Airways through CLT (Charlotte)

United through HOU (Houston)

 

If flying out of PNS we have:

Airtran through ATL (Atlanta)

American through DFW (Dallas/Fort Worth) or through MIA (Miami)

Delta through ATL (Atlanta)

United through HOU (Houston), IAD (Washington-Dulles), and maybe ORD (Chicago O'Hare)

US Air through DCA (Washington National) or through CLT (Charlotte)

 

So now we have our carriers and our routes. Next you have to decide what's important for you - collecting miles, using miles, shortest time, cheapest flight, or most comfortable flight. Southwest gives points based off dollars spent, to my knowledge the rest of the airlines award by how many miles flown. So if trying to earn miles you would look at American, Delta, United or US Air and come up with the longest distance for the cheapest price, but I think that's a stupid way to spend my time so I'm not going to look that up. I'm going to try to find the shortest travel time at the best price. OF course, your schedule would also dictate when you would be leaving, but since I don't know that I'll ignore it.

 

It looks like the two airports are about the same distance, with Pensacola being a bit closer. I'm going to look up flights for this saturday since you didn't specify when you would be leaving.

 

Remember my rule number one - always check Southwest and Airtran first. SW doesn't fly through either of those, so next is Airtran. That flight would cost $322, leaves at 6am, stop in ATL for 2 hours and 17 minutes, and arrives at noon. Looks like 6 hours to me but the website says its 5 hours, dunno why.

 

My next choice for price is American. Most flights from MOB layover in ORD, screw that. They have one that's MOB - DFW - CMH for $332, leaves at 11:55am, arrives at 5:40pm. Cheapest they have from PNS is $558, so forget it. BUT right now American is cancelling a lot of flights. Their pilots tried to strike but were informed they weren't allowed to so they are all calling off. Don't use them until this passes by unless you don't care if your flight is cancelled or you get bumped.

 

Delta from PNS is $600 all day long. Pass. Delta from MOB has a 7:10am to 11:46am flight for $331, stopping in ATL for 43 minutes. Now we're talking.

 

US Air from PNS has a 2:30pm to 7:20pm flight that stops in CLT for 51 minutes for $321 or a 10:55am to 4:11pm that stops in CLT for an hour and 17 minutes for $321. From MOB they have 6am to 10:30am that stops in CLT for 34 minutes for $330.

 

United has from PNS a 10:02am to 3:47pm that stops in ORD for 1 hour 7 minutes for $322. From MOB they show a "partner flight" which is just the US Air flight booked through them at 6am.

 

Off the top I would eliminate American because of the problems they are having. Next I would eliminate Airtran because of the long layover. The remaining flights are all almost identical in price, so that's no longer a factor. This leaves us with:

 

Delta:

MOB - ATL - CMH 7:10a - 11:46a 3h 36min $331

 

US Air:

PNS - CLT - CMH 2:30p - 7:20p 4h 50min $321

PNS - CLT - CMH 10:55a - 4:11p 5h 16min $321

MOB - CLT - CMH 6:00a - 10:30p 3h 30min $330

 

United:

PNS - ORD - CMH 10:02 - 3:47p 5h 45min $322

 

Now it's just a matter of what time works best for you and which airport is easier to get to. Going strictly off the numbers I'd pick the Delta flight myself, its a red eye but not quite as much, smaller airport means easier to glide through security, and its the second shortest trip time by 6 minutes. Of course, you could always throw in seating preference. From the airline's website you should be able to see what plane you will be on and what seats are currently available, then go to http://www.seatguru.com/ to see where you would find the best seats. But here's another wrench to throw into the works - booking late means the price of first class/business class drops. That same $331 Delta flight has two available first class seats for only $471. For an extra $140, I'd think pretty hard about going for it.

 

Which brings me to another travel hack - when flying Airtran, call within 24 hours of the flight and ask if they have any first class/business class upgrades available for your flight. If so they will usually give them away for $50-$100.

[copperhead]

IB allthatshit.jpg

IB TL;DR

 

edit - holy shitballs I just realized I need to be a travel agent. How well do they get paid, anyone know?

 

edit #2 - I just realized I made my 5,000th post in this thread. Yay for me.

[iwishiwascool]

IB allthatshit.jpg

IB TL;DR

 

edit - holy shitballs I just realized I need to be a travel agent. How well do they get paid, anyone know?

 

edit #2 - I just realized I made my 5,000th post in this thread. Yay for me.

 

Awesome info. I haven't even started looking at redemption yet. I did just see that my priority club select card is an 80,000 point sign up with no minimum spend. Awesome.

[copperhead]

How to have a dirt cheap ski weekend in Utah:

 

http://www.travelbypoints.com/2012/09/22/book-your-almost-free-ski-weekend-trip-for-less-than-80-per-person/

[Akula]

I take my family of 4 to Hawaii every year for 10ish days. Have been for several years now. I don't pay for the flight, I don't pay for the hotel and the rental car is free. 10 days in hawaii, just meals. (this year I had 5 of us and 2 hotel rooms)

 

The funny thing is, I am a professional Hacker that travels.... So this thread works on a couple of levels.

 

Here is what you do. Stay in the same hotel chain, EVERYTIME. Book flights on the same airline and since you are going out of CMH you want to use something that does hub-and-spoke service out of CMH.

 

Why? Because you get credit for every segment you take. So if you are flying to Atlanta, its better to use United because you go to ORD first, this means a round trip is 4 segments. If you fly delta, that is only 2 segments. 6 round trips and you are almost the first elite tier, or you can be 1/2 way.

 

Elite tiers build miles faster. I get 500 miles to fly to chicago and an additional 500 miles in rewards miles, totalling 1000. I am 1K on united (flown 120,000 this year so far).

 

I use the United credit card because that is where I need points the most. For you it might be Hilton/Marriott or whatever.

 

Figure out your goal and focus on that.

[iwishiwascool]

I prefer Starwood points (I think) but Holiday Inns are more convenient on my travels down here. Only about 15% of my business (for now) is conducted outside of the deep south.

 

We are accumulating Chase Rewards miles via the Sapphire card at a pretty good clip but I don't think that is effective as using an AA Explorer or similar card. As of this weekend we are up to almost 300,000k total miles/points total but they are scattered in different programs.

 

There is a lot to learn about this shit.

[Akula]

I prefer Starwood points (I think) but Holiday Inns are more convenient on my travels down here. Only about 15% of my business (for now) is conducted outside of the deep south.

 

We are accumulating Chase Rewards miles via the Sapphire card at a pretty good clip but I don't think that is effective as using an AA Explorer or similar card. As of this weekend we are up to almost 300,000k total miles/points total but they are scattered in different programs.

 

There is a lot to learn about this shit.

 

And that is why regular reading and asking of questions on flyertalk is how I am able to travel all over the world for free.

 

I took my wife to Australia on my last APAC excursion, she flew in First Class (the kind with a bed) for free on the 14 hour segment.

[iwishiwascool]

I took my wife to Australia on my last APAC excursion, she flew in First Class (the kind with a bed) for free on the 14 hour segment.

 

That is awesome. My mother in law has been trying to drag my FIL there for years. I could probably get him on board if he had these kind of accommodations.

[Akula]

I go there fairly often (1 or 2 times per year) and I enjoy it. I do more travel in places like Singapore, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur but I also fly a bit domestically.