I know a lot of people who always tell me, “I can’t afford to go on trips. It is too expensive.” After having been involved in this adventure of acquiring as many frequent flier miles as possible I find that the previous statement to be inaccurate.
YOU CAN DO IT
Most people have good enough credit, but don’t have enough time to dedicated to finding the best deals. It just so happens that we work hard to scour the very best deals so you don’t have to worry about finding them.
Take a little while reading through some of our past posts that talk about making it happen. Let me explain how my next trip came to me for $20.
AAdvantage 75,000 Deal
I bumped into the American Airlines deal with Citi Card that offered 75,000 AAdvantage miles in 2010 for an initial sign on bonus. I got the card, met the spending requirement, and scored the miles. It seemed too easy, so I decided to get the card for my wife. She got the card in late 2010 and scored the 75,000 miles. I then got the Citi Business 75,000 Visa card and got another 75,000 miles. I couldn’t believe how they were stacking up. Amongst other flights and whatnot we had about 300,000 miles.
I then was getting excited about spending the miles. We took an amazing trip to Costa Rica and we still had tons of miles left over. My wife has an aunt and uncle in Tennessee that always invite us out, so we decided to head out there. We waited for a good deal, and used our Citi card to get the Citi Reduced Mileage Awards amount of only 17,500 for each ticket instead of the normal 25,000. This saved us 15,000 miles between the both of us.
This means that we will have an additional 15,000 miles for our next trip, and thereby extending the use of the miles. It hasn’t cost us any money to get these cards, yet we have definitely reaped the benefits.
We will be staying at my wife’s aunt and uncle’s house in Tennessee. I’m looking at my costs as this:
- $20 for the tickets ($10 each)
- $50 baggage fees (We will only check one bag for both of us)
- $50 hotel for a night in a hotel in Salt Lake City the night before the flight. This will allow us to avoid paying $49 in parking fees. We talked about this before.
- $20 in food on the way there an the way back.
I’m thinking that this trip might cost us $140 to go and visit family. I think that anyone can cough up $140 if it allows them to go and see their family.
For this reason I always tell people that they can fly for free using frequent flier miles. You just need to put a little bit of time into the deals, pay you bills of each month, and then score the great deals and travel.
After this trip my little boy will have gone to 8 different states within his first six months of being born. We are definitely taking advantage of having him for free as a lap child. The best part is that our seats are free and our child flies for free too. I feel like if someone really wants to travel, then it is possible. It is especially possible if you stay with a friend, or if you use couchsurfing.org.
Rumors of new United Explorer Plus Credit Card
Rumors are out that United is going to be pumping up their current offer on their Explorer Plus credit card that is offered by Chase to a 50,000 bonus on the first purchase and an additional 10,000 bonus if you spend $25,000 on the card. This is still a rumor and hasn’t been confirmed yet.
Hotel Points: Starwood Preferred Guest points that will give you free nights at Sheraton Hotels
