Eleven Free Roundtrip Flights from Boise to Seattle

For almost two years now, I’ve been attacking credit card travel offers with the same careless zeal with which I’ve been devouring sugar since I put the low-carb diet on hold. And let me tell you, it’s been every bit as satisfying! Sheldon and I have been blogging about it for a year now as of this week and we’re thrilled to have a following of wanderlusters who share our passion for travel.

WorldWanderlusting is everything I dreamed it would be and maybe even a little more.  I’ve flown my entire family to Colombia, had a guys’ getaway to Roatan, sent my wife to her friend’s wedding in Rhode Island, and skipped over to New Orleans for a Caribbean cruise.  I’m up to 13 free nights in hotels, and if all of that weren’t enough, I have a stockpile of more than 600,000 miles and points that I figure are worth at least $8000 to me.

I’ve helped friends plan airfare-free trips to Costa Rica, Panama, Hawaii, Peru, and Belize.  Other trips to great stateside destinations like Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Nashville have also been worked up.  Two weeks from now, on my birthday, my brother sets out on a trip to Alpine Europe, on which he figures to save about $4000.

Looking at it as saving money is satisfying enough, but really it’s more than that.  I’m making opportunities to do things that I didn’t think I’d be able to do until I got insanely rich (which, unfortunately, I’m still far from). My four kids under  7 years old have memories of paragliding in Colombia. I’ve been scuba diving with sharks.  I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.

Ok, I’m boring you. You came here because I said something about 11 RT flights from Boise to Seattle. I know it sounds too good to be true, but it isn’t. Chase is doing a limited time offer of a total of 100,000 British Airways “miles” when you sign up for the British Airways Credit Card and spend 20k on it in the first year.  (50k for signing up, 25k for spending the first $10k and 25k for the second $10k). This card does have a $95 annual fee that is not waived for the first year, so unless you’re great at sweet-talking customer service reps, I suppose these miles will cost you $95. Technically, if you do spend the 20k you’d also accumulate another 20k miles, so maybe I should have named this post “Thirteen Roundtrip Flights for $95…”

Before you start daydreaming that those miles could take you across the pond to England (as the name seems to connotate), push that thought from your mind.  BA charges insane fuel surcharges on mile purchases that make that option impractical. Really your best bet is to use them on short, direct flights on American Airlines, like the BOI to SEA route.  Checking the Avios (that’s the name for BA frequent flyer miles) Calculator, you’ll see that it will cost you 4500 Avios each way or 9000 RT.

If you get tired of Seattle, you could always opt for Portland. Ok, yes, Seattle and Portland are basically the same thing… pony up a few more of your free points and fly from Seattle to Sacramento or from Portland to San Francisco.

I’m thinking this would be a perfect way to plan a family cruise to Alaska. If you’re looking for deals on cruises, always check the www.Vacationstogo.com 90 day ticker.  If you call, sometimes they can even get you a better price than what is posted.

So if the idea of having more than ten free short, direct flights in your pocket really appeals to you (and I can’t imagine why it wouldn’t), take a closer look at the BA credit card.

In the interest of full disclosure, we do receive a commission when you apply for cards from our site – its like frosting on the delicious cake of seeing other people jump on the free travel bandwagon. As always, if you have any questions, please just post a comment and we’ll be happy to help you wanderlust with us.