

I had a streak in college when I “broke bad.” I was a straight-up kleptomaniac for about a week. I went from being the kid who felt immense guilt over yoinking a pack of bubble gum, to a guy who shamelessly stole Christmas gifts for every member of his family. It started out with stuffing a pair of snowboarding mittens into a box of boots I was already buying. It was a dishonest, homemade version of “buy-one-get-one-free,” and I justified it despite knowing it was wrong.
At the peak of my depravity, I walked into an office supply/shipping store and picked up a $24 Rand McNally Road Atlas off the shelf, walked back to the back of the store, put it in a large envelope, and paid $4.50 to mail it to myself.
While I’ll admit that I’m still a little awestruck by my own clever methods, I’m not proud of those days. And while I’m as value-conscious as I’ve ever been, I’m a reformed man. At least, I think I am. You see, now I get my “five-finger-discount” on the biggest of my spending categories – travel – and I get it by understanding and using loyalty point programs.
It doesn’t sound as flashy, but I’m telling you, it’s a colossal heist. Here’s a taste. In the past three years I’ve stayed 49 free nights in hotels. I flew my family of six to Panama for $261 out-of-pocket. My wife and I just returned from a 2-week trip to Italy that we booked for 40,000 points and $81 each. I could go on and on, but you’re catching the vision.
You see, most people think they’re already playing the frequent flyer mile game… but they aren’t even in the stadium. There is a world of travel-hacking out there that would astonish you… and the fact that you have an Alaskan Airlines credit card is only getting you started. There are people like me who are hoarding loyalty points aggressively (chubby-kid-under-the-piñata style) and I want to invite you to become one of them.
Here’s my Five Finger Formula:
The first key to taking advantage of loyalty programs is, of course, to understand them. It’s not nearly as intimidating as you’d think. To begin, know that there are essentially three forms of travel rewards you can accrue:
Now that you know that there are programs in each of these categories, consider that you can obtain points a few different ways:
You don’t need to go out and sign up for a bunch of credit cards right away, but there is no harm in enrolling in the loyalty programs for airlines and hotels.
Do yourself a favor and create a single username and complex password that you’ll use to register for all of the programs. Email yourself the account numbers once you’ve registered and keep them in a special email folder. By doing this you’ll also be piped into special promotions they’ll email from time to time.
Also, this way you’ll always be ready in case you happen to fly on an airline you don’t normally use or stay in a hotel you weren’t a member of. Commit that you won’t allow opportunities to fall by the wayside. I have friends who are crazy about travel and yet somehow they allowed 17,000 miles to go uncaptured after flying to China without registering for a program. [gagging sound] Don’t do that to yourself.
Also, create a stream of ongoing points and miles education by subscribing to some blogs. Obviously we’d welcome your subscription to WorldWanderlusting.com and we’d urge you to check out MillionMileSecrets.com and the forums at Flyertalk.com. This way you’ll always be aware of what’s happening in the Miles and Points world.
Maybe you’ve already got some built up… perfect, that’s a good start, but good is an impediment to great. I want you to get a taste of what it feels like to be empowered by an awardwallet that is brimming with opportunity.
My favorite “getting started” strategy right now is to begin piling up points with the Barclaycard Arrival World Mastercard. It’s super simple to redeem the points – just reimburse yourself for travel purchases. The up front bonus is healthy – you get $440 in free travel after spending $1000.
Aside from that, make a determination about which programs best suit you. If you fly Southwest Airlines often, search out some ways to pile up Southwest Rapid Rewards. If you love staying in Starwood Hotels, get the Starwood card that offers a bonus of enough points to stay as many as 8 nights in Category 2 hotels after meeting the minimum spending requirement.
This is easily the most challenging part – travel points are currency, and as such, their value is variable. The most confusing element for people is the concept of “miles.” They’re referred to as such because historically airline miles have been accrued on a “miles-flown” basis. But with most programs redemption has little to do with distance flown. Because I always think in terms of maximum value, these figures are for the lowest possible redemption for each program. You can pay much more in points than this, but these are baseline figures for the lowest amount you can get away with.
Here’s how redemption breaks out for most airlines:
You can research each program on their individual websites, but we consolidated the links in our Using Airlines Miles page.
But getting free flights is just the cake. Free hotels? Now that’s the icing. The variance on hotel points is far greater, so it’s nearly impossible to create a value system that runs across systems.
The first thing you need to understand about hotel points is that all hotel chains divide their hotel properties into categories. The higher the category, the more points they call for. In most cases, Category 1 hotels are very few and far between. I always like to look at programs in terms of how many points it takes to redeem for a Category 2 hotel – that gives you a good baseline value to compare across the board.
Approximate points required for 1 night in a Category 2 hotel:
Now, you’ve got a stash of hotel and airline points that you’re greedily counting like Scrooge McDuck. All you need is a way to tie it all together – is it too much to ask for free car rentals and cruises too? No, it’s not, in fact. You can pull this off with Bank Point programs that have a portal that allows you to book these things for free, or that provide reimbursement for travel purchases. In many cases you can also transfer these points to hotel or airline programs to top off your accounts when you need a little boost.
Here are the major bank point programs:
Overall, the points are ultimately worth to you what you value them for. If you never want to go on a cruise, maybe the Barclaycard Arrival points aren’t all that great for you. If you stay with friends or rent vacation homes, maybe you’re better off to focus on airline miles over hotel points. The important piece is that you know what you want and go get them.
All this is for naught if you can’t figure out how to use these points you’ve been gathering. There’s always the good old fashioned way of calling in, but unless your a pro at interpreting broken English and waiting on hold excites you, you’re going to want to book online.
I keep track of all my points in various programs with www.AwardWallet.com – it’s a handy tool that keeps me organized and feeds my wanderlust when I need a pick-me-up.
Every program has an online portal and booking with points is not much different from normal reservations.
We’ve done a number of instructional videos on our Youtube Channel, but fiddling around with it yourself is really the best way to get it accomplished.
When booking the most important rule is to be flexible. This is the real secret to using loyalty points efficiently. I always tell people, “If you want to use frequent flyer miles to go to Hawaii from December 23 to Jan 2nd and stay at a specific hotel, there’s a chance you could do it, but it’s going to completely drain you. If you want to go to someplace with a nice beach in the wintertime and stay in a clean hotel, you will be amazed by how much you can do with how little.”
Travel (real travel, as in, going places that are not occupied by cartoon characters) is about experiences. It’s about learning and living and loving. It’s about adventure and risk and excitement… and you don’t get any of that if you aren’t willing to break out of your comfort zone.
Your frequent flyer adventures will be so much cheaper, so many more, and so much more memorable if you’ll be willing to take what opportunities present themselves, rather than prescribing a necessary plan that they must conform to.
Here’s an example: Every quarter Priority Club releases their list of Point Breaks hotels – properties they let you stay at for 5,000 points/night. Since I have 85k, I could stay in one of those puppies for as many as 17 nights. Looking through the list I think, “Hmm…a Staybridge Suites in Valley Forge, PA… isn’t that where General George Washington knelt and said a humble prayer before leading the Continental Army to victory?” Guess who just booked a trip to Pennsylvania?
As with any journey of a thousand miles, just as Lao-Tzu said, this one begins with a single step – a step in the direction of almost-free travel. Commit now to do more than casually collect frequent flyer miles and points. If you’re doing it right, it will feel like stealing – the exhilarating part, without the guilt. Just like travel itself, it’s something you’ll never regret.
If you aren’t already an IHG Rewards Club member, I’ve got a deal for you. And if you are already an IHG Rewards Club member, I still have a deal for you. First we’ll talk to the newbies, though.
One of the steps we’ve outlined in our comprehensive post on A Five Finger Formula to a Frequent Flyer Fortune is to sign up for various hotel and airline programs so that you have logins and can begin accumulating points. Often there are promotions and bonuses for enrolling and now just happens to be one of those times.
In all the years we’ve been promoting loyalty point abuse, the only hitch people ever seem to have is the worry about opening credit cards. We get it. Not everyone is able to resist the urge to spend money they don’t have. Not everyone is willing to keep diligent records of which cards they’ve applied for and ensure that they make all their payments on time and in full.
But here’s an opportunity that our readers can take advantage of without any credit application.
Right now there’s a promotion that will allow new IHG Rewards Club members to earn a free night stay in ANY IHG hotel, simply by enrolling and then staying twice before the end of 2015. If you stay 4 times, you can earn 2 free nights in ANY IHG hotel.
At first blush this appears to be a mediocre promotion – kind of a “buy 2, get 1 free” deal. That’s not inspiring. If that’s all this deal were, we wouldn’t be sharing it with you.
Here’s the secret to making this absolutely worthwhile: Stay in cheap hotels to meet the terms, and then use your free nights in the most freaking expensive hotels you can find (devilish smile).
First off, I want to point out the difference between a “stay” and a “night.” The wording in this promotion is clear that they will credit you for “stays,” not nights. This means that if you stay two consecutive nights, it still only counts for one stay. In order to meet the terms, you’ll need to stay on two different occasions or four (for the 2 nights).
Now, knowing that, the best way to take advantage is to book 2 or 4 separate nights. You could even do it in the same city for consecutive nights if that’s easier for you. Let’s just say, for example, that you’ll be going to some Boise State Football games this year (good for you!). You could stay at the Candlewood Suites Hotel for ~$92/night.
Do that a couple of times and then you could redeem your free night at the Willard Intercontinental in Washington DC.
Or spend a couple nights on different stays at the Candlewood Suites in Phoenix.
And go ahead and use that free night at the Intercontinental in Amsterdam.
There are lots of awesome places you could stay at some of the finest hotels in the world – London, Paris, New York City, or great resorts in places like Bora Bora, Tahiti, or the Caribbean. Just visit this link to see what amazing hotels you could stay in.
All you have to do is enroll in the IHG Rewards club and register for the Accelerate Promotion, then meet the requirements to take advantage of this promotion.
Could you do this for your spouse, too? Yes… you’re starting to capture the vision now.
Now, if you’re already an IHG Rewards Club member, you’ll want to login to your account to see what requirements they want you to meet in order to secure up to 50k more points. Here’s the summary of what I’ve been offered.
Your terms might be different, but check them out and see.
The prospect of 50k points starts to sound pretty good when you look at the Point Breaks hotels that you can stay at for 5k points/night. These are just some of the hotels in the US and they have them all over the world.
Now, let’s just imagine for a moment that you’re ravaging the first promotion, and licking your chops for some points to use on those Point Break hotels. One way you could pile on 60k of them would be to sign up for the IHG Rewards Club Select Credit Card from Chase and then spend $1000 within the first 3 months.
It gets even better when you realize that the annual fee is waived on this card for the first year and that for every year you hold the card, you pay a tiny little $49 annual fee in exchange for one free night in ANY IHG hotel. Yes, you know where I’m going again. Just use that free night at an uber-expensive hotel and you’ll always get the best of them.
At one point we used to recieve a commission for card applications that were processed through links on our site. Sadly, those days are long gone. These days our only motivation to continue to provide awesome ideas like this one is to see you, our faithful followers, abuse the hell out of reap the benefits of promotions like these.
Cheers to more almost free travel for all of us.
The increased bonus on the Delta card that Sheldon wrote about had many of you jumping on board to pick up some Skymiles – enough, in fact, for you and your spouse to take an almost-free domestic trip. The only hurdle now will be for you to find an almost-free place to stay.
Fortunately for you, there are two limited time offers out there that are worth taking a close look at. I have raved about the Chase IHG Rewards Club Visa as being the new king of the hill when it comes to hotel cards. I still love that offer, but here are two more that you should put into consideration.
Minimum spending: $3000 in the first 3 months
Status: 15 credits towards elite membership
Annual fee: $85 annual fee, not waived the first year
Bonus: Free night in category 1-5 hotel each year you keep the card (more than worth the $85 annual fee)
This offer expires on August 31st.
Example use: One great way to use this is to also take advantage of Marriott’s “Redeem 4 nights, get 5th night free” perk. You could do this in a category 4 or 5 hotel which requires 15-20k points per night.
I always like to use www.AwardMapper.com to find hotels in specific point categories. As you can see, there’s no shortage of Category 4 and 5 Marriott Hotels in the United States.
20k point/night Marriott Hotels
Now, we could find all kinds of amazing places to stay, but just for the sake of throwing it out there, you could stay 5 nights at the Residence Inn in Murfeesboro, Tennesee, just a few miles from downtown Nashville. Not only is the Residence Inn extremely comfortable, it also has one of the best free breakfast spreads around.
Link to the Marriott Rewards Premier Credit Card
Minimum spending: $2000 in the first 3 months
Annual fee: No annual fee
Status: Silver status as long as you have the card
Limited time offer – period uncertain.
Example use: There are so many hotels in the Hilton family – Hampton Inn, Double Tree, Embassy Suites, and more. For whatever reason, I like the idea of using these 75k points on fewer nights in a really nice hotel, so as an example, we’ll look for a place we could stay at for 25k/night for 3 nights.
Again, as you can see, there are plenty of them all over the United States. Check out AwardMapper.com to see what’s available in your dream destination.
Hilton Hotels for 20-25k points/night
I instantly honed in on San Diego and discovered the Doubletree Golf Hotel and Resort by Hilton. The property looks amazing and 3 nights there would be rejuvenating.
I’ve been in this hobby, passion, addiction for the last five years. Offers for 50k Delta miles come and go, but if you’re in the market for Delta Skymiles, now is a great time to pick up this card.
Link: Delta Amex Gold Personal/Business 50k Offer (expires 6/30/15)
On a rare occasion you’ll see American Express counter and offer a bonus like this. They’re responding to the 50k offer that Chase and United ran last month. For the most part unless you’re targeted the generally published offer is for 30k Delta miles.
Delta has been known as the company that doesn’t have SkyMiles as much as they have SkyPesos. This is a joke amongst travelers who have tried to use their miles, yet had a hard time finding availability in using the miles.
Annual Fee: $95 annual fee is waived for the first year
Foreign Transaction Fees: Waived
Baggage Fees: Waives the baggage fee (1st bag only) for yourself as well as up to 8 people traveling on the same booked itinerary.
Delta Bonus: You’ve got to spend $2000 in the first 3 months of card membership before they drop 50k Delta miles in your account.
Statement Credit: Also, the $50 statement credit is only applicable in the following scenarios:
One statement credit for $50 will be issued to your Card account after a Delta purchase is charged to your Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card within your first 3 months of Card Membership. Purchases to meet the spend requirement include those made by both the Basic and Additional Card Members on the Card Account. Purchase must be made directly through Delta. A purchase may not qualify for the statement credit if it is submitted under a merchant code that has not been categorized as a Delta merchant code as of the date of the purchase(s).
This has not been tested: I believe that you should be able to buy a gift certificate from Delta.com for $50, which keeps you from having to actually purchase a Delta flight within the first 3 months of card membership.
Recently Delta completely removed their award chart and left a simple statement that talks about how many miles it takes to book a trip within the USA:
Within and between the Continental U.S., Alaska and Canada, round-trip Award Tickets will continue to start at 25,000 miles (plus taxes and fees). One Way Award Tickets for 10,000 miles (plus fees and taxes) are now available to select destinations.
Their old chart used to look like this:
New Delta Award Chart After June 2014
The 50k Delta miles should get you two roundtrip tickets within the USA. Living in Idaho makes Delta miles great because they actually fly out of Idaho Falls. That is a luxury rarely enjoyed.
Back in the day Amex was liberal in offering bonuses multiple times throughout a lifetime. Today they’ve tightened up this, which gives you an even better reason to pick up this card while they’re having this splendid offer.
Personal Card says this:
“If we identify you as currently having an American Express® Card account, you may not be eligible for this welcome bonus offer. This offer is also not available to applicants who have or have had this product.”
Business Card says this:
“Welcome bonus offer not available to applicants who have or have had this product within the last 12 months.”
It’s interesting to me that they’re willing to give the bonus to a business more than once, but a personal card you can only get it once in your lifetime. I made a huge mistake a few years back and picked up this card when the bonus was a measly 30,000, and it didn’t come with a statement credit either, ouch!
I love this hobby. Traveling is part of my identity. Using miles to offset expensive airline tickets is always awesome. Pick up this card while the offer is up to 50k and score the extra 20k miles that will always benefit you!
What are your thoughts about this offer? Do you plan on getting this card?