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Travel hacking is the ultimate secret weapon for exploring the world without draining your wallet.
By mastering the art of earning and redeeming travel rewards, you can enjoy free flights, luxury hotel stays, and upgrades that would otherwise seem out of reach. Yet, despite its allure, travel hacking remains a mystery to many travelers.
The complexity of loyalty programs, the fine print in credit card offers, and the time required to navigate the details deter many people from trying.
As someone who has used dozens of reward programs, I get a lot of questions about how to make the most out of travel hacking and what programs are best. In this article, I decided to share my expertise so you can enjoy travel perks.
If you are ready to turn your dream vacation into a reality, keep reading.
What is travel hacking?
Travel hacking is the practice of using various travel reward programs and credit cards to collect points and convert them into discounted or free hotel stays, activities, and flights. Many airlines and hotel chains offer credit cards and loyalty programs, and if you use them strategically, you can often get free airfare, accommodations, and car rentals.
Some credit cards even give you travel points when you make non-travel purchases allowing you to book hotels, airline tickets, and other travel-related expenses with these points through their platform.
Travel hacking tools that I love and trust
✅ FareDrop
FareDrop is one of my favorite websites for airline deals. All you need is to choose your departure point and a destination and they will send the best deals straight to your inbox, so you don’t have to spend hours on the Internet looking for the best deals. This is one of the best websites to travel hack flights.
✅ Secret Flying
If you want to score cheap flights, use this website! Secret Flying specializes in finding heavily discounted fares, including those, where airlines accidentally list prices far lower than usual. Their deals can save you hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on flights.
✅ Hotels.com
My favorite search engine for accommodations, Hotels.com offers incredible value, if you stick with them. Some platforms, like Airbnb, have no rewards and can slap a hefty cleaning fee on top of your rate, hotels.com gives you cash back on every stay. The more you use the platform, the more discounts you get, which can go as high as 30 and 40 percent of the price of your stay.
✅ HotelTonight
If you need to find a hotel on the spot, prices could be high. HotelTonight aims to help you find the cheapest accommodations on a given day without spending hundreds of dollars.
✅ Trusted Housesitters
If you are an animal lover, you should try this platform. Trusted Housesitters give you free accommodations around the globe in exchange for looking after furry friends.
Travel hacking for beginners: 10 tips to help you score better deals
1. Maximize your credit card rewards
The first step toward scoring travel freebies is choosing a credit card that offers solid perks like points, miles, or cash back that you can use toward travel-related purchases.
Some of the best travel credit cards are Chase Sapphire Preferred, Capital One Venture, and American Express Platinum. These credit cards have excellent reward programs allowing you to earn up to 75,000 miles if you spend a certain amount of money in the first few months after opening your account.
Many airline credit cars also provide access to travel lounges where you can get free food and wi-fi, as well as free checked-in bags, which can save you hundreds of dollars per year if you travel frequently. A United credit card covers the Global Entry which allows you to breeze through the customs in the US instead of standing in a long line.
And a cherry on top of the cake, many airline credit cards offer 0% APR on purchases when you sign up for their credit card for the first time.
2. Use frequent flyer programs
Major airlines like United, Delta, and Jet Blue have credit cards, but these credit cards often come with an annual fee. The good news is that airlines also have free loyalty programs where you can earn miles for flights and other purchases. For instance, I use a United Airlines loyalty program, which allows me to earn bonus points every time I book my United flight through its platform.
What’s better is that many airlines partner with other carriers, allowing you to earn and redeem miles across multiple airlines.
Did you know that you can use Opinion Miles Club to take surveys and get United Airlines SkyMiles in exchange.
3. Leverage hotel loyalty programs
If you prefer specific hotel chains, consider signing up for their loyalty programs. Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors, or World of Hyatt have loyalty programs where you can earn points for each stay. Hotel loyalty credit cards work especially well if you travel frequently, as you can accumulate points faster to justify the annual fee.
4. Accumulate Points Through hotel booking platforms
Another way to get discounted and free accommodations is on platforms like Booking, and HostelWorld, which allow you to accumulate points that you can later convert into free stays and discounts.
5. Look for prices first, destination second
One of the best travel hacks I’ve come across was to look for good prices first and destination second. While most travelers zero in on a specific destination and look for prices after that, searching for lower prices allowed me to discover places that often fly under the radar. Next time you plan your vacation, look for the most cost-effective prices and try to decide based on the best deal you find.
6. Be flexible with your travel dates
I can give you tons of advice on how to score cheap flights, but for the sake of this article, I will focus on the most important ones.
For starters, I suggest flying mid-week and avoiding major holidays, when prices often increase a few fold. The same goes for spring break when you compete for accommodations and tours with thousands of college kids.
You should also book your flights in the middle of the week, so you spend fewer miles.
If you have more time, consider stopovers, which can make your flights cheaper. Some airlines allow free or low-cost stopovers which is a perfect opportunity to explore a new city.
7. Travel during shoulder season
High season could be tough to avoid depending on your available time. If you want to enjoy a warm Caribbean getaway in winter or go island hopping in Greece in summer, there’s no way around paying higher prices.
Meanwhile, the low season sometimes has less-than-ideal weather, which can make it difficult to enjoy your getaway due to rain, heat, cold, or other external factors that are completely outside your control.
Shoulder months are the best because they allow you to avoid the high season with its crowds and high prices and make the best of your trip.
8. Use travel portals for flight booking
You can often find the best deals on flights on platforms like Google Flights, Skyscanner, Hopper, and Scott Cheap Flights (recently renamed Going), which allow you to compare flights by date and day of the week. Look for flights at mid-week and avoid weekends, when they are usually more expensive.
9. Buy travel insurance
You never know what might go wrong on your trip. Some travelers overlook travel insurance, which is a mistake, because it’s relatively inexpensive, but can pay huge dividends in case of an emergency.
I recommend (and use) SafetyWing, flexible travel insurance with multiple plans that cover you in case of an emergency like hospital visits, missed or canceled flights, and lost luggage.
Another option is to get travel insurance from your credit card. Many travel cards include perks like trip cancellation protection, baggage insurance, and rental car coverage. Some cards also offer travel insurance for car rentals, which might come in handy.
10. Stay organized
Staying organized is a key to scoring good deals because they don’t last long. If you are looking for flights, you can set up alerts, so once a good price is available, you will get a notification and have a chance to book it before everyone else gets wind of it.
Planning your vacation is also a good strategy. Book flights to popular destinations early and use apps like AwardWallet to keep tabs on your reward programs.
So how do I start travel hacking?
Starting in travel hacking is easier than you think. Find the best travel credit cards and programs for your goals and figure out if you have a good enough credit score to get them. Once you get approved, start making purchases to accumulate your travel points and when you get your bonus, use it to get travel freebies.
1. Determine your objectives
Before diving into the world of travel hacking, it’s important to think about what you ultimately want to achieve. Do you want free flights, steep discounts on all-inclusive resorts, or cover other travel-related purchases like transportation, activities, and dining?
2. Choose the best credit card to achieve your goals
Some credit cards have zero annual fees and fewer rewards, while others like American Express Platinum have a hefty annual fee, but come with incredible perks like credit toward flights, hotels, Uber credit, and work perfectly for business travelers. Look for a credit card that offers the best incentives.
3. Develop a plan and start spending
Before you start using your credit card, loyalty program (or a combination), you should have a solid plan to achieve your goal and how much you can afford to spend to get the sign-up bonus (in the case of airline credit cards).
4. Combine travel programs
You can combine different travel programs to get multiple perks. For instance, you can sign up for dining read programs affiliated with hotels and airlines like Hilton Honors Dining, Delta SkyMiles Dining, or United Airlines MileagePlus Dining, which allow you to earn solid points every time you eat out in a restaurant.
You can also use shopping portals offered by many loyalty programs to maximize your rewards, every time you need to buy something online.
5. Convert your points to travel purchases
Once you get your bonus, book your free flight or hotel! There’s nothing better than scoring freebies, and many loyalty programs offer recurring bonuses if you keep spending money with them.
Travel hacking: FAQs
Is travel hacking worth it?
Yes, travel hacking is worth it. If you utilize it correctly, you can significantly bring down the cost of your trip, or make it free. The key here is to find a balance between spending and obtaining benefits to make sure you are getting your money’s worth.
How to get free travel?
You can score free travel by signing up for airline credit cards, hotel loyalty programs, or joining volunteer programs that often provide free accommodations, meals, and sometimes, even flights. You can also consider certain professions that involve full-time travel like an airline pilot, cruise ship employee, or flight attendant.
How to get a free flight ticket?
The easiest way to earn a free ticket is by opening a credit card with your preferred airline and using it for regular purchases, so you can quickly reach the amount required for a welcome bonus. Another option is to sign up for an airline loyalty program to accumulate points when you book a flight.
Final word on travel hacking:
My travel hacking story started when I signed up for the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card and spent $4,000 on general purchases in the first four months. Before that, I used a combination of hotel loyalty programs and flight search engines. Remember that the key to maximizing your travel rewards is paying off your credit cards on time.
If you end up carrying a big balance and paying high interest rates, it doesn’t matter what credit cards you use, because the debt you owe could well outweigh the benefits you are getting. Finally, remember that not all regards are equal. Some credit cards offer more points for dining out, while others have better rewards for shopping and entertainment.
Research the sign-up bonuses and travel programs to utilize them to their full potential without missing out on anything.