Want to know how to travel for free? Flights and hotel stays are usually the most expensive parts of travel, but it’s fairly easy to get one or both of those covered by changing one thing.
Tip: Earn 60,000 bonus points through Chase with my referral link and 80,000 points through Amex with my referral.
I’ve traveled to France, Greece, Japan (twice), Thailand, Argentina, and Mexico without ever paying for a flight. I’ve stayed in a few fancy hotels I would usually have no business booking. And though I don’t travel quite as much as I used to, I can’t remember the last time I paid for a domestic flight. My flights are always free. I often get discounted hotel stays, free upgrades, and extra incentives like food and valet and spa credits. And I want to make this super clear: 1. I am not wealthy. 2. The only debt I have is a low mortgage with a 3% interest.
How have I been able to travel so often and stay within my means? By maximizing my credit card points and perks, I’ve essentially made my biggest travel expenses — like flights and hotels — free. In this blog post, I’ll explain the details of how you can curb your travel expenses with your credit card rewards.
Myth: You have to be rich to travel
Before I begin, repeat after me:
I do not have to be rich to travel.
I used to think that traveling was only for the wealthy, and that wasn’t me. In my late twenties, I took a work trip to Paris, which was paid for by the company. That trip ignited my passion for travel, and I couldn’t wait to explore more of the world. At that moment, I decided to prioritize travel as my ultimate luxury, even if it meant saving for years. I preferred saving for experiences rather than spending on designer bags or fancy clothes. Fortunately, I didn’t have to save for as long as I thought. I found a way to make my money work for me through credit card rewards points.
I have my grandma and my late friend Charlene to thank for encouraging me to sign up for a rewards card for travel purposes. Both of them had incredible travel experiences thanks to rewards points, and I was sold! Save for expenses within the country — like food, excursions, and local transit — I’ve been able to basically travel for free. I’d also like to note that I’ve been incredibly lucky to go on several press trips that were paid for by brands or tourism boards. For the purposes of this post, I am only talking about my personal trips. So yes, all of those trips I mentioned above? Thanks to credit card points.
A quick note:
I am obviously not a financial expert nor am I advocating for carrying debt. Points are not worth carrying a balance and paying hefty interest fees! This will only work if you can trust yourself to spend wisely and within your means and always pay your bill on time and in full to avoid interest and late fees. If you carry a balance, you’ll end up spending way more on interest than your points will be worth. The goal is to earn points on the money you are already spending. If you’re already struggling financially, have existing debt, or lack impulse control with spending, this is not the post for you.
Now that my mini lecture is out of the way: let’s get into it, so you can travel for free!
What are credit card rewards points and how can they help me travel for free?
Credit card rewards are programs offered by credit card companies that allow you to earn points or cash back for every dollar you spend. The rewards you earn can be redeemed for a variety of things, including travel, merchandise, gift cards, statement credits, and more.
The most common types of credit card rewards programs are:
- Cashback Rewards: With this type of program, you earn a percentage of your purchases back in cash. For example, if you have a card that offers 1% cashback, you’ll earn $1 for every $100 you spend.
- Miles Rewards: Miles-based rewards programs are typically offered by airline credit cards. With this type of program, you earn miles for every dollar you spend, which can be redeemed for airline tickets, upgrades, and more, and help you earn those special ranks within their loyalty programs.
- Points Rewards: With points-based rewards programs, you earn points for every dollar you spend. These points can be redeemed for a variety of rewards, including travel, merchandise, gift cards, and more. This is my choice of rewards card types, because I enjoy the flexibility and my card choices incentivize travel redemption while still giving you many options of airline carriers, hotels, etc.
Choose your rewards credit card
Not all credit cards are created equal when it comes to rewards. Look for a card that offers rewards for the types of purchases you make the most. There are lots of great options out there, but if you’re overwhelmed by decision fatigue, I’ve got you! Since our ultimate goal is to travel more (and travel for free!), I recommend Chase Sapphire Preferred for its low annual fee of $95. You more than make back in points and perks! It has an excellent points system and easy and flexible reward redemption. Note: Before applying for a credit card, make sure to read the terms and conditions carefully, including the annual fee, interest rates, and rewards program details.
My personal choice to help you travel for free: Chase Sapphire Preferred Card
At this point in my life, I have 3 credit cards (two for personal and one for business expenses). But in the beginning I only had one. That’s really all you need to start with, unless you want to get really strategic about how you distribute your spending. As I stated before, my choice for a first time rewards card would be the Chase Sapphire Preferred. It is a perfect points card for frequent travelers, diners, and online grocery shoppers because of its generous point system. If you want a more elite card, you can opt for Chase Sapphire Reserve for a larger fee ($550) and perks and points to match. But if you’re just starting out, skip the larger fee and weigh your elite card options at a later date.
Use my link to earn 60,000 bonus points with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® credit card. (I’ll also get points for referring you.) The bonus kicks in once you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. Because of that spending minimum, I recommend opening the card when you know you’re going to be able to fulfill that minimum without spending beyond your planned expenses. Those 60,000 bonus points are worth $750 when redeemed for travel through Chase. That alone is well worth the $95 annual fee, but there are other perks, too:
Perks of the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card
- Rental car insurance
- Roadside assistance (for a flat fee)
- Trip cancellation, trip delay, and baggage delay insurance
- Lost luggage reimbursement
- Travel accident insurance
- No fee for authorized users (and you’ll get points from their purchases, too)
- $50 in annual ultimate rewards hotel credit booked through Chase
- 10% anniversary points boost
- 6 months free instacart membership
- Additional cash back offers (you have to opt in for these, so I always check them regularly)
- Purchase protection for up to 120 days after purchase, in case of damage or theft. Note: since this card only offers up to $500 per claim, $50,000 per user, I make sure to put larger purchases on my American Express Platinum card — which covers up to $10,000 per incident. I’ll get into my reason for having both in a future post. Use my referral link for 80,000 bonus points upon sign up!
- No foreign transaction fees
- 1.25 value per point for travel redemption through ultimate rewards travel portal
- Easy points transfer to travel partners
You’ll notice that a lot of these perks are especially convenient for travelers. Knowing my travel is protected gives me so much peace of mind. Now let’s talk about how points are determined.
Current Points System of Chase Sapphire Preferred Card
For every dollar you spend with your Chase Sapphire Preferred, you’ll earn a variety of points in return. The current points system (as of 2023) is:
- 5 points per dollar spent on Lyft
- 5 points per dollar spent on travel booked through Chase portal
- 3 points per dollar spent on dining, online groceries, and select streaming services.
- 2 points per dollar on travel booked outside of Chase
- 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases
That means you could potentially spend $100 but get 300-500 points. If you’re already spending on dining, streaming, and any sort of travel (even parking!), you could rack up points quickly. Now let’s talk other ways to maximize your points and rewards.
Maximizing Your Credit Card Rewards So You can travel for free
Here are some tips for getting to your points goal quickly without overspending.
- Use Your Card for Everything: To maximize your points earning, use your credit card for all your purchases. That means even small ones like a cup of coffee. However, be sure to only use your credit card for purchases you can afford to pay off each month. Which brings me to my next bullet point…
- Pay Your Balance in Full Each Month: Avoid paying interest by paying your balance in full and on time. I’ve said it many times but any interest you pay will negate your rewards quickly. Since I’m no longer trying to build credit, I don’t even wait for my balance to hit my statement. I pay it off in full each week to keep myself on track and avoid overspending. I will never stop saying this: credit cards are not free money. Treat it as a debit card, keep track of every purchase, and pay it off regularly. Don’t get in over your head.
- Redeem for travel to stretch your points: You get 25% more points toward rewards travel booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards. That means if you have 100,000 points, it will count as 125,000 points if you redeem for travel! Note: There are also additional, limited time incentives. For instance, right now you get 50% more points if you transfer your points to Marriott Bonvoy.
- Transfer to travel partners to maximize your points value: I always kept my points on Chase rather than transferring them, because I am not loyal to one particular airline. But then my friend Holly told me she was able to book an 8k business class trip for just 170k points (which is a HUGE deal) by transferring her points to a travel partner. Now I’m kicking myself for not doing the same, since I spent almost the same on an economy flight! She introduced me to point.me and I immediately signed up to make it as easy as possible to find the best deal. I’m going to wait until I book a flight to write a full post about it, but so far I’ve found some amazing deals.
It’s also possible to earn extra points. On top of that hefty sign up bonus and 10% anniversary boost, there are other ways to earn bonus points and cash back on your rewards card. We’re focusing on the Chase Sapphire Preferred, so here are some specific tips.
I am strategic about perks and points, so I always check for added incentives. This takes minimal little extra work. A couple of clicks can earn a lot more points and even some cash back:
- Shop through their portal whenever possible: You can earn bonus points when shopping through Chase’s shopping portal (rather than directly through shopping sites). I always check before making any online purchases. For instance, I was planning to make a purchase on Ulta and the Chase portal had extra points incentives. Right now you get 3 points per $1 on Ulta purchases that are made after clicking through the Chase portal. That would only be worth $1 in store or on their direct site. Definitely worth checking and making that one extra click to get triple the points!
- Book travel through the Chase portal: If you’re paying for any travel, book it through the Chase travel portal and you’ll get 5x the points. That’s more than double the points of anything you book outside of their site. Make that extra step and your next trip could be free!
- Opt in for special monthly offers: Every month there are extra cash back offers through certain retailers. You have to opt in to get the cash back, so I check regularly and add them to my card just in case. I’ve gotten cash back for pet food, Starbucks, Dropbox, and lots of other purchases I already planned on making. It’s a little annoying that you have to opt in, but worth it to save money. I think of it as clipping a coupon.
- Refer a friend: If you sign up with my referral link, you currently get a 60,000 points bonus. I get 15,000 points. That’s not why I’m recommending the card! But it does kinda irk me to think how many friends I referred without giving them my referral link. Silly me! Don’t make that same mistake — use your referral link!
Redeem Your Rewards and Travel for Free
One of the reasons I chose Chase Sapphire Preferred is that it rewards you for traveling. Whether buying or redeeming, you get extra points for anything travel related. It gives 1.25 x points when redeemed for travel options through their Ultimate Rewards portal and has multiple travel partners with a 1:1 or better points transfer. Since traveling is the ultimate goal, make sure you stretch your points. Redeem them for a flight, hotel stay, cruise, etc. for 25% more trading power.
Let’s say you’ve signed up and received the 60,000 bonus points, spending only the $4,000 minimum over three months. We’ll also assume you were strategic and used those purchases on things like dining, streaming, Lyfts, travel booked through the Chase travel portal, and various other purchases. Maybe you averaged 3 points per dollar spent for a total of 72,000 points. That would give you 90,000 points if you redeem for travel! That’s enough to book you an international, round trip flight to many different places in the world. Tip: click “flexible dates” to find incredible deals and you might even have enough for two round trip flights.
How I convinced my friends to switch to a rewards card
You might have noticed that I mentioned convincing friends to open a rewards card…and forgetting to use my referral link. Well, this is the first time I remembered to send one!
On a recent friends trip to Argentina, each of our flights were just under two thousand dollars. Quite a bit of sticker shock! We happened to choose a very pricey time to fly, and booked everything a little later than we hoped. One of us, however, didn’t have to pay for her flight. Why? Because she had more than enough points to cover the international round trip. Yes, that was me! My flight was free. I even got us a completely free night at a hotel in Buenos Aires and free airport lounge access with another card. But that’s for another post. I told you it’s possible to travel for free (okay, not totally free).
Needless to say, I think I convinced them they needed to rethink their strategy and start making their purchases work for them. If you’re ready to start your journey to travel for free, please share with me and ask any questions below. It’s something I’m very passionate about. Once you’ve booked your first free flight, you will be, too!
