Category Archives: Travel Hacking

Good Starter Cards

17 Sunday Mar 2013

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So you’ve read all about travel hacking, and are ready to dive in to the maddening world of credit card applications.  With so many options out there, and so many variations of the same card (with different bonuses depending on what link you use!) it’s often hard to tell where to start.

As always, come up with a plan first and choose what’s best for you.  Flying 2 in business class seats all the way to Tokyo and staying at the Park Hyatt requires a completely different set of cards then taking a family of 4 to Disney World.

To make things slightly easier, however, I’ve put together a list of some of the better bonuses out there.

PERSONAL CARDS

Chase Sapphire Preferred Card – 40,000 Ultimate Reward Points after spending $4000 in 3 months. Points transfer at a 1:1 ratio into numerous partners like United, Hyatt, and Marriott.  2x on restaurants & travel expenses, with an additional 7% annual bonus on all points earned. Annual fee of $95 is waived for the first year.

American Express Gold Card – 50,000 Membership Rewards Points after spending $1000 in 3 months. Points transfer at a 1:1 ratio into most partners, but American Express offers bonus rates very frequently. 3x on airfare, 2x at gas stations and supermarkets.  Annual fee of $175 is waived for the first year.

Citibank Platinum Select AAdvantage Visa/AmEx  – 50,000 miles after spending $3000 in 4 Months. $150 statement credit off of all American Airline purchases (including gift cards). 2 free lounge passes.  Annual fee waived for the first year.  The application doesn’t give any details, but according to the Flyertalk thread in the link, the sign up is still very much working.

Chase British Airways Card – 50,000 BA miles after spending $1000 in 3 months.  Companion pass after spending a total of $30,000 in the first year. Annual fee of $95 NOT WAIVED the first year.

Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Plus Card – 50,000 Southwest Rapid Reward miles after spending $2000 in 3 months.  2x points on Southwest and partner purchases. 3000 points awarded annually. This is a really useful card if you’re trying to get the Southwest Companion Pass.  The annual fee of $69 is NOT WAIVED the first year.

Chase Hyatt Card – Two nights at any Hyatt property in the world, such as the Park Hyatt Vendome in Paris, or the Park Hyatt Tokyo after spending $1000 in 3 months. 3x all Hyatt purchases, 2x for dining, airlines, and car rentals.  A free night in a category 1-4 hotel every year by paying the annual fee. Also comes with complementary platinum status, which gets you amenities like free internet. Annual fee of $75 is NOT WAIVED the first year.

Citibank Hilton Honors Reserve Card – Two weekend nights at almost any Hilton property in the world, including their Waldorf Astoria properties (excluding some resorts) after spending $2500 in 4 months [verify]. 10x on all Hilton purchases, 5x on airlines and car rentals, 3x on everything else.  Comes with complementary gold status, which gets you free internet and breakfast. Annual fee of $95 is NOT WAIVED the first year.

Chase Marriott Premiere Visa – A free night in a category 1-4 hotel on approval and 70,000 Marriott Rewards points after spending $1000 in 3 months.  5x on Marriott purchases, 2x on dining, airlines, and car rentals. Every year you’ll get a free night in a category 1-5 Marriott property in exchange for your annual fee.  Annual fee of $85 is waived for the first year.

 

BUSINESS CARDS

Chase Ink Bold/Chase Ink Plus Cards – 50,000 Ultimate Reward Points after spending $5000 in 3 months. Points transfer at a 1:1 ratio into numerous partners like United, Hyatt, and Marriott.  5x on office supplies, cable, and internet expenses, 2x on hotels and gas stations. Annual fee of $95 is waived for the first year.

American Express Business Gold Rewards Card – 75,000 Membership Rewards Points after spending $5000 in 3 months. Points transfer at a 1:1 ratio into most partners, but American Express offers bonus rates very frequently. 3x on airfare, 2x at gas stations and supermarkets.  Annual fee of $175 is waived for the first year.

Citibusiness AAdvantage Card – 50,000 miles after spending $3000 in 4 Months. $150 statement credit off of all American Airline purchases (including gift cards). 2 free lounge passes.  Annual fee waived for the first year.  The application doesn’t give any details, but according to the Flyertalk thread in the link, the sign up is still very much working.

Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Plus Business Card –50,000 Southwest Rapid Reward miles after spending $2000 in 3 months.  2x points on Southwest and partner purchases. 3000 points awarded annually. This is a really useful card if you’re trying to get the Southwest Companion Pass.  The annual fee of $69 is NOT WAIVED the first year.

 

CONCLUSION

Credit card bonuses are probably the single easiest way to accumulate miles and points.  In my next few posts I’ll discuss what to do when it’s time to pay your annual fee, and how transfer partners work for programs like Chase’s Ultimate Rewards.

Additional Reading

– Flyertalk has a great thread detailing all of the best sign up bonuses.

– Unsure whether you have a business or not?  There are several good blogs on the topic.

Just what is an App-o-Rama?

12 Tuesday Mar 2013

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“App-o-Rama” is one of the phrases you see thrown around a lot in the travel hacking scene.  Simply put, it’s when someone applies for multiple credit cards in one day.  The amount someone is willing to apply for varies by person. While most people apply for 2-4 at a time, I’ve read reports of people applying for upwards of 12 credit cards in one day!

When applying for multiple credit cards, it’s good to keep a few things in mind:

  1. Your credit score should be over 700: once you go over 760, however, having a higher score doesn’t really help much more.
  2. Apply for all cards at once: it’s usually best to apply for all of your cards in one sitting, since doing so prevents the credit card companies from seeing the other cards you’re applying for.
  3. Diversify your applications: make sure you don’t hit one credit card company too hard.  The major credit card companies are Chase, American Express, Citibank, Bank of America, and Barclays.  Each has different rules about how many cards you can get approved for at once, and how many total cards you can have. In general, if you apply for 1 personal and 1 business card (or less) per company you should be fine.
  4. Apply every 91 days: every time you apply for a card, the issuer makes a hard pull on your credit.  While it takes 2 years for these to fall off your credit report, too many recent requests for credit mean you’re a risk. By applying every 91 days you reduce the chance of getting rejected for “too many requests for credit.”
  5. Persistence is key: even a rejection can be overturned.  I’ve received a number of rejections, but have always managed to get the card I wanted.  As per my last post, you can read more on how to get a rejected application repealed at Million Mile Secrets.

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Credit Card Bonus Basics

05 Tuesday Mar 2013

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Credit cards represent the easiest way to earn miles and points, but can be extremely intimidating if you’re just getting started.  Before starting our miles binge, Mrs. Selfish and I were extremely concerned about anything that could affect our credit – it didn’t help that we didn’t really understand how it worked either.

First a Disclaimer: If you cannot pay your bills in full every month STOP READING NOW.  This game is not for you.  If you fall behind on your payments, you’ll owe way more than the miles or points are worth.

How your Credit Works

Your credit score is determined by 5 main factors:

  1. Payment History (35%): whether or not you pay on time.
  2. Credit Utilization (30%): how much of your credit are you using. A giant red flag for CC companies is too much credit utilization, which may work on a card per card basis.  For instance, putting a charge of $500 on a card with a $1000 limit will raise some flags, while putting $500 on a card with a $5000 limit will not.
  3. Length of Credit History (15%): how old are your accounts?  Many of us have one or two cards that are 10+ years in age, which help establish good credit.
  4. Types of Credit (10%): mortgages, car loans, student loans, credit cards.  I have no idea why having all of these would be perceived as a good thing, but if it helps raise your credit score, so be it!
  5. New Accounts (10%): opening a new account results in a small drop due to the credit inquiry.

When opening new credit lines a few things happen.  First, the average age of your accounts decreases.  Second, the credit agency affiliated with the credit card company performs a hard pull on your credit, which reduces your credit score by somewhere between 2-5 points.  Third, the amount of credit you have access to increases, which raises your score over time by decreasing your utilization.

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How to Travel Hack Your Way Around the World

01 Friday Mar 2013

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Mrs. Selfish and I are now half-way through our year long trip around
the world. In the last year we’ve visited 22 countries (most in business class), flown in 1st Class on Lufthansa’s brand new 747-8, and stayed at 5-star hotels that retail for over $700 a night.

Park-Hyatt-Zurich-photos-Room-Park-Suite-King

The Park Hyatt in Zurich for ~$700 or 22,000 points a night.

Mrs. Selfish and I aren’t ludicrously rich.  We don’t have a travel nest egg that we’ve been saving for years for this trip. We don’t have a rental property that brings home the bacon (just an underwater mortgage).

But we DID earn over 2.2 million airline miles and hotel points in the last year and a half, with another 550,000 projected to hit in the next 2 months. If you value miles and points at $.01 – $.02 each, then we’ve earned over $22,000 – $44,000 in points. Most with little to no effort.

miles earned

The majority of the miles we earned were from credit card sign up bonuses, followed by bank and brokerage bonuses.  The remaining miles were earned through shopping portals, third party promotions, or normal spending. That teeny-tiny sliver of 3.4% represents the number of miles and points we earned through flying or paying for hotels!

Next

In my next few posts, I’ll take you through the basics of earning and burning miles and points.  Here are some of the topics we’ll be tackling:

Intercontinental Danang: Where Myth Meets Luxury

26 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by in Accommodations, Asia, Travel Hacking, Vietnam

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When Mrs. Selfish and I were looking at Vietnam, we decided to visit the places we skipped during our honeymoon: Nha Trang, Dalat, and Hoi An.  Danang was more of an afterthought, the closest airport to the beautiful UNESCO heritage town, Hoi An, more than anything else.

After booking 5 nights in Hoi An, I started looking for a decent hotel to crash for 2 days in Danang. I settled on the Intercontinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort, the place “Where Myth meets Luxury,” according to their website. Given how ridiculous their tagline was, how luxurious could it be possibly be?

The answer was, without a doubt, the most luxurious place Mrs. Selfish and I have ever stayed or will ever stay.

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From Worst to First: Flying Lufthansa 1st Class

01 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by in Europe, Travel Hacking

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Mrs. Selfish and I purchased our business class the tickets for the European leg of our trip back in March 2012 for the very reasonable price of $128.27 + 100,000 miles each. The plan was to fly from Washington Dulles, to Vienna with a 6 week stop-over in England. For our return flight we were going to leave from Lisbon, returning to Dulles by way of Madrid.

Unfortunately that didn’t happen.

While in England last August I received an email from United that our Madrid flight to Dulles had been canceled. Their new routing ended up adding an extra layover through Newark and tacking on an extra 5 hours of travel time.

I immediately jumped on United.com to find a shorter alternative, and within 20 minutes found a better route via Frankfurt using United’s partner, Lutfhansa. Not only was the layover time a breezy 50 minutes, but we’d be able to try out Lufthansa’s new business class seats, which been receiving a lot of praise in the travel hacking scene.

Lufthansa’s sexy new business class!

I called United, and within half an hour the new tickets had been booked and seats had been confirmed via the helpful United rep. Mrs. Selfish and I were flying home on Lufthansa in style!

Or so I thought.

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The Great Marriott Quadruple Play

24 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by in Spain, Travel Hacking

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Back in November, Mrs. Selfish and I drove from Barcelona to Madrid, stopping in a total of 5 cities over the course of 8 nights: Valencia, Murcia, Malaga, Seville, and Cordoba.

8 Days of driving in Southern Spain!

While Mrs. Selfish was excited to try authentic Spanish paella, take in the Moorish ruins, and experience Flamenco dancing, I was excited to try out Marriott’s latest promotions.

Marriott acquired the AC Hotel chain in Spain, which is a low-to mid tier chain with quite a number of cheap hotels. While a few of the hotels ran us upwards of 80 euros a night (or $106), the majority were 60 euros ($80) or cheaper.

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Fun with Expedia’s Best Rate Guarantee

17 Monday Sep 2012

Posted by in Travel Hacking

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After airfare, accommodation costs are probably one of the highest expenses you’ll incur when traveling (with the possible exception of food, if you’re like Mrs. Selfish and I!).  For stays over 5 days we like to rent apartments, but for fast travel we usually stay at a hotel.

For our trip to Ireland, however, Mrs. Selfish and I planned on driving through 6 cities in 7 nights.  This entailed staying at 6 different hotels – a booking feat which I used to loathe, but now enjoy.  Why? Because of Expedia’s Best Guarantee.

What is the Best Rate Guarantee?

Expedia claims to have the lowest price for all hotel rentals and flights everywhere and even go so far as to back it up with a Best Rate Guarantee:

“We’re so confident you’ll find the best price for your trip on Expedia that we guarantee it. Find a cheaper identical trip within 24 hours of booking and we’ll refund the difference–and give you an Expedia travel coupon worth $50.”

That’s right, in the event that you manage to find a cheaper rate, not only will they match the price, but they’ll give you a $50 coupon for your next Expedia purchase! This seems ripe for exploitation…

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Travel Hacking Our Way Around the World

27 Monday Aug 2012

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Though the Selfish Years started as a dream years ago, the idea for a year long trip around the world didn’t become a reality until September 16, 2011.

Mrs. Selfish and I have always liked to travel, but we’ve usually limited ourselves to one international trip per year – mostly for time reasons, but also because international trips can be utterly expensive.  This all changed after our trip to Peru last fall.

After an amazing trip to Machu Picchu, I became deathly ill upon our return to Orlando.  Bed-ridden, I spent an entire week lying on the couch when I wasn’t doubled over.  My only solace was the internet – and on this particular day, I stumbled across an article about how some guy had spent the last 9 months traveling around the world.

And he had done it for $418.

Immediately, Mrs. Selfish and I started plotting.  Was it possible for us to accumulate the necessary miles to fly around the world for next to nothing? Better yet, could we do it all in business class?

The short answer, was yes.

What is Travel Hacking?

Travel Hacking is about earning miles and points to get free flights or accommodations. Travel hackers are typically looking for ways to accumulate the most miles, points, or elite status for the least amount of money.  They look for ways to game the system. Some of it can be pretty hardcore, like a mileage run where the goal is to fly as many miles as possible for the least amount of money (think New York to San Francisco by way of Philadelphia, Tampa, Dallas, and Seattle). Other times it can be pretty easy, like signing up for a new credit card, or moving your investments into a different brokerage account.

Shortly after reading the initial article last September, I became completely obsessed with the idea of earning enough miles to get us around the world. And it worked.

Over the last year, Mrs. Selfish and I have managed to rack up over 1.5 million miles and points (all without flying), including:

  • – 600,000 American Airline Miles
  • – 256,000 Chase Ultimate Reward Points
  • – 206,000 Delta Miles
  • – 107,000 Starwood Preferred Guest Points
  • – 169,000 United Miles
  • – 96,000 Priority Club points
  • – 50,000 Jet Blue Miles

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