7 Steps To Get Your First Free Trip With Points & Miles

I talk a lot about free travel.

Some people are new to points and miles.

If you are new to points and miles, this post will help you plan your first free trip.

Most people have heard of reward credit cards.

You probably have a reward card like the Chase Freedom.

Travel reward cards can get you a lot of free travel if you are strategic, organized, willing to learn a lot of new information, and will pay your balance in full each month.

Here are 7 steps to get started

7 Steps To Get Your First Free Trip With Points & Miles

Step 1: Have a high credit score

To qualify for the best travel rewards credit cards, you will need a high credit score.

For most, a FICO score of at least 720 will do.

If you don’t have a high score, you will have to do things to improve your score.

No worries.

There are lots of things you can do to improve your credit score.

Step 2: Pick the right credit card(s)

Picking the wrong credit card can set you back for two years.

For instance, I recommend that people get Chase credit cards first because of a rule called “5/24.”

This unpublished rule says that you will not be approved for a credit card with Chase Bank if you have opened 5 credit cards by any bank in the past two years.

Chase (along with American Express, Citi, Capital One, and the Marriott Bonvoy Program) is a currency that transfers directly to airlines giving you more bang for your buck.

Chase Credit Cards To Start With

These are suggestions.

Please do the research and find the best card for you.

First Chase credit choice:

If you don’t have a business, I suggest choosing one of these two cards:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred
• Chase Sapphire Reserve

If you have a business, the first card I suggest is:

• Chase Business Ink Preferred

Since this is a new blog, I don’t have many credit card links.

You need hundreds of thousands of followers, which no new blog has.

I do have a link for the Ink Business Preferred here though.

Again, these are only suggestions.

Do your own research.

Second Chase card choice:

You will need a general purpose card that can be used on every day spending.

General purpose cards give one rate on all purchases.

This is good for most of your spending that will not fall into bonus categories like groceries, gas, travel, etc.

Here are my recommendations.

If you don’t have a business, I suggest:

• Chase Freedom Unlimited.

Some people who can maximize bonus categories may prefer the Freedom Flex over the Unlimited though.

Read the reviews.

If you have a business, I suggest:

• The Ink Business Unlimited

You can get everyday spending credit cards from other banks like American Express too.

I recommend that you get all your Chase cards first though again.

The other ones will be easy to get.

It will help to maximize your points with Chase if you have one of the above second choices.

When you have one of our first choice suggestions, you can combine your points from these cards and transfer to airlines with Chase.

Chase only approves two cards in 30 days, so your later choices can include:

• Chase Freedom

• Chase Business Ink Cash

Chase also has airline/hotel cards with:

• Southwest
• United
• IHG
• Marriott
• Hyatt

Chase only allows you to have about 5 credit cards with them.

I would suggest you spread them out and don’t get too many at one time.

Since Chase has the most rules of any company, if you want a Marriott card, you can get one from American Express instead of Chase.

This is if you have reached a limit with Chase.

American Express offers two Marriott credit cards: one $450 personal and one business

Don’t be scared of cards with annual fees.

Later, I will explain how some of these cards pay for themselves and then some.

You must always do the math though.

Step 3: Earn the sign up bonus on the card(s)

As we have said in other posts, earning sign up bonuses on credit cards is the number one way to get free travel.

After you have picked your card(s) from Step 2, get to earning that sign up bonus.

For instance, the Chase Sapphire Preferred requires spending $4,000 in 3 months.

This sounds like a lot, but it is just $1333 a month.

How do you do that?

You don’t get in debt.

You just put your normal expenses on the credit card that you would normally pay cash with each month.

Later in the post, I will explain how you do this in more detail.

Right now, just know if it is not something you can pay cash for, then it is not something you put on your card.

Again, read later in the post to see how to do this in detail.

Step 4: Sign up for airline frequent flyer/ hotel loyalty programs

Sign up for the frequent flier and hotel loyalty programs you use the most.

Example of airline frequent flyer programs include:

• Delta
• American
• United
• Southwest
• Jet Blue
• British Airways
• Singapore Airlines
• Emirates
• Air Canada

Examples of hotel loyalty programs:

• Hyatt
• Hilton
• Marriott
• IHG
• Choice

Any time you plan to use a new program, sign up.

Each flight or hotel will get you closer to your next flight or stay.

When it comes time to redeem airline miles, you will want to understand how airline alliances work later too though.

Step 5: Put all your normal spending on your credit card

As we said earlier, to meet minimum spend, you don’t get in debt.

You use credit cards strategically.

That means any expense that you have that your normally pay cash for can be put on a credit card.

Example categories:

• groceries
• gas
• rent/mortgage (if fee is worth it)
• taxes
• childcare
• entertainment
• phone
• cable
• internet

Let’s say your expenses are $2000-3000/month, and you put them on your credit card.

Even at a reward rate of 1.5%, that would get you 36,000- 54,000 points and well over what is needed for a free domestic (Canada, the Caribbean, or Mexico too) round trip plane ticket and possibly a round trip ticket to Europe and Asia every year.

Most people can do better than that too though.

Step 6: Maximize credit card categories

Most credit card rewards range from 1-5%.

You don’t want to ever choose 1% when you can have higher.

The general category cards like the Chase Freedom Unlimited and Capital One Venture give 1.5 and 2% back respectively.

General category cards are cards that do not fit in other bonus areas like most department stores.

Here is a example to maximize your spending:

The American Express Gold credit card gives 4% back on dining out and groceries.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve gives 3% back on travel.

The Chase Freedom Unlimited gives 1.5% on all categories not covered.

If you use the American Express card for groceries and dining out, the Chase Reserve for travel, and the Chase Freedom Unlimited for everything else; you have gotten the most points for each spending category.

Step 7: Redeem your rewards for free travel

Now, redeem your points for your free trip.

Most people starting out can probably use 2-3 cards for a free trip soon, like 3-6 months away.

Maybe you just want a free flight with one card though.

Go to a portal like Chase.

As we mentioned earlier, you get more value by transferring to airlines.

The only currencies you can do this with are again:

• Chase
• American Express
• Citi
• Capital One
• Marriott Bonvoy

If you use a portal like Chase, make sure the value is right.

Sometimes with domestic flights, there is no reason to transfer to airlines.

If a flight costs $200, about 20,000 Chase Ultimate points (less than that if you have a Chase Ultimate card like the Sapphire Preferred), it would not be a better deal to transfer to an airline that will cost at least 25,000 and use more points.

Points are like money; you want to spend as little as possible.

Here is another example.

I saw a flight from JFK to London on United the other day for $500 or 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards.

If you transferred your points to United that would cost at least 60,000 Chase Ultimate Points.

That was an extra 10,000 points, so it was better to not transfer.

Always do the math.

As for hotels, transferring to hotels (except Hyatt) are usually a poor value.

So it may be best to have a hotel credit card .

If you have no more Chase slots, you can get Hilton cards exclusively with American Express.

You can also again get Marriott cards with American Express.

If you want a hotel card from IHG or Hyatt, you will need another Chase slot.

If you want a Chase Marriott card, you will need another slot too although again you can get a Marriott card with American Express.

After you have your points, use a portal and book your flights, transfer to airlines, and/or use hotel points to book a hotel.

Again, if you have Chase points, the Hyatt chain is a great value for hotels.

After you have your free trip, use step 6 and 7 and keep putting your normal spend on your cards for future trips.

Later, many people like to apply for 2-3 new cards every three months as a long-term strategy.

Summary

Travel Points 101 is about spending as little as possible on travel.

I don’t believe in spending a lot of money on travel.

Later, I will have a post on how I plan to travel for free by reselling.

Reselling is an advanced method of manufactured spending for advanced travelers who want more.

I like to travel frequently though.

If you just want your 2-3 vacations a year, that could be completely free with no manufactured method.

I just want to introduce it to you in case you are interested.

Most people who just want 2-3 vacations a year won’t need this again.

It would not be right to not expose you to the full spectrum of what can be done though.

Everything depends on what you want since the blog is about spending as little as possible on travel.

I talk a lot about free travel.

Everything is not always free, but enough things are.

I decided to put this post together for people who wonder how to get their first free trip.

I don’t plan on spending a lot on travel.

I don’t think you should either.

If you want more help putting together a free trip, send me a message on Facebook here.

I hope the post was helpful.