Welcome to Travel Points 101 where you will learn how to use points, miles, and other budget tactics to travel as close to free as possible – and in style.
You can travel and not spend a lot of money.
I know it sounds too good to be true, but it isn’t.
I have been traveling for years without spending much and staying in upscale and luxury hotels.
I have stayed at hotels like the Intercontinental Toronto and Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia for completely free.
Most of my hotel stays are in Hilton and Marriott hotels.
I am an elite member with three chains: Hilton, Marriott, and IHG. .
In the past, I did this on the average’s person’s dining out budget.
In the present, I plan to do this for completely free.
The catch to getting all this free travel (or as close to free as possible) is you need to spend time learning all these tricks.
That is where this blog will come in handy.
You can earn frequent flier miles without stepping on a plane.
in today’s world, credit cards are tools that will make your travel dreams come true.
I may have lost some people by mentioning credit cards.
You say, “Credit cards get people in debt.”
Hear me out.
Most people have some form of rewards cards like the Chase Freedom card.
Credit card rewards can be used to make your money work for you.
Most finance bloggers know this.
The average person does not.
It won’t get you in debt either because in order to get free travel, you must pay your balance in full each month.
If you don’t pay your balance on rewards cards in full, the interest would have you actually paying more for travel.
To travel hack (use credit cards to your advantage), you need to use rewards cards on a more complex level.
The average person who gets into travel hacking has at least 12 credit cards.
A lot of people have more than that.
This may sound insane to the average person.
“Won’t my credit score go down?”
Most people who travel hack actually see their credit scores go up.
To make this happen, you will do three things:
- Sign up for credit cards
- Meet minimum spend
- Get your free travel
Other Things You Will Need To Learn
- Frequent flier alliances and programs
- How to meet minimum spending requirements
- Hotel loyalty programs
- Credit Card bonus categories
- Shopping portals
- Manufactured Spending (maybe)
- Much more
I can’t promise you everything is free, but a lot of things are.
Again, you will have to invest time and effort learning a lot of information though.
You must commit this time.
Read this blog.
This blog is only one though.
To increase your knowledge, I suggest you read other industry leading points blogs too.
I read over 10 blogs a day about points and miles.
You don’t have to read that many, although the more the merrier.
Reading just one blog like this is great. You can learn even more by reading industry leading blogs.
Here is a list of my favorite blogs to read in addition to Travel Points 101:
- The Points Guy -This is the biggest and most famous blog. If you only subscribe to one blog, I suggest this one (other than Travel Points 101 of course). I recommend everyone subscribe to this daily newsletter and read.
- Million Mile Secrets – This is another great one.
- Nomadic Matt – Matt is a travel guru.
- Johnny Jet – He is a travel guru too.
- Miles to Memories – This is one of my favorites for deals and spending no money on travel.
- One Mile At A Time – Everyone loves this blogger, Lucky. This blogger focuses on international first and business travel. I always learn something new.
This is just an introduction.
Sign up for our mailing list and get our extensive “Complete Beginner’s Guide” that will tell you more.
We will add this sign up soon and have the guide for you to download.
Read the blog each week.
Keep learning.
i look forward to the journey with you.