Planning a Trip: 5 Simple Steps to Travel for Free

Ellen and I began our ’round the world journey by sitting in international business class on Cathay Pacific flying directly from Washington D.C. (IAD) to Bangkok (BKK) with a stopover in Hong Kong. We were welcomed with a glass of champagne and hot towel as we settled into our plush seats which could fully recline and were more like little pods. We were handed a special menu that consisted of all kinds of elegant food and drink choices, which we could order at any time – not a set menu delivered at set times. We ordered a burger and noodle dish to eat, which for being on an airplane was pretty good, topped off with a selection of cheeses and dessert.  The service was great and the experience seamless, leaving us to ponder how we can ever return to economy class. How were we able to get these $5,000 USD first class seats for free? Continue reading to learn how we did it and how you too can fly business class for free in 5 simple steps!

1. Sign up for credit cards with generous sign-up bonuses

2. Sign up for frequent flyer programs

3. Spend the minimums to earn the sign-up bonuses

4. Research the best flight redemptions

5. Book your flights!

Before we jump into it, there are a few important things to note:

1. The #1 rule for getting involved in credit card rewards is that you need to be able to manage the credit, not spend beyond your means, and be able to pay the credit card off in full every month. This is very important. If you are late on a payment the punishment will quickly surpass any advantage, and many of these travel reward credit cards will charge 24% Annual Percentage Rate (APR) or higher!!

2. If you currently have credit card debt, I would not advise getting involved in travel rewards credit cards, until your credit card debt is clear. It is also important to note that to qualify for some of the best cards out there you will need a high credit score, typically above 650 as the minimum.

3. Note that this credit card reward system might be different depending on where you are from. These deals on credit card sign-up bonuses are available due to intense competition in the United States for customers, meaning that it may not be available in other countries and it may not last forever.

4. Keep note of the time you sign up for the cards as many will have an annual fee waived in the first year. So, make sure you either close the card within the year so you do not pay the fee (which averages around $95 a year) or call and ask them to either forego the fee or downgrade your card to a non-fee version if you want to keep the card open. Personally, I just close the card. Another advantage I’ve noticed with closing the cards is that it can reset the clock on getting the signup bonus again after two years with most cards (e.g., close a Chase card and sign-up again for the same card and bonus two years later).

Now, I’ll walk through how you can fly for free. 

1. Sign-Up for Credit Cards with Generous Sign-up Bonuses

The first thing you want to do is to look for the latest and greatest offers for travel credit card sign-up bonuses. You can do this by searching the web and looking at sites like The Points Guy. Sign-up bonuses are always changing, so you will need to be vigilant about finding the best deals.

Alternatively, you can search for “pre-qualified credit cards” to see if you qualify for exclusive sign-up offers from credit card companies. To land our free flights, we signed up for:

• Citi American Airlines (AA) Advantage Card – at the time we signed up, the card had 60,000 AA points after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months, and the annual fee waived the first year. Normally this card has 50,000 AA points which isn’t bad at all.
• Barclays AA Aviator Card – again at the time we signed up, the card had a $95 annual fee but gave 60,000 points after spending anything at all!

You may notice these were both American Airlines cards, although we flew Cathay Pacific. That is because each American airline (American, United, Delta) is part of a different alliance network and you can transfer points to partners within the alliance (in this case, I transferred American Airlines points to Cathay Pacific with the One World alliance – see step 4 below).  

Pro Tip: For those just starting out and unsure of where to begin, I always recommend starting with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, which typically comes with 50,000 points after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months and can be used flexibly on Chase’s Ultimate Rewards portal to book travel.

2. Sign-Up for Frequent Flyer Programs

If you haven’t already signed up for frequent flyer programs you may as well do it now while you are signing up for a travel credit card. You should do this anyway, if you fly at all. 

To make sure you get the mile rewards from your flights, you want to make sure that you log them into your frequent flyer program. I know that remembering usernames and passwords can become quite tedious. Fortunately, there are apps online that will help you organize all your points programs such as Award Wallet, which allows you to keep all your information in one secure app.

I also find it useful to sign-up for the app of the airline you have a frequent flyer account with, since that too will store your information and make booking and searching for flight easier.  I recommend downloading all the associated apps for the airlines that you frequently use.

3. Spend the Minimums to Earn the Sign-Up Bonuses

There’s always a catch with a nice reward, right?  Beyond needing a good credit score to qualify for the card initially, you will typically be required to spend a minimum amount on the card in the first 3 months – typically $3,000-$4,000, sometimes as high as $5,000. If you use the credit card for your daily spending this should be no problem. I also always try and get a new card right before making a major purchase, because I may as well get a free flight after spending a lot of money on something (read: Christmas presents)! Just make sure that you will have the means to be able to hit the minimum spend on the card and be able to pay the card off in full every month, and after 3 months, you will receive your reward points in your frequent flyer program account!

4. Research the Best Flight Redemptions

Once you have the points, you’ll need to do your homework on the best value redemption for those points. If you just want to book a simple domestic flight, then you can go into your app or the airlines website and book with the points from your frequent flyer program account in an easy and straightforward way.

If you want to book for an international flight, it can also easily be done; however, with some extra research you may be able to uncover a better redemption value elsewhere. For instance, for our flights, I saw an advertisement for a brand-new route with Cathay Pacific starting Sept 16^th, 2018 flying direct from Washington D.C. to Hong Kong. I then realized Cathay Pacific was in the same alliance as American Airlines. If I had booked directly with American Airlines on aa.com, it would have had us flying through Dallas or Los Angeles to get to Hong Kong (then on to Bangkok) and would have taken twice as long. Further, not every flight path was visible on aa.com, whereas a quick search on ba.com (British Airways, also in the same One World alliance) showed more flight paths, such as the Cathay Pacific option.  

5. Book Your Flights!

To redeem your points on a partner airline within the same alliance, you will need to call the airline. I called Cathay Pacific and explained the flight I wanted and was able to easily book the flight with our American Airlines points. Normally when you call to book, the booking fee for this type of flight will cost $40 per ticket, although we were somehow able to skip this fee! So, in the end I was able to book a one-way international business class flight from Washington D.C. to Hong Kong (16 hours) and another international business on to Bangkok (3 hours) after an 8-hour layover (where we went into Hong Kong for a bit; check out our blog post for what we did) for 70,000 American Airlines point each. This same flight could be made into a round-trip flight in economy for 73,000 American Airlines points.

Key Tips and Takeaways

There you have it! Flying for free can be easy, and you will likely only need to pay a nominal amount of money to cover the booking fee and fuel. Any time you are planning a vacation or a big purchase, try to sign-up for a good credit card offer 3 or 4 months in advance so you can have enough points to book your flight for free! If you follow my 5 simple steps, you too can travel for free!