Flying Free - Airline Miles Strategies/Best Practices

[Synergy]

Just an update, we did go ahead and apply for and got the Amex Platinum under my player two (husband's) name. We used Chrome incognito mode for the Amex prequalification page, and were offered 125,000 points for spending $5000 in six months, plus ten points to the dollar for gas and groceries for the same six months. I anticipate being able to do the full $5k in the bonus categories, so were looking at 175,000 points (worth over $2500!) in exchange for our $550 annual fee. I'm not sure we'll get much use from the other perks, but we'll certainly (eventually) make good use of the points.

 

[jbiza]

Hello Tuggers -

Looking for best practices for flying free for vacations.

My current strategy is using our Southwest Rapid Rewards Chase card for all spending to work to build miles for free flights.

But there are a bewildering array of travel cards and airline travel programs.

What have been your go-to strategies to fly as often as possible for free?

Thanks in advance for sharing your expertise!

The Colorado Kid

What about this option if you don't want to go the credit cards/points rewards route ?

Marry me, fly for free – Is this still a thing?

Saw a t-shirt recently that read: “Marry me, fly for free!” Made me wonder, is this still a thing?! There was a time in the not-so-distant past that free travel may have been a draw to …

airlineguys.com

It's updated to "marry me fly for free (standby)."

 

[cheech]

Google manufactured spending(travel hacking), lots of info there(completely legal as well). Don't want to put out all my secrets, but haven't paid anything but taxes on a plane ticket for years....

 

[Synergy]

Google manufactured spending(travel hacking), lots of info there(completely legal as well). Don't want to put out all my secrets, but haven't paid anything but taxes on a plane ticket for years....

I've gotten away from MS as of late, I do sometimes buy and liquidate a few gift cards if I can't funnel enough work expenses to a card I'm working on a signup bonus for. I sure miss the points from the old prepaid debit tricks, but I dont miss the extra hassles. A handful of signup bonuses a year is plenty of points for us, and a much better 'return' than running through hundreds of thousands of dollars on held cards. I don't recommend it to newbies these days, with so many loopholes closed and reports of clawbacks from Amex and others.

 

[cheech]

I've gotten away from MS as of late, I do sometimes buy and liquidate a few gift cards if I can't funnel enough work expenses to a card I'm working on a signup bonus for. I sure miss the points from the old prepaid debit tricks, but I dont miss the extra hassles. A handful of signup bonuses a year is plenty of points for us, and a much better 'return' than running through hundreds of thousands of dollars on held cards. I don't recommend it to newbies these days, with so many loopholes closed and reports of clawbacks from Amex and others.

While they indeed have created some roadblocks in past years, I still haven't had issues in my normal avenues I have taken....