I am sure you clicked on this thinking it was just an advertisement, or that there would be some kind of catch. Well, I am going to tell you that this post is neither of those things but legit information on how to accumulate enough miles to get free plane tickets.
There is a large amount of information out there on how to accumulate points and miles to achieve free plane tickets. This isn’t a myth! We are living proof that it is possible.
We have been mile ‘hoarding’ for many years and often find ourselves sitting down with someone that asks us how it all works. They are in awe at the amount of travel we are able to do and are in shock at how we manage to build our mileage banks by doing almost nothing.
So I have decided to put this article together in a Q&A fashion with the questions that I am usually presented with about this subject.
How Does This Even Work?
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You have most certainly heard of bonus miles offers on Credit Cards, it isn’t something that is new to travel. This is the easiest way to accumulate large amounts of miles in a short amount of time.
Sign up for the credit card offers with Delta, United, American Airlines and many affiliate carriers like Hawaiian Airlines and South West.
All of these cards offer a sign-up mileage bonus. Some require a spending requirement to achieve this bonus. No problem, use it as a debit card, paying it off every couple days or so until the minimum has been met and you have scored your bonus miles.
This has worked very well for us, as it allows us to obtain the bonus miles without carrying over any debt.
How Many Miles Can I Earn?
I try to keep my eye out for the best mile deals that also offer additional incentive bonuses, for example, adding additional cards for miles. This can help pad the account too. In the past 3 months, we have been able to accumulate a total of 180,000 miles.
180,000 Miles!! How On Earth Did You Manage That?
I’ll show you. It helps that we are two people. So we are able to apply for and obtain double of everything. Our latest accumulation was executed as follows:
We both applied for an AA Visa card. My bonus was 50,000 miles and David’s 30,000 miles. I was also able to open an AA MasterCard in the name of our farm, which earned us an additional 30,000 miles for a total of 110,000 AA miles. We then both applied for the United Explorer Card that was offering 30,000 bonus miles.
Subsequently, they were also offering a 5,000 miles bonus for each additional card ordered on each account. So we signed each other up as additional cardholders on each card for another 10,000 miles. That resulted in 70,000 United miles. Total haul, 180,000 miles.
Does This Work for Hotels?
Yes! Any hotel that offers a Credit Card will enable you to earn points. These points can be used towards free stays at any of their properties, Worldwide. Most hotel cards that I have come across offer bonus points that mirror the airline’s miles programs.
What About My Credit Score?
Some tricks of the trade include signing up for multiple cards on one day to avoid your credit score getting hit more than once. This does work, so make sure you do your research in advance and when you are ready to apply, do it all on the same day.
As far as when to close the cards, wait at least 6 months to close the cards so that the reduction in available credit will not affect your credit score average.
By utilizing these methods for bonus miles we have accumulated large banks of miles that we have been using to get free plane tickets during our 2 years of travel. But the mileage use didn’t start there as we have used miles to fly free to Hawaii, Toronto, and Florida in the past.
When booking your mileage award tickets, make sure you are flexible with your dates and search in advance to guarantee the lowest mileage usage so that your miles will go further for you.
Just a little something to get you excited, I was recently on the AA site looking at flights to New Zealand and they had lowest mileage availability for 60,000 miles round trip from the USA. Can’t beat that!!
Once you’ve figured out how to nab those flight deals, move on to accommodation and learn how to save money on Airbnb (up to $100)!
Do you have creative ways to get Free Plane Tickets?
More on Travel Planning:
- How to Plan A Trip: Step by Step Guide
- 10 Killer Tips on How to Find Cheap Flights
- 11 Easy Tips on How to Find Cheap Accommodation
- How to Save Money for Travel: A Step by Step Plan
- How to Get Over Jet Lag (Advice from 15 Years of Travel)
- 5 Ways to Survive that Long Layover
- Your Guide For Doing Laundry While Traveling
- 5 Good Reasons to Use a Vacation Planner
- Is Travel Insurance Worth It?
- 10 Reasons to Have Annual Travel Insurance
- How to Choose the Best Travel Insurance Policy
- Travel Insurance for Europe Vacation: Do I Need It?
Absolutely awesome post! Thanks for this information, will be very helpful!
Wish you happy travels, and would really like to see your naked dog, haha 😉 Cheers!
Thanks Barbaria! Travel hacking is a great way to accumulate airplane miles and fly free. Our little hairless dog is adorable!! 🙂
This is a good post. I love the Q&A format I think it helps make things a bit easier to understand!
Thank you for stopping by! We’ve been fascinated with how easy it can be to pad the mileage accounts! We wanted to share the love. 🙂
I’m curious about how to keep building the miles account when you can no longer qualify for credit cards due to being unemployed.
You can buy miles directly from the airline or you can book tickets with the airline to accrue miles.