Thread by @BrianFeroldi

Travel hacking is amazing

I've used it for years to reduce my vacation costs by 70%+

Here's how I do it:

Travel hacking is using credit card “bonus” rewards to pay for travel

Some credit cards offer sign-up bonuses that are worth $500+

Travel hackers strategically open specific credit cards to earn rewards and pay for their travel

There are 2 general types of credit card rewards:

Miles/Points: Used for specific airlines/hotels
Cash Rewards: Used for cars/AirBNB/cruise

Here’s an example from Chase Sapphire Preferred

The “bonus” here is 80,000 points, which is worth ~$1,000 in travel costs (air/hotel)

Table stakes:

✔️You MUST be organized
✔️You MUST do research
✔️You MUST have great credit
✔️You MUST never carry a balance
✔️You MUST pay off all your credit cards on time
✔️You MUST plan 12+ month ahead

If you can’t do all 6, DON’T TRY TRAVEL HACKING

Step 1/

Pick a destination that you want to visit in 12-24 months

Hawaii?
Caribbean?
Europe?
Florida?

It takes a while to get up and running, so plan ahead

Step 2/

Research ALL the details of the trip

✈️ What airline? (Southwest? United?)
🏨What lodging? (Hotel? AirBNB? Friend's house?)
🚘Transport? (Car rental? Uber?)

The exact details really matter!

Step 3/

Find out how many points/cash rewards you need

Ex: A recent trip to Orlando for my family of 5 cost us

✈️~88,000 Southwest Points
🏨 We stayed with family
🚘~$400 car rental

Step 4/

Figure out which credit card(s) will get you what you need

This tool by @madfientist is VERY helpful

madfientist.cardratings.com

Step 5/

Open card card(s)

When received:
1⃣Activate card
2⃣Setup auto-pay
3⃣Spend until you earn the welcome bonus
4⃣Never spend on that card again

Then, open up the next card and repeat until you have all points you need

Step 6/

Book the trip with your points

Enjoy the vacation!

Step 7/

After ~11 months of each card being open, close it!

This minimizes the impact on your credit score

The benefit of travel hacking is that:

✈️Airfare
🏨Lodging
🚘Transport costs

Are 95% covered TAX-FREE! (there are still some small fees to pay)

You still have to pay for food, restaurants, attractions…etc

But the total cost of the vacation drops significantly

Important: there are a BAZILLION little details to learn

The details REALLY matter

If you are interested in learning more, I highly recommend @chooseFI free travel rewards course

travel.choosefi.com

They also have a podcast that introduces this concept in far more detail

choosefi.com/009-travel-rew…

Reminder:

✔️You MUST be organized
✔️You MUST do research
✔️You MUST have great credit
✔️You MUST never carry a balance
✔️You MUST pay off all your credit cards on time
✔️You MUST plan 12+ month ahead

If you can’t do all 6, DON’T TRY TRAVEL HACKING

After doing this for a few years, I can say that:

▪️It takes ~10 hours to learn everything
▪️You earn ~$200/hr in tax-free travel for the clerical work
▪️You MUST be organized

For me, it’s a worthwhile tradeoff, but it’s not for everybody

Happy traveling!