Use the stuff that’s FREE!
We all need to travel somewhere from time to time. Even if you don’t travel regularly, you should always make sure to take advantage of the free things that are offered by the travel partners that you use. First of all, the airlines themselves have “reward” programs. American Airlines has their AAdvantage, Southwest has Rapid Rewards, United has MileagePlus and Delta has SkyMiles just to name a few of the big ones. Make sure when you fly that you sign up for their program and take advantage of the miles that they give you because once you have traveled a few times, you may have enough miles accumulated to get some free flights. I would also recommend that you remain somewhat loyal to the airline to make sure that even if you fly infrequently that you are getting the most advantage that you can. So, consider when you fly and the destinations you would most likely go to figure out which airline might be best. And if you fly frequently, this is also important because the more you fly with that one airline, the more rewards you will get for being a frequent traveler. And don’t forget about those amazing airport lounges that you can get access too with airline status.
The second tip about getting FREE stuff has to do with airline credit card partnerships. As I talked about the airline frequent flyer programs, many airlines also have a credit card that gives you more points when you use them and therefore gives you more points toward future travel. And when you charge your airfare on that credit card it also gives you more points! Again, think about which airline you might use most frequently to determine the credit card that would work best. When considering the credit card, also consider some of the other options you may get from having that credit card like free checked bags and other offers.
US News & World Report posted the “Best Airline Reward Programs for 2024-2025” and you can use the link here to access it: 10 Best Airline Rewards Programs for 2024-2025 | U.S. News Travel
So, I talked about airlines and the credit cards associated with them, but I would also tell you the same thing about hotels. I find it hard to often figure out which hotel chain is best, so I just join all of them! I have membership with Hilton, Marriott and IHG. I use them all depending on the city where I am traveling. Again, these memberships are free so why not sign up, why not get points and why not use them when we can. Even if we never use the points and they expire at some point, we didn’t lose anything. I can for sure tell you that I have often used them for free nights at different hotels in different cities. And I can also tell you that I had a girlfriend whose points were expiring on Hilton, and she sent them to me knowing that I travel more and may use them when she was not able to!
Let’s talk last about credit cards, we talked about them a bit with the airlines and there are also credit cards associated with hotels. There are also many credit cards that give benefits that you can use in various ways toward travel, cards like CapitalOne Venture Card, Chase Sapphire or the American Express Platinum Card. I warn people often about how they use credit cards and to use them wisely, but if you want to travel and can use a credit card to help earn travel credits and that you charge regularly on and pay off each month, then you can earn a LOT of rewards!
When we went to Spain last fall, we used all the points from our American Express Platinum Card (and I will talk in the next blog about some of those benefits) that we had saved for years, but we were able to get every night of our 13 nights stay free by using points. Yes, it was a lot of points that took us a long time to save but having those hotel nights completely covered was an amazing treat!
I Hope you enjoyed this brief review overview of the use of freebies and follow me for more tips!!
#treeknows
