✈️ Travel hacking: The inside scoop
An explainer on the wonderful world of travel hacking, which may explain how some folks can afford so many vacations.
In My Humble Opinion
Travel hacking rocks!
Welcome to another mashup edition of “In My Humble Opinion” and “Would I Use It?”. Today, we’re talking about traveling hacking, sometimes known as credit card churning.
Two days ago I finally finished the rough itinerary for an upcoming trip to Japan and put the final touches on the plans for our Italy vacation. Peach and I have been saving up for both of these trips since the pandemic. International travel is high on our shared values and priority list, so it’s a top three financial goal. However, a reason we can afford to take big vacations more than once every few years is because we supplement our savings with travel hacking.
What is travel hacking?
Basically it’s using credit card rewards and sign-up bonuses to cover the costs of hotels, flights, and other activities. Between the two of us, Peach and I had enough points across three different credit cards to reserve at hotels in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Kobe. The value of all these hotel stays was roughly $2,100. Plus, we only paid $111.34 for two round-trip, premium select seats from New York to Tokyo thanks to frequent flyer miles.
Travel hacking points are typically accrued in two ways:
The sign-up bonus.
The points earned for regular spend just like any rewards credit card.
Between both of those strategies, Peach and I had roughly 228,000 points and I had more than 400,000 frequent flier miles on Delta. The miles I earned from a combination of flying and credit card rewards.
Here’s an example of how exactly travel hacking.