Some things we’ve enjoyed FOR FREE as a result of my points hobby:
Countless flights for me and my fam back and forth from SF-LA
Amtrak tickets (SEA-VAN)
Hyatt Hotel nights in Sonoma, Denver, NY Times Square, Zurich, Paris (the last two were 5 star Park Hyatt hotels)
This is our hotel in Amsterdam (5 star for free!)
Sign up for credit cards that offer a sign-up bonus. Nearly every credit card offers an initial bonus of points or miles when you sign up. For example, my favorite card, Chase Sapphire, offers anywhere from 50-75k points when you get the credit card and spend $3k in the first 3 months. Do that and you have enough points for 2-4 nights at a Hyatt hotel or round trip tickets in the US, Hawaii or Europe.
Once I hit the initial minimum spend, I add the info to my credit card tracker, toss the card in a drawer and cancel before the annual fee. Don’t cancel it right away as that will effect your credit. Keep the card for 11 months, that’s perfect! Afraid you’ll forge to cancel? Put a reminder to cancel your credit card on your calendar.
If you own or run a business the business cards have great bonuses throughout the year. I don’t go too deep into this – I determine what we want to do and then sign up for cards based on that (for Italy I signed up for 3 credit cards 6 months ahead of the trip to acquire enough points to fly for free).
Do not sign up for a bunch of cards at once if you cannot hit the minimum spend. Usually $2-3k in the first 3 months to get the points bonus. But if you have big expenses coming up (a big trip, book tour, wedding) it’s a great time to sign up for cards and put all your expenses on the cards to get bonuses. I had friends who did this for their wedding and used the points for a 1-week honeymoon in the Maldives at a five star hotel! They paid $0 for flights and hotel!
You don’t need excellent credit to do this – but you do need to be responsible with your finances. I started with bad credit and since embarking on this points journey my credit is wonderful. I love playing within the system to help my credit and travel for free! You must pay off the cards! I approach the credit cards as debit cards and pay them off every week – do not pay interest!
Points for online shopping
One of the easiest ways to earn points without a credit card is shopping online. Most major retailers have a tie in with an airline or credit card. So you simply sign in to your United, Chase, American, etc account and shop through their portal and get anywhere from 1-5 points per dollar. Evreward is where I check what gives me the MOST points per dollar. An example: Sephora – my Chase portal gives me 7 points per dollar while United gives me 3 miles.
It can be hard to remember to sign in with their portal so if you use chrome, there’s an extension you can download and add to your browser. So when you’re shopping a bo pops up that says “Activate 3 points per dollar” and you click yes, sign in and viola! You’ve earned points for spending where you may not have. This isn’t the same as sign up bonuses, but it’s a great way to increase your points incrementally throughout the year.
Determine your points goals
The Points Guys is probably my favorite miles/points blog. They have great info on starting out – I highly recommend spending some time reading through their posts.