I’m flying first class to Europe on a $30k flight - FOR FREE
Here’s how I did it and you can too:
Here’s how I did it and you can too:
First off, I think credit card hacking is dumb. I only have two cards: one business and one personal.
The first thing you need to know:
When you’re booking flights, you don’t want to use the credit card travel portals (i.e. AMEX Travel portal). I’ll show you why later in this thread
When you’re booking flights, you don’t want to use the credit card travel portals (i.e. AMEX Travel portal). I’ll show you why later in this thread
There are three main tools that we’re going to use in order to book your perfect flight.
The first is called Flight Connections and the second is called Point.me. The last one is Google flights. Let’s jump into it:
The first is called Flight Connections and the second is called Point.me. The last one is Google flights. Let’s jump into it:
The first thing we’re gonna do is figure out where we want to travel. Let’s say I am in the mood to go to Bora Bora.
I check Flight Connections:
I check Flight Connections:
Flight connections will show you ALL of the flights that go to Bora Bora. On the map, you can see there’s a few hubs from the US: SEA, SFO, and LAX.
Now we’ll head to Google flights and search flights from these hubs to Bora Bora to get a feel for potential dates and prices.
The trick: Only look for one way trips, not round trips.
The trick: Only look for one way trips, not round trips.
If I’m flexible on dates, I’ll use the monthly view to get a quick glance at the cheapest day.
In this example it looks like August dates are $2k for a one way, but in September I can get there for under $1k in business class.
In this example it looks like August dates are $2k for a one way, but in September I can get there for under $1k in business class.
Next what we will do is go to Points dot me and search one of the destinations with cheaper options that I found above.
This website will show you all of the flights that are going to Bora Bora on that date and what the associated points will be for every. single. airline.
This website will show you all of the flights that are going to Bora Bora on that date and what the associated points will be for every. single. airline.
It takes a 104k Capital One points transfer to fly there. Or you can use 135k AMEX points on Hawaiian Airlines.
You can see that if I booked that flight on Air France it would cost me almost $5k. So I’m using 104k points for a $5k flight, or 5 cents a mile. That’s a good deal.
You can see that if I booked that flight on Air France it would cost me almost $5k. So I’m using 104k points for a $5k flight, or 5 cents a mile. That’s a good deal.
Remember how I said the credit card portal websites have terrible deals?
Let’s look at that same flight in the AMEX travel portal. You’ll find that the $5,000 flight costs over 400,000 points in the AMEX travel portal.
Let’s look at that same flight in the AMEX travel portal. You’ll find that the $5,000 flight costs over 400,000 points in the AMEX travel portal.
From here all you need to do is go back to Points dot me and follow the process of how to transfer your points from your credit card portal to the airline.
And if you’re going to book this exact flight, here’s a return flight I found for you 1 week later:
And if you’re going to book this exact flight, here’s a return flight I found for you 1 week later:
A couple more nuances to this trip:
-If you go to Bora Bora, you have to fly to Tahiti First that’s why our flight shows LAX to PPT. From PPT you take a short 50 minute flight to BOB (usually no more than $200)
-If you go to Bora Bora, you have to fly to Tahiti First that’s why our flight shows LAX to PPT. From PPT you take a short 50 minute flight to BOB (usually no more than $200)
-If you don’t live in LA, you take a flight from wherever you’re at to LA. Again, usually no more than a few hundred bucks
And that’s it! That’s $10k worth of flights to Bora Bora for ~200k points and under $1k for the additional flights.
And that’s it! That’s $10k worth of flights to Bora Bora for ~200k points and under $1k for the additional flights.
I learned a lot of this process from my friend @MoPoints2020. He knows a lot more about this than me and he’s great at optimizing credit cards and points.
If you like this thread, retweet the first tweet and give me a follow for more practical finance advice!
If you like this thread, retweet the first tweet and give me a follow for more practical finance advice!
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