How we frequently fly for free

My family spends a lot of time in the air, but our big not-so secret is that we rarely ever pay full price for a flight. We are all big advocates for airline rewards credit cards because they’ve helped us cut down tremendously on the amount of time we have to spend apart. Here’s how we’ve frequently zipped around the country for next to nothing.

Though I do not claim to be any kind of financial advisor or expert on this subject, my information is simply what’s worked well for my family and me.

1. Do your research.

After hearing advice from others and doing a lot of our own research, Jamie and I picked two credit cards that we wanted to stay loyal to for the long haul. We applied and were approved for two cards about three months apart – the Capital One Venture card and Chase Southwest Premier card. It’s no secret that your rewards points go farther with Southwest than any other airline hands way down, so we currently put 95% of our purchases on that card. We also use the Capital One card for a bill and occasional small purchase per month just to keep it open. We love that with this card we can use the rewards points for anything travel-related (flights, hotels, car rentals, etc.), so we want to keep it handy. We actually talked last night about making that our primary card now because Southwest doesn’t fly in and out of Manhattan, KS. Tear.

Things to consider when researching a card –
– Is there an annual fee? How much?
– How many points per dollar do I get?
– How many points will I get after spending $____ amount in the first few months?

2. Apply at the right time.

Most cards will offer a bonus after you spend a certain amount in a specified time period, but a few cards vary that bonus amount at certain times throughout the year. For example, today would be a great day to apply for the Southwest Premier card because they’re offering a 50,000 mile bonus instead of their usual 25,000 mile bonus. My mom, my cousin Amanda, and I all applied for this card during previous “bonus times”, and 50,000 miles will usually get you far on Southwest!

3. Close your other cards.

Once we were approved for and received our cards, we closed our other two credit cards almost immediately. Having too many cards open is a fast way to jack up your credit! I was previously using an American Express Delta Gold card, and unless you fly Delta frequently (I used to with Rachel’s Challenge), it’s absolutely garbage as far as rewards go (in my opinion). When I called to cancel the card, they offered me 12,500 miles to keep it open. I accepted their offer, and those miles were in my account within three days. The next month I booked a flight on Delta, and those rewards points took $100 off my ticket price. As soon as I booked the ticket, I called and canceled my card. I didn’t let them talk me into one more offer.

4. Never fly without getting a reward credit for your flight.

If you use rewards points to book a ticket, you obviously will not receive the standard rewards points for flying with them. If you do book a flight that you pay for, you’d be silly not to get credit for every single mile. We have free frequent flyer accounts with Delta, American, United, and Southwest. Getting credit for every single mile really adds up! Though a roundtrip flight on Delta usually starts at 25,000 points, you can still take $100 off your total for every 10,000 miles you have. As aforementioned, even though I didn’t have enough miles on Delta for a free ticket a few months ago, I still used the few points I had to get a cheaper ticket. I always get notices in the mail saying that my points are about to expire on various airlines, but they never do.

5. Search for flights using the “my days are flexible” option.

If your travel dates are flexible, research your flights with that in mind. Amberlee will be here tomorrow to visit, but she picked her travel days after using the “flexible” option (sometimes says +/- 3 days on some sites) since she’s a teacher and has the summer off. Her cross-country flight was pretty cheap!

6. Consider buying two one-way flights (possibly on separate airlines).

Unlike Delta, some airlines require you to have the total number of points necessary to cover the whole flight. As aforementioned, Delta will allow a flyer to either use the points to cover the whole flight or just take a certain dollar amount off the ticket price. Southwest and United require a flyer to have all the points upfront. I ran into this situation a few months ago when Hadley and I flew from Nashville to Topeka, KS to visit my sister. I didn’t have enough points on any airline to cover the round-trip ticket, but I did have enough points in my United account to cover a one-way ticket (approx. 14,000). So I booked two one-way tickets on separate airlines. I used my United miles to fly for free to Kansas, and I paid for a one-way flight on American for the way home. $107 total! Happy flyer!

7. If a bill will allow you to pay it with a credit card, do it.

We pay our cell phone, water, power, DirecTV, and internet bills using our credit card. Our motto is if we’re going to pay this money anyway, we might as well get a few rewards for it!

8. Charge as many of your usual expenses as possible on your credit card.

Our regular expenses include the aforementioned bills, gas for both cars, and groceries. We always always always charge these expenses to our card. Like I said, we’ve enjoyed getting free or reduced-cost flights for spending money that we had to spend anyway.

9. Pay off your entire credit card bill every single month.

These credit cards have interest rates through the roof, and we have no budget to throw away money in the form of credit card interest rates. If you’re going to put everything that you can on your card, be smart and pay it off in full promptly.

10.If you experience a problem on the airplane, let them know.

I am not a fan of people who cause a stink just to get a freebie. Really can’t stand it. On the other hand, I do believe that if you’ve paid for a product or a service that has been steep disappointment, you’ll be doing the company a favor in letting them know so that they can refine their areas of weakness and attempt to win you back. For example, a few months ago my mom was flying from Tucson, AZ to Manhattan, KS on American Airlines. Making a long story short, she got to my sister’s house a full 24 hours later than expected, and her experience from start to finish was something she was belly-laughing at by the time the whole thing was over. It was just that bad, and every problem stemmed back to issues that were strictly the fault of the airline (no weather issues whatsoever). She lost a full day with my sister, so I wrote the airline an objective, tactful letter (no need to be rude) on behalf of my mom explaining their errors. They responded to my mom within a couple of days, were appreciative of the information they’d received, and offered her a voucher that would cover part of a future flight. She was appreciative of the voucher and flew with them the next chance she could.

I know that the topic of rewards credit cards is a hot topic these days, so if this has been helpful to you in any way, please share it with others!

Have a fun weekend!