Four free ways to start travel hacking

It can be daunting when you want to start earning free or mostly free trips. There is so much information out there but you don’t know where to start. And the idea of opening multiple credit cards can be intimidating. If you want to start travel hacking but aren’t ready to open a new credit card, we have compiled some easy, free ways to start travel hacking.

Join loyalty programs

When you are ready to book a trip with your points and miles, the travel provider will ask you to create an account for record of your reservation. On top of that, the programs will allow you to accrue points and / or miles for travel that you pay cash (credit card) for.

It’s likely that you already have your preferred providers. But one of the key ways to maximize points and miles is by being flexible and considering a variety of providers. We recommend creating accounts with the following providers:

• American Airlines – AAdvantage
• Delta Airlines – Skymiles
• Southwest Airlines – Rapid Rewards
• United Airlines – MileagePlus
• Hilton Hotels – Hilton Honors
• Hyatt Hotels – World of Hyatt
• Marriott Hotels – Marriott Bonvoy

Creating these accounts will also help you with some of the other suggestions on our list. Keep reading.

Link partner programs

We have a more detailed post on how to earn points and miles from existing purchases, but here’s a quick breakdown:

Starbucks and Delta Airlines – earn 1 mile for every dollar you spend at Starbucks. We haven’t flown Delta in years, but this is a no effort way to accrue miles we might need in the future. Is this method going to earn you a free flight quickly? Not unless you’re spending thousands at Starbucks each month. It will, however, start building up your stash of points that you can top off. Sign up here: link Starbucks & Delta.

Uber / Uber Eats and Marriott – another set it and forget it way to earn points. Simply link your Uber account to your Marriott account and earn points for free nights. If you take a ride on an Uber XL, Uber Comfort, Uber SUV, and Uber Black, you will earn 3 Marriott Bonvoy points per dollar spent on the ride. Members with linked accounts earn 2x Marriott Bonvoy points on eligible restaurants. That number jumps to 6x, however, when the food is delivered to any restaurant in the Marriott portfolio.

Lyft and Choose Your Preferred Provider – Lyft offers users the ability to link with Delta Skymiles, Hilton Honors, Alaska Airlines, or Bilt Rewards. You can only pick one of the four to earn points on from your Lyft purchases. While some programs earn more points than others, it’s important to pick the program you most likely will use. It’s no good accruing points with a provider you have no use for!

• Delta – 1 mile per dollar on all rides and 2 miles per dollar on airport rides
• Hilton – 3 points per dollar
• Alaska – 1 mile per dollar
• Bilt – 2 points per dollar with an additional 3 Bilt points per dollar if you have a Bilt Mastercard

Install shopping portals

If you shop online, and let’s face it, most of us do, then you should install at least one shopping portal. When you visit a website that is eligible for the portal, a notification will pop up and you simply have to activate. Shop as normal and receive points or miles a few days later. Here are some options of shopping portals:

Rakuten – Rakuten is popularly known as a cash back site. If you have an American Express card, however, you can earn Membership Rewards points for future travel. While some sites are as low as 1% cash back, Rakuten frequently has elevated deals on many popular sites like Petsmart, Adidas, and Macy’s.

The four major U.S. airlines (United, American, Delta, and Southwest) all have their own shopping portals. Because we fly out of a United hub, we have the United shopping portal installed on our browser.

We would suggest you install Rakuten and an airline shopping portal so that you have options. Not every website has Rakuten or your selected airline, so having at least two shopping portals installed will let you compare the points. For example, Chewy and Lululemon are both on the United shopping portal but not on Rakuten. If we only had Rakuten, we’d be missing out!

Set up auto pay (for the right categories)

Now you likely already have auto pay set up on your credit cards for your regular bills. But in many cases, you may only be earning 1 point per dollar depending on the credit card you have selected for that payment. Review the credit cards already in your wallet and see if you earn elevated points from any categories you’re paying for. For example, the Chase Sapphire Preferred earns 3 points per dollar on streaming services. So of course we’ve linked our Netflix to this card because every point counts!

Summary

We all see the highlight reels of people taking first class flights and staying at five star hotels. And the reality is that travel hacking can help you take those bucket list trips when you don’t have the cash. It can be confusing when you start travel hacking because there’s so much information out there. Add in the dimension of opening credit cards and your credit score & financial questions come into play.

If you’re ready to start travel hacking, take one (or all) of the four steps we outlined in this post to get just a little bit closer to your goals.