One Hundred Dollars a Month

It’s no big secret around here that I LOVE to travel. In fact if I could have any job in the world, I’d love to be a writer for National Geographic Traveler Magazine or play the role of Samantha Brown on the Travel Channel for a year.

Sometimes I score super awesome last minute deals from Expedia on airline tickets, and other times I get them for free.

{Tower of London, Spring 2013}

Now before I start, I want to make it very clear the way I go about earning free tickets may not be for everyone. I use 2 specific credit cards to earn points and we charge practically everything we possibly can to rack up those points.

I know not everyone likes to use credit cards because they either have a hard time paying them off every month, or prefer to use the cash system and not charge anything, or they simple don’t own a credit card at all.

And that is fine. This is just how my family does it.

{Monkey Boy and the Girl in Paris 2006}

We started traveling heavily around 2006 when we earned out first set of free tickets to Europe. It took us 2 years to earn the points, and the whole time the Handsome Husband played the Debbie Downer role saying there was no way we’d be able to redeem 4 free {$1,200} tickets to Europe from our credit card company.

I grew up in a family that traveled.  The Handsome Husband’s family did not. Basically I wanted my kids to see the world, have some adventures and get some travel experiences under their belts before they headed off to collage.

I didn’t want them to enter adulthood thinking traveling the globe was out of their reach, or that they couldn’t afford it. I also wanted to teach them to be spontaneous. To live in the moment, and if they found an awesome deal and were able to afford it, they should be like Nike and Just Do It.

The two credit cards I use are the Alaska Airlines Visa Card and the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card {you’ll have to type in Starwood Preferred into the search box}. I try and use the Starwood Preferred card as much as I can because for every 20,000 points I earn, I can redeem those 20,000 points for 25,000 Alaska Airlines mileage points.

It takes 20,000 points for a free domestic ticket and 40,000 free points for 1 ticket to Europe with the Alaska Airlines program. Plus, with the Alaska Airlines card, each card holder earns a $99 companion fare ticket every year as well.

{Boise Dirty Dash, Summer 2012}

The Alaska Airlines Signature card charges an annual fee of $75. After you sign up, you will receive 25,000 bonus points after your first purchase. Translation: You get 1 free airline ticket.

The Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card has a $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $65 thereafter.

After you sign up you can earn up to 25,000 bonus points: 10,000 after your first purchase and another 15,000 after you spend $5,000 within the first 6 months of Card membership.

{Mavis and her crappy British teeth}

Like I said, we charge everything from dental bills, utilities, groceries, gas, you name it, if we can use our credit card to rack up points, then we use the card. We’ve also been able to earn some extra points over the years because my husband travels occasionally for work and when he does he charges all his purchases. Which  he gets reimbursed for of course, but the points are ours to keep.

I do understand this type of travel planning doesn’t work for everyone. This method only works if you pay off  your credit card balance in full each month. No exceptions.

If you are not in the habit of paying off your credit cards each month,  then don’t charge all your bills and purchases in hopes of earning yourself a free vacation. It makes no sense to pay interest on a credit card just to earn some free travel. It’s only free if you don’t have to pay for it.

Traveling is RAD, and I wish I could do it every week.

Have YOU ever cashed in your credit card miles for an airline ticket? If so, what is your favorite rewards credit card to use?

Mavis wants to know.

If you are unhappy with the credit card you have, check out creditcards.com. They’ve got every card under the moon over there and you can compare the cards you are interested in side by side.